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A field-of-view slider headlines Starfield’s latest update

By Tomas Franzese October 9, 2023

Bethesda just released Update 1.7.36 for Starfield, and it officially added a highly requested feature: field-of-view (FOV) sliders.

Even though Starfield is a game that can be entirely played from a first-person perspective, it did not have this feature at release. Fans had to previously resort to mods to add this functionality to the game. Bethesda did promise it’d add FOV sliders to the game shortly after it launched, though, and now this feature has finally arrived. By going into the Accessibility tab of the Settings menu, players can adjust the FOV of both the first and third-person cameras on both console and PC.

The field of view slider, also known as an FOV slider, in Starfield. — Tomas Franzese / Bethesda Game Studios

This update does bring some other improvements as well, like fixing a progression-blocking issue in the Echoes of the Past quest and improving stability and performance. In particular, Bethesda claimed stability with Intel Arc GPUs will now be better for PC players. For most players, though, the FOV slider is the most important new feature included in this update.

Starfield isn’t the only Bethesda game to get a notable update this month. Last week, Redfall finally received a patch that overhauled the game’s encounters, tweaked its stealth system, and added a 60 fps Performance Mode. While this Starfield update isn’t as large or monumental as that one, it does show Bethesda’s commitment to improving Starfield and adding heavily requested features. Hopefully, updates that add things like Nvidia DLSS support, an HDR calibration menu, ultrawide monitor support, and an eat button for food aren’t too far off.

Starfield is available now for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

Major Redfall patch adds 60 fps performance mode, a stealth overhaul, and more

Redfall Cover

Xbox exclusive Redfall just got a major patch. The update adds a long-awaited 60 frames per second (fps) mode to the game, as well as a heap of quality of life upgrades and an overhaul to stealth gameplay.
Among lots of other problems, the dame infamously only ran at 30 fps at launch on Xbox Series X and S. While Arkane Studios promised a performance mode patch was in the works prior to release, it didn't arrive until today.

On October 6, Arkane Studios and Bethesda dropped Update 2 for Redfall. The most notable addition is Performance Mode, which lets players prioritize frame rate over resolution to finally get the game to run at 60 fps on consoles. Simply navigate to the Video tab within Redfall's settings menu to activate it. The patch notes for this update claim it brings improved stability on PC, in addition to solutions to memory-based crashes and AMD GPU-related graphics corruption. The update also contains some new gameplay tweaks to hopefully make the experience better.
Redfall will now encourage stealth more, as Arkane added the ability to sneak up on and do stealth takedowns on enemies and made it clearer which weapons are silenced in menus. It also added more options for players to fine-tune aim assets and dead zones while aiming, increased the number of enemies wandering the game's open world, and added unique ping colors for each player in a multiplayer squad. You can check out the full list of patch notes to see the additional tweaks and bug fixes made.
Redfall had a notoriously rocky launch this year, so it was hard for anyone outside of Microsoft to truly know whether or not improvements to the game would actually be delivered. Bethesda's Pete Hines had previously claimed it wouldn't abandon the game, and this update is our first real indication that it's true. While this isn't a Phantom Liberty-level rework for Redfall, it certainly seems like the game is now in the best condition it's been in since launch.
Redfall is available now for PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

Gaming

Will Starfield come to PS5?

Spaceship on planet in Starfield.

The long-anticipated Bethesda RPG Starfield has finally been released and the reviews from players are looking great so far. Featuring the publisher's first new world in 25 years, Starfield is centered around endless space exploration — quite a different direction than Fallout's postapocalyptic America or The Elder Scroll's fantasy landscapes. While the game doesn't necessarily allow you to get lost in space like most players initially were looking forward to, it does contain plenty of excellent sci-fi standbys like multiverse theories, a vast pool of spaceships to pilot through galaxies, and some far-out futuristic weaponry.

Starfield launched on the Xbox Series X and PC (and Xbox One, sort of), but hasn't made its way to the PlayStation 5. While there are plenty of great games on PS5, some Sony gamers are still eagerly waiting for their chance to jump into the world of Starfield.
Will Starfield come to PS5?

Gaming

Xbox’s 2023 games feel like the Series X launch lineup we never got

EMBARGO 10/4 12:01 AM PT: A camera angle up close to a Forza Motorsport race.

Even though we’re almost three years into the life span of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, it feels like this console generation is just starting for Microsoft.
It’s no secret that Xbox was slow to start up and then maintain consistency this console generation. For example, 2020 saw the company putting out a weak console launch lineup made up of ports and remasters. While 2021 had a flurry of great games, it was followed by a comparatively barren 2022. And 2023 hasn't been perfect either (due, in large part, to the flop that is Redfall), but outside of that, this year delivered the excellent Hi-Fi Rush, the grandly scaled Starfield, solid ports of two Age of Empires games and Quake II, a new Minecraft title, and a technical showpiece in Forza Motorsport.
Looking at that varied lineup, these games showcase both the potential of the Series X and the power of Xbox as a brand. Prospects for Xbox’s lineup are up heading into 2024 too, so it feels like we’re at the proper start of the Xbox Series X and S console generation ... even if it came a few years too late.
A new beginning
Looking at the 2020 launch lineup for Xbox Series X/S, it wasn’t exactly emblematic of what the console could do. While there were some nice 4K and 60 frames per second (fps) upgrades for Xbox One games, the only new draws were a console port of Gears Tactics, the multiplayer-supporting Tetris Effect: Connected, a temporary next-gen exclusive version of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and some smaller indies like The Falconeer and Bright Memory 1.0.

Most of those games were on or came to more platforms afterward and, in general, didn’t provide that strong of an argument for why players should stick around this console generation. But looking at many of the games Xbox has released this year, it finally feels like we have a bundle of good Xbox exclusives that show what the platform was always capable of.
In my review of Forza Motorsport, I note that the game feels like a launch title because it’s an impressive technical showpiece. It runs at 4K and 60 fps in performance mode, which is something not many games this generation have done. The closest comparable games are Astro’s Playroom and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PlayStation 5, which effectively demonstrated the power of Sony's console early on.
Forza Motorsport was also built as a platform that developer Turn 10 Studios can expand over time. It plans to periodically slot in new single and multiplayer content, including new cars and tracks. A game like that makes a lot of sense early on in a console’s life span in this live-service era. It’s what Microsoft tried to do with Halo Infinite, even if that didn’t pan out as expected due to a one-year delay, and with Killer Instinct on Xbox One.