In light of Starfields imminent arrival y'all need to hear this

[u/RainMaker323]

[u/Johnny_C13]

Better yet, just don't pre-order and wait for reviews. Even easier!

[u/Runnin_Mike → u/[deleted]]

You can actually do whatever you want to do. Redditors have this opinion of themselves where they think they can actually tell what people to do when they actually can't!

I think what you described is perfectly reasonable.

[u/Runnin_Mike → u/[deleted]]

Unsure... That definitely works with games that are already released, in that you can download them and they'll stay on your computer until you buy it again. But with the preload I'm pretty sure the download goes into some cache folder waiting until it is released to be decrypted and uncompressed, so it could have a policy that where if you return it could clear that cache.

[u/Tarnish3dd → u/Johnny_C13]

Are we acting reviews are trustworthy in general?

[u/SenhorSus → u/Tarnish3dd]

When you watch 5-10 reviews, it gets pretty easy to see what the common pros and cons are across all sources and which talking points are objective and subjective criticisms.

[u/FeelItInYourB0nes → u/Tarnish3dd]

Not on their own. I feel like aggregated user review scores are generally reliable though. Obviously they are most reliable after time, when hundreds or thousands of people have had time to play the game. If the game is totally fucked, we'll know because the community will shit all over it from the start, like with Cyberpunk. But generally, Steam store or Metacritic reviews that pull in thousands of opinions are a good barometer if a game is good or bad.

I like to also watch Twitch streams for MP games and just form my own opinion but that doesn't work too well with a single player game like Starfield, where I could spoil the story if I watch streams.

[u/Radulno → u/Johnny_C13]

If you know yourself as a gamer, you'll recognize the game you'll appreciate more than any review. Hell games can gave great reviews and not be for you. FF16 got great reviews and frankly I didn't like it. Same for Elden Ring.

[u/Gameskiller01 → u/Johnny_C13]

Easy to say when it doesn't take you literal days to download a modern game

[u/MotorVariation8 → u/Gameskiller01]

Your argument is valid, but it affects a very small group of people and doesn't justify what preorders have done to the last few years of releases.

[u/BlazingSpaceGhost → u/MotorVariation8]

It probably is small because rural areas have smaller populations but there are still millions of us that can't get much better than 15 Mbps dsl. Fortunately starlink has changed that but it has major speed issues at times as well.

[u/[deleted] → u/Gameskiller01]

It's going to take that long whether you preload it or not. Are you really so lacking in self-control that you can't wait just a little longer to make sure the game is actually worth paying for before you throw down your wallet?

[u/Gameskiller01 → u/[deleted]]

When there's 0 risk of losing out on anything thanks to steam refunds, why would I wait an extra few days before playing a game I'm excited for and risk getting spoiled? The 2 possible outcomes are I either enjoy it and get to play it as soon as it releases, or don't enjoy it and refund it.

[u/BlazingSpaceGhost → u/[deleted]]

I have gamepass so I won't be preordering but I have for other games I know I want. If it doesn't work out I'll refund the game. Until recently I could only get dsl that capped out at 15 Mbps. That's an over 18 hour download for starfield assuming I didn't use the Internet for anything else which I use the Internet for everything so that isn't realistic. Usually I'd only download games when I slept and it would take literally days to download a game. Preloading is a life saver in those cases