Indie Developer's Controversial Starfield Parody Goes Viral

Running with Scissors, an indie developer, recently attempted to mock Starfield but their efforts backfired as fans fiercely defended Bethesda's upcoming title. This controversy arose as another developer stood up for Starfield's controversial choice of frame rate. During the June 11 Starfield Direct, over an hour of previously unseen footage was showcased, along with new information about the game. Despite Xbox's promise that Starfield has the least amount of bugs of any Bethesda game ever, the technical aspects of the newly debuted footage were still met with criticism. Running with Scissors, known for the Postal series, took to Twitter to compare a promo shot from the original Red Dead Redemption to a Starfield character screenshot, claiming that developers upgrade engines when creating new games due to the differences between the two.

The tweet received over 630,000 views as of June 13, but it was met with a mostly negative response from both fans of Bethesda and Running with Scissors. Some Running with Scissors fans called for the studio to address issues with Postal 4 before criticizing other games. However, others defended Bethesda, arguing that their games are known for their complex systems and technical features, such as open-world object permanence, and that graphics are not the most important aspect. Todd Howard's recent claim that Starfield is five or six games in one supports this argument. In addition, a Reddit user named LoomingDementia found the exact part of the Starfield Direct where the comparison screenshot came from and accused Running with Scissors of misrepresenting the game. They argued that the simplified visuals seen in the screenshot are likely a stylistic choice for the menu and not representative of the game's actual graphics during gameplay.

The comparison made by Running with Scissors between their game Postal 4 and Bethesda's upcoming title Starfield, may have been inspired by the cowboy outfit worn by the featured character. While Todd Howard himself compared Starfield to Red Dead Redemption during the June 11 showcase, the online backlash against Running with Scissors' comparison only made the studio double down on its original criticism. However, a representative from the company did admit that the post was meant to be humorous. Despite the criticism, the developer believes that they can still point out some truths about the state of the gaming industry. Additionally, they have acknowledged the criticism aimed at their latest game and have promised that more Postal 4 fixes and improvements are on the way.

Starfield launches September 6 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: Reddit