What has been shown of Starfield so far is enticing, and it suggests that gamers can expect a vast game filled with plenty of exploration and character customization. With an epic adventure ahead, Bethesda should ensure it includes a robust photo mode so that players can capture their journey. Several games in recent years have benefited greatly from the inclusion of a photo mode, and it would be a shame if players did not have a feature-filled photo mode to create some beautiful space art.
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How Photo Mode Has Served Other Games Well
The ability to take in-game photos has been around for decades, but the earliest example of photo mode in the form that most gamers know it now can be found with Sucker Punch’s Infamous Second Son. According to Sucker Punch’s Matt Durasoff, the idea to include a photo mode in the game came from Infamous fans who were already taking screenshots and sharing them online. With photo mode, players were able to take even better pictures, as they were easily able to hide the UI and edit features such as color grading and depth of field. Photo mode in Infamous Second Son was a hit, and the images that players shared helped to increase the game’s popularity.
Since 2014, photo mode has become ubiquitous in gaming, especially in visually impressive titles. Entire communities have built themselves around sharing the most spectacular shots, and games feature photo modes that are robust enough to spend hours in. Games have benefited from including photo modes, as they acquire free marketing whenever players share their shots. This was seen with 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2 which features a photo mode with focus distance adjustment, blur strength setting, and a variety of filters, to name but a few settings. Players have used the feature-filled photo mode to take stunning shots of Red Dead Redemption 2’s pastoral landscape, causing the game to become one of the titles with the most shared screenshots on Instagram.
Ghost of Tsushima also appears on the top ten list, which is not surprising, as the game features a photo mode that is so packed with options that it allows players to put on some calming flute music so that they relax while they take all the time they need to get the perfect shot. It is evident that photo modes are here to stay, and as games improve graphically, the photo mode options will likely grow more robust. Starfield can take photo mode in a new direction, however, and allow players to become space artists capturing the mysterious phenomena of the cosmos.
Starfield and Space Art
One of the greatest gifts NASA presents to society is the beautiful shots of outer space it captures thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars rovers, and various space missions. Images like The Pillars of Creation and The Blue Marble have become some of the most popular pictures in the world, and they continue to mesmerize people with their revelations of the sublime nature of the universe. With Starfield taking place in outer space, it may be able to recreate that feeling, and with a photo mode, players will also be able to capture the moment.
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Bethesda has taken great care to ensure that Starfield is as accurate as possible. As the game’s director, Todd Howard, has explained, he has been interested in NASA his whole life, and the game is heavily inspired by the space organization. Hence, all the technology in the game, although science fiction, is inspired by NASA technology and past NASA missions. To ensure that the game is authentic, Howard even visited SpaceX and spoke to tech experts who helped him imagine how things like communication and weapons work in the cold vacuum of outer space.
Before going on their space adventure, players will also be able to create their own character using Starfield’s character creator. It has several options, allowing players to adjust their character’s gait, skin tone, head shape, and traits. With their character molded to their liking, players will be able to have the perfect model to pose for pictures, provided Starfield includes a good photo mode.
With so much care to ensure that gamers have an authentic experience of space exploration, Starfield has the unique opportunity to popularize space art within gaming, allowing gamers to take “NASA-punk” photos. From the trailer shown at 2022’s Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, gamers have seen that exploration will be a key part of Starfield, and with over a thousand planets to explore, there will surely be plenty of surreal space phenomena to snap pictures of. Furthermore, with the game’s robust character creator as well as the ability to customize spacecrafts, giving players a photo mode to share their creations could help to boost the games popularity.
After an extended development period and a few delays, Starfield has been slated for a 2023 release. It is an ambitious title that promises to have gamers fantasizing humanity’s future and the species’ place in the heavens. With a top-notch photo mode, Starfield could reinvigorate the sci-fi genre in gaming while allowing gamers to capture breathtaking space art.
Starfield is scheduled to release in 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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