Uh-oh. Xbox Series X/S players will have to put up with 30 fps in "Starfield," Todd Howard told IGN in an interview.

"Given our previous games, I don't think it's surprising what we're going for," Howard told the site. 'It's always been huge, open-world, dynamic, detailed, and anything can happen.' And we want it to happen; it's 4K on the X, 1440 on the S. We're fixing it at 30 because we want fidelity, we want everything. We don't want to sacrifice any of it."

"Fortunately, we're performing great on this one. Often it's faster than that; sometimes it's in the 60s. But on the console, I prefer consistency, where you're not aware of it, so I'm locking it down.

I think that's fair, but I personally turn down the graphics settings ("and everything else") until I get at least 60 fps, if not more; I'd rather play a game at 30 fps on a 144 Hz monitor, then lose shadow quality! I'd rather play a game at 30fps on a 144Hz monitor than at 30fps on a 144Hz monitor. But I guess that's why I play games on my PC.

Starfield's PC system requirements are a bit odd, and we're waiting to see if Bethesda will modify the specs listed on Steam, but they're not particularly stringent for a new game. on the GPU side, you'll need at least a GeForce 1070 Ti or Radeon RX 5700 is required, but a GeForce RTX 2080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT is recommended (phew, my GeForce RTX 2070 Super is just barely safe):

Why do I need broadband (download updates to download updates, or constant internet connection), and I'm not sure if an SSD is required, but it's standard on modern gaming PCs.

Nor is it clear what these recommended specs will bring: 60fps at 1440p" Nice, Starfield has some impressive scenery, but it's no rendering marvel, so you shouldn't have trouble seeing glassy-eyed NPCs at 60fps or more Hopefully Starfield will support Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR, although we haven't yet confirmed if it will, which would help.

At least PC players will have the option to play at 60 fps or better, even if they have to upgrade their hardware.

Xbox owners, if you are thinking of joining us, please refer to our mid-range gaming PC building guide.

If you missed today's Starfield Direct, here's everything we learned about Bethesda's space RPG.