A new Starfield update is coming to the Steam beta next week: upgraded scanners, improved mission tracking, and finally the ability to smile in photos.

Detailed patch notes will not be revealed until next week, but Bethesda has highlighted them in a series of tweets. Also, setting a course for an inactive mission in the Mission Tracker will automatically activate that mission.

The practical improvements are great, but what I like best are the totally outward-looking changes: expressions have been added to the photo mode.

"You can now match characters and friends to the mood of the shot," Bethesda tweeted.

"And a new pose will be added for Basco.

Mood, I see:

A bug that caused David Barron to go missing in Sabotage missions has also been fixed, as well as a bug that caused players' heads to turn to the left during sprint and Starborn Temples to not display properly. Starborn Temples would not display properly.

While there does not appear to be any new content in this update, Bethesda has stated that it is preparing to begin adding more later this year. The studio has said that major changes are coming to Starfield in 2024, including "survival mechanics" and "a whole new way to travel," at the end of 2023, and updates are expected to roll out roughly every six weeks starting in February. So far, though, the focus has been almost exclusively on technical aspects, such as bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, and support for FSR3 upscaling, which was released last week.

That's all well and good - Starfield certainly needs work - but what fans are really hungry for is more that they can actually do, and so far that hasn't happened. Six months after the release of Starfield, Skyrim and It has been only 9 months since the release of its first expansion, "Dawnguard", and so far "Starfield" does not seem to have the staying power of "Skyrim". An official mod tool would go a long way toward filling that void, but no release date has yet been announced, although a 2024 release has been promised.

Starfield's next update will be available in a Steam beta on March 6.