Bethesda's open world RPGs may vary wildly in setting and tone, but they very often share one thing – what Bethesda calls the 'step-out moment', the scene in which your character steps into the world properly, and sees its sheer scale. Starfield won't be bucking that trend.

Speaking to IGN after the gameplay reveal at the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, Howard was asked if Starfield had a step-out moment, and how it would create a grand reveal of its world considering it includes 1,000 different planets.

"There is. Look, the way the game starts is pretty set for everybody, so we definitely have what we call the 'step-out moment'. And we probably have a few of them given the scale of the game."

Howard didn't explain how that opening would work, nor where the step-out moment will take place, but he did tease that the game will seemingly include both the planetery surface version you might expect, and potentially 'step-outs' in space:

"The early [step-outs] are the ones that we do spend time on, to make sure that it’s impactful when you finally get to see a surface of a planet, or what that planet looks like from space."

Given that the game features 100 systems full of explorable planets, it seems more than likely that you could effectively be constructing your own step-out moments across the length of the game. That might even include one for our own Earth, which fans believe will be explorable based on hints in the latest trailer.

Starfield will arrive for Xbox and PC in 2023, and the first gameplay reveal showed off combat, introduced customization. We'll be finding out much more in the months before release, but the game already sounds enormous.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Bethesda's open world RPGs may vary wildly in setting and tone, but they very often share one thing – what Bethesda calls the 'step-out moment', the scene in which your character steps into the world properly, and sees its sheer scale. Starfield won't be bucking that trend.

Speaking to IGN after the gameplay reveal at the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, Howard was asked if Starfield had a step-out moment, and how it would create a grand reveal of its world considering it includes 1,000 different planets.

"There is. Look, the way the game starts is pretty set for everybody, so we definitely have what we call the 'step-out moment'. And we probably have a few of them given the scale of the game."

Howard didn't explain how that opening would work, nor where the step-out moment will take place, but he did tease that the game will seemingly include both the planetery surface version you might expect, and potentially 'step-outs' in space:

"The early [step-outs] are the ones that we do spend time on, to make sure that it’s impactful when you finally get to see a surface of a planet, or what that planet looks like from space."

Given that the game features 100 systems full of explorable planets, it seems more than likely that you could effectively be constructing your own step-out moments across the length of the game. That might even include one for our own Earth, which fans believe will be explorable based on hints in the latest trailer.

Starfield will arrive for Xbox and PC in 2023, and the first gameplay reveal showed off combat, introduced customization. We'll be finding out much more in the months before release, but the game already sounds enormous.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge launches this Thursday, June 16, giving players an opportunity to revisit the style and gameplay of the Turtles' old-school outings. However, what you get at launch is very likely to be the full package, as developer Tribute Games have no plans to create any DLC for the game.

During this week's episode of Xbox Expansion Pass, narrative designer Yannick Belzil made it clear that Tribute Games won't be creating any additional costumes for the Turtles for the upcoming beat 'em up revival. He indicated that the team's perfectionism puts them at odds with their limited resources.

"For alternate costumes, it really was not thought of during production because we're very proud of our animations, and the animations are really detailed, and they're filled with character" Belzil said. "They're really animated with minute details, which means that making them takes a long time."

"I always thought that it'd be cool if the Turtles could be in trench coats and hats the way they were incognito in the old cartoons," Belzil continued. "But again, that would take a whole lot of time, and especially with our animators – like, they'd want the trench coat to be flowing, and you'd want it to be dynamic."

Though they may not be very interested in creating additional costumes for existing characters, Belzil hinted that the team, if given enough resources, would be more likely to "work on a newer playable character rather than create an alterate skin."

Luckily for TMNT enthusiasts, Shredder's Revenge will launch with seven playable characters, including all four of the beloved Turtles alongside series mainstays Splinter, April O'Neil, and Casey Jones, so there should be plenty of variety in this love letter to the 90s arcade classics.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge launches June 16 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Billy Givens is a freelance writer at IGN.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge launches this Thursday, June 16, giving players an opportunity to revisit the style and gameplay of the Turtles' old-school outings. However, what you get at launch is very likely to be the full package, as developer Tribute Games have no plans to create any DLC for the game.

During this week's episode of Xbox Expansion Pass, narrative designer Yannick Belzil made it clear that Tribute Games won't be creating any additional costumes for the Turtles for the upcoming beat 'em up revival. He indicated that the team's perfectionism puts them at odds with their limited resources.

"For alternate costumes, it really was not thought of during production because we're very proud of our animations, and the animations are really detailed, and they're filled with character" Belzil said. "They're really animated with minute details, which means that making them takes a long time."

"I always thought that it'd be cool if the Turtles could be in trench coats and hats the way they were incognito in the old cartoons," Belzil continued. "But again, that would take a whole lot of time, and especially with our animators – like, they'd want the trench coat to be flowing, and you'd want it to be dynamic."

Though they may not be very interested in creating additional costumes for existing characters, Belzil hinted that the team, if given enough resources, would be more likely to "work on a newer playable character rather than create an alterate skin."

Luckily for TMNT enthusiasts, Shredder's Revenge will launch with seven playable characters, including all four of the beloved Turtles alongside series mainstays Splinter, April O'Neil, and Casey Jones, so there should be plenty of variety in this love letter to the 90s arcade classics.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge launches June 16 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Billy Givens is a freelance writer at IGN.

Bethesda's Todd Howard said Starfield features a unique take on space combat, and that was partly inspired by FTL and MechWarrior. And yes, you can steal ships that you board.

Speaking to IGN following the Xbox and Bethesda Game Showcase, Starfield director Howard said "there's been a lot space sims that we're fans of, and space shooters from the '90s," but the team wanted Starfield "to feel [like] something unique".

Deploying different amounts of power to different ship subsystems, for example, was influenced by 2012's spaceship simulation game FTL. In it, players would regularly have to make critical decisions such as choosing between powering their engines to try and escape a fight or their weapons to try and win it.

"Your ship has various power systems. [There's a] little bit of FTL there in terms of putting how much power into three different weapon systems," Howard said, "then your engines, and shields, and the grav drive is what lets you jump, and sort of get out of some situations that you have to put power to."

For its take on dogfighting, Bethesda targeted a, slower pace, and Howard had an unlikely inspiration for that: "One of the games I love that we sort of look at for pace is MechWarrior, believe it or not. That’s probably a little bit slower, but in terms of systems and power and being able to line things up – it’s a little bit faster than that but you know what I mean as opposed to a twitchy dogfighter."

Starfield's space combat also includes other less directly violent elements. "We also have some other systems that we’ll show later that you can add to your ship that adds some more interesting gameplay," said Howard, before going onto list a number of other space-based activities, including hijacking other ships.

"But it’s not just dogfighting, like, the ship stuff includes – you can see it in the video – you can dock with other ships, you can disable them, you can dock, you can board it. There’s actually some quests that involve that. You can steal the ship, there’s dialogue in space, there’s starstations you can visit, there’s smuggling. All the things that we would want. And we’ll be showing some more of that later, but it’s a good chunk of gameplay that we think is really fun when it comes to playing this kind of sci-fi game."

Howard didn't go into more detail about those systems, but it sounds as though there's a lot more to learn than we have already. During the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, Howard revealed the game will have more than one thousand planets for players to explore and what feels like just as many customisation options.

Players are also speculating whether our own Solar System will be a plot point in the game but Bethesda has at least confirmed some story details thanks to a new trailer, though fans will no doubt continue analysing and speculating about Starfield until it is finally released in 2023.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Bethesda's Todd Howard said Starfield features a unique take on space combat, and that was partly inspired by FTL and MechWarrior. And yes, you can steal ships that you board.

Speaking to IGN following the Xbox and Bethesda Game Showcase, Starfield director Howard said "there's been a lot space sims that we're fans of, and space shooters from the '90s," but the team wanted Starfield "to feel [like] something unique".

Deploying different amounts of power to different ship subsystems, for example, was influenced by 2012's spaceship simulation game FTL. In it, players would regularly have to make critical decisions such as choosing between powering their engines to try and escape a fight or their weapons to try and win it.

"Your ship has various power systems. [There's a] little bit of FTL there in terms of putting how much power into three different weapon systems," Howard said, "then your engines, and shields, and the grav drive is what lets you jump, and sort of get out of some situations that you have to put power to."

For its take on dogfighting, Bethesda targeted a, slower pace, and Howard had an unlikely inspiration for that: "One of the games I love that we sort of look at for pace is MechWarrior, believe it or not. That’s probably a little bit slower, but in terms of systems and power and being able to line things up – it’s a little bit faster than that but you know what I mean as opposed to a twitchy dogfighter."

Starfield's space combat also includes other less directly violent elements. "We also have some other systems that we’ll show later that you can add to your ship that adds some more interesting gameplay," said Howard, before going onto list a number of other space-based activities, including hijacking other ships.

"But it’s not just dogfighting, like, the ship stuff includes – you can see it in the video – you can dock with other ships, you can disable them, you can dock, you can board it. There’s actually some quests that involve that. You can steal the ship, there’s dialogue in space, there’s starstations you can visit, there’s smuggling. All the things that we would want. And we’ll be showing some more of that later, but it’s a good chunk of gameplay that we think is really fun when it comes to playing this kind of sci-fi game."

Howard didn't go into more detail about those systems, but it sounds as though there's a lot more to learn than we have already. During the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, Howard revealed the game will have more than one thousand planets for players to explore and what feels like just as many customisation options.

Players are also speculating whether our own Solar System will be a plot point in the game but Bethesda has at least confirmed some story details thanks to a new trailer, though fans will no doubt continue analysing and speculating about Starfield until it is finally released in 2023.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Amid a huge amount of new information on Starfield from the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, likely the most-discussed detail was Todd Howard's announcement that the upcoming sci-fi RPG will include 1,000 fully explorable planets. Howard has now told IGN more about the game's approach to procedural generation, what it offers, and assured us that players can ignore them in favour of a huge amount of fully handcrafted content, if they want to.

Speaking to IGN, Howard addressed the huge reaction to the news of Starfield's massively explorable space: "We’re pretty aware you throw that [information] out near the end, people will go ‘What did you just say?’, and then they’ll have a lot of questions [about] how that works."

While Howard says that the team will offer a future deep-dive into exactly how that content was made, and how it feels in action, he offered us a glimpse into the thinking around it, centred on a single philosophy: "We try to say yes as much as possible."

"We do a lot of procedural generation [in Starfield], but I would keep in mind that we’ve always done that," Howard explained. "It’s a big part of Skyrim in terms of questing and some other things we do. We generate landscape using procedural systems, so we’ve always kind of worked on it. [The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is] one we look at a lot in terms of game flow. And we had been developing some procedural technology and doing some prototypes, and it really started coming to a head with Starfield, in that we think we can do this."

While he didn't go into details, Howard stressed that Starfield's procedural generation is robust enough to handle the sheer scale of variety required to build 100 solar systems' worth of planets:

"So it starts with: Can you even pull it off, visually? You know, a planet. And a planet by itself, if you think about it in a game concept, just one planet is infinitely big if you’re going to do it in some realistic fashion. So once you’re dealing with scale like that, and procedural systems, the difference between, say, one planet that has some variation on it, and a hundred planets, or a thousand planets, it’s actually not that big of a leap, if that makes sense – once you have good systems working for that."

But what Howard seems especially clear about is that there is a 'golden path' (or perhaps 'golden freeway' might be more appropriate) through Starfield, which represents the full, handcrafted Bethesda RPG fans would expect, and he stresses that the team has created more handmade content than ever before, set within its giant procedural galaxy:

"I should also add that we have done more handcrafting in this game, content-wise, than any game we’ve done. We’re [at] over 200,000 lines of dialogue, so we still do a lot of handcrafting and if people just want to do what they’re used to in our games, and follow a main quest, and do the questlines, you’re gonna see what you’d kind of expect from us. But then you have this whole other part of, ‘Well I’m just going to wander this planet, and it’s going to provide some gameplay, and some random content, and those kinds of things.’ Kind of like a Daggerfall would, if you go way back."

Again, the philsophy here is about saying yes to the player, allowing them to make detours into areas the designers wouldn't ever have been able to fill out, and providing something to do there, even if it's not a part of the main game.

"We’re also careful to let you know that’s what [that procedural content] is. So if you look at space, you know there are a lot of ice balls in space, so that was one of our big design considerations on this game is, ‘What’s fun about an ice ball?’ And it’s OK sometimes if ice balls aren’t- it is what it is. We’d rather have them and say yes to you, ‘Hey, you can land on this.’ Here are the resources, you can survey it, and then you can land and spend ten minutes there and be like, ‘OK, now I’m going to leave and go back to the other planet that has all this other content on it, and I’m going to follow this questline.’

"So we’re pretty careful about saying, ‘Here’s where the fun is, here’s this kind of content,’ but still say yes to the player and, ‘You want to go land on that weird planet, check it out, and build an outpost, and live your life there, and watch the sunset because you like the view of the moons there? Go for it.’ We love that stuff."

Starfield will arrive for Xbox and PC in 2023, and the first gameplay reveal showed off combat, introduced customization, and even hinted at a visit to Earth and our Solar System. We'll be finding out much more in the months before release, but the game already sounds enormous.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Amid a huge amount of new information on Starfield from the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, likely the most-discussed detail was Todd Howard's announcement that the upcoming sci-fi RPG will include 1,000 fully explorable planets. Howard has now told IGN more about the game's approach to procedural generation, what it offers, and assured us that players can ignore them in favour of a huge amount of fully handcrafted content, if they want to.

Speaking to IGN, Howard addressed the huge reaction to the news of Starfield's massively explorable space: "We’re pretty aware you throw that [information] out near the end, people will go ‘What did you just say?’, and then they’ll have a lot of questions [about] how that works."

While Howard says that the team will offer a future deep-dive into exactly how that content was made, and how it feels in action, he offered us a glimpse into the thinking around it, centred on a single philosophy: "We try to say yes as much as possible."

"We do a lot of procedural generation [in Starfield], but I would keep in mind that we’ve always done that," Howard explained. "It’s a big part of Skyrim in terms of questing and some other things we do. We generate landscape using procedural systems, so we’ve always kind of worked on it. [The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is] one we look at a lot in terms of game flow. And we had been developing some procedural technology and doing some prototypes, and it really started coming to a head with Starfield, in that we think we can do this."

While he didn't go into details, Howard stressed that Starfield's procedural generation is robust enough to handle the sheer scale of variety required to build 100 solar systems' worth of planets:

"So it starts with: Can you even pull it off, visually? You know, a planet. And a planet by itself, if you think about it in a game concept, just one planet is infinitely big if you’re going to do it in some realistic fashion. So once you’re dealing with scale like that, and procedural systems, the difference between, say, one planet that has some variation on it, and a hundred planets, or a thousand planets, it’s actually not that big of a leap, if that makes sense – once you have good systems working for that."

But what Howard seems especially clear about is that there is a 'golden path' (or perhaps 'golden freeway' might be more appropriate) through Starfield, which represents the full, handcrafted Bethesda RPG fans would expect, and he stresses that the team has created more handmade content than ever before, set within its giant procedural galaxy:

"I should also add that we have done more handcrafting in this game, content-wise, than any game we’ve done. We’re [at] over 200,000 lines of dialogue, so we still do a lot of handcrafting and if people just want to do what they’re used to in our games, and follow a main quest, and do the questlines, you’re gonna see what you’d kind of expect from us. But then you have this whole other part of, ‘Well I’m just going to wander this planet, and it’s going to provide some gameplay, and some random content, and those kinds of things.’ Kind of like a Daggerfall would, if you go way back."

Again, the philsophy here is about saying yes to the player, allowing them to make detours into areas the designers wouldn't ever have been able to fill out, and providing something to do there, even if it's not a part of the main game.

"We’re also careful to let you know that’s what [that procedural content] is. So if you look at space, you know there are a lot of ice balls in space, so that was one of our big design considerations on this game is, ‘What’s fun about an ice ball?’ And it’s OK sometimes if ice balls aren’t- it is what it is. We’d rather have them and say yes to you, ‘Hey, you can land on this.’ Here are the resources, you can survey it, and then you can land and spend ten minutes there and be like, ‘OK, now I’m going to leave and go back to the other planet that has all this other content on it, and I’m going to follow this questline.’

"So we’re pretty careful about saying, ‘Here’s where the fun is, here’s this kind of content,’ but still say yes to the player and, ‘You want to go land on that weird planet, check it out, and build an outpost, and live your life there, and watch the sunset because you like the view of the moons there? Go for it.’ We love that stuff."

Starfield will arrive for Xbox and PC in 2023, and the first gameplay reveal showed off combat, introduced customization, and even hinted at a visit to Earth and our Solar System. We'll be finding out much more in the months before release, but the game already sounds enormous.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Gaming showcases don't usually end this way – nor should they have to, in normal circumstances – but it felt like a true tribute to the bravery of STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World that today's Xbox Games Showcase Extended ended not just with an unexpected announcement, but a snapshot of what it means to work in Ukraine right now.

The showcase truly ended with a look at the game's introduction, but you can watch that elsewhere. What mattered here was the look at GSC Game World's Kiev office and workers before and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Members of the company have been documenting their working and personal lives amid tragedy and fear, and the resulting developer diary makes for both a devastating and stirring portrait.

You can watch the video below:

Developers are seen working in cramped spaces, necessitated by the threat of bombings. Others have joined the Ukrainian defence forces, promising to return and finish the game when they have turned back their invaders. We see developers who don't know if their family members are alive, others rushing to bomb shelters, and we don't see those who can't share stories, because of fear for their own safety.

We also see the new logo for the game's retitling, which is now known as STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, using the original Ukrainian spelling for the area.

Congratulations to Xbox for making this a cornerstone of its showcase, and our hearts go out to GSC Game World. If you'd like to help the situation in Ukraine, we have a guide on how to donate and aid Ukrainian civilians.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Slava Ukraini.

Gaming showcases don't usually end this way – nor should they have to, in normal circumstances – but it felt like a true tribute to the bravery of STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World that today's Xbox Games Showcase Extended ended not just with an unexpected announcement, but a snapshot of what it means to work in Ukraine right now.

The showcase truly ended with a look at the game's introduction, but you can watch that elsewhere. What mattered here was the look at GSC Game World's Kiev office and workers before and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Members of the company have been documenting their working and personal lives amid tragedy and fear, and the resulting developer diary makes for both a devastating and stirring portrait.

You can watch the video below:

Developers are seen working in cramped spaces, necessitated by the threat of bombings. Others have joined the Ukrainian defence forces, promising to return and finish the game when they have turned back their invaders. We see developers who don't know if their family members are alive, others rushing to bomb shelters, and we don't see those who can't share stories, because of fear for their own safety.

We also see the new logo for the game's retitling, which is now known as STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, using the original Ukrainian spelling for the area.

Congratulations to Xbox for making this a cornerstone of its showcase, and our hearts go out to GSC Game World. If you'd like to help the situation in Ukraine, we have a guide on how to donate and aid Ukrainian civilians.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Slava Ukraini.