Summary
- Starfield's modding community is already flourishing, with various mods being developed to enhance the game's features and mechanics.
- The Phil Spencer Flashlight mod, which changes the flashlight's illumination texture to include Phil Spencer's face, highlights the tradition of silly mods in Bethesda games.
- Despite some criticism and divided opinions on certain aspects of the game, Starfield has been well-received and is expected to improve with future updates and mod support.
Bethesda games are no strangers to bizarre mods, and Starfield just got a mod that lets players explore the dark reaches of space with a Phil Spencer flashlight. The head of Xbox has played a key role in Starfield's marketing, and his decision to put Starfield on Xbox Game Pass may potentially kickstart a golden age for the subscription platform. As a result, Bethesda fans have had a chance to familiarize themselves with Phil Spencer, who – along with Pete Hines and Todd Howard – have been Starfield's biggest cheerleaders.
Starfield is already a huge hit on Steam, despite being in Early Access, and though fans have been divided on some of its features such as space exploration or NPC AI, the reactions from the gaming community have been more positive than Fallout 76 at launch. From taking down Brogan on Kreet, to meeting the Adoring Fan in New Atlantis, Starfield players are steadily bonding over their shared experiences in the latest Bethesda sandbox.
A comprehensive mod list for Starfield is already emerging, as its burgeoning modding community attempts to tackle ideas such as adding a field-of-view slider, changing FSR2 for DLSS, or improving upon the game's HUD. However, amidst all these ambitious concepts, maquinaremos' mod is far more simple in its intent: to change the flashlight's illumination texture to also include Phil Spencer's face. The Phil Spencer Flashlight mod can be found on Nexus Mods, which has long served as the go-to site for modding a Bethesda title on PC.
Silly mods have long been a tradition in Bethesda's games, as evidenced by the mod that changes Skyrim's fierce dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine. Though it may take a while until the modding community starts to create solutions for a more immersive space flight in Starfield, the enthusiasm is certainly there, and it's certainly strong. Much like Fallout 4 and Skyrim, Starfield's modding community may end up supporting the game for many years to come, especially if it manages to fix Starfield's most criticized shortcomings.
Despite these shortcomings, Starfield is one of the highest-rated games of 2023, and the developers at Bethesda should be proud of what they accomplished with a fresh new IP on the next generation of the company's Creation Engine. Ultimately, whether through official updates or with the help of mods, Starfield will undoubtedly be a much better game in a few months from now – with or without Phil Spencer's head illuminating a creepy hallway.
Starfield launches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Nexus Mods