Bethesda "nerfed the hell out of" Starfield's planet atmosphere effects

Exploring Starfield’s planets was previously a lot harder, Bethesda has revealed, before the developer decided to dial back some “very punitive” atmosphere effects.

Bethesda boss Todd Howard revealed the change during an episode of the Game Maker’s Notebook podcast, which is well worth a watch.

In it, Howard discusses the challenges of creating interesting planets, fun space combat, and what changed during Starfield’s development.