This week we’ve seen a few updates with accessibility improvements from games published by Bethesda Softworks, including a snippet of hope concerning Starfield.
Redfall hotfix v1.11
Yesterday saw a new hotfix (a small update) for Redfall. Aside from additional fixes and stability improvements, the Redfall v1.11 patch notes also mention accessibility. In addition to several improvements made in Redfall’s v1.1 update, this hotfix expands the screen narration. Screen narration now mentions when all players leave the lobby, or when players are kicked from the game. It also communicates the status of the loading screen.
Disable muzzle flashes in Fallout 76
A few days earlier, Fallout 76’s Once in a Blue Moon update released. The update includes new events, quests, and cryptids. The patch notes for Fallout 76 also mention a small but important accessibility feature. A new setting is now available to enable and disable weapon muzzle flash effects. Repeating flashes like those from muzzle fire or explosions can be a trigger for migraines or even seizures. The ability to turn of muzzle flashes that tend to be front and center goes a long way to prevent this.
Aside from that setting, the update fixes some mismatched subtitles. While not too impactful but a nice touch, the update removes exit signs from inaccessible doors in the Charleston Capitol Building.
A larger text size for Starfield
Last but not least, we have a snippet of accessibility hope for Starfield. Todd Howard, game director at Bethesda Game Studios, talked about accessibility of Starfield on the Kinda Funny Xcast on YouTube. During this short segment he mentioned a large font mode is coming to Starfield. He mentioned the importance of this due to the large amount of text in an RPG that needs to be readable. Another factor according to Howard is the variety of devices and screen sizes games are played on. However when asked about Steam Deck support, Howard couldn’t elaborate on that.
The small text size in Starfield is one of the biggest accessibility concerns in the community, so this acknowledgement is positive. It’s not yet clear if the large font mode is a feature that will be available on launch, through a day 1 patch, or later on.
