Starfield companions include a knock-off HK-47 and a space cowboy you can kiss

What's a captain without a crew? At the combined Xbox Games Showcase slash Starfield Direct tonight, Bethesda did a deep dive on a few aspects of their upcoming space RPG Starfield - including the companion system. Although, given that you assign them to different tasks on your ship and various outposts, it might be more appropriate to call them "employees". Although again, you can romance some of them, which is definitely an HR issue.

You can pick up potential companions all over the place, including on missions or by hiring them. Each of them have a few traits of their own: in the video we saw Sarah Morgan, a sort of galactic Lara Croft (posh English bird; likes artefacts) who is great at astrodynamics, space cowboy Sam Coe who can pilot a ship pretty good and has rifle certification, and Barrett, an engineer with a sideline in robotics and gastronomy.

These aren't just for show, as where you choose to put 'em in your operation will have an effect on how things run. Presumably if you whack ole Sam in the pilot's chair he'll do pretty okay, whereas Sarah would drive your carefully constructed spaceship right into a space wall. But you can take them with you for your space fights - the example being Vasco, who is a leggy robot that looks like the loader bots in Borderlands and sounds like HK-47 from Knights Of The Old Republic. At one point in the deep dive Vasco says "It is a shame exploration requires so much bloodshed," making a neat comment on both the events in Starfield and interactions in triple-ay gaming all in one.

Your companions might also give you unique quests to do with their backstories and character and stuff, and because this is a massive RPG you can make the right numbers go up on some of them until they fall in love with you. In the video we saw Sam the space cowboy say that he doesn't know that he's ever really... loved... anyone... 'cept you... Which is a little off-putting when you're considering starting a relationship with a grown man, if you ask me.

Starfield is out this September 6th, and it sounds impossibly massive so I've just decided to pretend it's not happening, thanks.

NotE3 and Summer Game Fest 2023 is over for another year. You can find out all the latest news by visiting our E3 2023 hub, or you can catch up with our round-up posts of everything that was announced at Summer Game Fest, the Xbox Games Showcase, the PC Gaming Show, Day Of The Devs, and our top highlights from the Wholesome Direct.