"That's why we haven't colonized Mars yet, it's got terrible graphics."

Marsed Out

Bethesda Game Studios — the developer that brought you "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" and "Fallout 4" — is getting ready to launch its next massive roleplaying game, "Starfield."

The game, which happens to be the studio's first new intellectual property excursion in over 25 years, takes place in space, allowing players to explore the surface of over 1,000 planets. Gamers who've pre-ordered the game will be able to play it on Friday.

As such, eager gamers have some astronomical expectations of the game. The excitement is palpable, with one particularly impatient fan going as far as to criticize the graphics of what they thought were in-game screenshots.

"Let's wait for the final gameplay," wrote the confused gamer in Portuguese. "What's showing up isn't pretty."

But as it turns out, the images were actual photos taken by NASA's Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars — not from Bethesda's upcoming action RPG.

"Starfield derangement syndrome is real," one gamer tweeted, sharing a screenshot of the Brazilian gamer getting called out for his mixup on X-formerly-Twitter.

Terrible Graphics

It's a hilarious misunderstanding that led to plenty of derision and mockery online.

"Man said let’s wait for the final build cause the image don’t look good," the gamer who shared the screenshot added. "Little does he know these are real photos from Mars taken by a NASA rover."

Users on the "Starfield" subreddit had a field day with the confusion.

"That's why we haven't colonized Mars yet, it's got terrible graphics," one redditor wrote.

"God really needs to bring out a graphics update," another user posted. "Earth has outdated graphics, it's literally billions [of] years old and it still looks the same just with some add-ons."

Pictures of Rocks

A quick reverse image search reveals that at least three of the four images were taken by Perseverance's cameras between March and June of this year.

The rover has been making its way along the walls of the Jezero crater, which scientists believe to be a dried-out ancient lake bed, ever since landing on the Martian surface back in February 2021.

Over 898 Mars days, the rover has collected 17 rock cores, taken over half a million images, and even launched a small rotorcraft called Ingenuity, which has completed 55 flights.

But according to some gamers, the planet's desolate and boulder-lined surface would make for a disappointing video game experience.

Fortunately, the trove of scientific data Perseverance has collected since then paints a far more varied and colorful picture of the planet's ancient past.

But perhaps some gamers are just impossible to please.

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