Skyrim's PS3 Lag Gets A Patch This Month

[Earnest Cavalli]

Skyrim's PS3 Lag Gets A Patch This Month

Is a fix finally on the way for Skyrim's PlayStation 3 lag? Bethesda says yes.

It's been almost exactly two months since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim hit the PS3, and throughout that time fans have complained loudly and in great numbers that the game is saddled with massive lag. Particularly once a player's save file grows larger than 6MB. Unfortunately that usually occurs once the game has been played for over 20 hours, leaving the game's owner irrevocably addicted to the excellent title and doomed to suffer glumly through its ever-increasing lag.

Luckily, it seems that Bethesda Softworks has a fix in the works.

When asked, point-blank, what the company had planned for the PlayStation 3 lag, the official Bethesda Twitter feed responded [https://twitter.com/#!/Bethblog/status/156480337172639744] by saying that this month's patch (version 1.4, for those keeping score at home) would address the problem.

Good news, right? Yes, but it should also be remembered that Bethesda has promised PS3 lag fixes in both of the past two Skyrim patches. Granted, each patch did improve the issue, but to date PlayStation 3 owners are still awaiting a definitive fix for the problem.

Will 1.4 be that fix? Dunno. We don't even really know when the patch will be released, outside of the nebulous promise that it's coming sometime this month.

As someone who owns the PS3 version of Skyrim, I want to believe that Bethesda has a crack team of codemonkeys working on this issue 24/7, but as a cynical games journalist I realize that this problem isn't likely to be the highest priority for the company.

If I had to guess I'd place it somewhere above "look at cute kitty pictures on the 'net" and "relax in kiddie pool full of gold coins."

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[GonzoGamer]

As someone who owns copies of the still chronically freezing PS3 versions of Fallout 3 & New Vegas, I hope they can forgive me for not running out to buy Skyrim at this news.
I'll be surprised if they ever fix the serious issues on the ps3 and I'll be really surprised if I ever buy another Bethesda game on the ps3.

 

[Aeshi]

So it took them two months to fix something that should by all rights have been caught in the Beta?

Probably a new record for them but still (assuming said patch even works)

 

[ace_of_something]

I'm lucky thus far *knock on wood* and my game is well over that limit and has yet to lag. Is it because my ps3 is fat?

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I'm lucky thus far *knock on wood* and my game is well over that limit and has yet to lag. Is it because my ps3 is fat?

I hope so because my fat PS3 hasn't had any problems with lag or any other issues so far.

 

[robert022614]

I had minor lag until I got patch 1.03. Now no lag because my game just freezes after about 5 min of playing on every save file, even new ones I start and of course it corrupts them as well. Went from this lag isnt that bad to WTF did you do to one of my fav games.

 

[JemothSkarii]

Every patch has made the game go a little longer before it starts lagging, so here's hoping the issue is fixed....having both Fallout 3 and NV, I'm not hoping too much though.

 

[LobsterFeng]

I'm lucky thus far *knock on wood* and my game is well over that limit and has yet to lag. Is it because my ps3 is fat?

I hope so because my fat PS3 hasn't had any problems with lag or any other issues so far.

Aww my fat PS3 died a couple of months ago, now I have a skinny one.

 

[Blue Hero]

I'm lucky thus far *knock on wood* and my game is well over that limit and has yet to lag. Is it because my ps3 is fat?

I hope so because my fat PS3 hasn't had any problems with lag or any other issues so far.

Let's make it a threesome, 'cause I haven't had any problems with lag at all either.

 

[Hikaru CF]

I'm lucky thus far *knock on wood* and my game is well over that limit and has yet to lag. Is it because my ps3 is fat?

I hope so because my fat PS3 hasn't had any problems with lag or any other issues so far.

Let's make it a threesome, 'cause I haven't had any problems with lag at all either.

And now four. The good old fatty seems to be handling Skyrim well.
This is quite interesting.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

My question is, has anybody playing the 360 version encountered any lag. I've encountered it few times while running through Whiterun and once when a random dragon showed up(granted a lot was going on in my area, it wasn't attacking me, but a mammoth and then a couple wolves joined in on the fray).

Too late Bethesda, I already traded it back in to Gamestop. Your story mode took a grand total of 3 hours and had a bland and uninteresting ending. Worse still with all the work you put into making the world feel alive, it didn't feel interesting enough to care about.
So no, compile that crap with the fact that all my lagging and crashing should have been fixed earlier, too late. You had your chance, and you wasted it.

Really? Three hours? It is really your fault that you did a speed run of the game, though you were off the record speed run by 44 minutes.

Elder Scrolls games from what I have seen and played, are more about the world, the world is the real main story compared to the main story itself. The main story has always been a small portion of the game because if it was longer, let's say longer then all the side stuff combined, with all the side stories and questing that the vast majority of players do before beating the main story, I'm willing to bet the main story would have to be over 200 maybe 300 hours long.

I'm almost 80 hours into the game, and I've only completed maybe 5 or so main story sections. I play about 15 hours and then do a main story section, only if it is along my way to something else.

This really is a perfect case of you are playing the game wrong. The main part really isn't the main story, the main part of Skyrim, is Skyrim itself. Bethesda makes their games with a massive world to explore that will always over shadow the main story, because that is what the fans of their games want and do when playing their games.

I only use fast travel at certain times in the game, like if I am almost at my carry limit in loot, then I fast travel to Whiterun to unload some in my house and then the large portion I sell.

I feel sorry for you, because by speed running and only playing the main story, you've missed some awesome smaller stories and experiences. I mean the game is so vast that with my time played and my brother has played almost 100 hours as well, then when we come together and talk about it, many of our experiences and things that we have done are different.

You picked up a massive world exploration RPG, what did you expect what playing it was suppose to be like? In that vast world, you just hurried down the short road, most certainly ignoring the vast number of wonderful random quests that happen. You basically bought a large three course meal, skipped the appetizer, skipped the main course, and took a couple bites of the desert and threw everything else that came before it, into the garbage. I would consider that an appropriate analogy, the main story to many Elder Scrolls fans, is like a small part of the desert of a three course meal.

I would take you seriously if you had actually played the game in at least some manner as to how and why Bethesda designed the game the way it is.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

So far i've been playing for about 65 hours and only encountered minor lag, but it's slowly getting worse the more I play it.

However, I just want to know why Bethesda keep getting away with releasing broken products, especially for the PS3. I'm surprised no-one has sued them yet tbh.

That's the last Bethesda game i'm getting for the PS3.

[sub]I knew I should have got Skyrim on PC ¬_¬[/sub]

 

[Pimppeter2]

Too late Bethesda, I already traded it back in to Gamestop. Your story mode took a grand total of 3 hours and had a bland and uninteresting ending. Worse still with all the work you put into making the world feel alive, it didn't feel interesting enough to care about.
So no, compile that crap with the fact that all my lagging and crashing should have been fixed earlier, too late. You had your chance, and you wasted it.

You already bought their game...

They don't care if you trade it back in. It doesn't effect them. Your purchase of the game did. They get no money based on the used market.

OT: That sucks for PS3 users. Its a shame really. But I would have faith in this fix.

 

[Vault101]

well...Ive gotten bored with it already

I supsoe thats my problem, you give me a beeautiful world..with lots and lots of charachters, and things to do

but you dont give me any reason to DO anything

 

[Reaper195]

I once suffered from this, as well as a couple of other glitches. But then I loaded a save thirty hours earlier (....ugh....) and now I have no problem. Although I'll rage if this patch makes all creatures EXCEPT dragons move backwards.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

My question is, has anybody playing the 360 version encountered any lag.

Ignoring the hilarity of the rest of your post, it's theoretically possible that the 360 can have the same lag problems. The problem just takes longer to manifest itself, because the memory pool isn't split.

I see. Though I do have news of a glitch I encountered really early today.

This is exactly what transpired:

I was in Whiterun and I was running passed the market stalls when off in the distance I saw one of the little girls run in between my house and Warmaiden's. I watched the girl all of a sudden fall straight down and disappear. As I got closer to see what had happened, I saw that the ground between my house and under Warmaiden's had completely disappeared and there was an abyss of blue nothingness below.

At that time my friends were watching and laughing at the glitch, I decided not to walk into it and I just sat an looked at it. Then that guy that, "Works for Belathor at the general goods store", walked by and I realized he was going to make his scheduled wood drop, and he started walking toward the nothingness, and I shout, "No man! Don't do it! The delivery isn't worth it!" But he walked forward and and fell down the equivalent of his height into the nothingness and stopped moving.

I then heard a clanging sound and looked over to see the blacksmith woman working away at the improvement bench. "Noooo!" I shouted, but it was too late for her too, as soon as she stopped working, she fell into the nothingness and stopped moving, like the other guy.

I shouted "Nooo!" again and decided to retreat into my house to escape the obvious doomsday destruction of the world around me. I entered my house and all was well inside. I looked around, and saw nothing out of place, so I summoned up all of my Nord courage and stepped outside. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw that all was right with the world, that the villager stealing abyss of evil had disappeared and all the npcs were back and doing the boring repetitive things they do best. Though "Lokar" will still be forever vigilant, just in case that evil abyss returns.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I once suffered from this, as well as a couple of other glitches. But then I loaded a save thirty hours earlier (....ugh....) and now I have no problem. Although I'll rage if this patch makes all creatures EXCEPT dragons move backwards.

And the next thing will be that all the npcs will be talking backwards. "Store goods general the at Belathor for work I." Or the other kind of backwards, "Erots sdoog lareneg eht ta rohtaleB rof krow I," and then their heads will start spinning around like that glitch at the beginning of Fallout New Vegas.