Skyrim for the PS3: Merely Whack or Intolerably So?

Hello all,

For Hannukah this fine year, I happily received a happy and fine couple: a brand new PS3 (the Move bundle with the Sports Champions game) and a healthy batch of cream. With great excitement, I began spending the cash inside my brain, plotting out what I would get when I returned gleefully home, when I recalled the fantastically braggadocio Bomb Crew's joy reminisceing over their exploits in Skyrim. However, a quick glade at Amazon quelled my desire as I was greeted with a towering laundry list of complaints.

How severe are these problems on the PS3 version? What other PS3 gems should I consider picking up if Skyrim is as bad as Amazon's ever acute user reviewers would lead me to believe?

@chrismafuchris said:

Hello all, For Hannukah this fine year, I happily received a happy and fine couple: a brand new PS3 (the Move bundle with the Sports Champions game) and a healthy batch of cream. With great excitement, I began spending the cash inside my brain, plotting out what I would get when I returned gleefully home, when I recalled the fantastically braggadocio Bomb Crew's joy reminisceing over their exploits in Skyrim. However, a quick glade at Amazon quelled my desire as I was greeted with a towering laundry list of complaints. How severe are these problems on the PS3 version? What other PS3 gems should I consider picking up if Skyrim is as bad as Amazon's ever acute user reviewers would lead me to believe?

Ive heard the patchs have really worked out lots of the issues.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@chrismafuchris said:

Hello all, For Hannukah this fine year, I happily received a happy and fine couple: a brand new PS3 (the Move bundle with the Sports Champions game) and a healthy batch of cream. With great excitement, I began spending the cash inside my brain, plotting out what I would get when I returned gleefully home, when I recalled the fantastically braggadocio Bomb Crew's joy reminisceing over their exploits in Skyrim. However, a quick glade at Amazon quelled my desire as I was greeted with a towering laundry list of complaints. How severe are these problems on the PS3 version? What other PS3 gems should I consider picking up if Skyrim is as bad as Amazon's ever acute user reviewers would lead me to believe?

Ive heard the patchs have really worked out lots of the issues.

Careful what you read. According to engine analysis down by Digital Foundry over at Eurogamer, that's hardly the case. Performance has been improved in some areas, for some people, but not by that much. We're talking single digit FPS going into the 10-15 region which is still unacceptable. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-ps3-skyrim-lag

It's all down to luck. Not every PS3 has this issue, but it is common for people who play for over 50 hours. Which, let's face it, even with a game like Skyrim, is probably still not as many as the internet would lead you to believe. If you plan on playing the game for many, many hours, then you should be wary.

What are my odds? Is it worth taking the plunge, or should I spend my money on safer titles that I can get cheaper like MGS4 and Red Dead Redemption?

Would you even like skyrim ? if you didn't like oblivion you'd probably be far better off with mgs4/rdr.

I would maybe wait until the fix the main bug, which is the one where your game file gets bigger the longer you play. You have the entire PS3 library ahead of you, and hey you said you never played Oblivion, you should go play that! They released a anniversary edition this year that comes with all the DLC and a making of DVD.

There are plenty of amazing games that are now $20. I'm playing through all the old games I missed while waiting for the GOTY version or better patches. Pick up the Uncharted and Assassin's Creed series. That's tons of quality cheap gaming. Also Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY edition is $14 most places for Boxing Day.

Might as well start on old titles you missed. You'll save tons of cash because by the time you are done with them all the newer titles will be cheaper.

@chrismafuchris said:

Hello all, For Hannukah this fine year, I happily received a happy and fine couple: a brand new PS3 (the Move bundle with the Sports Champions game) and a healthy batch of cream. With great excitement, I began spending the cash inside my brain, plotting out what I would get when I returned gleefully home, when I recalled the fantastically braggadocio Bomb Crew's joy reminisceing over their exploits in Skyrim. However, a quick glade at Amazon quelled my desire as I was greeted with a towering laundry list of complaints. How severe are these problems on the PS3 version? What other PS3 gems should I consider picking up if Skyrim is as bad as Amazon's ever acute user reviewers would lead me to believe?

Buy Uncharted 2 and then 3. You will be happy with what your PS3 can do.

Hey, guys, if you don't know what you're talking about, maybe don't give advice. The save file size increasing is not the problem - that happens on all platforms. The problem manifests on the PS3 because it has stricter allocation of RAM. The frame rate is pretty bad in towns, but it gets better quickly and you almost never have combat in towns. It's completely playable even 80 hours in. I think the DF video is incredibly misleading as they take both the worst case scenario and a pre-patch save file (which may make the problems worse). All that said, if you have a good PC, play it there. Lastly, if you're on a budget, get cheaper games (Uncharted 2, Arkham Asylum, Assassin's Creed 2, Orange Box, Fallout, Oblivion, Mass Effect 2, inFamous, etc).

I'd say wait and see. Skyrim will always be there, and there are plenty of good PS3 games that are cheap nowadays.

Its fine for me.  I have 11mb in my first play through and I think its fine.  Ill check just in case

I have about an 11 MB save file as well, and while I've certainly experienced lag throughout my time with the game, it hasn't been so bad that it's made me want to stop playing. There have been a couple instances where the framerate has dropped to cripplingly low levels, but I'm pretty sure that in both cases, an enemy or object started clipping through the ground or some other geometry and caused the physics to start freaking out. One time with the backwards dragons, which also spazzed out like crazy, apparently had the ability to teleport short to medium distances, and could not be killed.

What did get me to stop playing (at least for the time being) was a bug that prevented me from completing a mission on the Imperial side of the Civil War questline. The mission requires you to clear out a location of Stormcloak soldiers, but when I went there, it was completely empty and I thus could not complete the mission. However, I think this bug is present in at least the 360 version as well, so I don't believe it's isolated to PS3, and I hear Bethesda is eventually going to patch out both the quest bugs and the PS3 lag issues.

All in all, I experienced quite a few of the bugs that are out there in Skyrim, some of them more annoying than others, but none of them caused me to get anywhere near as angry as a lot of people on the internet who are complaining about the PS3 version.