Even though Giant Bomb awarded The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as 2011’s Game of the Year, it came with a very specific caveat: it didn’t apply to the PlayStation 3 version.
On Twitter, the official Bethesda account told one concerned user the lag problems associated with the PS3 version of Skyrim would be addressed in the 1.4 patch “planned for this month.”
@ElderScrolls @nvidia @Bethblog What about PS3 Lag ?????
— denisvj (@denisvj) January 9, 2012
@denisvj we're addressing that in the 1.4 update planned for this month
— Bethesda Blog (@Bethblog) January 9, 2012
The PS3 experience remains a troubling one, and that consumers have gone months without some major issues getting addressed remains completely ridiculous. Thankfully, at least one problem should be ironed out this month.
Other PS3-specific quirks should hopefully be coming in this 1.4 patch, which hasn’t been officially outlined yet, but was discussed in early December, in response to fans demanding more details.
“While the 1.2 update fixed the long-term play issues for most PS3 users, we are aware that is not the case for some,” said the company. “We’ve been reaching out to a number of those users to collect save games, so we can take a look at their specific issues. Right now we know it’s not one thing, but a combination of smaller ones that some folks are seeing, but others are not.”
“These fixes are not in the current 1.3 update that is in final testing, but will be in future ones,” it continued. “We understand how frustrating it can be when your game is having issues, and we thank all of you for your continued feedback and patience. Rest assured we take your gameplay experience seriously and will continue working on this until it’s resolved.”
That doesn’t really help the players who’ve been waiting since November, though.
Finally, was beginning to think this was never going to be fixed.
I don't play this game on PS3 but this is very good news for PS3 players.
Likelihood it's broken? High.
I hope PC users get some love too. So many times I've been having fun, getting into the groove, and then bam! Like, three busted quests in a row, followed up with dubious quest logic that barely follows the laws of causality.
Never happened to me but I am very glad that Bethesda is trying to fix this problem and addressing it. While it may not solve every problem, I hope it gets some serious problems fixed.
I can't fathom the difficulties they've had trying to shoehorn a game with the complexity of Skyrim into 512MB of memory.
Finally a glimmer hope.
I've played over 100 hours on the PS3 version and I haven't had any problems with lag. Maybe it depends on the model of the PS3?
I posted this on the forums earlier *smug face*
@hookem1883 said:
interesting. how long have yr play sessions been, on average, would you say?
This patch is sure to be perfect, and will solve exactly what is says it will with absolutely no adverse side affects. No backwards dragons here, no sir.
@NekuCTR said:
:(
@damnable_fiend: I would guess that my average play session is 3 hours, though I've gone up to 7 hours on a weekend.
@Crushed said:
I hate to say it, but that's pretty much every Bethesda game. The most you can hope for is that their games don't have any game-breaking bugs. Unfortunately, the PS3 version did. Just like their last few PS3 releases. Luckily for non-PS3 owners (sorry guys) this has been one of the least bug free (again, non-PS3 version) games released by Bethesda.
I wish I could stop playing it. I'm 180 hours in, and I have other games on my queue.
If you got Skyrim problems, I feel bad for you son. I dodged ninety-nine arrows but my knee took one.
@Volgin13 said:
This is the best thing I have read today.
Careful hoarding items, a little bird has told me just the simple act of "collecting" things you find in the world increases your overall game lag and can literally make the game unplayable after a certain point. I have the PC version so that's not a huge issue for myself, but if you want to test this on a console just go delete a bunch of crap you don't need and you should see a difference.
@hookem1883 said:
I thought this might be a cause as well. I remember reading an article about how Uncharted 3 was almost released in a broken state for fat PS3 models because at a certain point it stopped loading textures because of the way they're streamed on old PS3s. They didn't notice this until late in development because in the studio they had all been using Slim models and didn't catch the problem till someone played it at home on an old model. Maybe something similar is happening here with Skyrim.
The saddest part about this whole Skyrim mess isn't really that the game is (completely) broken on the PS3. There's no question that it's a really bad situation to be in for people who bought the PS3 copy – they deserve a working game, but the issue isn't really Skyrim not working.
What's worrying me is that Bethesda simply gets away with putting out a broken product. No one is willing to ask the tough questions, and there won't be any consequences for Bethesda. I'm surprised no one has sued them yet as there's absolutely no way they did not know about the problems. It's something they must have known about prior to the release of the product. Sony isn't doing anything , retail isn't doing anything, the press isn't doing anything.
We don't need the press to tell us what features a game has, we need the press to step up and complain (for us) when stuff like this happens. Unless you're famous and reach a lot of people, you're simply out of luck. We've seen that countless times (Xbox Live hacks, for example). Where's the response from Sony PR? How come they let such a broken game through cert when it clearly fails some of the requirements (not all Trophies can be obtained unless you're playing the English version). Skyrim only got a 'ok' from Sony certification because it's a huge game and no one is telling anyone about that. Everyone is up and arms about Bethesda releasing a broken game, but we should ask “Why can they even do that?”. It seems like it's because the platform holder doesn't care, because the press is not willing to give them a hard time and because you cannot simply return your copy of the game once you encounter all the problems and glitches.
Someone should make a feature about the Skyrim-mess on PS3. When did they know they were shipping a broken product? How did Sony react when they found out this well selling game wouldn't/shouldn't pass certification? Why did Bethesda lie to their customers about the engine they're using? Why doesn't anyone say 'No, we simply cannot make it for PS3' when they clearly know that their engine doesn't work well on that platform? That's what I want to know.