Elden Ring is out on PlayStation 5 and PS4 today, but despite being crowned as one of best games ever made, it’s not without its issues. Some have recommended playing the last-gen version of the game on Sony’s new-gen console, as that’s the only way to ensure a consistent framerate. There are also serious problems with saves on the PS5, and raytracing is coming at a later date.
“If the PS5 console is unexpectedly turned off while playing a game or in rest mode, saved data may not be saved correctly,” a spokesperson for publisher Bandai Namco noted. “We are aware of the cause of this issue and are working on a patch to correct it, but until the patch is released, please save your game manually by exiting the game regularly.”
The company reiterated: “Game data will be saved correctly if you quit the game by opening the system menu using the Options button and selecting ‘Quit Game’.” So, for the time being, if you’re playing on the PS5, be sure to take the time to quit back to the main menu. It’s a small step to take to preserve your progress.
Irritatingly, there’s no mention of framerate issues with regards to consoles in Bandai Namco’s post. “Regarding the phenomenon of framerate and other performance-related issues during gameplay, we will be constantly working to improve the game so that it can be played comfortably on various PC environments and platforms,” the firm added.
Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about the game’s performance issues, but we can help you get started with our Elden Ring guide. We also have an Elden Ring review if you’re still undecided of whether to nab the title today. Have you found any major bugs or glitches that need patching yet? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source en.bandainamcoent.eu]
Comments 32
Reminds me of how the rest mode on my PS5 doesn't work. Last time I tried using it, I had to force shutdown cause the whole thing just froze while in the mode.
Now I'm afraid of using it.
@Deadlyblack You're probably safe. I've never really had an issue with it personally.
Is there any dualsense support for this game?
@zebric21 I don't think there is, but @LiamCroft may be able to confirm.
@zebric21 @get2sammyb Unfortunately there’s not.
I'm dying to get started on it, but I might give it a day to see if they release another patch.
I've spent half the day so far transferring everything to a new WD HDD. It's taking aaaaaaaages and I'm chomping at the bit to get in to this game.
My OCD tendencies win again! But really, I’d have hated to figure this one out the hard way and hope it’s resolved quickly.
@Medic_Alert Well, as we suggested when the reviews went live, it's highly, highly unlikely any of the media that published scores actually finished the game.
We went unscored because the media simply didn't have anywhere near enough time.
It's unfortunate, but that's the situation.
@Deadlyblack mine doesn't work either. I dare not use it.
@Deadlyblack The only issue I've ever had with putting my PS5 in rest mode while playing a game was when I did it with a PS4 game that was on my external SSD. When I tried to start my PS5 back up to play it, it wouldn't start back up with the light just blinking blue. I got it to shut off by holding the power button and then went through the usual repair screens, but then everything worked fine. So, I won't try it again if I'm playing a PS4 game from my external SSD.
Putting my PS5 in rest mode while playing a PS5 game has given me zero issues in several attempts. It's Elden Ring that's "broken" right now in regards to rest mode, but I'm fine with doing it with any other game right now. It's been a long time since rest mode was actually really faulty.
I was actually going to buy this game today due to my curiosity getting the better of me but I guess it will have to be put on hold. Framerate woes I can put up with to an extent as most of the time it gets fixed pretty quickly but save file corruption is a big no no. Ugh! such a shame I was actually looking forward to this because of the hype despite my previous statement.
@Medic_Alert It's an interesting question and the answer, as ever, is subjective.
But lets take Elden Ring out of it for a second and look back to Bloodborne which also released with awful technical problems. Bloodborne never held a stable frame rate and had frame pacing issues that have never been resolved. On launch load times when "you died" were over a minute long too, they later cut these drastically in a patch. Despite these clear issues - many of which still persist today - Bloodborne is, for many, one of the best games ever made.
Personally it's far easier to forgive these sort of technical problems when the rest of the game is so compelling.
Ultimately I think it comes down to whether those technical problems impact your enjoyment of the game, that is always going to be subjective. For Elden Ring most reviews mentioned there were some problems but scored it highly anyway which to them seemed appropriate. Your mileage may vary.
@get2sammyb Nor me. I have been using rest mode on my ps5 since the UK launch, with zero issues.
@Medic_Alert the entire review process is interesting to think about. Like, if I was reviewing this game, this save corruption issue, which could potentially affect a lot of people, is something that I would never even have encountered, simply because I always manually exit everything and never utilize rest mode. At what point does one take into account larger issues that had no bearing on their personal play through? Or should your review be based strictly off of your experience? At what point is something worth losing points or just a mention within the review itself? Also, what’s important to one person can be a complete non issue to another. It’s interesting to ponder. Ultimately, it’s a subjective process and I don’t envy anyone publishing reviews these days.
@Medic_Alert I have only played up to the introduction of the open world element on ps5. There are wierd stutters, that don't appear to be GPU bound. You can literally look up in the sky, spin the camera and you'll get a couple of dropped frames per second. It looks like there are severe CPU (unoptimised) things that are being done on certain frames. I haven't played in heavily busy scenes yet though...
Ffs... And another one.
Do any AAA games release without issues these days!?
@get2sammyb @Deadlyblack I wouldn’t be so sure. I just started having that issue when leaving my PS5 in rest mode after playing HFW.
Pretty much never happened before but since starting HFW I have experienced it 3 times already, so I stopped using rest mode for now. By the looks of it I probably should avoid rest mode with Elden Ring, too.
While I don't feel like VRR should be part of a design strategy when it comes to framerate...it's really helping smooth out the experience on Xbox. Sony really needs to get this implemented.
I don't even notice framerate drops on the Series X in Performance Mode thanks to VRR.
That being said, FromSoftware (and all developers) should really strive to get a locked 60fps if a Performance Mode is an option. There really isn't any excuse at this point for any of these machines to not hit a locked 60fps.
I don't know if it's console marketing or whatever, but if gamers say they want 60fps, I don't think gamers will care what resolution a game needs to drop to in order to get their 60fps. Stop it with trying to stick as close to 4K as possible on these new machines. If gamers want 4K, that's what Resolution Mode options are for.
And FromSoftware really should put a 30fps cap on the Resolution Mode.
@Medic_Alert "I guess the modern narrative just feels like any technical issues destroy a game and I'm not convinced that is often true."
This! So many great games over the years have had unstable and or low framerates yet we loved them. GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas all ran at an unstable 20-30fps. Ocarina of Time ran at 17fps in the UK, and don't even get me started on Goldeneye which often went to single digits in 4 player split screen and that was before an explosion would bring it to it's knees at around 4-6fps. Did we care? NO! We just got on with enjoying the games.
I accept that some people are more sensitive to frame rate dips than others. Plus we should expect better now BUT it's crucial to keep this all in perspective. Would we prefer to play a dull, uninspired game at a stable 60fps or something like Ocarina, Bloodborne or Elden Ring at an unstable one? As I said above I think as long as your enjoyment of the game doesn't suffer, and that is subjective, it doesn't have to be a big deal. Especially not as big a deal as is being made of this.
Mountains & Molehills.
This is starting to remind me of the MGS5 review fiasco where everyone was only given so much time to play the game for their review so it was rated so highly before reviewers got to the end and saw the major flaws with the game and how incomplete it felt.
This is more on review sites fault this time. They all rush through games to get their reviews out by release date to get as much views as possible. Like does a day or two really make that much of a difference? The PC version is being blasted with negative reviews for how terrible the performance is.
@GamingFan4Lyf agree with your points on performance mode. Regarding frame rate caps, I would love to see a toggle for the caps. The last of us remastered has this and it makes playing the game on the PS5 even better than the PS4 Pro.
@jrt87 I’m tempted to try out the PS4 back compat mode on ps5… ign says it’s locked at 60 and stays there. 1800p resolution (probably checkerboard)
@Medic_Alert It could also be unoptimised network code holding it up. I think elden ring is getting a bit of leeway because the game DOES appear to be all that for somebody who likes that type of game. Cyberpunk was mostly slated for sheer magnitude of bug types and severity, plus it was not the open world and magnificently realised choice-ramification extravaganza that project red reported. Elden ring IS open world dark souls for its faults just now(which we all hope are temporary). The art direction actually took my breath away first seeing the open world. It doesn't look like anything else I've played.
It should also be noted that the only way to play this game on ANY format at 60fps is on ps5 with the PS4 app. Digital allows you to get access to both(I bought ps5 version) and I have both versions installed. I only played the first hour on ps5 and to be honest the drops are little. And I say this with full sensitivity to frame rate drops to the point I have not played a single sub 60fps game since I got my ps5 at launch.
I'd like to think the ps5 disc version would allow the PS4 app to be downloaded, but it's more likely the PS4 version that would allow the upgrade.
Question: When people say "rest mode" do they mean turning the PS5 off and having it go into rest mode - I think that's the bright yellow light - or doing that PLUS leaving the game running in the background?
I always have my consoles set to "rest mode" - except the Wii I finally turned it off after several yeas b/c it was overheating - but I have never walked away from a console without closing out the game first. If the problem is leaving the game running in the background while yo turn off the console that won't be a problem for us.
One of my friends also playing via Steam encounters a bug where most enemies and NPCs are invisible. Sounds like PS5 is on the better side of technical issues lol
@Medic_Alert
I was listening to that podcast earlier today, I still need to finish it. However, one cast member even mention the game hitching on him mid swing during a boss fight resulting in his death.
It's clear a lot of people just overlook a games performance in their review scores. I feel performance issues should lower a score, no matter how good a game is. I'm not saying drop it from a 10 to a 7 or anything that drastic, bit it's enough to where it should keep it away from perfect 10's. Of which I feel no game released to date should even have a perfect 10.
And the performance please. I had a quick look when my copy arrived. It's clearly a great game but not with that performance. It's seems frame pacing is a problem also?
I've gone back to Forbidden West. 30 hours in and not a single drop under 60 fps so far... technically it's on another level. From Soft have got away with these technical issues for years but it's not good enough. Even too spec PCs are having the same performance issues. As I have PS5 disc version I can't downgrade to grab the PS4 version via back compatibility...that cures the performance by the way. Works perfectly running the Pro version on PS5.
@Medic_Alert Bloodborne was good but I was hindered by its performance. More so the frame pacing.
On PS5 though...no need for these performance and frame pacing issues. Technically it's still looking like a cross gen game.. no where near Forbidden Wests quality of visuals...and that game never drops from 60fps.. Not comparing as it's different funding and engines but From Soft can never get this right and it does put me off...so much so that I almost returned my copy as time is hard to come by to game these days....
I've kept my copy but will concentrate on finishing Forbidden West...then Cyber not it's a native app...then GT7 and maybe Elden Ring at a later date?.
So Demon Souls is the best on PS5 now?
@AgentGuapo a frame rate cap probably would help unfortunately because their is uneven frame pacing anyway (same as Bloodborne) Michael Thompson / NX Gamer mentioned this in his performance review for IGN
@rjejr sounds like when you go into rest mode leave the game running and don’t save quit out of game.
Personally always save quit all From games as I had a loss of progress in Bloodborne once.
To those worried about frame rate it’s not great tbh but I slowed down camera speed and that seemed to negate some dipping. It’s an impressive feat the size of the world they have managed but traverse too quickly and you’ll notice a couple of issues… lol
Still fantastic game so far and no major glitches experienced yet.
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