Just hours after the launch of Far Harbor, a Reddit thread was started about the game’s performance on the PS4, and many players were vocally reporting some serious frame rate and performance problems. Some gamers noted that the frame rate dips below 20 FPS for a good portion of the new Far Harbor landmass, which is far from the “solid 30 FPS” that Bethesda had promised of the Fallout 4 base game.
The main culprit for this dip in performance for PS4 players appears to be the game’s radioactive fog, which is unique to the Far Harbor expansion. Since this fog is a key aesthetic feature and plot point of Far Harbor, simply removing it isn’t an option in order to solve these performance-based issues.
While the frame rate problem appears to have primarily affected PS4 users, a small number of PC gamers have reported some similar performance issues, though this of course could be attributed to the specs of the PC being used. Interestingly, plenty of Xbox One players have reported no such problems, which suggests that the issue is merely a PlayStation-only bug and not a fundamental issue with the Far Harbor DLC across all platforms.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that a Bethesda title has had issues on a Sony console, as Skyrim famously had some serious frame rate problems that were related to players’ save files. Meanwhile, the company’s games have had a long history of having performance issues and widespread bugs upon launch. Indeed, the core game itself suffered from a potentially game-breaking bug when it was initially released.
Hopefully, Bethesda can come up with a timely solution this time around, and those PS4 fans affected won’t be so discouraged that even the promise of 20 hours of additional content will not be enough to convince them to stick with the Far Harbor DLC.
Fallout 4 and the Far Harbor DLC are out now and available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Source: Reddit (via Destructoid)
