Home Gaming Are Fallout 4’s PlayStation 4 performance issues that bad?

Are Fallout 4’s PlayStation 4 performance issues that bad?

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fallout4fps

Fallout 4 is coming tomorrow. I know this, because like a fool, I’ve pre-ordered the game. Despite my perpetual insistences for people to stop pre-ordering games because they’ll probably launch broken, I’m a hypocritical part of the problem. And it may have bitten me in the backside.

I don’t think anyone was expecting Fallout 4 to have a perfectly smooth launch – but given the relatively diminutive size of its day one patch, there was the hope that the game would run pretty well. According to some who’ve been playing the game early, it doesn’t run quite as well as we’d hoped.

While the PlayStation version of the game manages to keep up with the promised 30 fps most of the time, reports suggest that once players are indoors, that changes quite a bit – especially in combat situations. These reports say that once engaged in indoor firefights, players can expect severe frame drops that sometimes bring the game chugging along at single-digit frame rates.

Early players on neoGAF and perpetual industry insider Tidux confirm the frame rate issues. There are the tinfoil hatted among you who believe it’s a result of the co-marketing deal that Microsoft has with Fallout 4, and that the PlayStation 4’s performance is a direct result of meddling – but similar reports suggest that the Xbox One suffers from similar frame drops.

As video proof of the game’s terrible, terrible frame rate, there’s this.

Reports also say that scoping up in Fallout 4 makes the game crawl along.

Now perhaps I’ve been playing too many console games lately, but this doesn’t seem terribly unsettling. Yes, there are noticeable frame drops, but it doesn’t seem to be unplayable in the slightest.

What do you think? Is this acceptable, or are reports of frame drops a little overblown? Fallout 4 is out tomorrow, with reviews going live a little later today.

Last Updated: November 9, 2015

96 Comments

  1. Loftus

    November 9, 2015 at 09:06

    I feel that one should complain if there is a REAL complaint, not because one feels entitled to complain.

    Reply

  2. Mistake Not...

    November 9, 2015 at 09:07

    I hope it’s overblown, because I pre-ordered as well.

    Reply

    • EL chingon de chingones

      November 9, 2015 at 09:57

      Yea same here I’m going to be pissed if it’s unplayable

      Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    November 9, 2015 at 09:10

    Erhmagerd it’s broken!

    Reply

  4. HairyEwok

    November 9, 2015 at 09:10

    Chugga Chugga Hoo Hoo -derails-

    Reply

    • Nachopinion

      November 9, 2015 at 20:46

      lol, You can’t derail fallout

      Reply

  5. CaptainNemo42

    November 9, 2015 at 09:11

    Ah man, that thing dropped to 5seconds per frame. It’s horrible! Oh wait, buffering, never mind.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      November 9, 2015 at 09:12

      rofl

      Reply

    • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

      November 9, 2015 at 09:12

      Hehehehe, nice one

      Reply

  6. (Umar) Must be Cipher

    November 9, 2015 at 09:11

    Doesn’t seem THAT bad, but that scope crawl…Man…..

    Reply

  7. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 09:11

    HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAH BUGTHESDA STRIKES AGAIN!! HAHAHHAHHAHAHAHA!!!

    So now we know why they were so adamant about the reviews embargo.

    By the way, I didn’t expect the graphics to be this bad. Did they design this thing on the xbox 360… 😮 Holy crap!

    Reply

  8. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 09:16

    Holy mother of popups and screen tearing… look at this thing!!!

    Reply

  9. Simon

    November 9, 2015 at 09:16

    Sorry to be spamming but this is my comment from the article about getting a sick note for Fallout I feel people need to know this:

    PSA to all those people who have pre-ordered/plan on getting Fallout 4 for PC, it has been confirmed by lucky people who have received the game early on reddit (there is proof) that only about 5.2 GB of the game comes on a single disc (no multiple discs) the rest has to be downloaded from steam.

    Seems like Bethesda thinks everyone in the World has super fast uncapped net. I am not trolling because I too am in this boat, not only will I have to buy extra bandwidth but with my line speed its gonna take a crazy extra 30 hours (provided line speed stays constant) to download the rest of the game.

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 09:17

      That sucks buckets… :/

      Reply

    • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

      November 9, 2015 at 09:38

      This is one of the main reasons I went for buying digital. Just too bad the Rand sucks so badly. 🙁

      Still on Green Man Gaming I got it for R690.

      Hoping it doesn’t have too many issues though 🙁

      Reply

      • Simon

        November 9, 2015 at 09:45

        I bought physical hoping there would be at least more on disc, Pete Hines mentioned that not all data is on disc after MGSV launched but I though the majority would come on discs

        Reply

        • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

          November 9, 2015 at 09:49

          Very true, but I honestly think they are as irritated by this as we are (maybe a bit less 😛 )

          They have to get the disc printed and made months in advance and with the sheer amount of elements impacting games nowadays I would think it near impossible to launch a game without a day one patch.

          That said it would have been nice to get at least 80% of the data from the disc even if you only ever use it at launch

          Reply

          • Simon

            November 9, 2015 at 09:56

            true but it’s like Bethesda assumed everyone as super fast uncapped internet

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            November 9, 2015 at 09:58

            It doesn’t help that I have 10mbps uncapped xD

            Look at the making an accurate assumption about me xD

      • Stanley Watson

        November 9, 2015 at 15:03

        Have you (or anyone else) had good success with Green Man Gaming? Would like that deal too.

        Reply

        • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

          November 9, 2015 at 15:06

          I have used them for many of my games and I have never had a problem.

          With Steam moving to Rand I will probably use them even more since I assume they will then be cheaper by default maybe… Will see

          Reply

    • Michael Prinsloo

      November 9, 2015 at 11:53

      i just received my copy from take a lot, can confirm there is 5,2gb of the 24gb preload…

      Reply

    • Darren Peach

      November 9, 2015 at 12:42

      Hey Dude. Never forget that you have rights. One thing that mainstream society forgets all too often.

      Reply

  10. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 09:19

    Some may say “Banana Jim Frogs… your obsession with not giving Bethesda any money could be a sign of mental illness.” or “Bro, you need to let what happened with Skyrim go – Forgive and Forget Banana Frogs”. All I can say is “Muahahahahhahahhah BUGTHESDA!”

    #CelebratesLikeIts1999

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      November 9, 2015 at 09:21

      So you’re never picking up Fallout 4? Or are you waiting for a patch? In all honesty. It could’ve been much much worse. Arkham Knight worse

      Reply

      • 40 Insane Frogs

        November 9, 2015 at 09:22

        Nah, I’ll get it when it’s in the second-hand bin at BT games. Remember, I’m still boycotting Bethesda. They’re never getting a first sale from me.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          November 9, 2015 at 09:28

          Trading Black Ops 3 for this. Don’t know what came over me. Really wanted to give COD another go, but it’s the same old shitty song and dance.

          Reply

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:29

            Yeah, I saw you playing Black Ops last night. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I wanted to PM you and ask if you got hacked or whether your brother stole your PS4. 😮

          • Hammersteyn

            November 9, 2015 at 09:33

            They should chuck the SP and zombies. Release it with just team death match and domination. The MP is solid but unbalanced as all hell. If you play internationally the lag gets you, if you play locally the locals gets you. This is one party that I’m too late to join

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:34

            That’s a real pity. But if you were on a deserted island, would you (a) Use your Black Ops disk to make a fire or (b) use it’s shards as arrowheads.

          • Hammersteyn

            November 9, 2015 at 09:39

            (c) slit my wrists when I reminisce about my time with the game

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:33

            How is Black Ops 3? I heard it’s the most sensitive of the Black Opses.

          • Hammersteyn

            November 9, 2015 at 09:38

            I dunno how it got such high reviews. The SP has the most confusing/boring story ever. I literally fell asleep playing it. You unlock a second campaign mode called Nightmares that was clearly pasted on as an afterthought. Zombie mode feels the same as BLOPS 1 except you can turn into tentacle monster. No idea why they even made a noir trailer for the four characters. MP is where it’s strongest. Plays well when there’s no lag but forget about it if you’re mediocre. I managed to launch a UAV twice on Sunday I had that much trouble getting a high enough score streak. I’m not horrible at it. never finished last on my team. Just feels very unbalanced.

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:41

            The simple answer: Moneyhats!

          • Geoffrey Tim

            November 9, 2015 at 09:33

            I’m enjoying it, actually – but I thin that’s because I’m open-worlded out right now, so a bit of linear pew pew pew is great. Also, play it co-op. 🙂

          • Hammersteyn

            November 9, 2015 at 09:42

            Trading it while it’s hot, end of story. Will give COD ten years instead of five before I pick up the next one.

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:43

            Do what I do with FIFA games, I buy one every 10 years.

          • Hammersteyn

            November 9, 2015 at 09:57

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 10:15

          • Hammersteyn

            November 9, 2015 at 10:38

            Dwaaaaah so cute

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:47

            Doctor Admiral General Frogs advises:

            Just Cause 3 will re-energise you! And if it doesn’t. Only a video game diet can save you now!

  11. PoisonedBelial

    November 9, 2015 at 09:20

    All I’m saying:

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 09:27

      Mad Max in California confirmed!

      Reply

  12. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 09:21

    Remember Skyrim on PS3! Banana Frogs salutes! And disappears into the ether!

    Reply

  13. fred

    November 9, 2015 at 09:22

    I’ll play it in 2 months second hand , cheaper and with most issues sorted.

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 09:23

      Same here, nothing worse than paying R800+ and then having to beta test for Bugthesda!

      Reply

    • Nikola

      November 9, 2015 at 09:36

      Second that!

      Reply

    • James Anderton

      November 9, 2015 at 10:51

      I’m on PC and I’m definitely NOT buying it at launch. Bethesda Studio games ALWAYS have issues at launch.

      Always.

      Prove me wrong Internet.

      Reply

  14. Viking Of Science

    November 9, 2015 at 09:23

    hush now, All will be revealed at 13:00 London time today, when the Embargo Lifts….

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 09:26

      Let me guess:
      The usual corrupt suspects (i.e. Polygon 10/10 IGN 10/10 etc.)

      And then community reviews from the dirty unwashed masses (the most trustworthy lot) under 7.

      Reply

      • Darren Peach

        November 9, 2015 at 16:35

        Anything above 6 is better than a poke in the eye….

        Reply

  15. Allykhat

    November 9, 2015 at 09:23

    I want to see the game run on PC. Think I’m gonna go for 60FPS for this game… It’s almost sacreligious to run it at 30 IMO

    Reply

    • Kromas untamed

      November 9, 2015 at 09:32

      Sacrilegious to run the game on console.

      Reply

      • Allykhat

        November 9, 2015 at 09:36

        I haven’t bought or played a game on my PC in months. Think it’s about time I start. I still have shadow of mordor to play that I bought on the last sale too… Hasn’t even been installed.

        Reply

        • Kromas untamed

          November 9, 2015 at 10:11

          I pretty much exclusively play PC unless it is an exclusive and even then it has to be something special. My damn backlog however is getting too damn big. Played 5 minutes of Shadows of Mordor the other day cause Starcraft was updating in the background.

          Reply

          • Allykhat

            November 9, 2015 at 10:31

            I’ve found my Playstation to be more social than PC at the moment to be honest. I have a core group of guys I play with usually and it’s so much easier/convenient starting up a PSN Party and just playing my chosen game with my mates who are online. It also doesn’t help that my mates who play PC are either lone wolves who don’t use TS or just general elitist pricks that after one round I’m ready to get in my car and go murder. I’ve out grown that crap.
            I want to come home and play games with my friends who wish to do the same. Not sit and update crap every day, struggle with drivers, pc in general stuffing out, graphics card issues, etc. I work in a support center, I do this crap every day, all day. I don’t wan’t to come home and keep doing it. Hence why my consoles have been getting so much love in recent months.

            Also to note, I run a decent setup. 3570K OC’d, 7970 3GB OC’d, 16GB ram, etc. It runs everything beautifully too. But right now all it gets used for is second screen when gaming for strats or info I need on the game I’m currently playing. There is only two instances in recent memory where I’ve regretted not playing a game on PC. 1 being Witcher 3, and not because of the graphics, because of 60 FPS. The difference is staggering. The second is Fallout. I was whole heartedly into getting this on console, now I’m def getting it for PC.

          • Kromas untamed

            November 9, 2015 at 10:42

            I am pretty lucky to have a large group of friends who all sit in my teamspeak channel. Hell we will talk crap even though we are currently not playing the same game. I constantly go annoy the BF players and they love talking smack in the DayZ channel. There is always someone willing to do something with you and that makes my gaming experience extremely social. Also we own a VPS at terraco so we pretty much host our own game server whenever possible.

          • Allykhat

            November 9, 2015 at 10:54

            I used to have a great group of guys I jammed with when DayZ first hit but that kind of went a bit south due to internal politics of the clan we were in and we all splintered off. We used to do the same as you said above.

          • Kromas untamed

            November 9, 2015 at 11:00

            Yeah. We are not a clan per se. We are a group of RL friends and friends of friends and children of friends who play vastly different games most of the time. We have 4 guys who absolutely love to play Kerbal Space Program together and that game does not even have mp. I suppose it comes down to if you met people online and if you met them offline. And the conversations get funny. Was playing Ark the other day with one of the guys. He had his son on his lap watching him play as he rode around a brand spanking new T-Rex I tamed. The kid asks “Is daai oom Kromas? ….. EET HOM PAPA” Guess soon enough we will have a DayZ bandit in the group. 😛

  16. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 9, 2015 at 09:30

    That didn’t look so bad. WORST GAME EVER! And stuff. Um.

    Reply

  17. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 09:31

    12 year old Half Life 2 looks better than Fallout 4! #Hides

    Reply

  18. Kromas untamed

    November 9, 2015 at 09:31

    Not our fault you are playing a game meant for PC on a console. 😛

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 09:32

      Not Bethesda’s fault you are playing a game on your PS4 developed on an xbox 360! 😛 Fixed it for you!

      Reply

  19. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    November 9, 2015 at 09:35

    I am sure they will dedicate resources to fixing the issues. All console vs PC jokes aside we all deserve to get the product we paid for and everyone should be able to enjoy the amazingness that is Fallout.

    I just hope the PC one is running 100%. Mine is loaded and ready to launch *stares at icon on desktop*

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 10:13

      I seriously doubt it, Fallout 3 GOTY and Skyrim on PS3 are still broken. Bugthesda never fixes their games.

      Reply

      • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

        November 9, 2015 at 10:16

        Well Fallout 3 was never going to be easy to fix since it was coded for WinXP and Fallout New Vegas came out… So that was okay.

        I have friends that play Skyrim on PS3 and they have never had any issues that I know of.

        I guess only time will tell. I think they will take this very seriously since it is a HUGE media thing for them.

        Reply

  20. Nikola

    November 9, 2015 at 09:35

    What I don’t even see the frame rate drops in the first video or am I blind???

    Reply

    • HairyEwok

      November 9, 2015 at 09:36

      Look carefully when he walks to get through the broken wall.

      Reply

      • Nikola

        November 9, 2015 at 09:38

        ahhh ok thanks saw it now:) It’s not that bad though geez but let’s wait and see managed not to pre order it so proud of myself:))

        Reply

        • HairyEwok

          November 9, 2015 at 09:39

          Didn’t pre-order either. Patiently waiting to see the reviews and actual people playing with actual systems that we mortals have.

          Reply

          • 40 Insane Frogs

            November 9, 2015 at 09:41

            Stay strong lads, fight the urge to pre-order!

  21. Nikola

    November 9, 2015 at 09:38

    Graphics really look outdated hey geez!! But again hoping story and gameplay make up for it:)

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 09:40

      Yeah, I’m shocked at how dated it looks. I wonder what the backstory is, were they planning on releasing Fallout 4 last-gen?

      Reply

      • 40 Insane Frogs

        November 9, 2015 at 09:42

        It honestly looks like an average HD remake of a last gen game.

        Reply

    • miaau

      November 9, 2015 at 09:42

      well, Fallout 3 and New Vegas did, for me. Not the main story, obviously, but the one you make up yourself wondering about.

      Reply

    • Simon

      November 9, 2015 at 09:43

      Yeah it’s no witcher 3 but this is my opinion: could Bethesda have created a brand spanking new shiny graphics engine sure, but then we would have 100x more bugs than there will be already, remember barring your large objects (desks fridges etc) every thing can be moved and interacted with, that’s a lot of dynamic shadow work going in there

      Reply

  22. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 09:39

    You could actually incorporate the framerate problems into your role-playing by imagining that your character is having some mild form of epilepsy.

    Reply

  23. Uberutang

    November 9, 2015 at 10:00

    Hard to ‘see’ frame drops on a video. It will feel pretty horrific though. And remember the consoles only have 30fps to work from, drop 15fps and it is a power point slide.

    Reply

  24. 40 Insane Frogs

    November 9, 2015 at 10:02

    Don’t worry, History has shown…. Bethesda are very committed to fixing their games performance on consoles.

    Bwahahahahahahaha!

    Reply

  25. KagenoTatsumaki

    November 9, 2015 at 10:03

    Uhhhhhhhhh what? I saw a slight frame rate drop when the grenade went off. Fallout 3 and New Vegas did the same thing.

    Reply

  26. konfab

    November 9, 2015 at 10:09

    Someone has to make a sound mod for that wind up gun like this:

    Reply

  27. konfab

    November 9, 2015 at 10:30

    I can deal with the odd frame drop. What I cannot deal with is what happened in New Vegas GOTY for PS3. When I started finishing the DLCs, the game would work for 10 minute stretches, then completely lag out.

    Reply

  28. oVg

    November 9, 2015 at 10:37

    Its like the 11th of November 2011 all over again. How the cycle continues.

    REMEMBER ?… NO?

    The 360 version of Skyrim would not load the textures unless the game was uninstalled off the HD, the PS3 version was BROKEN and still is. After 80hours in the frame rate dropped to single digits and crashed when entering water because of a memory leak. It has not been resolved. REMEMBER THE PATCH THAT NEEDED A PATCH TO FIX THE LAST PATCH? Like Dragons flying backwards.

    This BUGTHESDA company started the practice that we have today of Patching a game while the public pay for the BETA over 2 years. Its cheaper than having internal QA.

    Expect more patches than a pumpkin farmer.

    ENJOY.

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 10:47

      Bugthesda always delivers on the lulz!

      Reply

    • Nikola

      November 9, 2015 at 10:48

      Worked quite great on PC though I played Skyrim there day one nooo problems!

      Reply

      • oVg

        November 9, 2015 at 11:08

        Yup, this game is meant to be played on the PC. No idea why people would pre-order it for console.

        Just look at that modding scene for Skyrim, gorgeous.

        Reply

        • Nikola

          November 9, 2015 at 11:20

          Very true! Bethesda games are PC games period!

          I know absolutely amazing:) Talented people out there.

          Reply

  29. Deceased

    November 9, 2015 at 10:56

    This isn’t something one should experience on a console …

    I mean the game … IT WAS MADE FOR PC AND THE GLORIOUS PC GAMING MASTER RACE!!!

    Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      November 9, 2015 at 11:16

      lol it was made on xbox 360

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        November 9, 2015 at 12:50

        huehuehuehue

        Reply

      • Darren Peach

        November 9, 2015 at 14:20

        Top Gun aint got shit on you. LOL.

        Reply

  30. Mark Davenport

    November 9, 2015 at 12:15

    Considering Bethesda Game Studio’s history with the PlayStation platform, I am not actually surprised.

    But we won’t know until full in-depth analysis is done and of course comparing against the Xbox One version to see if it’s a platform specific issue or just a console issue.
    Or, dare I say it, a game-wide issue. After all, the PC version *COULD* be buggered as well.

    Reply

  31. Darren Peach

    November 9, 2015 at 12:49

    What the foogle ? There is hardly any frame slow down at all. Jeez, Whoever finds themselves compelled to complain about that minimal amount of nothing needs to get a life. Fallout is coming baby. Wooohooo.

    Reply

  32. Jake Earl

    November 10, 2015 at 02:46

    Nobody should be surprised by this in any way, but everyone should have a problem with it. Bethesda games are always marred by bugs and performance issues. Skyrim has dirty edits that it’s recommended you clean with TES5Edit (master files). All of the Elder Scrolls games, Fallout 3 and especially New Vegas crash regularly and have scripts run in the background without ever clearing out of the games memory causing overlap with other scripts, quest bugs and crashing. Even their tablet game Fallout Shelter crashes and corrupts saves. Fallout 4, in 2015, is using only an updated version of the Creation Engine that Skyrim used. Skyrim was buggy as fuck and crashed consistently, so the fact they chose to reuse that shit engine and only ‘update’ it for a supposed next-gen game is not acceptable.

    They need to be held responsible for their known behavior for releasing buggy, almost unplayable games and then being heralded as developer gods. Remember Skyrim’s console launch? On the PS3, it was UNPLAYABLE. Memory leaks that causes massive outcry from the forum communities, people who provided mathematical proof that there was a memory leak. It was never fixed. Their horseshit script-heavy development style is outdated and needs to stop.

    Reply

  33. RinceThis

    November 10, 2015 at 16:58

    Videos pulled? 0-O

    Reply

  34. RinceThis

    November 10, 2015 at 16:59

    Fallrate 4? And no one saw that coming? HAHAHA

    Reply

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