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Fallout 4

Bethesda has been pumping out Fallout 4 DLC this year at a steady clip, and the latest release is the biggest withal. The $25 Far Harbor DLC takes the player to a new location off the coast of Maine, and adds a thick layer of radioactive fog. Not only does this atrocious mist slowly bit away at your wellness bar, only it causes the frame charge per unit on the PS4 to drop in a big style. Thankfully, Bethesda has already released a new version of the DLC that significantly improves functioning.

When Far Harbor launched last month, it received a positive, if subdued, critical reaction. The PC and Xbox Ane version received a metascore of 79/100 while the PS4 version averaged a slightly lower 75/100. On our sis site IGN, the PC version of the DLC scored an viii.3/x. In comparing, the base game ranged from 84/100 to 88/100 on Metacritic while IGN gave information technology a 9.five/10 on all platforms.

If you admittedly loved Fallout 4, this add-on is undoubtedly what you've been waiting for since launch. Personally, I'yard not a huge fan of the works of Bethesda Game Studios, but I played through the entirety of this DLC in the concluding few weeks. Well-nigh of the strengths and weaknesses of the cadre game remain, but I did find myself grin while solving a cheeky murder mystery inside a newly discovered vault.

Sadly, that pocket-size joy didn't last long. After spending a couple hours in the fog, the awful frame rate on the PS4 turned my grinning into a pout accompanied by a deeply furrowed brow. My expectations were already low thanks to the choppiness of final year'due south release, but the fog seems to have caused the frame rate to fall off a cliff. My gameplay feel was sub-par to say the least.

To their credit, the development team responded quickly to the outcry over the PS4 release. A few days ago, Bethesda pushed out a new build of the DLC that seemingly solves the problem. In the video embedded above, Digital Foundry found that the updated version of the DLC typically runs at a solid 30fps at present.

You'll still occasionally meet dropped frames, and it seems like the overall presence of fog has been reduced, but the difference is nighttime and twenty-four hour period. The only major downside is that players like me take already slogged through a dozen hours of stutters and hitches.

If yous already accept the DLC installed, getting the new version seems to be slightly catchy. Polygon has a six-step walkthrough that seems to work for some people, but you might have to delete the entire installation, and re-download everything to go it to work right now. Bethesda plans to release a mainline patch to fix this issue in the near hereafter, so you lot can just wait information technology out if you'd prefer.

Not only does this revised build hold upwards well compared with the original PS4 release, but it now outperforms the Xbox One version too. While Microsoft's console seems to bounce around between twenty and 30fps, the PS4 release looks significantly smoother. Still, it's not nearly as bad as the initial release on Sony's platform.

Mind you, it'due south not all bad news for Xbox I players. Select Fallout 4 mods made with Bethesda's official toolset are now available for download on the Xbone. If you're a PS4 player, you lot won't go access to this functionality until later this month.