PS3 Skyrim lag problem caused by bookshelves? Now fixed? PC beta patch notes suggest so

TechDigest: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim may have won game of the year awards left, right and centre, but that didn't bring much joy to PS3 owners of the massive RPG. A game-breaking bug on the version for Sony's console saw game save files rocket to extraordinary sizes, with the game's framerate dropping so severly that it became a stuttering, unplayable mess.

PS3 owners have been crying out for a fix since near the game's launch, and it finally seems as though developers Bethesda have come up with the goods, though the location of the fix won't do PlayStation owners much good for the time being.

[thedude44]

Just Fix It

[young juice]

never before have i hated a game that i love so much

[Clipper13]

It's A weird feeling isn't it?

[Pushagree]

Skyrim is the best game of all time.

[Algonath]

Pushagree is correct. Best game of 2011. Funny thing is, all those dislikes are nothing but ps3 gamers. Funny but true.

[Silly gameAr]

Just because you two think Skyrim is the greatest game ever doesn't mean other people have to agree with you. Honestly, I think it's one of the most overrated games of this generation. That's just my opinion though.

360 version by the way.

[TheFirstClassic]

@Algonath he said it was the greatest game of all time...that is a LOT of competition. If you think that all those disagrees are just because of the ps3 version, then you're crazy.

[RedDead]

Most overrated game of all time maybe. pc version

[MysticStrummer]

@Algonath - Your observation is not that funny, but bull****. I played the PS3 version and didn't have much problem with bugs at all, but it's not my favorite game of 2011 much less all time. Dark Souls was my favorite game of 2011 by far and possibly all time but there would certainly be other games in the running for that title. BTW, disagree and dislike aren't the same thing.

[badz149]

"all those dislikes are nothing but ps3 gamers"

so, it's wrong to voice your frustration over something that you bought but doesn't work right? yeah, good. keep bending over like that! Bathesda must really like people like you!

it's a fact that the game is BUGGY LIKE HELL and this is not limited to the PS3 but apparently the PS3 being hit the worst! Bathesda never got their games right, nothing can deny THAT!

[decrypt]

My sympathy toward the PS3 gamers for not being able to enjoy such a great game, while PC and 360 gamers enjoy.

[ziggurcat]

@ algonath

batman: arkham city is arguably a better game than skyrim in my opinion.

[hellzsupernova]

agreed it got so bad on my console (70 hours in 11 or 12mb save) and it became so laggy i just gave up and i really dont wanna go back to it. ill just wait for Kingdoms of Amalur.

[TBM]

I have over a 100 and its at 11 or 12 mb wth. i actually waited to play the game late December, and everything seemed fine at first but now its framerate, freezing, and the lag is just f**king ridiculous. as it stands right now even with me liking the game a lot i can't give it more than a 8.25.

come one bethesda you've had 5 plus yrs to learn the consoles inner workings. i might put the game down and go finish battlefield or start up rage, rayman.

[frostypants]

Bethesda's been working with PCs for 20 years and they still can't even get THOSE right. Bethesda has always made buggy games and they've never been good about getting them straight.

[khellendros1]

yeah, I think I'm going to wait and get Kingdom of Amalur also.

[popup]

I have 235hrs and just about every bug possible. 37mb save file.

The funny thing is that I have not stored a single book on any of my bookshelves so take from that what you will.

After such a lengthy play and still no Platinum, I ended up creating a new character using every exploit to level/up get gold etc, saving it there and then going after each Trophy separately before returning to that save. Much better!

I still love the game but am glad Bethesda don't make cars.

[popup]

Got to also add that getting an SSD drive for your PS3 makes for some amazing performance increases to load times. Skyrim on a new game with a fresh SSD really is omg good.

[popup]

Lol, someone disagreed to fact!

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Bioshocking]

so.... your telling me that all this time...

All that frustration....
All that hair pulling...
All those stupid 1 FPS Ancient Dragon fights....
All that time to walk 20 steps...
All those broken quests....
All my hatred towards this game.....

WAS CAUSED BY A F**KING BOOKSHELF WHICH I NEVER USED?

WTF BETHESDA! YOU IDIOTS PISSED OF MOST IF NOT ALL PS3 GAMERS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T CODE BOOKSHELVES?

ALSO WHY THE F**K WOULD ANYONE WANT TO STORE THE FAKE BOOKS IN YOUR GAMES? THEY ARE NOT EVEN 12 SENTENCES LONG!

WHAT? YOU THOUGHT WE WANTED TO KEEP YOUR ELF EROTICA? (its in the game.. -_-)

Needless to say, I was expecting more as of why this game came out broken... but bookshelves?

*facepalm, facepalm, facepalm, facepalm, facepalm....*

[TekoIie]

Bubbles for you dude! Funniest comment I've ever seen XD

[MsclMexican]

Rofl.... yeah I agree the fact we suffered through this game because of bookshelves is ridiculous

Also the two people who disagreed with you are most likely huge fans of elf erotica...

Yeah I saw that book in mercer fay's hideout. Could not believe it was in the game...

[willie32]

I am worried about how this bookshelf problem has caused all my lag moments. Yet, I DO NOT have any books stored on any shelf.

[lastdual]

We'll see if bookshelves turn out to be the real culprits.

Considering that Fallout 3 and New Vegas suffered from similar lag issues on the PS3, I'm not yet convinced that this is really the core problem. I'd love to be wrong, but until I hear from actual players that things are fixed, I'll remain skeptical when it comes to Bethesda's promises.

[kaveti6616]

"ALSO WHY THE F**K WOULD ANYONE WANT TO STORE THE FAKE BOOKS IN YOUR GAMES? THEY ARE NOT EVEN 12 SENTENCES LONG!"

Now I'm suspicious. Have you actually played any of the Elder Scroll's games? The books are more than 12 sentences long. Many come close to 20 pages in length. Twenty full pages of writing about all sorts of stories.

[cannon8800]

Those damn bookshelves. Always ruining peoples' games.

[RyoHazukiii]

this game literally bricked my PS3...

[Pillville]

wow, you deserve some sort of special alchemy trophy/achievement if you can literally turn plastic and silicon into cement.

[Hellsvacancy]

Got the Platinum trophy yesterday, the patch is a little late

Its ridiculous how devs can release broken games, even more ridiculous that us gamers buy them broken

[Ducky]

Even more ridiculous that those gamers then go on to platinum it while broken.
o.o

[Bioshocking]

Lol... I have a friend whom platinumed Skyrim, and once he did, immediately sold it to gamestop and got Deus Ex...

Man... what a platinum trophy will make some gamers do

[Hueynewton2012]

After the patch i don't combat lag or any lag for that matter. Maybe because im not that far into the game who knows. I haven't played since Christmas but i have owned it since launch.

[frostypants]

It's a symptom of internet connectivity. Back in the day, they HAD to get games right the first time. Now, internet-enabled consoles allow them to get away with the same crap devs have pulled with PCs all along.

[specialguest]

It's even more ridiculous when devs blame the PS3 for the problems.

How can they blame the PS3 when they know what the PS3's hardware entails? They've had first hand experience when they developed Fallout 3 on the PS3. It's not like the hardware was a mystery or surprise.

If they lack the skills to properly utilize the PS3's strong points, then freaking optimize the game. Don't release a broken game.

My guess is that they rather have both console versions look identical even if it means performance issues on the PS3, than to risk losing sales from PS3 owners if they had to sacrafice graphics for performance.

[SJPFTW]

what is even more ridiculous is that Sony gave the green light to give only 256mb RAM to the PS3

my calculator has more RAM than that. true story

[BitbyDeath]

what is even more ridiculous is how people still think the PS3 has only 256mb of RAM. true story

[MizTv]

same here just got the plat and now its going to get fixed.i dont know if i can play it all over again. i think 3 and 4 are alot more fun

[FEARprototype]

never knew that a bookshelves can be so devious....

[brish]

Libraries are pure evil! ;-)

[Donnywho]

I really want to find a way to bite Bethesda in the ass because they really ruined some good times for me... at my expense.

[ArchangelMike]

I'm 108hrsd into the game and my save file is 9mb. It does lag at times, but nothing game breaking. That said I don't own a house within the game (therefore no bookshelf?!), not sure if this is the key issue?

[Anon1974]

I'm not sure how many hours I have into it yet, but I'm like you. I notice a bit of lag every now and again but it's always just a momentary thing. It sure isn't the game breaking glitches that some are experiencing. And I'm thankful for that, because this game is freaking awesome.

Still, working this past year as a developer myself I know how difficult it can be to catch every single problem when you have multiple members working on a team. I can't imagine what a nightmare quality control must be on a game as large and complicated as Skyrim, with the size of the team they have.

[TheComedian]

All those framerate problems...from just the measly bookselves? I think I speak on the behalf of everyone in here when I say "WTF BETHESDA YOU CAN'T CODE THE FREAKING BOOKSELVES CORRECTLY WITHOUT THE NEED OF A FREAKING PATCH?!?"

[reckoner]

Watch out, we have a game developer over here.

[FreydaWright]

Very off-topic, but Hail to the Thief was Radiohead's last honorable album.

[ZippyZapper]

Not being able to play 2011 GOTY sucks. No joke it does suck, PS3 owners should be pissed.

[Drekken]

Play? More like run from one place to another and load 80% of the time. 20% play. GOTY my ass.

[SJPFTW]

so i guess uncharted is 90% shooting the same generic enemies and 10% climbing on ledges

[TheTwelve]

Do I have a magical PS3 and I'm over 100 hours in and have zero problems?

Only problem I have is sometimes walking into a room and the game completely freezes.

12

[Mikeyy]

Do you use the bookshelves?

[nepdyse]

Shelves in general are the biggest in-animate douchebags, see for yourself.

http://youtu.be/vZh6AfMmB3U

http://youtu.be/DU6Ts8wRcsA

http://youtu.be/7Dza92W3j2k

http://youtu.be/BhGGAax5FfM

[TheTwelve]

Yes, I use the bookshelves.

[brish]

In your first sentence you say you have zero problems.

Then in your next sentence you describe a problem you have in the game!?

It appears your ps3 isn't magical after all.

[TheTwelve]

It's a figure of speech but allow me to clarify. Walking into a room and having a game freeze via loading is not unique to Skyrim, happens very rarely, and is not one of the problems that are apparently endemic to the PS3 version of the game. I've never come across the game-breaking issues that people bring up on the web.

12

[vikingland1]

The game is buggy on both consoles and the PC. It affects each one for different reasons and to different depths,I have over 200 hrs on the xbox version and the white phial quest can't be finished. Are they going to blame that on bookshelves also? And are they going to fix it?

[BitbyDeath]

Bookshelves and manniquins have been the biggest bugs for me. (Aside from freezing)

I've got a ton of bookshelves i can't use and whenever i put clothing on manniquins the whole thing goes invisible except for it's head.

[level 360]

After reading all the comments here I'm definitely going to pass now on Skyrim.

[reckoner]

Why? You're missing out. Wait until 1.4 comes out, and if the lag issue is fixed on the PS3, buy the game.

[Tru_Blu]

It doesn't come out for another 6-8 months anyway. Unless you want to pay $120 plus to be a beta tester.

[Arts1000]

It has been a very exciting time .

I never dreamed I should ever have the chance to play-test a game for a Mega Company like Bethesda . ........... does it still count if I had to pay them ? ??
.

" Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally cause active scripts to lag and also cause an increase to saved games filesize (PS3) "

.................Please tell me this is a joke

[iNFAMOUZ1]

my 360 version runs smooth :)

[thedude44]

Cool have fun

[BiggsnWedge]

Agree with this dude here. I'm playing Uncharted 3 multiplayer&Starhawk beta till they fix things.

[thedude44]

Bookshelves lol come on bethesda fix this issue on ps3 and it will be good to play....bookshelves haha can't wait for patch 1.4 so I can play it

[jack who]

teh cell cant handle Bookshelves?

[Clipper13]

Or perhaps it is the devs who cannot handle "teh cell" as you so elegantly put it.

[BiggsnWedge]

Or it's just "teh" developers crappy coding? There is memory leaks on the PC too just so you know.

[feraldrgn]

I thought they mentioned it being more than 1 little problem?
Surely it's not just the bookshelves?

[Legion]

It would seem from the statement they made ..."Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally cause active scripts to lag and also cause an increase to saved games filesize (PS3)" that a simple way to possibly avoid the lag is to not use the private house option in the game until you get the patch maybe? Or maybe not put anything into the bookshelves? (not sure if it would solve anything but hey... worth trying)

[terrordactyl]

It's not just about bookshelves. The Bethesda post on the official forum lists the patch notes - one of the fixes states;

"Long term play optimisations for memory and performance (PS3)."

Firstly that suggests more than one issue, and bookshelves aren't mentioned.

[Legion]

Possible... but from the example you gave the bookshelf issue itself could have been that "long term play optimisations" as it was not specified what type or correlation the long term play was in the game. (it was a generalization) And it does not suggest multiple issues with that specific line you quoted.

Obviously the bookshelf script issue was eluding to a long time play script issue. And looks to be more specific on the issue versus what you quoted from the forum posting which was vague and could still be pointing to the script memory filesize issue which has already been pointed out the cause of the lag.

[bub16]

is this game still lagging?! i really want to play it but i wont buy it if it lags :(

[zero_cool]

The lack of experience & or laziness from certain multi platform developers is becoming all too common these days.

Cheers Gamers & Happy Gaming!

[ziggurcat]

if it was the bookshelves that caused this whole mess, then my statement a few days ago saying that these devs can't seem to code their way out of a paper bag appaers to be correct.

[Arts1000]

Bethesda will take a lot of flack for this silly bookshelf reveal , false or true .......