Elden Ring, which has made waves as one of the best-reviewed games ever, is finally playable later today. But while the game blew us away, we did note some issues on the tech side of things. Thankfully, as it is with current games, Elden Ring will get a day one patch to adjust balance, improve the controls, and address said framerate drops. It’s not a massive patch, but it could be one of the most important in the way of enjoying the game right out the gate.
There are a number of issues addressed in the Elden Ring day one patch. However, much like the game, they’re a little ambiguous. Firstly, the patch improves player controls. It doesn’t say what controls have changed and why. There are also adjustments to text, game balance, and NPC events (which have also gotten fixes). Publisher Bandai Namco doesn’t quite go into detail, but that’s, again, apropos.
The major adjustment that PC users should care about are the fixes coming to framerate drops in Elden Ring. In our review, we mentioned that the game would hitch and the framerate could go up and down in places. In a game where one small mistake could lead to death, a stutter could easily snuff out your life. Sadly, the patch doesn’t make any mention of stutters (but they may have been alleviated). However, it does include fixes for frame drops “under certain conditions.”
Ohhh, ray tracing?
Bandai Namco made it clear in the notes that the day one patch in no way brings ray tracing to Elden Ring. At least, not yet. It will arrive at some point, with a reveal coming “in future announcements.” At current, Elden Ring doesn’t include support for ray tracing or DLSS, and the latter may not ever arrive. The game is also capped at 60 fps on PC, but I’m sure modders will be on top of that before the weekend even begins.
Elden Ring is available for pre-download now on Steam, and can be played starting at 6 PM ET today.
Published: Feb 24, 2022 01:30 pm