Latest Elden Ring Update Serves Up Several PS5 And PC Fixes, But They're Not Enough

Only a few days have passed since the long-awaited release of Elden Ring, but the game has already received several patches in order to address some common issues. The latest patch, released on March 2, 2022, brings much-needed fixes to both PC and PlayStation 5 players. However, reading through the patch notes reveals that one glaring issue remains unaddressed — there has been no mention of fixes made to the stuttering issues that PC players have been experiencing.

Elden Ring has released the full patch notes on its Twitter, but the information is quite vague and doesn't contain an elaborate description of what exactly has been updated. The update is dubbed Patch 1.02.2, and in all fairness, despite the vague description, it details some pretty serious issues that gamers have been experiencing since the launch — especially on PC. PlayStation 5 players received just one update, although also fairly crucial: the game will now properly save your progress even when it isn't terminated. Up until this update, PS5 gamers could lose all their progress if their console (or the game itself) turned off without warning.

As mentioned above, desktop PC players received better news today, courtesy of FromSoftware and Bandai Namco. The main issue for PC players that has now been fixed is that the game sometimes didn't use the computer's graphics card at all. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in very poor performance, and in some cases, complete crashes.

Another problem that has been addressed took place during a fight with a Fire Giant. This encounter sometimes caused the game to randomly shut down. Fortunately, that's not supposed to happen anymore, so players can get right back to slaying that monster whenever they want. The last point on Elden Ring's list is the source of vagueness I mentioned above — it simply states: "fixed other bugs."

What those bugs could be is anyone's guess. We reviewed Elden Ring and ran into some issues here and there. This is to be expected from a new title, but many gamers are left unhappy with the state of the game, reporting various problems — especially on the PC version. The game has received a day zero patch to address some of these bugs, but clearly, that was not enough.

I played all too many hours' worth of Elden Ring on PC myself and can confirm that stuttering is an issue in some zones and encounters. With that said, the game is still gorgeous and runs smoothly on my rather aged desktop (thanks, GPU shortage,) so this implies that it should be playable for a broad range of users. However, those who like their games to run as smoothly as possible certainly have reasons to be frustrated. Those frustrations are later shared online, be it on Reddit or the game's Steam page. 

Needless to say, that doesn't reflect well on the game. On the other hand, the number of actual bugs seems fairly small for a new title, and the most noticeable issues are all related to the game's performance. Whether that's a good thing or not is for you to judge.

The fact that Elden Ring has addressed some of the biggest problems is encouraging, but there are still steps to be taken in order to make the most of the game. If the new patch doesn't fix the stuttering and screen tearing many players are experiencing all over the vast and broad world of Elden Ring, then all that remains is to hope that Bandai Namco and FromSoftware are working on another patch as we speak.