The countdown is over and Elden Ring, one of the most anticipated games of recent times, is already in the hands of many of the players who were waiting for it. And despite the fact that we are still in its first hours, we already have enough reasons to think that, once again, we are facing a launch in which expectations have entered a collision course with reality, to the disappointment of those who were waiting for it, and even more so for those who reserved it before it went on sale or who purchased it in the first few hours.
The problem, or at least the part of the problem that has already reached us, has nothing to do with the plot, the gameplay, or the scenarios and graphic elements of Elden Ring. In this regard, it seems that the developer has done its job well, and therefore, if you can play it in optimal conditions, you will be able to fully enjoy the title that, as some critics have already stated, knows how to take the best of the Souls and bring it to 2022.
The problem is, as you may have already deduced from what I just said, in the phase “if one can play it in optimal conditions”, and it is that once again it seems that we are facing a title that it has not gone through the complex but fundamental optimization process before reaching users. A problem that, as we can see on its Steam page, has given rise to a large number of negative evaluations from its users, and even some who have chosen to request a refund from Valve, and who in any case recommend (by hearsay, of course) the versions of Elden Ring for consoles.
It didn’t really catch us by surprise. In fact, yesterday, when making a first evaluation of Elden Ring’s performance, we already talked about problems with synchronization, stuttering, blocking at 60 FPS and lack of support for ultrawide monitors. And unfortunately we were not wrong, because these are the main complaints that we can already find in the Steam comments, and to which we must also add the FPS drops, which for some users, even with configurations well above those recommended by FromSoftware, make Elden Ring unplayable on PC.
Additionally, another problem has also appeared, this one related to the anticheat system, which would be causing some players to encounter a “white screen of death”, that is displayed after loading it and before the game itself starts. Some, with humor, suggest that the anticheat is the first enemy that we will have to face in Elden Ring. And it is highly appreciable that they take it with humor, especially if we take into account that we are talking about people who have spent 60 euros to enjoy a game from day one.
I clarify, yes, that not all users are having problems and, what is more curious, some with much more humble configurations, it seems that they are being able to enjoy Elden Ring without problems . But of course, we must not forget that a very important part of the optimization process has to do with precisely that, with making sure that the game works well in a large number of different configurations.
Therefore, once again, it seems that we are forced to wait for the publication of the traditional post-launch patch that solves all, or at least most, of the problems identified by the users. And of course, what is imperative is that it arrives as soon as possible, and especially before the update arrives that activates some advanced graphic functions, such as ray tracing, because otherwise, surely the only thing we will see increase is the number of users disappointed with Elden Ring.
And it’s a shame, because in other aspects it does seem to be a great game, but poor technical work can (and in some cases is already doing) distort the rest of the work . It seems that, in this case, the criticisms about the content of the game were more in line with reality, but those who have already tried Elden Ring for PC or were very lucky in the technical section, or perhaps, casually, averted their eyes from the screen when certain things happened.
Will the developers ever learn? Cyberpunk 2077, GTA Trilogy, Battlefield 2042, now Elden Ring… it seems that reaching the market debut with half-done homework is already a constant that we should assume as normal. However, it normally has nothing at all, the studios lose credibility every time they do it, and the media that look the other way and only extol the virtues while hiding the flaws face the same problem. And meanwhile, players are being teased again.