Skyrim PS3 patch 2.01 92MB: Live in UK

November 28, 2011 By 53 Comments

After more than a week of pain for Skyrim PS3 owners it is now hoped that the patch v2.01, which has just gone live to download a few moments ago, will fix the really bad lag issues.

Those of our readers that own Skyrim on the PS3 and have played it long enough to build a large save file, ours is at 12MB now, will know about the frame rate and apparent lag problems. These have made the game unplayable at times, meaning you have to save where you are in Skyrim and turn off the PS3, which then improves the situation.

Skyrim PS3 patch 2.01 92MB: Live in UK

This fix only worked for a short time before seeing major lag issues again, although today’s v2.01 Skyrim update, first thought to be 1.02, is hoped to improve the game for PS3 players.

We’ve installed the fix and hope to have an update soon, and considering we’re well over 150 hours into Skyrim, we expect our save file to be one of the best tests to see if performance has increased.

We’ll update you soon with our findings, and if you too have had issues with the PS3 version of Skyrim, let us know how your game is after this patch?

Update: We’re around 30 minutes playing Skyrim with v2.01 and gameplay feels much more smooth on the PS3, although we know it takes a little longer for extreme issues to show. We’ll update you after around two hours.

Update 2: 3 hours in and still no lag, although we have seen reports from our readers that some of you have installed the PS3 patch and get lag after a few hours. As a note, our test machine is a PS3 slim.

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  • Lachlan Priest

    It does not fix the lag at all. It started within 30 minutes of playing this time.

    • Anonymous

      They really need to get this fixed. They should get all hands on deck working 24/7 until it’s in tip top shape. 

  • Nburrows87

    Was smoother for about an hour and a half. Then I went to the fall forest outside of Riften and the lag was back! But compared to before this is definitely better. I still think this IS the BEST GAME I have EVER played. And I was playing pong when i was 3!

    • Callumellison

      i will not do it then

  • Guest

    After downloading the patch and being at 12MB saved data, and playing for 5 hours. The freezing was just as bad if not worse. 

  • TVsS

    still extremely laggy for me :(   ill say its not as bad, but just finished a 3 hour session post patch and at around 1 1/2 hours its started again

  • Art_jerk

    Yeah, two hours after d/l the patch and I’m still experiencing the same lag issues with an 11MB save file – disappointing. I’m now finding it hard to immerse myself in the game when I have in the back of my mind the thought that, even after resetting the game, the lag will eventually start farting Thu’ums all over the place.

  • Stevehjack

    This was the greatest game i have ever played…until the lag came, very annoying.

  • Mark

    Yea agree, such a great game with such a major flaw (bangs head on table).

  • Iz

    my save file is 15mb and so far no lag – but the fix seems to have made taking books off the shelf in my home in Markath – non-existent – meaning I can clear the shelves but the books remain – meaning duping the books – then renders the empty but full shelf unuseable – meaning you can never interact with or read the books on those bookshelves again – this may not seem like a big deal but if fixing the lag renders some objects in the world unuseable then this could mean big problems especially with quest items – i have tried many tests, leaving the area – returning, waiting etc – but the only fix seems to be reloading the save before interacting with the shelves – think i can deal with the lag (restarting machine = coffee break) so i’m deleting the update game file

    • Eleison

      I’ve had this issue too. I omitted to save my previous position so couldn’t delete patch file and re-play. The bookcase in my house in Whiterun has been affected; my save file is approx 6.5Mb; I’m running on the PS3 slim.

  • Krammegutten

     This patch certainly patched things up on my machine, at least. Been playing for two hours straight now on the PS3 classic, and any eventual lag are minor and far in between. The performance is comparable to when I first started playing, which you all know is a good thing.
    It also lowered the size of my save file for some reason. After saving for the first time on the new patch, the size went from 9,9 mb to 9,3 mb. Not a very severe drop, but still… interesting.
    All in all, Skyrim runs smoothly for the time being.

    • Guess

      Have you notive the issue that “lz” mention ?

  • Alcaclarke

    It’s because your PS3 systems are probably on their last legs. Probably crammed in the tv stand with everything else and regularly overheats. Plus 15 hour a day gaming sessions can’t help. The system works harder than most of you nerds.

    • Gal5473

      who you calling nerds? the prob wasnt anything to do with ps3′s overheating. the game was broken straight outta the box. go somewhere else insulting people you fuckwit!

    • Guest

      Agreed, I can say that my PS3 is choking for air haha, I leave it on all the time which is bad. I got it some time ago when I didint understand that I could hurt the system. Now its f%^cked up to holey hell and thats probably adding to it

      • http://www.pinnaclegameprofiler.com Cid67

        actually, leaving a system on is not that bad for it. Its the power cycles that are the hardest on the capacitors and other components. your electric bill and dust collection may be more of a problem however.

        Look, Its not a problem with over heating. the ps3 is essentially a computer and the thing that hapens when a computer overheats is the GPU will start to have vertice errors where points at the edge of a poligon will shoot off in different directions and / or other  abnormal color flashes may appear on screen. CPUs tend to lock up when they overheat. None of these are the main issues effecting skyrim.  The Skyrim issues seem more like a cache issue. More data is having to be cached into memory from the hard drive than is optimal and when the hardrive is accessed the system will pause and or stutter as anyone who has been gaming on a PC will tell you happens when the system doesnt have enough memory for optimal game play. Alcaclarke is ignorant to the true nature of the issue and is also a douche bag but that’s besides the point.

  • Grendel

    After the patch it ran as smoothly as the first 20 hours, for about an hour-and-a-half. Then I started fighting a dragon in Mithral and it was back to the old ‘slideshow from hell’. I persevered, though, and it de-lagged itself after about a minute. Been ok since, except for a few stutters for a second or two. The patch reduced my 13+meg save file to a 12+ meg file (huh?), similarly to Krammegutten’s experience: maybe the patch somehow ‘streamlined’ the save system so it rejects some data? 

  • Lucky?

    i hope you all do realize that the i only way to fix this problem, is by reducing in game textures, the problem is that bethesda have pushed the machine to the max, and all this update is, is a texture decrease, in an attempt to increase frame rates. 
    i must admit, my 9.5mb game save started to get a little bit of lag during big fight scenes and when in big cities, but then again, i haven’t really been able to settle down with a character.. 
    the settling down with a character is killing me. 

    but, if this update, does in some way help with performance issues even in the slightest, hell, idc ill update my game. 

    • Guest

      I dont agree with you, the processing in the PS3 is alot faster then that of an Xbox, its a more powerful machine. My friend doesnt lag at all on his Xbox

      • Tyler

        First off, the PS3′s processing unit is better, but not by enough to make it a ‘much more powerful machine’, only a machine with slightly better processing. The reason the PS3 is lagging and the Xbox is not is because Bethesda designed the PS3 version with better graphics, however they overestimated the PS3′s power so it lags. The Xbox and PS3 are not running the same exact version; the PS3′s is harder to run and the PS3 is not ‘powerful’ (as you put it) enough to run its version without lag while the Xbox is powerful enough to run its own.

      • Seth

        The processors course can barely be utilized, i think it was like 2 cores can actually be used for pure performance/gaming for lack of a better word, so more powerful yes, much more? no.

      • Seth

        Also cores* my bad.

    • Grendel

      After 9 hours play since the patch I’m sure you’re right. Hard to say for absolutely sure without a few before-and-after screenshots (which hopefully someone somewhere will have thought to do). Anyway, at first I thought my perception of reduced texture quality was probably just self-suggestion. But again and again I’ve gone to places visited before the patch and there’s a definite, slight but slightly jarring, loss of quality: even jaggier shadows; jaggies on building edges that weren’t there before; a slight ‘washed-out’ quality to scenery, especially middle-distance, that had me (literally) gasping with admiration before… All of which is a real bummer since the reason i got the ps3 version and not the xbox was initial graphics comparisons that favoured  ps3. And the graphics were truly stunning at times. O well, no reason now not to trade in for the xbox version. Sony really should sue Bethesda! 

    • Bigjershby

      u do realize ur full of it? post FACTS please cuz u have no idea wtf ur talking about

  • W Hatchett

    I have a save game size of almost 14mb and the game is still lagging for me… it took longer to get laggy and was more stable from the start but problem has not been fixed ;S 

  • Dazbretel

    I’ve been having problems with this but I have an old style PS3.  I am Just downloading the patch now – we’ll see what happens!

  • Koomiker

    I installed the update and now the lag is even worse and the Dragons are acting like shity hummingbirds, means flying backwards and stuck in mid air.Why do i have to pay full price for a game thats half finished? Is there no lawyer outside who want to make the first step and sueing the crap out of bethesda for constantly ripping the gamers off?

    • Grendel

      I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony sue them – and quite right too! The patch has lessened but by no means stopped the lagging for me, and it’s got steadily worse in the 3 hours play since my last post.. However, I’m on 60% trophies so I’ll persevere till platinum if the lag doesn’t get unbearable again, then trade in for the xbox version. Which I’d have done as soon as the lag started (at 20-odd hours) if I’d known how bad it was going to be. I wish to f..k I had!!! (Or had a spare £5k or so for a high-end pc and tv-sized monitor.)

  • derfinator

    bethesda has no excuse for this…. the ps3 is more powerful than the xbox and the developers have had plenty of time to get to know the hardware. 

  • Torgo

    I have a 320GB slim model that I believe has only been out for a little over a year. I’ve held off buying Skyrim up until this point as I was trying to see if the save file/lag problem was specific to certain models of PS3′s and the such. Maybe, people will have to just delete the manadatory install date and all save files and start from scratch with downloading the patch (which would suck big time)!  

  • Did

    the update has ruined a few things in houses, I’m only able to interact with a book shelf once then that book shelf won’t let me interact with it atall, plus I hav invisible manequines.. wtfs all that about

    • carcinogin

      happen to mine as well

  • Lol

    Fuckin hell bethesda, patch hasn’t fixed the lag on my ps3

  • Louis Haywood

    WTF, this is the biggest cockup in gaming i have ever seen, fix my skyrim bethesda

  • Mark

    Not sure the invisible thing is due to the update as my mannequins did that in my house before the update. The update definitely made a difference last night but I didn’t play for more than 2 hours but no real lag just slight stutters now and then. Yet to put it through the test of extended play.

  • Guess

    It has fix the issue with my PS3 slim. I play for about 4 hours without lag last night. I have rack up 50 hours off play time and before this fix the game was getting lag in whiterim and other places that many characters.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3BMSPPQPSGXBUZ6UNQ2XCOB3KI hso4

    the problem is that the game was released before it should have been, which would be a deal breaker for most games but skyrim is just so damn good that it sold millions anyways. everyone was greedy for skyrim after the marketing scheme generated so much hype, and the game is fun enough that i don’t think the problems ps3 users are experiencing are going to make them return copies in masses. 
    for what its worth i think the update made my ps3 copy play more smoothly

  • Greymaine

    Im playing on the Xbox 360 versions and my dragons are now flying backwards. Bethesda, what did you do -.-

  • guest

    Just play Dark Souls, it doesn’t have these kind of issues.

  • Duncan

    Also the whole ps3 VS xbox 360 debate is dead, there both outdated, deal with it
    (and also the ps3 and xbox 360 are more comparable then previous comments suggest, do some research kids and possibly mistaken adults).

  • Mr.X

    Has anyone got the problem that when you enter dialogue you can talk to the NPC until you get to the end of it, the NPC then looks at you like an idiot and the dialogue ‘window’ will not close. The same for when you ask what they have for sale the window will not open and it’s kinda screwed my whole game up :/ Is there a fix or do I just wait of a new patch?

  • Stan799

    Bull crap, yes i am selling this game, might as well sell this broken piece of sh!t before the second hand prices go down and now the shameless maker of new vegas has come out and has blamed the ps3 hardware design for this, utter shameless people at bethesda, i swear on my mother i wont buy any other game of theirs, DO NOT MAKE GAMES FOR THE PS3 IF YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO IDIOTS!!!

  • P_reeves

    i’ve only got the old chunky ps3 & have even deleted  all my other game files & installs (leaving me 27gb of free space) in the hope of going through a playable skyrim but no joy. as stan799 says you need a programming team that knows how to utilise the ps3 because this really is amateur hour.

  • Jaamgans

    no issues, can play hours and am yet to see major issues. During that play time I have had two occasions when it has frozen for a couple of seconds – can think of worse thinks like Madden 12 which is virtually unplayable at the moment.

  • Taylor

    test the big battles on the stormcloak and imperial battles, I’m getting issues myself there

  • Alex4049

    I did experience some lag i major fights, cities go big landscapes before the patch, but after it seemed better (even though I did not get to see of the lag was completely gone from these places) since the game froze in the middle of a dungeon. Surprisingly only 30min after the new patch was installed. Playing on a ps3 320gb slim (only a few months old)

  • x21

    This patch has broken Skyrim for me.  Originally played it on a PS3 Slim Red with no patch and had no significant problems.  Decided to start a new character after installing the latest patch last night and the game crashes so often post-patch it is unplayable.  Crashed during the opening horse and cart sequence, crashed after decapitation, crashed after creating a character… Have given up…

    • x21

       Also the lag every time the game also saves seems significantly longer than the first time around… Is anyone else having similar problems?

  • guest

    since the new patch game always freezes whenever i swim underwater wth. please fix that

  • Drewprejean

    Also having problems with new patch. My character is so afraid of water that he freezes as soon as his feet get wet. I’m around 250 hours and never had a real issue untill now.

  • GuestNL

    I have the exact same issue. As soon as I touch water, the game freezes and forces me to physically reboot my PS3.

    Also experienced a massive lag during the big battle for the ending quest of the Storm Cloak rebellion.

  • Delbridge64

    Thankyou! I was getting scared that I was the only one with water issues! Thought it was a corrupted file but you can swim on horse back, if it helps!