The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered Performance “Degrades” Based On Play Time

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Summary

  • Digital Foundry has revealed that Oblivion Remastered’s performance degrades over time, leading to frame rate drops.
  • Cycling through saves on a long playthrough introduces bugs, such as graphical issues and the camera drifting upwards while on horseback.
  • Digital Foundry suggests the issue could be a memory leak, as frequently switching between saves can also cause your game to crash.

Bethesda has had its fair share of glitchy games in the past, managing to escape major issues for the most part except for notable exceptions like Fallout 76. Nowadays, a certain level of quirks or flaws is something we’ve come to expect from Bethesda, and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered carries on this tradition, being just as buggy as the original game and many other titles from the same developer.

In simpler terms, a touch of quirkiness in Oblivion adds to its appeal, but there’s a more serious issue hidden beneath, an issue that Bethesda might want to address promptly. This issue was first brought to light by a tech-focused YouTube channel called Digital Foundry, and it seems that the performance of Oblivion Remastered can deteriorate over extended playtime.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered Performance “Degrades” Based On Play Time

In a recent video analysis of Oblivion Remastered’s console performance, they highlight how the game’s frame rate can vary significantly depending on whether it’s just started or if it’s been running for some time. They demonstrate that you’ll experience a much smoother gameplay at the beginning when the game is freshly booted, as opposed to after playing for more than 15 minutes. They also mention that moving between different areas and switching between save points can worsen these performance issues.

It seems that cycling through save points during a “powered up” gameplay session might lead to glitches, like the camera rising too high when you’re on horseback. Resolving the problem by restarting the entire game suggests that it may be due to a memory leak, according to Digital Foundry’s analysis.

Evidence for this theory comes from the game’s frequent crashing. According to Digital Foundry, they conducted tests by repeatedly loading the same sequence of save points without any variations, and found that Oblivion Remastered crashed at the same spot on both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro. Interestingly, a similar problem arises on Xbox as well. However, rebooting the game and then loading the problematic save has no adverse effects whatsoever.

In simpler terms, prolonged playtime in Oblivion Remastered, with frequent switching between saves, could lead to your game freezing or crashing. Adding to this, you might encounter performance issues and glitches. Therefore, it would be wise to limit your gaming sessions of Oblivion to avoid these problems. Fingers crossed that Bethesda is working on resolving the issue, as this particular bug isn’t exactly endearing.

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2025-05-13 06:24