Right, well just for a change I thought I would do a topical post of sorts and the subject of the post will be on the action role play game, Bloodborne, which was made by the creators of the Dark Souls series and later, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware.
And Bloodborne is often regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time with its superb combat and challenging boss fights, it was one of the great highlights of the PS4 generation. However, its a game that isn't without its problems on a technical and visual level, which I will get into more below and is the main aspect of this post as Bloodborne has had numerous issues in this regard.
So, this all begs the question (and the title lol) when will Bloodborne ever get a remaster??? Well, I certainly don't know the answer but let's take a look at this subject anyway as it has been of much debate between fans since the game's release.
BLOODBORNE ON RELEASE AND AS IT IS JUST NOW
When it first came out on the Playstation 4, Bloodborne was heralded as a great game and it certainly was with its amazingly imaginative visuals, creative boss design and its fast paced intense combat. However on its release, Bloodborne had its issues such as uneven frame pacing, which causes a visible stuttering in the image, not to mention long loading times that disrupted the flow of the game greatly when moving from area to area. It also suffers some visual aliasing (the appearance of jagged lines in graphics) which gives them a rough unpolished look.
The game's director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, himself had said that he wanted to make them as detailed as possible in its design in relation the works of H.P. Lovecroft, the game was inspired by. This is in itself probably brought its own compromises in terms of the game's performance when it came to framerate as FromSoftware went for a 30 frames per second cap. This in itself was not as much an issue as the uneven frame pacing that game would suffer from as mentioned, somewhat hurt the fluidity of its performance. Frame pacing itself is the time it takes between displaying frames and smooth frame pacing should occur at the same time interval, however if it doesn't, this is where you get noticeable stuttering in the image.
Now, Bloodborne as it stands is definitely playable and its locked frame rate of 30 fps even for me is certainly not enough to stop me from wanting to play it as it remains as addictive and enjoyable as it did on my first playthrough (as I have played this game about 50 times already!). However at the same time, its a great pity that the game couldn't have been optimized at a later date by FromSoftware and patched to achieve 60 fps as this would greatly have increased the game's response time and visuals, not to mention it would better its fast paced combat. But as of yet, we are yet to hear anything from either Sony or FromSoftware regarding a remaster or patch of any kind to improve its performance.
UNOFFICIAL 60 FPS PATCH
However, as things are just now, there is an existing patch that has been developed by a data miner and Twitch streamer, Lance MacDonald, who managed to create a patch based on the PS4 Pro patch for Dark Souls III, that enabled him to run Bloodborne at 60fps. The only real compromise here is that Lance had to reduce the resolution for the game to 720p as opposed to its standard 1080p resolution as he was unable to achieve this any other way. This also highlighted the deficiencies of the original game engine and how it was locked at 30fps and there appeared to no way around it. However, Lance's great work on patching the game to 60fps, really did show what was capable with the game and instantly made the game appear an even more enjoyable experience and how it was meant to be played. Lance's patch is also freely available for download and use but it does require a hacked PS4 to run it on.
BLOODBORNE ON THE PS5
As for Bloodborne on the PS5, there was much anticipation from fans as to whether the game would get an 60fps boost once the next gen console would come available. However on the release of the PS5, this unfortunately turned out not to be the case as Bloodborne still ran at a locked 30fps with the same problematic frame pacing we had seen in the PS4 release. This in itself was a big disappointment, particularly as it really showed itself as another great incentive to purchase a PS5 console. However that was hardly problem given that the PS5 has been extremely difficult to get since its release due to the global shortage and the Coronavirus pandemic's impact of the microchip manufacturers worldwide, who create the chips used in the PS5 consoles.
SO WHY HASN'T BLOODBORNE BEEN PATCHED OR REMASTERED???
Well, this is the big question and I myself and others can only guess as to why.
However based one or two sources, I do have some ideas as to maybe why Bloodborne never has been patched or remastered (although this is just pure speculation).
The first possible reason was hinted at by the Digital Foundry Youtube channel, who did a video on Bloodborne in recent months as they suggested it could be to do with the possible complexities of re-opening and compiling the existing code, which would require extensive testing to ensure any new improved patch wouldn't break the game. This almost certainly would require FromSoftware to come back in to do the work to patch the game as a developer from what I've heard, they use a method of hard coding the framerate into the game and have game events tied to a specific framerate also. And without the developers being able to patch it to unlock the 30fps framerate, it wouldn't really be possible to do it any other way.
Another possible reason is just maybe FromSoftware were approached by Sony to patch the game and maybe they could not come to a contractual agreement to do the work necessary. This might boil down to FromSoft not getting sufficient payment to do the job but again this is just pure speculation and frankly there has been no evidence to suggest this was ever the case.
And last of all, another possible reason could be perhaps it is just not the correct time as of yet to do a remaster or patch of the game given that FromSoftware are currently working on their latest game, Elden Ring, which had new footage released just last week and is due out next January. So, until Elden Ring itself is released and patched and possibly any DLCs are published and out of the way, Bloodborne will be just left on the backburner.
SO, WILL IT EVER HAPPEN???
Well, this is certainly one question I can't answer as it remains unknown when either FromSoftware or Sony will return to Bloodborne to update it. However until then you can only hope that Bloodborne will one day get the visual upgrade it deserves and until then, any issues aside, it still remains a great game and a joy to play and let's hope in the not so distant future, we can get that upgrade to enjoy it even more.
So, that's it for now and I hope you enjoyed this post as it is something a bit different and more topical.
So, until the next post, its bye for now and may the good blood guide your way!
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