Prey PS4 Pro support is nice but the patch also added eye-bleeding stutter
Prey's new PS4 Pro patch has been put through its paces, and the results aren't great, unfortunately.
Prey has hit a bit of a roadbump this week with the arrival of a new patch.
One the one hand, the patch added PS4 Pro support to Prey - a feature the back of the box claimed right from release - along with other useful fixes and correction for the annoying input lag on PS4.
On the other, it's introduced a stack of stutter due to frame-rate pacing problems. That's according to Eurogamer's Digital Foundry, which described the patch as "a massive own goal", arguably a "retrograde step" for PS4 players and "just not acceptable" in the linked report and video above.
"Input latency has been fixed - the game is much more responsive now - but the knock-on effect is that, put simply, the game is a stuttering mess in motion. We've often reported on bad frame-pacing in the past, but nothing could prepare us for the severity of the problem in Prey," the report notes.
"This is, without a doubt, the worst instance of irregular frame delivery we've encountered, giving the illusion of a much lower frame-rate. In addition, as the game uses an adaptive v-sync solution, there is now a plethora of torn frames present in each and every scene along the top portion of the image. Taken as a whole, Prey no longer feels smooth to play."
The report goes on to say that players shouldn't have to choose between a terrible frame rate or terrible input lag, and points out that Prey works just fine on Xbox One without either issue. The PS4 version had previously drawn praise for its solid frame rate, but Arkane's attempt to fix input lag has knocked this leg out from under it, putting the Xbox One build ahead of the game - and some PS4 users are still reporting input issues even with the patch installed.
The report also notes that both the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Prey now have an exciting new bug where opening your inventory will shrink your field of view until you reload the game.
All in all, not a great result - but the report did also say that "visual quality is clearly improved" when playing Prey on PS4 Pro now, devoting a couple of paragraphs to precisely how much shinier things are now. Nice.
Prey got great reviews and seems to have really struck a chord with players, and Arkane has been highly praised for turning its reputation with PC build around.
So it's a real shame that the platform which might have been supposed to generate the most sales for Prey has had such trouble. Fingers crossed Arkane can patch it up sooner rather than later.