Bloodborne Patch v1.03 Tested

Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry has published a brief article on Bloodborne’s patch v1.03 with some handy comparisons between the loading times pre and post-patch. While they lament the persistence of frame pacing issues, it does sound like this patch was a significant step in the right direction:

The real game-changer is Bloodborne’s improved respawn loading times. Previously players were forced to wait up to 44 seconds to revive in complex areas like Central Yharnam. But with the patch now installed, a whopping 26 seconds is cut off that loading screen after dying. This means respawns at the Central Yharnam lamp now take just 18 seconds on a stock PS4 HDD.

Better than that, respawns in Old Yharnam are now 32 seconds faster, with our test taking only 21 seconds total after dying just crossing the initial bridge. It’s an upgrade that puts the stock PS4 HDD close to the results on a Hybrid SSD without the patch – and also narrows the gap when patch 1.03 is installed on that drive.