Fallout 4 Far Harbor PS4 PlayStation 4 1

We're happy to report that Fallout 4 fans can rest easy for now – well, kind of. Fallout 4: Far Harbor, the game's first "real" expansion, ran very poorly on PlayStation 4 when it released. The add-on's island location was covered in thick fog, and this effect, combined with detailed lighting techniques, resulted in a shockingly low framerate when traversing most of the island. In short, the expansion was, in our opinion, a chore to play because of the frame rate issues – something that we heavily criticised Far Harbor for in our review.

Last week, Bethesda rightfully announced that it was going to try and fix the framerate on Sony's console. At first, we thought that the fix would come via a standard game patch, but as it turns out, the developer actually ended up re-releasing the entire expansion. You can find details on how to re-download it by clicking through here.

After downloading it again and trying it out for several hours, we can confirm that the framerate issues have been vanquished. As far as we can tell, Far Harbor now runs no worse than the main game, which isn't perfect, but it's more than manageable. The near constant dips in framerate are no longer present, and as a result, exploring the island setting is far more enjoyable.

However, there's a catch. While we can't deny that Bethesda was reasonably timely in fixing the issue, which is appreciated, it has done so by actually removing most of the fog from Far Harbor. In other words, Bethesda's taken the very source of the framerate issues and has ripped it out almost entirely.

Below, we've embedded three screenshots that we've taken directly from our PS4.

It's almost immediately clear that most of the heavy fog has been removed
Previously, this path leading uphill was coated in long stretches of fog
Pockets of fog still remain, but they're no longer regular enough to have a significant impact on performance

The bottom line is that Bethesda has fixed Far Harbor's framerate problems on PS4, but it's seemingly made use of a very heavy-handed method, which has left us torn on the subject. While we're happy that ourselves and other Fallout 4 fans can now enjoy playing the expansion, the removal of the fog – aside from small pockets of it here and there – arguably takes away from the island's creepy atmosphere. Does the good outweigh the bad? That's ultimately for you to decide.

Far Harbor's been fixed on PS4, but it's come at a cost. Are you happy with Bethesda's decision to remove most of the island's fog? Run at a near smooth 30 frames-per-second into the comments section below.