Generally, when a company releases a patch for a video game, it’s done with the intention of fixing problems. Whether it’s a bug that is hampering playthroughs, or problems with the game’s performance, the goal is always to take a step forward to creating the game the developers first envisioned. The latest patch from Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto V somehow manages to do the opposite, as reported by PC Gamer.
According to players on sites like reddit, the game’s Steam forum, and other social platforms, patch 1.28 has caused issues with micro-stuttering and frame-rate drops since its release. Threads on both r/GrandTheftAutoV_PC and broader-reaching r/Games are receiving tons of upvotes and comments with gamers agreeing, so this does not appear to be an isolated issue of a few configurations, but rather, it appears to be a fairly far-reaching issue that is negatively impacting gameplay for many.
For its part, Rockstar has acknowledge the issue on its support site, saying, “We have received reports of lower frame rate in GTA V and GTA Online after Title Update 1.28 on PC. We are looking into these reports now.”
How does a patch make a game perform worse? The creators of the LCPD First Response Mod claim that Rockstar has added anti-modding protection to the game. However, based on the response on sites such as reddit, users who have no mods installed still seem to be having the same issues. It’s also possible that the patch could have something to stop players from hacking in GTA Online, a problem that still exists, and as a side effect it’s hurting game performance in all modes.
Whatever the reason, some users have taken to uninstalling the game and only patching up to the version before this one. For Steam users, this is nearly impossible, and doing so also prevents access to any of the online features of GTA V, so it’s not a perfect solution to the problem. Hopefully Rockstar puts out a new patch for these issues soon, and presumably it will, well, fix the issues and not make them worse.
