Capcom has made it public that Monster Hunter Wilds will be getting a major update that will directly target the game’s performance issues, which are usually mentioned as the main drawback of the game. The plan revolves around the December 16th Title Update, a special Steam patch in late January, and another update in February. Players’ feedback has been a great help to the developers, while the community’s response is… let’s just say it’s a medley of hope, doubt, and utter exasperation.
Now, let’s take a look at the particulars that come straight from the horse’s mouth. The release of Title Update 4, which will be this coming Tuesday, is primarily aimed at “enhancing game quality” and is particularly going to form the basis of CPU and GPU optimization over all of the platforms available. The patch for Steam is going to be released in January and it will give the players even more options for lowering the processing load and the graphics presets will be updated. Finally, in February, the Ver. 1.041 update will come with more enhancements. The developers are saying they are “working diligently” with the help of player reports to improve the experience in the Wilds. Sounds like a well-thought-out strategy, right? But the hunters in the replies have their sentiments.
Some of the players’ immediate reactions were … not very impressed. Kimbita09 analyzed the benchmarks and laughed: “Only 5% improvement? LMAO.” This sparked a whole debate in the replies. Another user, Propii69, gave his opinion, asking, “Where do you see 5%? It’s 20% which is a decent first step.” But then Yeshticle disambiguated, “Yeah 5% on a 2060. This is going to scale with more appropriate hardware.” It’s happening right now, real-time, the classic gamer math argument. The core feeling? For some players, just such small incremental gains on recommended hardware are still perceived as too little and too late.
And that waiting sentiment is one of the main themes. User SeekWay expressed the sentiment when he said: “I am looking forward to the January update; however, I fear 5% after all this time and adding a few options to the graphics settings which were already available through mods is not going to cut it for most people.” Oof! That one got to the point, a direct hit. It points to a universal grievance which goes like so: A mod community already brute-forced a fix, so when the official fix comes, it feels like being given what was already owned. Another player thehopelessdm, exhibited a deeper state of weariness: “Sure hope that my PC that far exceeds minimum system requirements can run the benchmark tool soon. Maybe for Wilds 2. Who knows.” That’s the sound of optimism running on fumes.
Then there is the faction that questions the very foundation of the game itself. LongTra54981514 was very blunt with his statement: “Just shows the engine is the issue and it is really not fixable a bit like DD2.” Comparing it to Dragon’s Dogma 2’s own problematic launch is an incendiary take but it does show that some gamers think that the issues have been with the game for so long that no patches can really fix them entirely. TTRoom1993 took a cynical view after reading the blog details and expressed: “CPU+GPU optimization improvement are just adding options to lower and turn off some settings……. Bro, are they for real lol.” The fear is that “optimization” is going to mean giving players the option to switch off more stuff, not making the core game run smoother.
But, hey, it’s not all despair and gloom! Actually some hunters are being constructive or are just happy to see some movement. CYL merely stated, “Looking forward to try it out on the Steam Deck after the next update ~ 👏.” That is definitely a specific use case where those Steam-exclusive tweaks could be very beneficial. And when Senko_308 asked whether there was an option to disable the glowing body effects from the buffs, another user, custardcosmos, actually provided a very useful solution, which was guiding them to the exact menu setting. Look! A community helping community, even when the devs are receiving criticism.
The discussion also took some strange, meta paths. One exchange perfectly illustrated the exhausting cycle of gaming criticism. After a user defended the game, another, basedtweetsonly, countered with a meme-like summary: “>don’t complete everything in the game. ‘You didn’t even play it enough to have an opinion’. >complete everything in the game. ‘If the game sucks why did you keep playing’.” It’s the universal, unwinnable debate for anyone taking a complaint online.
And, of course, you have the classic “git gud… PC” comment, but players on PlayStation and Xbox are also awaiting these crucial performance fixes from Capcom.
