How are you enjoying yourself in Hogwarts Legacy? Are you throwing avada kedavra left and right, or are you more of a leisurely broom-flying explorer? Avalanche‘s latest title has garnered very positive reviews from critics and users, even if it has been immersed in controversy.
Hogwarts Legacy was officially released last February 10, although those who owned a Deluxe edition were able to play 3 days earlier, on February 7. The game is being a hit with both players and Twitch viewers, where a few days ago it broke an audience record, with more than 1,300,000 viewers, making it the most watched video game of all time.
It’s not all good, though. Although the game is delighting thousands of people around the world, not everyone is experiencing the game as well as they should. Problems starting the game, licensing problems, FPS problems… Problems of all kinds that you may or may not have depending on what platform you play on or the configuration you have.
Do you want to know if one platform is better than another to play Hogwarts Legacy, if it is better to buy it for PS5 or PC? We tell you what problems there have been recently and if there is any solution (that we know of).
Early Access… but not much
On February 7, many players were already wandering around the open world of Hogwarts Legacy and testing their wizardry thanks to early access to the Deluxe Edition. Many… but not all. Throughout the day, a large number of Steam users who purchased the Deluxe version of Hogwarts Legacy reported not being able to play the game, which was dated for February 10 (the release of the regular edition).
The bug HL-117, the name with which it was registered in the bugs section of the Hogwarts Legacy website, was due to the bad management by Steam of the keys introduced on the platform from any external store. That is, if you bought a Steam key for the game from a store other than Steam itself, it was very likely that you would have this problem.
Although not everyone suffered from this bug and it was completely solved the next day, many users who paid extra to play Hogwarts Legacy in advance saw how, due to an error beyond their control, they lost one of the three days they had before the game was released.
On PS5 something similar also happened, although in a more isolated way. On day 7, some users reported that Hogwarts Legacy had kicked them out of the game after the game could not verify the connection with the server. Fortunately, there were not many cases and these people were finally able to access after a short wait, so the problem may have been due to a temporary saturation of the Hogwarts Legacy or PlayStation Network servers.
A video game or a slide presentation?
While the specialized critics already warned us that the game had minor bugs (small visual glitches, characters suddenly leaving the conversation and the like), little or nothing was known about what would be one of the main problems of Hogwarts Legacy for many PC players: the FPS drops.
The FPS (“frames per second”) represents the fluidity with which we see the game; not only the actions of the characters, but any moving element on screen. A fluidity that many did not enjoy when, after starting Hogwarts Legacy for the first time, they found that the game slowed down to 1 FPS (yes, one) in some sections of the game.
As it could not be otherwise in the PC community, a few days later, solutions for this type of optimization problems were released, such as the one brought by Reddit user FriedBongWater, who identified a problem between the game and the graphics card. Shortly after, Hogwarts Legacy received its first patch, exclusive to the PC version, which solved these performance problems.
On PS5, most gamers have not experienced problems when playing, beyond the performance granted by the console according to the graphic configuration you choose (you can prioritize having more FPS or better resolution, which layers the performance of the console). If you experience any problems on this platform, we recommend you try changing configuration options such as motion blur or FPS lock.
Is PC or PS5 better to play Hogwarts Legacy?
Despite the problems there have been the first days to play Hogwarts Legacy, today, both PC and PS5 show almost similar performance. Although you may still have some sporadic problems caused by the graphics card you use or its configuration, PC players currently enjoy the game just as much as on consoles.
PS5 has the great advantage of its SSD, which greatly lightens the loading times between zones when you open a door or when traveling from one point to another. Something you will appreciate if you play on PC by installing Hogwarts Legacy on a HDD (hard drive “of all life”) or an external hard drive on the PS5 itself, having longer loading times.
Beyond the optimization that each platform has shown at the launch of the game, if you have a good PC and a PS5, your choice should be based on only two things: trophies and mods. If you want to earn more trophies for your PlayStation collection and don’t care about Steam achievements, PS5 would be the best option for you, but if you want to try Hogwarts Legacy mods or tinker with its settings beyond what the game allows, PC is your platform.
