Must read before starting Nightmare difficulty (Data corruption)

[WakeUpHP]

This post pertains only to the PS3 version of this game, by all accounts the PS4 version has much better performance so if you haven't started the game yet, play it on PS4.  If you want to go back and clean up your PS3 version or don't have a PS4, then read this before starting your Nightmare playthrough.

 

The PS3 version of the game is well known to have performance issues - a bad frame rate in certain areas and occasional freezing.  In my opinion these issues are not bad enough to spoil the gameplay experience, however the freezing can cause one enormous potential problem, namely that the game is far more likely to freeze while saving, resulting in corrupted data.  More importanly, it's not just your save data that will be corrupted, but also your profile data, which will reset the difficulty to normal on ALL saves and void the Nightmare difficulty trophy if you reload a previous save.  Even if you immediately set the difficulty back to Nightmare upon reloading, the trophy is still void since the difficulty had been changed.  The autosave is particularly culpable of causing freezes and corrupted data since it will often save the game during periods of heavy lag, which the game does not seem to appreciate.

 

Fortunately, there are workarounds to avoid corrupted data, and to ensure your game remains on Nightmare difficulty if data corruption does happen to occur. 

 

• While there is no option to disable the pernicious autosave in game, you can effectively disable it by deleting your autosave and then creating 30 manual saves - this is the maximum number of save slots and prevents the game from saving automatically.  You will still get a message every so often saying the autosave has failed which is rather annoying, but it's much better than losing 50-100 hours of work due to data corruption.  This should be done as soon as you start the game.
• Everytime you manually save, pause the game and wait for the save icon to disappear, this will reduce lag and make a freeze far less likely.  This is absolutely essential, you increase the risk of a freeze a hundredfold if you run around while the game is saving.
• Disable the blood splatter from the options menu to reduce lag
• Be especially careful when saving during the quest In Your Heart Shall Burn, when Haven is attacked.  This section is notorious for freezes.
• Make sure you save in multiple save slots as you go.
• If your game does still freeze during a save, your PS3 will ask you if you want to attempt to retrieve or repair the data when you boot it up again - allow your PS3 to carry out this process.
• Finally, if your data is corrupted, when you reload a previous save, check to see if your game is still set to Nightmare difficulty in the options menu.  If it is then no harm done, if not then I feel like the only solution will be to download your profile data from the cloud, or a USB if you're being meticulous enough to copy your data regularly.

Edited December 3, 2023 by WakeUpHP

[RaidenXS]

I'm midway through and luckily haven't ran into this. Could this be hardware related? When was the last time your system was cleaned for dust? Which PS3 are you using? Is this a physical disc or digital version?

[WakeUpHP]

3 hours ago, RaidenXS said:

I'm midway through and luckily haven't ran into this. Could this be hardware related? When was the last time your system was cleaned for dust? Which PS3 are you using? Is this a physical disc or digital version?

It has nothing to do with the hardware, the PS3 version is well known to have poor performance.  While the game freezes rarely - for me only around 6 times in 120+ hours of play - the freezes usually occur during a save, which then results in corrupted data, which can affect the profile data as well as the save state and void the nightmare trophy.  For most people this will probably never happen, but it only needs to happen once to lose 100+ hours of progress.

Edited December 4, 2023 by WakeUpHP

[Helyx]

3 hours ago, RaidenXS said:

Could this be hardware related?

 

An SSD would help a lot I bet.

[MrShovelware]

1 minute ago, Helyx said:

 

An SSD would help a lot I bet.

So would an RTX 4090

[WakeUpHP]

Just google "Dragon Age Inquisition freezing" to see how prevalent it is and stop speculating about hardware issues that don't exist.

 

I'll reiterate; in 120+ hours I've only experienced 6 or 7 freezes, which I don't think is excessive for such a large open world game on the PS3.  Meanwhile, very low framerate occurs at only two specific areas - namely during the mission "In Your Heart Shall Burn" and in Solas' room in Skyhold, but aside from these areas, the game runs fine for the most part.  The point is that any one of these freezes has the potential to void the nightare trophy if it causes corruption of the profile data.  There are no hardware issues and no SSD is going to rectify this - so either take the precautions listed in the OP, or run the risk of voiding the trophy.  

[RaidenXS]

I've crashed all sorts. I've never experienced the difficulty reverting. I think you went in the menus and accidentally slid it over or had another playthrough active and effect the difficulty somehow. That difficulty setting is easy to change