Call of Duty: Ghosts PS4 faces frame-rate complaints Published duration 6 November 2013

image caption The PS4 version of CoD: Ghosts is on sale ahead of the console's release

Reviews of the latest Call of Duty video game have reported problems with the graphics on the PlayStation 4 edition of the title.

Testers said that its frame rate dropped at several points during the game causing a stutter-effect.

The PS4 version of CoD: Ghosts is the only console edition that renders its images in 1080p high definition. The Xbox One and Wii U versions create less processor-intensive 720p resolutions.

Publisher Activision has not commented.

Although the PS4 version of the game is already on sale, Sony's console itself will not be released until 15 November in North America and 29 November in Europe.

That potentially gives Activision time to release a software patch if the issue can be fixed.

Multiplayer problems

Ghosts is the 10th first-person shooter game in the main CoD series.

Its predecessor, Black Ops II, earned $1bn (£621m) in its first 15 days of release, making it the second fastest-selling game of all time after Grand Theft Auto 5.

Earlier this week, the head of Activision's Infinity Ward studio - which developed the newest title - told the BBC that his team had made delivering smooth animations a priority.

"One of the key pillars of Call of Duty has been 60 frames per second... and ensuring that was of utmost importance, and the resolutions that appear are geared around that," said Mark Rubin.

Elsewhere he suggested that the different way the new consoles handled memory had contributed to a decision to support 1080p graphics on Sony's machine but not Microsoft's.

However, some reviews have suggested the PS4 version does not maintain a consistent frame rate as desired.

image caption Developer Infinity Ward said maintaining 60 frames per second during the game was of "utmost importance"

"The PlayStation 4 version... has noticeable technical issues, sometimes slowing to a crawl, particularly during set-piece moments with multiple effects," reported Joystiq

"Frame rate hitches happen throughout the campaign on PlayStation 4 and, in a series known for its Hollywood-inspired bombast, it detracted from the experience."

Now Gamer added that it was particularly concerned about the issue occurring during the title's online multiplayer mode.

"It's rare - it only happened once every few matches - but it is definitely present," it said.

"It's not something we've seen in any Call of Duty multiplayer before, so it stood out as particularly odd and unfortunate, given the frame-rate stutter is significant enough to let targets escape to safety or see you killed during the general mayhem."

The blog Gearnuke has gathered together other complaints of a similar nature.

Although Activision has yet to provide a statement, Mr Rubin had previously acknowledged: "There's enormous amounts of work ahead of us in perfecting our game engines on both [Sony and Microsoft's] platforms."

Early days

Sony has not commented on the subject.

However, Microsoft has addressed the fact the Xbox One version of Ghosts renders graphics in half the resolution of the PS4, despite the fact both consoles support the 1080p format.

"Once people have the chance to play the games and experience Xbox One for themselves, we believe they'll realise that great-looking visuals are only part of the experience," said a spokesman.

"Launch is the first of many steps into the new console generation, and we fully expect our developers to continue to break new ground and surpass previous limitations in the years ahead."