Elden Ring PC mod lets you pause the game but disables online play

[Shawn Knight]

A hot potato: Elden Ring, the recently launched action RPG from developer FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco, is off to the kind of start that others can only dream of. As of writing, the PC version of the game has a Metacritic score of 95 (and it’s even higher for the PS5 version). It’s not perfect, however, as a handful of launch-day bugs have proven bothersome for some gamers. Others – perhaps those new to the Souls formula – have discovered that the lack of a true in-game pause function can be equally frustrating.

If you’re willing to make a couple of sacrifices to rectify the matter, this mod may be for you.

The “Pause the Game” mod from TechieW adds a simple pause function to Elden Ring on the PC. In order to use the mod, you’ll have to disable Easy Anti-Cheat, which in turn means you can’t play online.

A game without a proper pause function adds a layer of inconvenience to the overall equation. In discussing Elden Ring’s difficulty, director Hidetaka Miyazaki said he does feel apologetic toward anyone that believes there is too much to overcome in his games.

“We are always looking to improve, but, in our games specifically, hardship is what gives meaning to the experience,” Miyazaki said. “It’s not something we're willing to abandon at the moment. It's our identity,” he added.

What are your thoughts? Is it perfectly acceptable for some games to exclude a pause function, or is it something that ultimately drives you away from wanting to play such titles?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93604-elden-ring-pc-mod-you-pause-game-but.html

 

[Ashford]

When I was younger I didn't care as much, but now, the ability to pause or say least walk away at the drop of a hat actually factors into the games I put a lot of time into now. Kids, phone, boss - whatever, I like when developers take into account that their product is about entertainment, and the player shouldn't be punished when life happens.

 

[m4a4]

Anyone have a short summary of what online-play entails? (doesn't sound like something I'd miss)

 

[Phaetos]

Anyone have a short summary of what online-play entails? (doesn't sound like something I'd miss)

Basically it's being able to see the messages that people drop(which are usually just dumb and rarely helpful) and being able to BE invaded or to DO the invading, or be able to let your friends(who has those anyway?) enter your game to help. I can do without the online aspect.

 

[PurpleYoda]

So what, you cannot press the Esc button to go to the options screen or something? I use it all the time when playing Cyberpunk as like the other user said, life happens, so I cannot imagine a game that when I press the button simply shows me a finger! Right back at ya!

 

[Slappy McPhee]

Why even bother to play on PC? Its a hot buggy mess. I tried playing it an made it a little over an hour having plenty of issues. I got a refund from Steam. I5-12600k, 32GB DDR4, Windows 10 Pro updated, RTX 3070ti.

 

[jonny888]

Why even bother to play on PC? Its a hot buggy mess. I tried playing it an made it a little over an hour having plenty of issues. I got a refund from Steam. I5-12600k, 32GB DDR4, Windows 10 Pro updated, RTX 3070ti.

Been playing on PC for ~40 hours and had exactly 1 crash the entire time (and that was on a loading screen). I guess your mileage may vary.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Mods could get you banned according to people familiar with From Software.

Would a no pause option bother me? Hmm.
I don't know. Not if I only need a washroom break. If there is an emergency, then losing my progress would be the last of my worries. I'm only one person so a pause option might affect others in their use cases.

 

[brucek]

I really miss games that were designed around a single player enjoying themselves as they chose, period. I get that I can't press pause on real life, which is exactly why I expect that functionality from my discretionary leisure time recreational activities.

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you suspend the console/PC or the VM you put the game in? Do they care and try to defeat that too?

 

[brucek]

This could get you banned according to people familiar with From Software.

That's the issue. The game itself is not offering you a choice of online play or solo play with pause, which would be sensible. Instead the game does not offer pause period. You can hack the game using a "cheat" to add it, which has the immediate impact of disconnecting you from online play, but may have further undefined disciplinary impacts at From software's discretion because you are a cheater in violation of their terms of service.

I am against cheating in online games and also against companies/games that define this as cheating.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Why even bother to play on PC? Its a hot buggy mess. I tried playing it an made it a little over an hour having plenty of issues. I got a refund from Steam. I5-12600k, 32GB DDR4, Windows 10 Pro updated, RTX 3070ti.

Patch 1.0.2.1 and it's running like a dream on my 5800X+2080 Super combo. I have no stuttering (but I changed a windows 10 setting that is supposed to help). The only thing I'm struggling with is kb+m, there are so many mappings to remember and I'm finding it a bit awkward at the moment. This is my first souls game though and I've only played a few hours. I'll give it some more time, otherwise I'm getting a controller. Other than that game is running very nicely. However, the fact you can't look in a direction other than that you are moving and how the camera swings very quickly is causing me nausea sometimes. Everyone is complaining about this and lobbying for a camera option to turn this off.

 

[hahahanoobs]

That's the issue. The game itself is not offering you a choice of online play or solo play with pause, which would be sensible. Instead the game does not offer pause period. You can hack the game using a "cheat" to add it, which has the immediate impact of disconnecting you from online play, but may have further undefined disciplinary impacts at From software's discretion because you are a cheater in violation of their terms of service.

I am against cheating in online games and also against companies/games that define this as cheating.

At the same time, sometimes you have to accept the fact that life isn't always fair, and no one is forcing anyone to buy or play the game. I pre-ordered BF2042 ffs. Think I'm all over the net still ranting about it? Nope. Life and incompetence happens and I still did it knowing that, so that's on me.

I'm just waiting for Elden Ring performance patches and pray the 60fps cap is removed soon. I'll still buy it if the cap remains (but not before the perf patch), because that's how everyone else is currently playing it and they aren't as passionately against it as much as others may be, so I can live with that.

 

[brucek]

At the same time, sometimes you have to accept the fact that life isn't always fair, and no one is forcing anyone to buy or play the game.

True enough. I have not bought or played the game. Nor am I complaining about it at work meetings. I do think it's fair game to chip in my two cents at a forum specializing in the interests of tech enthusiasts and indeed on an article which was written on this very topic.

 

[hahahanoobs]

True enough. I have not bought or played the game. Nor am I complaining about it at work meetings. I do think it's fair game to chip in my two cents at a forum specializing in the interests of tech enthusiasts and indeed on an article which was written on this very topic.

That's fine.

 

[FaTaL]

I have a ****ing life and in a single player game, I want a pause. unacceptable.

 

[BSim500]

I have a ****ing life and in a single player game, I want a pause. unacceptable.

Exactly. The game sounds great if you have the lifestyle of a 12yo school-kid during the summer holidays. For everyone else however, stuff like "no pause in single player at all" often comes across as the devs trying too hard to appeal to certain "communities" that spring up around "Souls-like" games and have a reputation for confusing "Ultra Leet Real Gamer Git Gud Hardcore Challenge (tm)" with "undiagnosed OCD" in all the wrong areas...

 

[Phaetos]

Been playing on PC for ~40 hours and had exactly 1 crash the entire time (and that was on a loading screen). I guess your mileage may vary.

I haven't had a crash or anything serious either. The only odd thing I've had is CPU process drops, it's like a stutter but when I look at Task Manager, you can clearly see on the graph where the CPU usage drops off to almost 0(Zero) at the moment of the stutter. GPU activity is fine at the same time. I've tried a few of the published fixes for stuttering including setting the Steam process to High priority, the game process to high priority, setting the shader cache in the nvidia control panel to unlimited. It's so brief and goes back to normal so fast, it doesn't affect gameplay, tho it hasn't done it during a boss battle yet. Give 'em a patch or two, they'll straighten it out, unlike CDPR and Cyberpunk.

 

[Slappy McPhee]

Been playing on PC for ~40 hours and had exactly 1 crash the entire time (and that was on a loading screen). I guess your mileage may vary.

Yeah, I have seen some friends have no issues at all and then a couple that ran into similar problems as me. Hasn't seemed to make a difference whether or not Intel or AMD either. Sucks.

 

[Slappy McPhee]

Patch 1.0.2.1 and it's running like a dream on my 5800X+2080 Super combo. I have no stuttering (but I changed a windows 10 setting that is supposed to help). The only thing I'm struggling with is kb+m, there are so many mappings to remember and I'm finding it a bit awkward at the moment. This is my first souls game though and I've only played a few hours. I'll give it some more time, otherwise I'm getting a controller. Other than that game is running very nicely. However, the fact you can't look in a direction other than that you are moving and how the camera swings very quickly is causing me nausea sometimes. Everyone is complaining about this and lobbying for a camera option to turn this off.

Yeah, I just decided that I am going to wait for a few months and let the dust settle. Kind a bummer, but it is what it is.