Worst PC Ports

[heirdeux]

Sometimes the PC version of a game is not up to snuff, which leads to many complaints from players. Did one of your beloved titles make this infamous list?

Worst PC Ports : Read more

 

[nukemaster]

If Skyrim was a port it could be top of the list.
I know the games popularity may cause backlash over such a comment, but it does not change the facts.

So many mission breaking bugs(no 2 plays are the same because the bugs are different every time). Sure you can use console commands to "complete" these quests, but no patches from the developer have been released to fix these. Only community patches fix most of them.

 

[Cryio]

1) Battlefied 1 wasn't "bad" even on launch day. And it's absolutely perfect today.
2) Dead Space 3 wasn't "dramatically prettier" than consoles is your excuse? The game has higher rez textures, shadows and bokeh depth of field on PC, slightly better AO while having unlocked FPS and can be run at a higher resolution. Dead Space 3 on PC is superb.
3) Arguably Batman Arkham Knight doesn't deserve to be on "horrible PC ports", given it's absolutely superb today. It's either flawless or almost flawless.

So ... like usual, horrible list.

 

[Cryio]

Also, I don't get these lists. Forza Horizon 3 is superb on PC. Same I think for MK X.

Enslaved was pretty, ran fine and while there weren't graphical settings, the game ran fine on anything. So it's a good port.

Also, you highlight NFS MW 2012, yet you mention NOTHING about the fact the game has input lag, the defacto reason the game is so hated on PC. The game reacts 1-2 seconds after you press a button. And that makes it horrible and incredibly difficult on PC for no reason. It has no such problem on consoles.

 

[coolitic]

You forgot Halo: Combat Evolved.

 

[Gil_7_]

RAGE! was my worst experience of a ported game. They forced you to use a keyboard to steer thru a very winding race course. Something I just couldn't manage! One tap on the key would move you slightly , but the next would flip you sideways! IMPOSSIBLE!

 

[Blair_1]

I can concur that Assassin's Creed Unity still sucks even after all these years. Still has frame rate drops even on the lowest settings.

 

[therealduckofdeath]

I guess they could only find 12-13 games for the 15 list...?

 

[Martell1977]

I must have missed the time when Forza horizon 3 was having problems as I have not had any issues running the game. The visuals are impressive and I'm looking forward FH4.

 

[Verrin]

I can confirm that with the release of Death of the Outsider, Arkane still hasn't fixed the frame pacing issues that plagues even Dishonored 2 to this day. The microstutters are the most brutal I've seen in any game, although the frame rate is much improved (although that was never my biggest complaint).

Still, the only fix is to lock the game to 30, 60 or 120FPS with a frame rate cap, such as the one included in the in-game options, and have a powerful enough card to maintain that frame rate. FreeSync and G-Sync don't seem to help, nor does setting the refresh rate of your monitor to other refresh rates other than 30/60/120Hz. The game just doesn't like any frame rate besides those (as far as my tests have seen). This issue seems to be fundamental to the way the engine works.

 

[redgarl]

Cmon, Street Fighter 5 with no keyboard and Direct-X controller support was easily one of the worst game. Anything by Warner Studios like Mortal Kombat X and the last Batman was an abomination.

IMO, Deus Ex Mankind Divided is so poorly optimized, that you cannot run the game at all even with a 1080 GTX.

 

[Somasonic]

I can't speak to most of the games on the list but have to agree that Dark Souls was a garbage port and GTA IV certainly had it's issues (but was great once you got past them). Mrmmm Dead Space 3 was great, Enslaved was good although I agree it's a shame you had to edit an ini to get at all the settings (but if you're not used to doing this as a PC gamer then WTH?).

 

[randomizer]

Bugs and performance issues are the least of the problems with the NFS: MW reboot. The game is just dull. Unlike the original, the game gives you no reason to become the most wanted. It just tells you that you should. After a couple of hours driving around aimlessly I uninstalled it.

 

[mubin]

I still cant play coop properly in dead space 3

 

[Olle P]

I can't understand why keeping the graphics limitations from the console version is considered a serious flaw.
For me a "port" means a straight translation to make it run on another platform. Adding any new features that aren't mandatory (like keyboard support) for that platform is just a bonus.

 

[elho_cid]

Even console version of the AC:Unity had it's share of bugs. I normally expect console games to run flawlessly, but this title was far from it. Of >100 games I played on XB1, this was the single most troublesome experience. Still gorgeous game, though.

 

[acme64]

wait, did i read that right? dark souls had to have keyboard and mouse support modded in?

 

[RomeoReject]

If Skyrim was a port it could be top of the list.
I know the games popularity may cause backlash over such a comment, but it does not change the facts.

So many mission breaking bugs(no 2 plays are the same because the bugs are different every time). Sure you can use console commands to "complete" these quests, but no patches from the developer have been released to fix these. Only community patches fix most of them.

Dear god, would it ever.

Several of these games have "locked" framerates because the dev was too lazy to throw in unlocked framerates; Skyrim has a locked framerate because going higher than the limit actually breaks the damn game.

 

[R_1]

LPT1

 

[blppt]

Dishonored 2 was a mess, probably thanks to the engine. Even with 2 1080s in SLI at 1080p, you would get choppy framerates in certain areas, and it was even worse on my Radeon box, which never got decent CF support. And this was months after the release, hasnt gotten any better since.

 

[10tacle]

3) Arguably Batman Arkham Knight doesn't deserve to be on "horrible PC ports", given it's absolutely superb today. It's either flawless or almost flawless.

So ... like usual, horrible list.

What constitutes a horrible port is how it runs at release even after patches. Further, also how quickly the developer responds to them. BAK was so bad for months on end after patch after patch that many gave up, and uninstalled it to make room for other games. And asked for a refund. I'm one of them, but I couldn't get a refund because it was one of two games for free I got with a GTX 970 purchase. The fact it runs better some 2+ years after initial release does not warrant it as a good port "today."

 

[Crashman]

LPT1

What about internal COMM port headers, where you never knew if the breakout plate was wired the right way?

I was going to say 25-pin external SCSI, because it looks kinda like an LPT, the cables cost 4x as much, and the controller cards were often a problem.

 

[blppt]

"Skyrim has a locked framerate because going higher than the limit actually breaks the damn game."

Forget about that...the game engine was so poorly optimized on launch that they didnt even set an SSE flag in the compiler. Yes, thats right, Skyrim at launch, in the year 2011 was using x87 and MMX code. A wonderful enthusiast who went by the name of Alexander Blade, if memory serves, created a wrapper that translated the calls to SSE (Skyboost?), like every freaking modern cpu capable of running the game in the first place had on board. MAJOR performance boost. Thats just inexcusable--and if it was a matter of stability, why didnt they fix the million other game-crashing bugs before launch?

People love to say devs are lazy, but my God, this was one of the silliest omissions ever. Bethesda eventually released the properly optimized code in an official patch a month or two later.

Bethesda has a bad habit of relying on the modders to fix and optimize their launch games in the FO/ES universes. Thank God for these people.