Sometimes there are some really great games with really terrible ports. PC games are usually on the receiving end of these terrible ports. A shame really because it tarnishes what would otherwise be an awesome gaming experience across every platform.
Over the years there have been certain ports on PC that were released in absolutely dire states of brokenness. Some games have been repaired thanks to patches from the developers or publishers, where-as other games have required hands-on mods from the community to get them working right on PC. Hence, we decided to take a look at 7 great games with truly horrible PC versions.
GTA IV
When Rockstar dumped GTA IV on PC months after it released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, gamers were already peeved they had to wait a fairly long time before getting their hands on it, but when they found out that the game was a broken mess on PC, they almost had a digital riot. The problem wasn't just that the game was late, but it was one of the most unoptimized games ever ported to PC in the history of gaming. I only wish this was hyperbole. PC gamers had to wait years before the game was patched and modded to finally work properly with decent frame-rates.
Saints Row 2
THQ and Volition released Saints Row 2 on the Xbox 360 and PS3 to great applause, awesome sales and a lot of critical praise. Unfortunately they released the PC version as some kind of afterthought. The controls were pretty bad even though it did support the keyboard and mouse – the big issue was that the gamepad compatibility was poorly implemented. Graphically the game was a-okay but it suffered from a lot of performance issues throughout. Like a lot of other games on this list the PC version required a bit of modding and optimization from the community in order to improve the stability and frame-rate, finally making it playable.
Toukiden: Kiwami
Koei Tecmo's Toukiden: Kiwami was pretty well received on the PS Vita and PS4. The game is a neat Monster Hunter-style clone that seemed like it would be an easy fit on PC. Unfortunately Koei decided to take some shortcuts with the game, opting out of including mouse support, not allowing for key-rebinding, supporting only Xbox 360 or PS3 controllers and actually hard-locking the frame-rate to only 30fps. Of course, with the poor optimization the game's frame-rate dipped well below 30fps at times. This could have been an easy opportunity for Koei to score some solid points with the PC audience but they screwed up right out of the gate.
Zombi
You know a game has problems when even the positive reviews warn you that there's a major bug where the game crashes often. That's sort of the story with Ubisoft's PC port of Zombi, the London-based zombie survival game that originally launched on the Wii U as ZombiU. The common problems that many users ran into included low frame-rates at times, the crashing bug, no graphics options and a lack of proper keyboard and mouse support. The PC version is also further hampered by Ubisoft's bloated Uplay software, which is a third-party social DRM service that hasn't really seemed to do much of anything right since Ubisoft brought it into existence. Making Zombi more difficult to play is just another item on the long list of things PC gamers don't like about Uplay.
Batman: Arkham Knight
This game had so much potential. It's frightening to think that over the course of the entire summer Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Knight was left off the Steam store while the developers repaired all the game's bugs. It's even crazier to think that the game required more than four months of bug fixing and patches. It lets you know just how broken the game is. Shortly after Arkham Knight launched thousands upon thousands upon thousands of PC gamers filed negative reviews for the game not working and requested refunds in mass. From game crashes, to save file bugs, to graphics glitches and poor frame-rate, Batman: Arkham Knight ticked a lot of boxes on the checklist of things PC gamers hate in console ports.
Dark Souls
Bandai Namco really screwed the pooch with the original release of Dark Souls on PC. The game was riddled with bugs, had terrible graphics options and worst of all, wasn't properly playable with a keyboard and mouse. The game was nearly unplayable for a lot of gamers but modder Durante came to the rescue with a number of mod fixes for the game. He managed to add more graphics options, better stability, better resolutions, HUD fixes and optimize the game so PC gamers could enjoy Dark Souls the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It would be a frightening thing to think about what the game would be like on PC without Durante.
Ubisoft and PC ports haven't been on the best of terms. When Capcom had Ubisoft port over the popular Resident Evil 4 from PS2 and GameCube, it seemed like it would be a harmless venture... right? Wrong. Somehow Ubisoft's port of the popular third-person horror-action title resulted in lower resolution textures, practically no mouse support and piss-poor controls and graphics options. The modding community ended up stepping in and working wonders for the game by adding proper gamepad support, HD textures, upgraded models, and they overhauled the environment to make it cleaner and clearer for PC gamers. A great game on console ruined by a very poor PC port.
