What makes a PC port "crappy"?

[Rylee Fox]

I started doing PC gaming a couple of years ago and my steam collection is well over 100 games now so I like to think I'm familiar with PC gaming now. There is one thing that always bugs me though.

I frequently hear people say that a port of a game from console to PC is very bad and having played a few of those games myself (a newer one being Dark Souls) I don't really understand where the complaint is from.

Graphics: Sometimes I see people say that the PC port is bad because you can run it on the highest settings and it won't make your computer explode. I say is that such a big deal? Graphics aren't everything and I enjoy games just fine that don't push my (admittedly crappy) laptop to its limits. I run Skyrim on medium graphics, although I can run on ultra I just get a crapload of slowdown but its actually still reasonably playable. A game doesn't need amazing graphics to be good.

Controls: I see people say that if keyboard/mouse controls aren't perfect the port is bad, or if a controller is better suited to the game the port is bad. I don't see how. If a controller would work better, just use it. I've beaten Super Meat Boy and used a controller to do that, though when playing through XCOM: Enemy Unknown I haven't even ever thought of using my controller. In some games, like Borderlands, I've used both. I say, is the game still playable? If yes, move on.

I ask you, what do you say makes a PC port bad? Feel free to tell me I'm wrong as long as you tell me why and have a good reason. (I love a good debate)


Oh also I'm planning to start my 4th playthrough of XCOM: Enemy Unknown (I really love that game). I have finished it on normal twice (I'm not happy to admit I used a lot of save scumming for that, feel free to hate me. ) Though I just did a runthrough on classic without save scumming and finished while only losing a total of 8 soldiers. Think I could run a successful ironman impossible?

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

As long as it runs well with good FPS , and looks as good as it should. Minimal bugs and such.

I know most people will say it must have Anti Aliasing, HD Texture Downloads, FOV SLider, bu as long as what the criteria I have above is filled, then I couldn't be happier.

 

[Rylee Fox]

As long as it runs well with good FPS , and looks as good as it should. Minimal bugs and such.

I know most people will say it must have Anti Aliasing, HD Texture Downloads, FOV SLider, bu as long as what the criteria I have above is filled, then I couldn't be happier.

What do you mean by "looks as good as it should"? What do you base that on? For me if it looks as good as it did on the console, I'm happy with it.

 

[mParadox]

No bugs, that's important.

Proper support for keyboard and mouse. That means adding support to re assign keys. An option which is left out in some games, I find.

Proper acknowledgement that PC gamers more or less use keyboard and mouse. Seriously, have you seen the UI of Skyrim and Assassin's Creed 3? Absolutely atrocious. Sure it works well with a controller, probably even marvelously but it's a complete chore navigating it with keyboard and mouse.

FOV slider. It's important. People play games to escape reality, not get sick. Motion sickness is a very real problem when the FOV scale is reeeeeeeeeally down.

 

[Rylee Fox]

No bugs, that's important.

Proper support for keyboard and mouse. That means adding support to re assign keys. An option which is left out in some games, I find.

Proper acknowledgement that PC gamers more or less use keyboard and mouse. Seriously, have you seen the UI of Skyrim and Assassin's Creed 3? Absolutely atrocious. Sure it works well with a controller, probably even marvelously but it's a complete chore navigating it with keyboard and mouse.

FOV slider. It's important. People play games to escape reality, not get sick. Motion sickness is a very real problem when the FOV scale is reeeeeeeeeally down.

I suppose you didn't totally read my OP. I do own skyrim and I agree the interface was built for a controller, which is why I use one. =P Is using a controller with your PC really that bad?

I have to leave for work now and won't be able to be back online until tomorrow so no more responses from me. I'll catch up next time I get on. Please continue everyone.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I don't really get it either really. If the game works as it does in it's original formet, I see nothing "crappy" about it. As the OP says, however, it really does seem like "crappy port" is really used to mean "wasn't improved in some way for my system of choice."

 

[mParadox]

I suppose you didn't totally read my OP. I do own skyrim and I agree the interface was built for a controller, which is why I use one. =P Is using a controller with your PC really that bad?

I could never get used to playing FPS with a controller. It's too... slow. Precise head shots with a bow and arrow is tough with a controller you see. >.> And I do enjoy dispatching everyone without making a sound, <.<

I use K+M for FPS and RTS, more or less. I've recently acquired the habit of using controllers in Third Person games. It's easier. Not for Racing though. I don't know why but playing a racing game on a keyboard is waaaaaaaaaaay more fun than on a controller. <.<

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

If the game doesn't run well with a PC, regardless of hardware, it's a bad port. GTA4 can barely run at any decent framerate out of the box (you can mod it to make it playable), regardless of how powerful a computer you play it on, that makes it a bad port.

If a game doesn't allow you to use a mouse in menus, that's a bad port, or if the controls aren't set up to utilize the keyboard layout well, that's a bad port. If the game highly limits your options in terms of graphics and sound settings, that's a bad port.

 

[Bostur]

One of the first things I usually notice in games ported from consoles is the menu system and UI in general. Console games tend to have menus nested several levels deep, which I suppose is necessary for a television, but is wasteful on a high resolution monitor. On a PC it's useful to have smaller UI elements and put more on the screen. This kind of thing is not a dealbreaker, but it is annoying nonetheless for people who are used to handle software in an efficient manner.

Another typical issue is poor mouse support. Having menus that utilize highlighting for buttons and keys in addition to a mouse pointer tend to often bug out. It's not atypical for such menus to select something different than what the user clicks on. Skyrim in particular handles mouse support in menus in a horrible way, to the point that one can easily drop or sell the wrong items.

Then there is the matter of controls. I prefer to use a mouse and keyboard for most games, because that is what I am the most accustomed to. For some games other types of controls are better, when playing a flight sim or a racing game an analogue stick is far better. But I prefer old fashioned PC joysticks in these case. I don't like console controllers because they feel too small to me, and it's uncomfortable to have my hands so close together.
In 3D games that run either from a first or third person perspective, mouse and keyboard is almost always a better control method, so when such a game works poorly with a mouse it's a clear sign of a low quality port.

Field of view and camera movement when done badly can completely ruin a game for me. If I don't have the awareness to notice what is going on, I can't play the game properly. Darksiders 2 suffers from this badly.

For people who are used to playing console games, I imagine many of those issues feels trivial. But for people used to play PC games a combination of those flaws can really make a big negative impact. I'm almost afraid to say it, but we have been used to better quality games and software, at least when measuring quality by technical standards.

 

[DoPo]

I suppose you didn't totally read my OP. I do own skyrim and I agree the interface was built for a controller, which is why I use one. =P Is using a controller with your PC really that bad?

Yes, keyboards and mice are ubiquitous, controllers aren't. That's all that needs to be said on the matter. But since I expect follow up questions, let me expand a bit - if the software disregards the default and expected input method, then that's just bad from usability standpoint and it flies directly in the face of several decades of standardisation and evolution of computing that have been trying to NOT do that.

 

[DazZ.]

Instead of saying what makes them bad I'll list things I feel they need, if a port hasn't got all of these it would need to have immensely good gameplay as I would get annoyed with any of these every at least once every 10 mins.

-Decent framerate on competent hardware, at least 60fps as that's what my monitors support.
-FOV settings.
-If the game has quick time events, actual keyboard controls on screen not random icons (see AssCreed1, it had a fist and some other things and when you're supposed to quickly hit the button or die it gets frustrating. At least I think it was AC1.)
-Finally controls that are responsive with a keyboard/mouse setup, whilst preferably not reusing buttons for the same action. A use key that opens doors and interacts with things is fine, but having the same button for jump, heal, shout and breakdance gets fiddly and really irritating when there are buttons either side of the key not being used or able to be mapped. Obvious exaggeration aside at least give each function it's own optional mappable key, like Red Orchestra 2 has the same key for cover, heal and pick up stuff, however you can rebind each to it's separate key if you wish. That games not a port but it shows how stuff should be done.

Other things like UIs and low textures I can usually look past and get over eventually if the games good enough, I don't even mind having to manually set FOV sliders in .ini files or even bind my W key to set FOV to 90 as well as walk forward so that the FOV doesn't reset itself constantly (A Borderlands 1 problem), just so long as it can be adjusted.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Limited settings, we have all this power give us something other than resolution and a texture filtering option.
An unstable framerate regardless of hardware, arkham city ran maxed out dx11 at a solid +-50 frames.... with random drops in the single digits for no reason making it frustrating to play.


Things that make a good port. High res textures, a stable framerate on capable hardware, rebindable controls with controller support, maybe a reworked menu system, and full graphical settings support.

 

[Auron]

shitty always on irreversible acceleration affecting the sensitivity tracking making it feel like a console game(check dark soul's, halo and probably more I cannot remember), bad fov options(none at all usually.), no graphics options for lower end machines(then again ports aren't really demanding at all in most cases.), key mapping, Dark souls is the paragon(or rather, renegade *wink* *wink*) example of all that far as I'm concerned back at release the game was copy pasted into the PC and it was horribly terribly unplayable with a mouse because of acceleration unlike every other third person game ever I own here not to mention it did badly on all other areas as well.


First sign of a terribly bad port = there's a green A button with confirm right by and a red b with back.


Oh yeah, big fucking gripe -> Elder Scrolls inventory since Oblivion, completely consolized and a pain in the ass to use with the mouse because you usually can't easily scroll through the items to make it easier to use with a controller, fortunately there's a dedicated modding community and the tools are great so it's one of the first things to be fixed.

 

[The_Lost_King]

No bugs, that's important.

Proper support for keyboard and mouse. That means adding support to re assign keys. An option which is left out in some games, I find.

Proper acknowledgement that PC gamers more or less use keyboard and mouse. Seriously, have you seen the UI of Skyrim and Assassin's Creed 3? Absolutely atrocious. Sure it works well with a controller, probably even marvelously but it's a complete chore navigating it with keyboard and mouse.

FOV slider. It's important. People play games to escape reality, not get sick. Motion sickness is a very real problem when the FOV scale is reeeeeeeeeally down.

I suppose you didn't totally read my OP. I do own skyrim and I agree the interface was built for a controller, which is why I use one. =P Is using a controller with your PC really that bad?

I have to leave for work now and won't be able to be back online until tomorrow so no more responses from me. I'll catch up next time I get on. Please continue everyone.

If I don't want to play with a controller, I shouldn't have to. There are games I would rather play with a controller(DMC for one) and there are games I play with KB&M. If I want to play with KB&M, I would like it if the game was playable with it.

I don't like it when you can't click on things on the menu. Only keyboard menus are an obvious sign of a bad port. FOV sliders would be nice. Graphics usually don't bother me because my computer does not do steroids.

 

[sanquin]

Crappy UI that's made for consoles.
Dodgy controls that would work fine with a controller.
Obvious glitches/bugs that don't appear on the console version.
Badly optimized so the game runs with low fps or some such.
Limited settings to change.
No FoV settings for first person games.

Some of them count more than others. Like the controlls and crappy UI.

 

[Danceofmasks]

A lot of things, many of which are UI related, but my biggest bugbear is poor optimisation.
Put Saints Row 2 on an i7 with a titan, and it will STILL run like ass.
On a machine that's significantly more powerful than the console from which the game's ported, it should not run worse. Ever.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

For a PC port to be adequate, it pretty much needs:

A field of view slider that goes to 90, at least on first person games
No major performance issues
Plays acceptably with keyboard and mouse, even if a gamepad works better
Native gamepad support
No bugs that aren't present in other versions of the game
Some amount of graphics options
Rebindable keys
No capped framerate
A useable interface in more menu-heavy games
An option to turn off fucking mouse acceleration (or really, just not have it be in there in the first place)

Anything that's in addition to these stuff, like hi-res textures, modding support, fancy DirectX 11 graphics options, etc, are all bonus. Not necessary, but excellent when they're included.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

No bugs, that's important.

Proper support for keyboard and mouse. That means adding support to re assign keys. An option which is left out in some games, I find.

Proper acknowledgement that PC gamers more or less use keyboard and mouse. Seriously, have you seen the UI of Skyrim and Assassin's Creed 3? Absolutely atrocious. Sure it works well with a controller, probably even marvelously but it's a complete chore navigating it with keyboard and mouse.

FOV slider. It's important. People play games to escape reality, not get sick. Motion sickness is a very real problem when the FOV scale is reeeeeeeeeally down.

I suppose you didn't totally read my OP. I do own skyrim and I agree the interface was built for a controller, which is why I use one. =P Is using a controller with your PC really that bad?

I have to leave for work now and won't be able to be back online until tomorrow so no more responses from me. I'll catch up next time I get on. Please continue everyone.

You can get a mod that changes Skyrim's UI called SkyUI, it does require the Skyrim Script Extender (both of which are installed incredibly easily if you know how to navigate a computer). If you have a crap UI but with good mod support then it's fine, like Skyrim, but if you don't have good mod support then it's totally un-acceptable. As for the controller thing, some games pretty much require a controller because they're simply better than KB+M. Super Meat Boy literally says that the game is best played with a controller, and every PC gamer would agree.

OT:
What makes an acceptable PC Port:
.FoV Slider or some easy way to change the FOV if it's first-person (highly recommended for third person)
.No mandatory frame-rate cap
.Proper resolution options
.Ability to key-bind
.Dedicated servers for multiplayer
.No mouse-acceleration
.UI with KB+M prompts

Take the opposite of those things and you've got an example of a crappy PC port.