What makes a PC port "crappy"?

[The White Hunter]

Yeah it's just stiff to move around and navigate the environment in Fallout, the gunplay is bad to say the least and it really needs some work, even compared to playing archer classes in TES it's horribly stiff and sloppy at the same time.

I also hate the weapon degradation. I always hate that though.

Weapon degradation is a mechanic. To show off realism. It makes sense that such a thing would happen in the post apocalyptic world but the rate at which weapons degrade is so arbitrary that it might as well not be there.

[sub]And I liked the Archer class in Skyrim. It was fun being a medieval sniper. >.>[/sub]

Yeah it's just kind of really annoying that i can't repair past a certain level and that I can never find a gun that doesnt die in an hour or two and i can't repair it with just any scrap metal with a blow torch.

Archery is fun in Skyrim but not if it's all you do, since it gets boring 1 hitting everything in a dungeong from hundreds of metres away without being seen.

There's a great mod on the steam workshop for archery, adds a bunch of different kinds of arrows and such. -goes to check his subs-

The Archers Arsenal.

 

[XzarTheMad]

I can't define what makes a bad port, but one thing that always irks me is the unnessecary "context sensitivity" that is carried over from consoles due to the lack of buttons. In ME3, there is no reason for the sprint and the "take cover" button to be the same - for consoles, sure, but on my keyboard I should be allowed to have sprint on shift and 'take cover' on E, or whathaveyou. Menus a la Skyrim where it sometimes fucks up mouse selection, causing you to pick the wrong conversation option or messes with the inventory is also a ridiculous mistake that should be fixed. In general, a crappy port, to me, is one that fails to "fix" the limitations imposed on the gameplay and handling for the consoles. I have a keyboard with a lot of buttons - let me use them. As for the argument that I could just use a controller, I'd like to think that a good port is one that actually ports the game, rather than ask me to turn my computer into a console. I do not like controllers, I do not own a controller, and I do not want to be forced to buy and use a gadget that I dislike solely because a game does not want to conform to the standards of the machine it supposedly has been optimized to run on. A game with optional controller support but which does not shaft the PC experience, like Trine, is great; everybody wins. But if I am required to forego the equipment I already own simply because the devs wouldn't spend the extra week or two to make sure that their product runs properly on the PC, I will not buy nor recommend it to anyone.

 

[mParadox]

Yeah it's just kind of really annoying that i can't repair past a certain level and that I can never find a gun that doesnt die in an hour or two and i can't repair it with just any scrap metal with a blow torch.

Archery is fun in Skyrim but not if it's all you do, since it gets boring 1 hitting everything in a dungeong from hundreds of metres away without being seen.

There's a great mod on the steam workshop for archery, adds a bunch of different kinds of arrows and such. -goes to check his subs-

The Archers Arsenal.

See, I loved Archery. As it was. Amazing since I changed pretty much everything else in Skyrim. But, I did dislike the stealth bonus the game gave to Archery. It was too low in my opinion. It should've been like... 6 times the normal damage if hit unseen and from a distance.

Also, archery was pretty touted as an assassin thing. Good luck using it out in the open.

AND ALSO, I tried Archers Arsenal. It was good. Not a mod I would use all the time but it's fun to go on a rampage with.

 

[snekadid]

Using a controller to play PC games is not a bad thing, being forced to use a controller to play a PC game is a god damn travesty. Yes, a controller just works better for certain games, SaintsRow 3 being one because trying to use the driving controls with a keyboard was painful, but then I played Farcry 3 and driving with the keyboard is a great experience, so I'll chalk it up to different engines/game types but I have my eye on SR3.

My biggest complaint with bad PC ports is the lack of customization options, if I can't rebind keys(as far as I'm concerned console gamers should be able to rebind control buttons and I know a slew of console gamers that agree with me) I get really annoyed and my likelihood of maintaining interest in the game drops as frustration with key placement grows.


The graphics is a issue too, though a lesser one, as there is no universal setup that will work for everyone(you see the same issues on consoles so its again more of a industry problem than just a computer one) and if I have trouble seeing whats going one, reading text or interacting with the environment because the game lacks proper settings control then the game will be placed lower on my mental list of quality and game companies I'm likely to buy from again.

Then there are just plain stupid decisions that make me want to punch someone while screaming "What were you thinking?!", a example would be Mass effect 2, where the space map was a mess, you had to hold the mouse in the direction you wanted it to go and then as you passed over the tiny space that the game equated as being over the planet let go and click a tiny button that popped up elsewhere on the screen saying you wanted to check out that planet, which you often couldn't reach in time before the ship drifted past the planet. ME2 is a shooter, I want a mouse and keyboard to aim with, I do not want to have to plug in a controller every time I get to the map to pick planets to mine or do missions on just to have a cohesive experience.