What do you expect out of a good console port to PC?

[Red Hawk]

PC games today, unless they are strategy games, are usually targeted to consoles and console players and ported over to PCs. This can lead to unsatisfactory PC gameplay. What do you think should be included in a good console to PC port?

For me, it's:

--High resolution textures: PC gaming rigs have a lot more memory available than consoles; games should let us use them.

--Customized user interfaces: (most) PC gamers don't use gamepads. So don't port over the same circle-style interface that accomodates gamepads. Hotkey menu and equipment buttons to the keyboard.

--Adjustable field of view: We don't sit as far away from our screens as console gamers do. Allow us to adjust the field of view to suit us.

--HD cinematics: This is one that no one seems to do -- everyone likes to use the aging Bink video format to save disk space. But Bink's quality at HD resolutions is horrible, and that's even if they were encoded at HD resolutions. Developers seriously need to start using better cinematic file formats.

--Support for PC features: Full multi-sample antialiasing, DirectX 11, hardware PhysX, Eyefinity, 3D Surround, etc. The gaming experience can be greatly improved by leveraging the hardware advantages and features of PC graphics cards.

--Proper optimization: Run your game engine through a goshdarn compiler. Skyrim was an offender on this one (which to their credit they did address with patch 1.4), and another recent offender was Spec Ops: The Line, which Eurogamer's Digital Foundry found that, despite having no particular visual improvements over the console versions, runs worse than Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3 do on PC. No, just...no. Any game that uses only one core on PCs now is doing it wrong.

With that said, what are some of your favorite "ports"? (probably the ones that you only grudgingly admit are ports) For me, one of the best ports I've played was Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It doesn't have high resolution textures or proper HD cinematics, but it does support DirectX 11 effects and has a fully customized user interface with adjustable field of view.

 

[BladeVenom]

I'm still trying to think of a good console port. I don't bother with them anymore. They usually suck.

 

[ApexBoost]

The biggest things to me are always PC specific interfaces, adjustable graphics settings (especially FOV), proper optimization and dedicated servers (if applicable). Its sad that these kind of things have turned into "features" instead of the building blocks of a game.

 

[Infraction Jack]

I use gamepads so it better have gamepad support.

 

[HeXen]

i use gamepads as well. You'd have to be some stuck up old school stubborn gamer to want to use a keyboard mouse for racing and some 3rd person or side scrolling games.
I can beat any type of SP game with either a gamepad or a mouse/kb and any racing game with my G27. But some games are just more comfortable with differnt input methods than others.

Interfaces i don't care about, i'm smart enough i can navigate any of them with either type of input.

 

[x-alki]

I except the game to play like it was made for a PC and not a console

 

[FalseChristian]

I think we're not gonna get any good console ports until the next-gen consoles come out in 2019.

 

[BladeVenom]

What was the last good port?

 

[CrystalBay]

no input lag..

 

[Ventanni]

1. Solid, well thought out mouse/keyboard controls.

2. Additional graphics settings to make the PC experience unique. Darksiders had no graphics options, although the game still looked great for PC.

3. Remove any timing-centric mashing of buttons to defeat bosses. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as a pathetic culprit of this mechanic.

4. More realistic FOV settings for PC users. I could not, for the life of me, get into the original Halo (for PC) and Deus Ex: Invisible War because of this.

5. Narrow corridor shooters like Fear 3 don't belong on the PC. While some can be original, like the original Fear was, they're overall pathetic gaming experiences. Even the original Unreal from 16 years ago had larger level design than this crap, and uses less memory. Console FPS makers need to start being more imaginative then guiding players around with teddy bears.

Best console port I've played on the PC so far has been Darksiders. I liked Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, but the boss fights annoyed the hell out of me for being "Press the [E] button now!" style mechanics. I mean, fucking really?

Fear 3 is probably the worst game I've ever played, and I loved the original Fear.

 

[turn_pike]

All of the above and :
- Save anywhere
- Auto save that dont overwrite old autosaves (at least have 4-5 autosave slots)
- Load more stuff like the whole area into memory at once
- For the love of Deities, lose the framerate cap like the one they have for Dead Space

 

[OVerLoRDI]

no input lag..

This is the killer for me. I am hyper sensitive to input lag.

 

[KaOTiK]

Every option imagineable
Optimized so my tandy 2000 they can run it on high with at least 89fps
no drm
90% off on day of release
release day same day or before consoles
at least 4 out of 5 women i pick have sex with me
refund when im finished with it
free everything

/signed delusional pc gamer

 

[-Slacker-]

Every option imagineable
Optimized so my tandy 2000 they can run it on high with at least 89fps
no drm
90% off on day of release
release day same day or before consoles
at least 4 out of 5 women i pick have sex with me
refund when im finished with it
free everything

/signed delusional pc gamer

I think that most of the requests above you are legitimate.

 

[KaOTiK]

I think that most of the requests above you are legitimate.

I was poking fun at the elitist that devs couldn't make happy almost no matter what they did. They normally only come out during a new games thread that is a console port, they come rant and proclaim they will never buy a game again from xx dev etc.

 

[Siberian]

It makes more sense to build for the PC and then dumb it down for console.

 

[Red Hawk]

I was poking fun at the elitist that devs couldn't make happy almost no matter what they did. They normally only come out during a new games thread that is a console port, they come rant and proclaim they will never buy a game again from xx dev etc.

Yeah, some people will just complain no matter what developers do. I just acknowledge that no port (or game, really) is perfect, recognize flaws when I see them, point them out politely, and move on.

It makes more sense to build for the PC and then dumb it down for console.

It really doesn't, unfortunately. The console game market is bigger than the PC game market (outside of MMOs and strategy games, which are really PC-only). If you build a game for PC, chances are you're not going to get it working well on consoles. Then you get more people ticked off at you for screwing the port to consoles than you would screwing a port to PC.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

It makes more sense to build for the PC and then dumb it down for console.

Couldnt agree more.

Like in the days when some games was made for PC and later on ported to XBox 360. They were shitty for XBox (Like all games are for it anyway) and good for PC, with the right FOV, menu interface, graphics etc..

In many ports coming from Xbox to PC they even dont bother to change the FOV, or at least make a options for it. You have to use ini/consol commands to fix it. And the menu systems are terrible for PC. Worst case scenario are those games where they didnt even bother to remove the 'Press X' option. Such games does not deserve our money. They don't even deserve to be pirated.

And by the way, why shouldnt the PC gamers deserve to have higher quality games VS consoles? We paid for the more expensive and more powerfull hardware in the hopes of getting much better games VS shitty consoles.

 

[Dkcode]

PC games today, unless they are strategy games, are usually targeted to consoles and console players and ported over to PCs. This can lead to unsatisfactory PC gameplay. What do you think should be included in a good console to PC port?

For me, it's:

--High resolution textures: PC gaming rigs have a lot more memory available than consoles; games should let us use them.

--Customized user interfaces: (most) PC gamers don't use gamepads. So don't port over the same circle-style interface that accomodates gamepads. Hotkey menu and equipment buttons to the keyboard.

--Adjustable field of view: We don't sit as far away from our screens as console gamers do. Allow us to adjust the field of view to suit us.

--HD cinematics: This is one that no one seems to do -- everyone likes to use the aging Bink video format to save disk space. But Bink's quality at HD resolutions is horrible, and that's even if they were encoded at HD resolutions. Developers seriously need to start using better cinematic file formats.

--Support for PC features: Full multi-sample antialiasing, DirectX 11, hardware PhysX, Eyefinity, 3D Surround, etc. The gaming experience can be greatly improved by leveraging the hardware advantages and features of PC graphics cards.

--Proper optimization: Run your game engine through a goshdarn compiler. Skyrim was an offender on this one (which to their credit they did address with patch 1.4), and another recent offender was Spec Ops: The Line, which Eurogamer's Digital Foundry found that, despite having no particular visual improvements over the console versions, runs worse than Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3 do on PC. No, just...no. Any game that uses only one core on PCs now is doing it wrong.

With that said, what are some of your favorite "ports"? (probably the ones that you only grudgingly admit are ports) For me, one of the best ports I've played was Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It doesn't have high resolution textures or proper HD cinematics, but it does support DirectX 11 effects and has a fully customized user interface with adjustable field of view.

I think you hit it right in the head.

Personally i'd rather have an ambitious PC exclusive title that pushes what is capable of current technology then backs off just a little bit so it runs well on mid range hardware with exclusive features for folks that paid out for insane set ups. All coded from the ground up for the PC rather than a console port.

Obviously I am dreaming.

 

[tommo123]

I liked Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, but the boss fights annoyed the hell out of me for being "Press the [E] button now!" style mechanics. I mean, fucking really?

i HATE QTEs. that game was good but those moments (and the pulling the ship down thing was awful).

thank god for those cheat codes and the bug that let you save. it meant you could kill the bosses without QTEs since your character was powerful enough. as it should have been.

 

[RussianSensation]

I think the best console port on the PC is Alan Wake.

- Seriously upgraded graphics
- Runs well
- Has good controls
- Has all the plethora of PC console options (FXAA, SSAO, etc.)
- Costs less than the console versions were
- Has Steam support

The improvements are definitely there over the console versions in every way. That's what a console port should be like for me - where I can't even tell it was a console game (admittedly, Alan Wake was original a PC game, which is probably why this comparison is not really fair ).

 

[The_Golden_Man]

I think the best console port on the PC is Alan Wake. Seriously upgraded graphics, runs well and has good controls. The improvements are definitely there over the console versions in every way. That's what a console port should be like for me - where I can't even tell it was a console game (admittedly, Alan Wake was original a PC game, which is probably why this comparison is not really fair ).

So you like this game? Was wondering about buying it on Steam. Costs 27.99 Euros here in Norway.

 

[carling220]

I thought Mafia 2 looked amazing on the PC was impressed!

 

[ApexBoost]

I'm excited to see how Borderlands 2 on PC pans out, they made some solid promises this time around. Now they just have to deliver.

 

[Ben90]

1:1 mouse movement