What are the worst PC ports you've ever played?

Right off the top of my head. I am playing suffering through GTA IV right now. That is a bad port but I cannot give it the worst award. Saints Row 2 out fails GTA IV on so many ways. Highly unstable but thankfully there are mods to at least try to fix it. Regardless it still crashes constantly and sometimes loses save games with no come back. I still prefer to play it any day over GTA IV.

 

Sort of a double standard as GTA IV works fine and does not crash for me. The problem I have with GTA IV is the complete lack of Anti-Aliasing, I am not able to turn up the graphics even slightly lest I be demoted to playing a substandard game (I am well in excess of the recommended specs), It is an awful game to play and I am lumbered with the soon to be destroyed Games For Windows Live. That malware disguised as a service is a hateful piece of software, sooner it is gone the better.

 

The worst port though? Let me check my list.

Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD is high up there, no online for PC when the consoles get it? Not good enough.

Burn Zombie Burn is in there but this is playable and still fun. plus the developers realised and did not make the same mistake twice.

Burnout Paradise is a hideous thing on PC. Shame as I have over 2000 hours on it for Console. I still play the PC port but it is not the same and the complete lack of DLC/support does not help. The modding community though? Golden. Some of the best people in there.

Sacred 2. Oh Sacred 2. I love you one of my favourite games and it is broken on every platform. Alas this is not a port issue but a company going bankrupt mid development issue. The PC suffered horribly with DRM issues caused by Secure Rom. now that a DRM free version has been released the game is a lot nicer. Rarely crashes at all anymore.

Saints Row The Third is not terrible but not up to snuff at all.

Sleeping Dogs. I can't really call it bad as it is an example of an excellent PC port. The Issue I have is the Community Manager, they knew how to fix the issue with AMD graphics cards and did not say one word until the community found the fix by trial and error. Only after that point did they say yes this fixes it and we knew this but did not want to tell you for another 2 weeks. Great game bad studio.

Test Drive Unlimited 2. Just not good enough but the studio were dealing with Atari cannibalising them during development. Shame really Eden were nice guys and soldiered on despite the publisher destroying them.

Metal Gear Solid 2. Poor show. 

 

I am sure there are more but that is just my personal list. Probably a little overcritical but that is just me. 

Many people may disagree with me. But I think the worst console ports I've played have to be Assassin's Creed 2 through Revelations. They have a fatal flaw which cause the games to freeze on multicore setups that Ubisoft didn't even BOTHER to fix over the course of all 3 games.

Almost everything that isn't PC exclusive really. Others have made good points about graphical optimisations, graphical options, framerate locks and mouse acceleration. However, my complaint is with clearly controller driven menu systems. They are inefficient, clunky and barely fit enough information on the screen because the text needs to be so large for TV screens. Maybe I'm wrong, but wouldn't menu adaptation be one of the easiest parts of the porting job?

Saint's Row 2 and Bully: Scholarship Edition, they are AWFUL. Still, finished both of them.

 

L.A. Noire isn't so good too...

Since playing the first Half-Life back in '98 i stuck to the PC when it comes to first person shooters. Sure there were some exceptions, like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and a few Halo's, but when it comes to a multi-platform release of a shooter it has always been the PC for me. For some reason i just don't find it comfortable aiming with that little right thumbstick, Makes me feel handicapped opposed to the accuracy and preciseness of a mouse.

Anyways.. to me, when it comes to bad ports, it's mostly the (mouse) controls that would make it or break it for me. Dead Space , even though being a third person shooter , is a perfect example of this. I would have played it on the console but when i realized there was a PC version as well i immediately thought that aiming and dismembering would be a lot less stressing with a mouse. Boy was i wrong on that one. It basically felt like the mouse was one big frustrating thumbstick. In other words, a big bad port in my book. Just a one on one money grabbing port.

And that's what it comes down to obviously. Many developers/publishers nowadays would like to make or save some extra money by bringing their title out on PC as well while keeping the conversion as simple and cheap as possible. Rockstar North being a good example of this. Every GTA after GTA 2 that has come out on PC thus far has felt like a straight port to PC to me. There is no denying it, the evidence is all there. Poor controls, poorly optimized and unstable.
People are begging for GTA IV to come to the PC. Well i ain't one of 'em because i already know what the end result is going to be like.

But these are third person shooters, GTA even having auto aim and including more elements than just shooting, so i'm not too fussed about playing them on a console.
What does grind my gears however is when something like the first Bioshock comes along (an FPS i have to play on the PC), and even though being an epic adventure, has a frustratingly controller'esk feel to it. I don't care what you say, that game has been designed for the consoles and then optimized for the PC. And this , unfortunately , has been happening to a lot of shooters in recent years. Some being worse off than others. Bioshock hasn't left a great impression on me in that sence, as goes for Halo 2. Crysis 2 was alright, but was compared to the first Crysis quite a step back.

Luckily it's not all bad when it comes to multi platform releases in the FPS genre. Valve still does a good job in making sure the PC version of a game actually feels like a PC game. Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, they all work great on PC. Just like multi platform titles Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare. Same game across all the platforms, but it felt like a genuine PC title on the PC.