The Final of Us on PC is a uncommon disappointing PlayStation port at launch

I used to be anticipating to write down about how The Final of Us Half I arriving on PC is the most recent instance of an incredible PC port of a Sony PlayStation title. Sadly, that’s not the case. The Final of Us Half I arrived on PC yesterday and gamers aren’t completely happy. Out of greater than 9,000 opinions within the Steam retailer, 67 p.c are unfavorable.

PC gamers are reporting points that vary from random crashes and stuttering, all the way in which as much as lengthy shader compilation occasions and characters randomly changing into dripping moist in minimize scenes. The sport additionally seems to be poorly optimized, taking on massive quantities of VRAM on techniques and dropping frames. I’ve personally skilled crashes and random body charge drops by myself take a look at system, which is a top-end gaming PC geared up with an RTX 4090.

It’s unhealthy sufficient that PlayStation studio Naughty Canine has needed to difficulty an announcement. “The Final of Us Half I PC gamers: we’ve heard your considerations, and our group is actively investigating a number of points you’ve reported,” the studio tweeted from its official account. “We are going to proceed to replace you, however our group is prioritizing updates and can handle points in upcoming patches.”

The response comes practically two months after Naughty Canine delayed the discharge of The Final of Us Half I on PC, after saying it needed to “be sure that The Final of Us Half I PC debut is in the very best form potential.” The extra few weeks of improvement have been supposed to make sure the sport “lives as much as your, and our, requirements.”

The sport was additionally alleged to launch on Steam Deck, after Naughty Canine co-president Neil Druckmann teased it final 12 months and Valve used the title in a latest advertising and marketing picture for its handheld gaming PC. The Final of Us Half I isn’t verified for the Steam Deck but, and it takes round an hour for the shaders to compile on the hand-held machine. Should you attempt to run the sport earlier than that you simply would possibly as effectively hand over, as you’re going to get extremely poor efficiency till the shader processing is full. However ready that one hour for shaders to compile is half of the two-hour Steam refund window, which is lower than very best.

Even as soon as shaders have compiled on the Steam Deck, efficiency nonetheless isn’t nice. Throughout minimize scenes the body charge holds strong, however within the opening scenes of the sport I noticed body charges usually underneath 30fps and even 20fps with a mixture of low and medium settings and FSR high quality enabled. Others are seeing comparable outcomes. It appears like Naughty Canine might want to do much more work to optimize this on Steam Deck and get it absolutely verified.

Skilled reviewers and critics haven’t been in a position to sound the alarm as a result of no one received codes earlier than the sport launched yesterday. That’s often a warning signal {that a} recreation is coming in sizzling, and after the delay to launch it actually feels just like the builders ought to have been given much more time to shine this PC port. It has left many followers, myself included, questioning if the PC port was rushed out to reap the benefits of HBO’s well-received Final of Us TV present. Given that is already a remake of a recreation launched a decade in the past, there was little must rush the port.

Quite a lot of the crashes and basic efficiency points could possibly be right down to shader constructing points. Prolonged shader compilation steps and in-game stutter have plagued many latest PC titles, and builders have more and more turned to compiling them when the sport first hundreds to keep away from stuttering down the road.

Iron Galaxy and Naughty Canine have teamed up for The Final of Us Half I PC port, and it seems that a buggy model of the Oodle decompression library that the group is utilizing could possibly be inflicting efficiency and shader constructing points. Some Reddit customers have discovered that changing the library with an older model has improved efficiency and dramatically sped up shader constructing occasions.

If the Oodle decompression library is certainly inflicting points then this could possibly be a comparatively fast and simple repair to deal with among the preliminary issues, however I think the shader compilation at launch gained’t disappear solely. Iron Galaxy beforehand opted for this method for Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves on PC. Digital Foundry labelled that effort “an achieved however unambitious PC port,” and famous its points with stuttering and cargo occasions.

The disappointing launch of The Final of Us Half I on PC follows some spectacular latest ports from Sony’s PlayStation PC effort. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales are each nice PC ports, and final 12 months’s God of Struggle launch on PC was among the finest but. Whereas Returnal and Sackboy each suffered from some stuttering for his or her PC debuts, they have been each higher examples of PlayStation PC ports than the technical points that plagued Horizon Zero Daybreak on PC practically three years in the past.

Sony now desires half of its video games to be on PC and cellular by 2025, with some formidable plans to develop its gaming presence past its PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles. “Now we have the chance to maneuver from a state of affairs of being current in a really slim section of the general gaming software program market, to being current just about all over the place,” stated PlayStation chief Jim Ryan final 12 months.

References to a PlayStation PC launcher have been additionally noticed in Spider-Man Remastered for PC, suggesting that Sony could possibly be PlayStation Community integration for future PC video games. Sony additionally began utilizing a PlayStation PC label in 2021, acquired a PC port developer, and launched its personal PC gaming screens.

This PlayStation PC push sounds promising for PC players, however many will now be ready to see what Sony does subsequent. The whole The Final of Us franchise has bought by way of greater than 37 million copies, and this 12 months has already been huge for The Final of Us due to the TV adaptation. This week’s launch was alleged to be one other huge second for PlayStation video games on PC.

June additionally marks the 10-year anniversary of the sport, which implies the PC port has put a brief dampener on The Final of Us’ huge 12 months. Porting console video games to PC has by no means been a simple experience for any developer, and Iron Galaxy and Naughty Canine will now want to maneuver rapidly to sort things up.