We’ve already shared our list of our top 10 most optimized PC games of 2016, however we thought it would be cool to also share a list with the most unoptimized PC games of 2016. As always, we judge games based on their PC performance optimizations. As such, the games that are listed are not necessary bad games; they simply perform poorly on the PC platform.
In order to pick this list, we ran all games that were released in 2016 and had various performance issues. Some titles, like Need for Speed, Homefront: The Revolution and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, saw minor improvements via post-release patches, which is why they are not included on this list.
The good news here is that we could not pick 10 games that were/are unoptimized for the PC platform. Not only that, but both Far Cry: Primal and Space Hulk: Deathwing could had easily avoided their inclusion on this list. Ubisoft simply dropped the ball, while Streum On Studio could had delayed the game in order to address its performance issues (that appear to be due to the increased number of draw calls when lots of enemies appear on screen, which is why we’re almost certain that a proper DX12/Vulkan patch would do the trick).
Now we know that some of you will be wondering why Quantum Break is not included on this list. And the reason is simple; Quantum Break looks absolutely phenomenal. Its lighting system and global illumination solution are perhaps the best we’ve seen in 2016. Yes, Quantum Break is a really demanding title, however it’s also one of the most beautiful games of 2016.
So without further ado, here are the five most unoptimized PC games of 2016… at least in our humble opinion.
Once upon at time, the Dunia Engine was among the most ambitious engines out there. Fast forward a couple of years and here we are today with an engine that suffers from major single-thread CPU issues. As a result of that, Far Cry: Primal under-performs in a variety of PC systems. The game also suffered from some awful from mouse deadzone issues, however Ubisoft resolved them via a post-release patch. Here is hoping that Ubisoft will enhance the Dunia Engine 2 so it can compete with Frostbite 3, id Tech 6, Unreal Engine 4 and CRYENGINE.
“Overall, Far Cry: Primal has its issues. While the game looks gorgeous, it suffers from mouse deadzone issues (that will be hopefully fixed) and single-core CPU issues (that won’t be fixed as these issues are due to how the Dunia Engine 2 currently works). To its credit, the game is properly optimized for GPUs with 2GB of VRAM and does not suffer from the stuttering issues that plagued its predecessor. Still, Ubisoft will have to upgrade the Dunia Engine 2 so it can take advantage of multiple CPU cores (or ditch it in favour of the Snowdrop Engine).”
Space Hulk: Deathwing disappointed a lot of PC gamers. While Streum On Studio nailed the Warhammer 40K art style and offered some truly atmospheric environments, the game suffered from major performance issues, especially when there were a lot of enemies on screen. Space Hulk: Deathing is perhaps the only Unreal Engine 4-powered title that performs so poorly on the PC, and that’s a real shame. Whether a DX12 (or a Vulkan) patch will resolve the game’s performance issues remains to be seen.
“All in all, Space Hulk: Deathwing suffers from major performance issues and our guess is that DX11 is to be blamed for these issues. Unfortunately, these performance issues will affect all PC gamers. Funny thing is that if these performance issues are indeed caused by the increased number of draw calls and if they could be completely resolved by DX12, Space Hulk: Deathwing could easily hit our “Top 10 most optimized PC games of 2016” list.”
After Forza Motorsport 6: APEX, we expected a mind-blowing PC version of Forza Horizon 3. Instead, Forza Horizon 3 suffers from major performance issues on the PC. Contrary to Forza Motorsport 6: APEX, Forza Horizon 3 is plagued by single-thread CPU issues and noticeable stuttering (that is even worse than the one some PC gamers witnessed in Forza Motorsport 6: APEX).
“All in all, Forza Horizon 3 is the most beautiful open-world racing game that suffers from ridiculous single-core CPU issues. The game also suffers from really annoying stutters (worse than those witnessed in Forza Motorsport 6: APEX). We don’t know whether the single-core CPU issues or the game’s encrypted files are to be blamed here. Bottom line is that the game suffers from major performance issues on the PC. In order to overcome the game’s CPU issues, PC gamers will have to either use the latest Intel CPUs (that offer better performance per core) or overclock their CPUs.”
Ah Mafia III, a game that a lot of PC gamers were looking forward to. Unfortunately, Mafia III requires a really high-end system in order to be enjoyed with visuals and environments that do not justify these ridiculously high PC requirements. Mafia III is a blurry mess, looks underwhelming, its lighting system is so old-gen-ish, features a city that does not appear more alive than GTA V’s Lost Santos or Watch_Dogs 2’s San Francisco, and runs worse than both of these open-world titles.
“All in all, Mafia 3 is a huge letdown. While the game performs and looks better on the PC than its console brother, it’s nowhere up to what we’ve expected. Furthermore, the game comes with some ridiculously high and unjustifiable PC requirements (regarding 60fps). Mafia 3 already looks dated, ugly and so blurry, and that’s a real shame!”
It saddens us to say this, but Dishonored 2 is the most unoptimized PC game of 2016. This can be easily described as the “Batman: Arkham Knight” of 2016. Dishonored 2 had frame pacing and mouse movement issues (that have been slightly fixed thanks two some post-release patches), has major performance issues, and its visuals do not justify the game’s ridiculously high PC requirements. The first Dishonored was powered by Unreal Engine 3 and performed amazingly well on the PC platform. For its sequel, Arkane Studios decided to switch to id Tech 5, and that choice simply did not pay off.
“All in all, Dishonored 2 is a mess on the PC, even though it runs better than its console cousin. Yes, the PC version – provided you have the hardware – runs better than the console version. Still, the game suffers from major optimization and frame pacing issues. Not only that, but the game suffers from aliasing issues that can not be fixed unless you are fans of blurry visuals (SweetFX/Reshade will be handy in this title, no doubt about that). And that’s sad because there is a really interesting game underneath this – tech – mess!”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Avoid engine wins it.
BTW as a rest of the best of the worst I believe Telltale’s engine for Batman was even more c rap than their usual low standards.
No Man’s Sky deserved this honor
Then that would be admitting that it’s a game.
Yeah I said it.
Don’t do that to yourself, I’ve seen worse.
LOL. someone got butthurt…
I’m really surprised to see Primal in that list.
yeah, it worked for me right away.
Me too. Worked and looked great for me.
I have to agree with that statement. I was indeed surprised to find the gme in that list.
Dishonored 2 and Mafia 3 certainly deserve to be there but I would have picked Deus Ex: Mankind Divided over FC…
I agree, Far Cry Primal runs flawless on my system at 1440p and looks beautiful. I was amazed when I saw it on this list.
Shame you had issues but it ran fine for me with Norton and Kaspersky. I have no issue with Uplay and never have.
Where’s Deus Ex MD?
game is still buggy but runs ok, it barely drops below 60fps for me
should be there it runs like garbage for graphics it offers
The games performance problems literally come from MSAA… an option that the developers don’t even recommend people using. With my GTX1080, I got around 40fps on max settings with MSAA turned on. When I turned off MSAA for TTA+Sharpening, I got an average of 100fps. It’s literally a single setting people are too pigheaded to turn off because they expect their 5 year old machine to run everything perfectly.
1440p and no msaa will do just fine for me, maxing out everything is a psychological need for some people
If only turning off msaa would solve DX:MD fps issue…
you have a gtx 670, lower the textures to the lowest quality, disable AA and report back
Textures are bad enough at medium, but i’ll give it a go. Funny thing in Arkham Knight i lowered textures to low and the textures where of good quality (at least in the resolution i was playing) and the game was still good looking (also the FPS issues was fixed).
100 fps at the game that looks meh with poor antialliasing on with gpu that’s made for 4K is not something to brag around
I have a gtx 670 with MSAA turned off and various settings on medium. Sometimes the game runs smooth, other times the games lags like hell. Lots of better looking games with more modest system requeriments.
All games I avoided. Don’t care about Forza, though.
God, Dishonored 2 made me feel like I was playing games on a toaster. It was sad to see the game released in the state that it was in.
I saw a physical copy on sale for $20 about a month ago and still passed it up because of the horrid optimization. Even with a GTX 1080, i7 4790k and 16GB of RAM I still want to wait for more patches to come out, which is absurd.
Same here with almost identical specs. I really liked the first one and was looking forward to the second one. Too bad they f*cked themselves. Or the publishing company or something.
My specs are similar to yours only with a 980ti and the performance was still shoddy in certain areas on Medium settings, it is infuriating.
is it fixed yet or not?
More or less. It has greatly improved since its initial release, but I still would wait to see if they optimize it a bit more.
How in the hell did No Man’s Sky not top the list, much less even make an appearance?
Then we’d have to entertain the horrifying notion NMS was actually a game to make it on DSOG unoptimized PC games of 2016.
It’s a bad game but it runs perfectly fine on the PC, especially after all the patches that have been released
Wasn’t sure if the list was for launch versions or games in their current state. Far Cry and Mafia have gotten a lot better since launch for example. NMS had some of the worst stuttering I’ve ever seen at launch, which is when 99% of people played it.
Why would it be in this list? It ran just fine.
Gunny how PCgamer gave DH2 GOTY, despite it coming out like a hot mess.
I’d have added in DE: MD as well as NMS as well.
DE: MD is actually a pretty damn good port now. My system is an OC i7 4790k and an OC GTX 970, along with 16 GB ram, and I’m able to max everything out save for shadows and MSAA. I am using DX12 also. Inside buildings I average 80-100 fps, while outside I hover around 65 fps.
Yeah, but keep in mind that your build isn’t like mine or being the same for everyone else out there. What is optimized for you, won’t entirely be the same for me.
I’m just reporting my experience. There are many bugs I ran into though. The worst were these lines shooting around everywhere obscuring my vision in the open city.
I know you are, but it’s always best to keep in mind that the game won’t run exactly the same for everyone.
At 720p?
Nope at 1080p. My i7 and 970 only have moderate overclocks too. I do get framedrops into the low 50s every now and then but they are rare; however, when it’s day time in Prague I had to lower LOD and volumetric lighting to high instead of ultra since my frames were very inconsistent.
Arguing otherwise only implies you are a disgusting racist sexist homophobic cis white male unicorn !!
oh man, a simple “deplorable” would of sufficed
You missed the joke then. I was quoting fake gaming journalists whose only job it to push some obscure political agenda 😉
Oh boy… and I missed the “basket of deplorables” reference… silly me 🙂
maybe they played ps4 version heh
Maybe they locked the game to 30fps and stopped crying.
I don’t agree with Primal being on that list.
Ye me neither I don’t remember it running that bad, though I got tired of that game within couple minutes so what the hell I know
far cry
really :/
will be a giveaway for this games aswel? 😛
I would still give Dishonored game of the year despite everything
CoD 4 remaster should be in this list
Seriously ?
Yup runs like s*it on both AMD and Nvidia
Kudos for recognising that Quantum Break (DX11 version at least) is a visually insane game that more than justifies its steep system requirements. It’s a great pity that the game isn’t more widely recognised for its visual fidelity. Also, kudos for recognising that Homefront: The Revolution’s PC port is in pretty good shape now.
Quantum Break is really pretty (unlike Deus Ex) but too linear.
who has forgot Homefront? this game is a huge mess! where is NMS? Deus Ex? TOP 10 you can make it!
Homefront got fixed. And Mankind Divided also runs fine now.
They should’ve used Unreal Engine 4 or the older one at least, they did a huge mistake.
Probably Bethesda, being as greedy as hell, forced Arkane to use their inhouse engine, id Tech 5, in order to avoid paying to use Unreal Engine 4, which is owned by Epic Games.
It is sad to see such a great game come out in such a poor technical condition because of big publishers abusing any method they can think of to make more money.
Some users reported in Dishonored 2, most of the performance issues have been fixed. John, have you tested the game on patch 1.3 before making this list?
Ark: Survival Evolved should be on that list…
Still unoptimized POS.
Mankind divided is too ugly to justify the heavy requirements in order to run smoothly
Forza Horizon 3 being on this list is an absolute joke… I have 3 gaming PC’s in my house with a minimum GPU of a GTX980 and ending with a Pascal Titan X. I can run FH3 on my lowest system (i72600k@4.8GHz with a GTX980@1500MHZ and 16GB of DDR3@1866MHz) on High settings at 1080p at a vsynced 60fps and it never drops below 58fps (and even then for like 1 second) And on my Titan X system (i74790k@4.8GHz 16GB DDR3@2400Mhz) I can run the game on Ultra settings in 4K and it NEVER drops below 60fps… How is that “unoptimized”??? Considering how beautiful the game is and the fact that it is a AAA title, being able to run maxed in 4K at 60fps even with the TitanXP is a great result…
Stop the shilling Amiga 2. it runs like s**t and it’s a fact, maybe you can’t tell the difference. tbh FM6 must be in this list as well as DeusEx MKD.
Hmm i had no idea people had issues with Far Cry Primal.
Hmmm Far Cry Primal and Forza 3 ran great overall
Get outta here with that likening of Dishonored 2 to Arkham Knight. D2 was a mess at launch, yes, for all of two weeks. Arkane sorted it out right quick. I still can’t play Arkham Knight on PC without crashes.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided still runs like crap despite almost a dozen patches released already.