As we’ve already said, each and every month we’ll be looking at some PC games that came out in 2017 and suffered from performance or optimization issues at their time of release. So, today we’ll be focusing on BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk; a KOEI Tecmo game that came out on February 21st, 2017, on the PC and has not received a single PC patch.
As we wrote in our PC Performance Analysis, BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk had a lot of potential. While the game suffered from some optimization issues – that KOEI Tecmo has still not fixed – it also did not support mouse and displayed gamepad-only on-screen indicators. Contrary to Nioh, though, KOEI Tecmo didn’t bother addressing these issues.
This basically means that the Environment option is still bugged and comes with a huge performance hit. Therefore, and in order to get a smooth gameplay experience, PC gamers will have to drop that particular setting to Low.
To its credit, KOEI Tecmo appears to be supporting its latest titles with patches, however, it’s a shame that this game was left to its fate. Let’s also not exclude the fact that the game is still being sold at a full price (59,99€), even though its post-launch support has been non-existent.
Similarly to NieR: Automata, though it’s from a different publisher, we don’t expect to see any patches, fixes or improvements to BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk!
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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Really bad reviews. Still way, way overpriced. No post release support.
So basically KOEI Tecmo doesn’t want PC gamers to buy this game. Works for me.
Whatever you want to tell yourself.
because all jap devs are console only focused schills. i don’t remember any jap dev who for real give a f’k about pc plat beside blah-blah-blahs on camera during marketing campaigns.
I loved the game and it ran fine for me. I’m not braindead and I use a controller for games that suit it. I am pissed that the risque Casca costume was never on PC.
Nothing against the game since i actually like some musou games, i would kind agree that a controller is more suited but to say things like “I’m not braindead and I use a controller for games that suit it” you do know that is your opinion right ? I know plenty of people who prefer to play almost everything in a mouse and keyboard.
It is the opinion of some people that blacks are an inferior race. Some people have opinions that are stupid and wrong.
Nice straw man there, i guess any further responses after somehting like this will be irrelevant.
Oh my! Few things surprise me on the internet nowadays but that reply of his sure did. smh
That’s not really an opinion. If you use mouse and kb to play a game designed from the ground up for controller, IE every console game ever made, you are a moron. You should not be catered to.
Another Straw man ? But seeing as u agree with the statement he made below i should not be surprised.
Could u please point to me where i stated that everyone that prefers a mk should be catered ? I simply pontied out the falacy that just because somone prefers mk even on a game that could be played “better” on a controler its not a “braindead” for doing it so, it’s just their preference even if their preference it’s not the same as your preferences.
This is a simple example of how retarded this logic is : Do you prefer a controller or a wheel to play racing games ? Using your logic i could simply argue that both could be wrong and both could be right.
If you use a wheel you are, as you have put it a moron. Because obviously the game was designed to work on a controler from the ground up since u know it’s the choice of the masses, so obviously it would work better on a controller making the right choice right ?
But i could also argue since cars actually have wheels anyone not using it it’s a moron because you know that it’s the obvious choice since it’s actually representing reality despise that fact that some games don’t even have native suport for them.
It is a braindead thing to do. You’re intentionally handicapping yourself at the game without a legitimate reason besides “I prefer teh mouse”.
And no, what you think is your brilliant logic is completely incorrect. Most racing games were meant to be played with a controller. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find even one single racing game designed to be played with a racing wheel and pedals, outside of an actual arcade game.
well done!! Just when they probably thought all was forgotten! Point the finger and shoot the stink eye at KOEI, DSO never forgets!
Nioh and DOA 5 is made by tecmo,and they at least release some patch and fix some (minor) performance .On the other hand,a game made by KOEI seems lack of support or non existent+abandoned after release
They cant improve perfection
Yeah wanted to buy it for a long time, but 30euros are not even worth on berserk
According to SteamSpy it went on sale for $30 middle of last month so it was probably 30 Euros but 30 Euros is more than $30. Right now that converts to about $37. Still too much imo. According to SteamSpy it sold poorly at around 35,000 owners.
Yeah gonna wait for a better sale, even tho that game is dead even in price drop
Nioh and DOA 5 is made by tecmo,and they at least release some patch and fix some (minor) performance .On the other hand,a game made by KOEI seems lack of support or non existent+abandoned after release
No surprise of the game is as bad as the anime.
The best anime ever made? Sure thing.
oh sorry I meant berserk 2016.
Unless u think 2016 is the best anime ever O_O?
No but the franchise in general. There’s nothing wrong with the 3d/2d style mix that they’ve used since the Golden Age OVA’s. Anyone complaining about it isn’t a fan of either anime or the series. Get over it.
It’s not even worth pirating
I didn’t realize this game needs a patch.
Another example of how many people is brai dead walking creatures, developers are milking them from $, releasing bad, broken games, giving no support,doing nothing and those people still throws money on they bank account, and this happens on all platforms.
“each and every month we’ll be looking at some PC games that came out in 2017 and suffered from performance or optimization issues at their time of release”
Excellent idea for a regular series of articles. Naming and shaming the laziest devs and/or least committed publishers insofar as games not being patched is a worthy pursuit. Plenty of gamers understandably won’t buy micro-transaction and loot box-infested trash but it’s relatively easy to find out the titles of such games. It’s less easy to ascertain which games are being appallingly supported post-release so all power to you for this pro-consumer series of articles.
Something which PCgamer will hardly bother with. I can totally get behind this site one upping PCgamer at doing something PCgamer should have been doing for years.
Well, yes, but remember that PC Gamer is a mainstream commercial site along with numerous other sites owned by its parent company. In other words, its chief priority is as an advertising vehicle for the games industry whereby pro-consumer concerns often take a back seat.
PC Gamer is sadly becoming akin to the IGN of PC gaming but with the SJW politics of Polygon. Standards there have plummeted and lest we forget their ethics scandal pertaining to Ubisoft not so long ago.
PCGamer does do this, Just not often.
This is honestly how it’s going to be and remain with Japanese games. Until people lash out and keep lashing out at Japanese studios/publishers, then they won’t feel the need to fix their games.
It doesn’t help that Steam is filled to the brim with thirsty weebs wanting their cheap port fix. There are quite a number of them out there that believe that not buying a bad port means no future games will be released by X studio, which is sad, because it follows a cycle of abuse where the devs get away with charging high prices for gimped ports, with the added paranoia that fans think they won’t get a future sequel/port if they don’t buy the badly optimized and expensive titles.
I have the PS4 port of the game and it’s honestly pretty bad as well. Awful framerates which range from 60 to 20, bland graphics and from what I’ve seen the PS4 Pro support still has a 1080p resolution but it now runs from 35 to 60 FPS.
It’s a shame since the game itself is good. Nothing special but if you were disappointed with the 2016/2017 adaptations of Berserk, this is a great replacement.
You must be joking. This isn’t a replacement at all. And if you’re disappointed with the new series, you’re an idiot, considering the ova’s have never gone beyond the golden age until now. i.e there’s nothing to compare it to except the manga.
Like Nier it also has Denuvo right?
no
Nah, it’s a Koei Tecmo port. You would be praising your patron deity if the game even boots on your PC.
for some reason PC gaming in Japan isn’t that big
that’s why most of the Japanise shareholders don’t really seem to give a sh*t when they port their games[console ports] to PC
to this day i think the laziest port of all time must be dark souls prepare to die edition
because without the DSfix you’re literally playing it on emulated console setting (which is 30 FPS and 1366X720)
and you know what? i think the so called remaster will run worse.
Last time I saw my roommate play it, it ran fine.