Over this long Thanksgiving weekend, we have been feverishly plugging away at the recent release of the PC version of Batman: Arkham City, in order to publish our review for early next week. Game Rant previously awarded a perfect score to Rocksteady Studios’ newest take on the Batman franchise in our review of the console version of the game. Because the console and PC versions are substantively the same game, we have been focusing mostly on the graphical improvements found in the PC version, including the DX 11 effects and 3D visuals. We can tell you that with the right graphics card, the PC version is the definitive one, but unfortunately, the DX 11 effects are currently causing technical problems for most users.
For our part, we have not experienced any game-breaking bugs while playing Batman: Arkham City on a PC outfitted with an EVGA NVIDIA GTX 580 card. We did encounter some significant lagging during specific cutscenes, however, that were more a nuisance than anything else. The gameplay itself was unaffected and ran at a consistently high frame rate. A quick look on the game’s community forums shows that others have not been as fortunate as we have been. Andy Cataldo, US Community Manager of Turbine Inc., acknowledged the problem and provided the current workaround:
After delaying the game for two weeks, it’s hard to understand how Rocksteady Studios failed to catch such a significant problem. Luckily, the visuals of Batman: Arkham City are still superior to those of the console version even in DX 9, and the 3D effects are downright stunning at times. On the bright side, the PC version is not suffering from corrupted saves like its Xbox 360 counterpart.
PC DirectX 11 Issues Please Read
We have received reports of performance issues from players of Batman: Arkham City on PC. After researching the matter, we found that running the game with DX 11 is causing the performance issues. We’re working on a title update to address this matter and expect to make it available in the near future.
In the meantime, a workaround for this issue is to run the game with DX 9 instead of DX 11. Instructions on how to turn off DX 11 are listed below.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience with your gameplay experience and thank you all for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.
In situations like this, we’d normally advise to wait until a patch is released before recommending a purchase, but EA’s Online Store, Origin, is currently offering a Black Friday discount of 50% on the title. At $24.99, PC gamers should seriously consider downloading the Caped Crusader’s most recent adventures as this is still one of the best games of the year.
Batman: Arkham City is currently available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
Source: Batman: Arkham City Forum
