Real-time strategies are unlikely to find their way to consoles, for example, because they thrive with a full keyboard’s worth of hotkeys and the precision of a mouse. On the other hand, the novelty controls Nintendo is keen on implementing for their consoles would be a bit of a bother to transport onto PC, especially outside of the VR space.
However, there are many games that are not limited by the controls or computing, and yet, by cruel whims of fate, they never leave their original platform to hop to PC. Which is a shame, because many of them are excellent, often quite interesting, and definitely worth playing. So, in lieu of getting to play them, let’s talk about them.
Gothic dreams
One of the most demanded, and most denied, PC ports is, of course, Bloodborne, FromSoftware’s hit action RPG from 2015. The viciously difficult Gothic horror in video game form launched for PlayStation 4 and that’s where it remains to this day. It doesn’t matter that PC got all three Dark Souls with expansions, Sekiro, Elden Ring, and Armored Core VI. Bloodborne is the FromSoft game that isn’t budging.
PC is denied the tight combat system, engaging, intriguing story tapping into Lovecraftian themes, and excellent designs of monsters and environments.
Mortals defiantly facing insurmountable odds presented by incomprehensible horrors is, however, quite thematic. In this case the horrors are the probable complex legalities locking Bloodborne to PlayStation.
A Thief’s Beginning
It’s nice that PC finally got to meet Nathan Drake and his extended family of lovable rascals. It is, however, a little bit unfortunate that PC players only have access to the last installment of the entire series, and its standalone expansion.
It was a bold choice to never release the first three games, but it’s been a few years, Sony, please let us see who these characters are without reading Wikipedia or watching Let’s Plays on YouTube. The Uncharted games are some of the finest action-adventures on this side of Tomb Raider, having access only to the last two of them is frustrating.
Double decide
Who has anger issues and beef with gods? Surprisingly, two guys.
One is Kratos, and he’s here because PC never got the original God of War games. The bloody past he’s haunted by during his Norse misadventures are just regret-filled recaps of things he got up to in the original PlayStation games. Old Kratos was a brutal, vengeful warrior and his war against the Olympian gods who wronged him lasted several excellent hack and slash games. Sadly, they are locked into the PlayStation ecosystem and might never end up getting ported to PC, making Kratos’ journey less complete if you’re not a PS player.
The other guy is Asura from Asura’s Wrath. AW has two consoles chuckling at PC, as CyberConnect2’s divine beat’em-up only launched for PS3 and Xbox 360. This anime-inspired, episodic game about a cyborg-god literally too angry to stay in the afterlife is a ton of fun, with excellent art style and amazing music (“Wind Fang” is incredible). The clashes of mighty fighters are embellished by QTEs when the events go beyond what the usual gameplay can capture, and it works… just not for PC, because even with the “everything is an Xbox” thing going on at Microsoft with Game Pass, clearly some things require a literal Xbox.
Hyrulean hijinks
Let’s stop bullying Sony for a second, and instead consider that PC (and other platforms, for that matter) are forever scorned by Nintendo as far as its own games are concerned. There are too many examples to give, and most include the name “Mario” in them, but for brevity’s sake let’s narrow the appeal down to the Nintendo Switch system-seller and its sequel: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
The recent adventures of Link are some of the best systems-driven open-world games in recent memory, with engaging exploration and satisfying complexity. Especially the physics-based tools Link has access to have enabled thousands of Nintendo Switch players to flaunt their creativity.
Nintendo really knows how to hoard fun.
Cogs in the warmachine
Originally an Xbox exclusive, the iconic TPP action game series which put cover-based shooting in every subsequent game in the genre has a really weird publishing history. Unlike Uncharted, God of War, or Ratchet & Clank which simply didn’t port the beginning of the series, Gears of War’s history on PC features GoW 1, 4, 5, and Tactics.
As a discerning reader you’ll notice a distinct lack of “2” and “3” in there. When Gears of War 4 rolled in, set a generation after the original trilogy concluded, PC players had to rely on external sources to figure out not only how events evolved from GoW1, but also how they ended in the first place. 2/3rds of the series are locked to Xbox 360. Come on, Microsoft!
Consolation prizes
Will these games ever come to PC? Who can tell. It’s something worth hoping for.
At the very least the recent trend of console-first games coming to PC leaves us with quite a few excellent adventures to experience, which can make waiting for the other, hopefully inevitable, PC releases much more bearable. Better yet, you can get started on that journey without huge investments thanks to various deals available on the G2A.COM marketplace.
The announcements, if any are coming, are in the future, so it’s only reasonable to try and have some fun in the meantime, right?
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