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Sorry to say, but finding a conversion from console to PC that is not full of bugs and is optimized to best now seems a mirage. The latest unpleasant episode occurred with LA Noire - Complete Edition , but just go a little 'back ( RAGE , Dead Island , in part, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ) to notice how some developers have started to take too much " cheerfully "porting PC. Problems saving, graphical bugs, freezes, stuttering and poor optimization are now in situations where a PC user is increasingly getting used to, not to mention the most hated DRM systems that in some cases they almost pass the desire to play.

The conversion of Batman: Arkham City on PC has the potential to confirm and surpass the excellent work done by Rocksteady Studios and ported to the PC of the previous Batman: Arkham Asylum . An Unreal Engine 3 pulled ever so shiny, support DirectX 11 (tessellation, displacement mapping, mesh smoothing, multiview soft shadows), three levels of PhysX to choose from, up to 32X anti-aliasing, and NVIDIA 3D Vision support, all with a delay of more than a month than the console versions you had to hope for further improvement and optimization work. Things really did not go as everyone hoped. Apart from the first activation issues (including Steam, SecuROM and Games For Windows Live there's something for everyone) and failures experienced by many users before reaching the main menu, you understand that something has gone the right way already after a few minutes of play. With an Intel Core i7 930 at 4.2 GHz, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 Super OC (further "push" of 10 percent), 6 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD Intel and nVidia 285.79 drivers in DirectX 11 and antialiasing FXAA we get a frame rate is very uncertain, with peaks of 35 fps and minimum peaks of 9 fps. The poor performance are confirmed soon after by Rocksteady Studios , which indicates problems in DirectX 11 promising a patch as soon as possible and recommending corrective action in the meantime to play in DirectX 9.

The problem is that even in this case, despite the significant decline in the quality of textures, performance is not optimal. The stuttering continues undaunted, and in certain areas of the game (especially the interior with a dozen of the biggest enemies of) the frame-rate drops considerably, not counting the two crashes in the first hour of play for then to continue. Activating the 3D mode on which Nvidia has spent a lot for this second appointment with the man bat performance fall further (12-15 fps on average than others). Normal is so even though other titles have noted a lower incidence of 3D performance, but this way Batman: Arkham City becomes virtually unplayable with a PC respectable as ours, making us assume that only with an SLI configuration or a much more expensive GTX 590 performance you can get decent (and we imagine that within the Radeon is even worse).

In such conditions, to which we add a few more bugs almost "funny" (the commands on the screen in the shape of the mouse even if you're using a pad), it becomes difficult not to reject such a conversion, and even more sorry sight this beauty (even graphical ) of the game. PhysX routines are moving papers and objects from the ground and explode into tiny pieces of glass windows (but we were expecting something more on the mantle of Batman), smoking and dynamic lighting are stunning and the animations in battle are plastic and very realistic . From what little we could see in DirectX 11 Batman: Arkham City is a real gem graphics provided, however, that Rocksteady Studios systems as soon as the defects described above. For the rest of the PC port has not changed one iota of what we saw last month on HD consoles ( here our review of PlayStation 3) with the sole exception of the mouse-keyboard controls, but not what we given the many combinations key combos and much more straightforward to implement with the Xbox 360 pad.

While not inventing anything new compared to its predecessor, Batman: Arkham City expands the mix of action and stealth, insisting on more silent attacks, sull'oggettistica of Batman and a better use of location in a "hi-tech." We would have preferred just a few more in the passage outside the ghetto of Arkham and also the assistance provided by the Detective mode we still seem excessive, but overall Rocksteady Studios has improved almost every aspect of its predecessor by offering a more compelling storyline, a cast of characters to scream, charisma and personality as if it was raining and longevity well above the average (from 15 to 25 hours), counting the quests, the missions in the role of Catwoman, Riddler challenges and unlock a lot of goals. In short, a great sequel to fit between the best games of the year, but due to such a conversion is almost felt like we give up everything and go back to our copy for the Xbox 360.