Borderlands 4 is out now on PC by way of Steam and the Epic Retailer. And the looter shooter sequel is already the largest Borderlands launch on Steam, with over 200,000 concurrent gamers just some hours after its launch. However evaluations on Steam aren’t nice, as many gamers are struggling to even play the co-op FPS. On September 11, Borderlands 4 launched on PC. The long-awaited sequel to Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 is an even bigger, higher, and wilder expertise than the earlier sport, that includes a number of sensible modifications and additions to the basic looting-shooting method. Nevertheless, that’s solely the case should you can truly play the sport and revel in it. And on PC, gamers are reporting a lot of efficiency points, even on {hardware} that Gearbox listed as assembly the wanted specs. As of 4:30 pm EST on Steam, Borderlands 4 has about 2,000 evaluations which might be completely divided between destructive and optimistic, giving the sport a 50 % combined standing. That’s no good! Scrolling by means of evaluations, the largest complaints appear to be not concerning the content material of the sport, however about how poorly it performs on numerous {hardware} setups. Gamers are additionally complaining about stuttering and hitching, or being pressured to make use of DLSS to play the sport at a secure framerate. Others can’t even boot the sport up, reporting crashes earlier than they even get into the motion.
After all, there are additionally loads of evaluations from folks saying that they had no points in any respect and claiming that individuals complaining must improve their PCs. That is the web, so after all it devolved right into a battle with numerous sides and factions. Within the evaluations on Steam, the most well-liked culprits individuals are blaming for the dangerous efficiency embody Unreal Engine 5 and DRM safety software program Denuvo. Over the past 12 months or so, Unreal Engine 5 has change into a goal on-line as gamers imagine the engine isn’t well-suited to massive video games and is tough to optimize. The complaints have gotten so loud on-line that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney even stepped in lately to defend the engine and lay the blame on devs who aren’t targeted on optimization early sufficient within the cycle.
My expertise taking part in Borderlands 4 on PC I’ve been taking part in Borderlands 4 on PC for the final week, and my expertise has been up and down. After I first obtained the sport, I used to be taking part in on an RTX 3070 and struggled to run it at 1080p at 60FPS. I upgraded my rig to an RTX 5070 (one thing I had been planning on doing for a couple of months now), and Borderlands 4 ran a lot better. Nevertheless, I nonetheless discovered that I wanted to run the sport with DLSS on and body gen to achieve 120 FPS at 1080 with some settings kicked all the way down to medium. Contemplating the specs within the machine, I used to be shocked by how energy hungry the sport is, and I’ll admit that I proceed to be upset with Unreal Engine 5 video games. That stated, ever since I discovered some settings that labored and downloaded the newest drivers, which weren’t obtainable once I first obtained entry to the sport, I’ve been having a good time taking part in the sport on PC. It principally locks to 120 with my present settings and setup, and it feels nice. I must also level out, although, that there’s been some chatter indicating that the day-one patch for the sport, which arrived shortly earlier than launch, could have brought on issues that weren’t current when critics and content material creators had been taking part in it pre-release. In my fast exams, I’ve discovered the latest patch, the one individuals are taking part in with on Steam proper now, appears to convey with it some points that weren’t current earlier than the day-one patch. However I must play extra to actually see if issues are damaged. I hope Gearbox points a patch on PC quickly to assist enhance issues a bit. Or on the very least, do away with Denuvo ASAP.
