Xbox One/PS4 Ports of This PC Game Sound Like a Technical Nightmare

This week, Xbox One and PS4 ports of 2014 PC game Lichdom: Battlemage arrived in North America and Europe. If a technical analysis by Digital Foundry is any indication, these console versions should be avoided at all costs.

It doesn't appear this is just a subpar console port; Digital Foundry's report describes it as "one of the worst performing console games" it's ever tested. The PS4 version's average frame rate is just 15 frames per second, even going as low as 10 at times.

"We've run the rule over a multitude of titles since we started frame rate testing console games back in 2008--and we're pretty sure we've never seen anything quite as bad as this," the report states.

Things aren't any better on Xbox One. There are not just frame rate issues, but the game also lacks vertical sync, resulting in "constant [screen] tearing" that isn't present on PS4. Things get so bad "that we actually found it difficult to look at the screen for more than a few minutes at a time," Digital Foundry says.

Loading times are equally brutal, sometimes lasting "two to three minutes."

Both console versions do run at full 1080p, which the report notes is the first time that's been true of a CryEngine 3-powered game on Xbox One.

We're attempting to find out if developer Xaviant has any plans to improve the performance of the game through an update. We'll report back with any details we receive.