Launching a PC game with no menu in 2021 is wild
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, like some PC ports from select studios, launched in shambles. While I could go on and on about the technical shortcomings of the port, suffice to say, it didn’t launch with an options menu. Crazy, right?
Thankfully I played Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection on PS4, which didn’t have these issues. But for those of you who are interested in the PC version, or own it and are waiting on a patch, your time has come. Sorta.
Lo and behold, we got very barebones patch notes this week:
The following were added to the Options menu of the title screen:
DISPLAY MODE
RESOLUTION
VSYNC
Triple Buffering
ANTI-ALIASING
DEPTH OF FIELD
DISPLAY SHADOWS
Yes. that’s exactly how they were detailed in the last Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection patch; with caps and all. At the very least, the notes have…text, that lists stuff! We get basic PC options that every game should ship with, including resolution options for 720p, 1080p, and 4K. Remember how folks used to have to manually input these values in the Steam launcher to get the game to boot with them? Good times.
A previous patch in late June added 1440p to the Steam resolution launcher, and fixed a few minor collision issues, among some fullscreen/windowed problems. The current most-requested feature from Steam fans in the comments? A gore toggle, as well as vibration for Sigma. It’s not a big ask, I think, but there’s more work to be done with things like smoothing over input lag and making the options menu even more fully-featured.
I hope that at this point, studios have learned that they need to actually ship functional PC ports, lest they lose the faith of their audience long term. Hire a Durante type if you need to.
