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Lowest Average Frame Rate In a Game You Finished?

I had the misfortune of playing the PS3 version of Skyrim when it came out, before we all cottoned on that the game performed gradually worse the more you played it. It literally did become a slideshow by the time I hit the 100 hour mark, but I was so deadest on getting the platinum that I endured it
and then promptly sold the game and blacklisted Bethesda.
 
Probably the hd version of jak and daxter on the vita. The framerate was consistently terrible and headache inducing. What a terrible port that game was.
 
Toxi said:
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The N64 had bad frame-rate in spades.

Dark Souls has a really shitty frame rate in specific areas, but not as consistently bad as N64 games. Donkey Kong 64 was a nightmare, but I never actually beat it.
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giphy.gif
 
I think probably MGS3D on the 3DS is probably the lowest actually finished for me. But even then it really wasn't that bad.

That or PS3 Bayo.

Edit: Oh yeah, SotC PS2.
 
I'm usually not someone who complains about low framerates. For example, i never noticed huge framerate drops in Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 or GTA IV and RDR on PS3, while others constantly complained about them.

But South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3) was a mess when it comes to the framerate. I've never experienced something like that before. Funnily enough, it was my very first game from Obsidian.
 
lordchompy said:
For me: Zelda Ocarina of Time, 20 fps, and I'll do it again. Modern games? I don't know, really, I couldn't play something from start to finish at 20 fps average.
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I actually think it may have been GoldenEye for me. That had very regular drops below 20fps I think. Such a good game though
 
Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 had fps issues out the ass. Didn't mind as much since I was like 13 or 14.

Got the PS3 version pretty much as soon as it was released.
 
Recently, Senran Kagura for the 3DS. Don't know how they made the FPS so low on that game. In the past, I think 4x4 Evolution 2, I ran it on an onboard graphic card and if I got 10fps average I smiled. Multiplayer, on some custom tracks, I remember getting 5 fps average. Never again.
 
Has to be Star Fox, right? I mean that thing maxed out at like 14fps and often dropped.
 
Fallout 3 on PS3 has huge framerate dips, so that's one contender.

As for consistently lower framerates, I'd say Peace Walker on PSP. The framerate was constantly below 30fps, but since it was mostly stable the overall experience was very smooth (and quite impressive for a PSP game).
 
Easily wheel of time PC version. My computer was not up to snuff but I just had to have it. Had an AMD thunderbird 900 MHZ CPU with one of the TNT graphics cards. Can't recall which one.

Played through the whole game on 7-14 fps. It was glorious and oh so horrible at the same time.

Replayed it years later with a new computer though.
 
Whatever New Little King's Story and The Last Story had. Both were pretty fucking horrible. TLS was worse because it was a shittier game, though.
 
Back in dos/early windows era, I probably played tons of games with horrible fps. I was to young to realize and graphics where so different. A turned based strategy game or overhead economic sim can play acceptable down to almost single digits.
 
Infernal Monkey said:
Global_Defence_Force_PS2_Cover.jpg


AKA: Earth Defense Force 2.

Imagine EDF's frame rate, lowered even further thanks to a lazy 50Hz PAL port. Imagine! The frame rate in some levels never once made it out of the single digits.
Click to expand...

This, no contest. Unacceptable, but I still had some fun paying split-screen with a buddy.
 
I completed so many early 8- and 16-bit polygonal computer games that ran at well under 15fps on average, particularly the military sims and scenarios. Couldn't say for certain, but even with those in mind, I completed Alone in the Dark 1 at its Mac release on an underspec'ed color Mac with it running well under that low bar for most of the game's duration. I mean, it was really struggling to run at moving framerates in the busier, more poly-dense scenes. Still enjoyed it even though I could have played it on a more competent platform around the time.
 
Way too many recent games on here.

I grew up on PSX and N64 games, so I've always been way more tolerant of framerate issues in the modern titles than some of the (admittedly outspoken) people on here. Back then 30FPS was a pipe dream for most games, and, to be honest, it wasn't that bad. You got used to it. Even a lot of the great games in that era were mostly in the 15-25FPS range.

Advent Rising for the Xbox had a pretty questionable framerate for example, but it was still a game I loved. But yeah, the worst cases were certainly when I was trying to play a PC title on underpowered hardware, when in some cases it turns into a literal slideshow. I remember playing the original Tomb Raider on hardware mode on my old 486 and it was going about 1-2FPS on average (on software mode it ran fine).
 
Crysis 1. Probably around 12 FPS or so on my old computer.

But back then in a preview a long time before the actual game came out I red somewhere that if you killed no koreans they could ultimately be your allies vs the aliens. Yeah nope. But I did not know that yet, so I cloaked through the game and only sleeping-darted my way through (basically impossible otherwise with this framerate lol).
The final boss fight was so laggy ... oh god.

But yeah, no worries, I've played the game a lot more since then.
 
I'm new be nice said:
I remember playing Lego Island and it ran exactly like this

And it was amazing... So like -3 frames or some shit
Click to expand...

Lego Island was going to be my response, but that video is WAY smoother than it ran on our piece of crap PC. Framerate varied a lot, in less intensive situations it would run at maybe 10 frames per second, but during the races and the Brickster chase sequence it would probably be more accurately measured in frames per MINUTE.
 
Turned Crysis 1 into a stealth game, because the framerate would crash even more in firefights and aiming is kinda hard with sub 15fps.
That said: 15-20FPS average.

7600GT was melting..
 
Its either OOT or Shadow of the Colossus.

But i feel these are going to be replaced by GTA 5. Man i love this slow-ass game.
 
Wow a lot of people are talking about n64 games... Yeah they ran like garbage but on the other hand.... They offered amazing graphics at a time for small money. I didnt and still dont like pc games just because of the fact that even if you have good hardware, your games always run like shit. I have never played something good with good fps on a pc, so i gladly accept consoles.

I had my fun with n64 games. But i really am shocked how bad they aged.

I think my peak was trying to play unreal('98) on my first pc... And i never had a better fps than 12-15. when an enemy showed up, welp less than single digit. The game simply stopped for a brief moment of some seconds to play.

Unbelievable,... Was one of my first owned pc games ever. When i saw quake 3 running fluid on my cousins pc, i got really angry and never wasted any more time with pc games.
 
Doom 3 on a shitty HP machine with a 9800 pro. Entire game ran at 16-20 fps and I still beat it.

Unreal 2 on the same machine but integrated gpu. Ran at 10 fps throughout

I beat a lot of games on that machine and they all ran like crap doom 3 was the worst
 
Gonna be Dark Souls on my crummy PC pretty soon. Seath's crystals were dropping my fps into the single digits.
 
I wouldn't be shocked if Half-Life was running at like 10 FPS the first time I beat it. It'd freeze up for a second or two randomly and everything. I upgraded my PC not long after that and the difference was staggering.
 
OK, I think I actually remember the worst framerate I've ever put up with. Quake 1 on my 486dx266. We're talking 3-5 fps on average in a tiny little window. It was awful. I cannot imagine how I ever had any fun with that. I didn't have to wait too long for a big upgrade, though (to a P2-233).

Boogybro said:
Zone of The Enders 2.
Everyone thats played it knows what level Im talking about.
Click to expand...
Well...here's the thing, it didn't actually hit THAT low of a framerate. The problem with ZOE2 was that the engine would never drop frames and, as a result, any performance drops resulted in slow motion gameplay.

Its worst framerate was likely around 30 fps but it felt much worse as that meant it was running at 50% speed.
 
I'm not sure what the frame rate would have been in Stunt Race FX on the Super Nintendo but that must have been low. A great game at the time, though.
 
Cities in Motion on my reasonably powerful (if not amazing) Q9550-powered desktop machine. The framerate would drop into the single digits routinely--I guess simulating all those public transit users really takes a toll on the CPU.

I never checked but Dwarf Fortress may also have dropped into the single digits easily for similar reasons.
 
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