Bend Studio has finally taken the wraps off the PC version of its 2019 survival horror game, Days Gone. The game is just the latest in an ever-growing lineup of PlayStation exclusives to make the jump to PC, with games like Journey, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Death Stranding having already made that jump, and with potentially even more to follow.
In the game, players take control of former biker and outlaw, Deacon St. John. He is trying to survive in a post-pandemic America nearly overrun by Freakers, zombie-like creatures that hunt in very large hordes. With the move to PC, new life is about to be breathed into that world in the form of improved visuals and a bevy of customization options. Here are some of the things that would set the PC version apart from its PlayStation counterpart.
7 Unlocked Framerate
Gone are the days (no pun intended) of 30 or 60 FPS caps. With the PC version of Days Gones, players would be able to take advantage of the additional horsepower present in modern GPUs and dedicated gaming rigs.
The game will support high frame rates, ensuring that things stay buttery smooth even in the midst of the most intense horde battles. This is especially great when compared to the base PS4 version of the game, which often struggled to hold 30 FPS when things got too hectic for the aging PS4 hardware to handle.
6 Ultra-Wide Monitor Support
Another PC-specific change players can expect is support for ultra-wide monitors. PC gamers who game on widescreen displays can attest to just how immersive the experience can get, with the game almost stretching out to fill up their peripheral vision sometimes.
And Days Gone is a prime candidate for showcasing that premium widescreen experience, with its vast open world and decrepit landscapes. The aptly named Farewell Wilderness has always been beautiful to look at, even on consoles. But now PC players can see it sprawled across their widescreen monitors in all its glory.
5 Display Customization
The first sign of a lazy PC port is a marked absence of customization options. Thankfully, this is not going to be the case with the PC version of Days Gone. The developers are promising what already looks like a healthy amount of display customizations.
PC players would be able to fiddle with the level of detail, cranking it up to even greater levels than what was possible on consoles. They'll also be able to adjust things like foliage draw distances as well as the typical array of graphical options. Also, the minimum and recommended system requirements both look reasonable enough, which hints at a game that is going to scale well across a wide variety of low to high-end PCs.
4 Keyboard And Mouse Support
PC gamers love the flexibility and precision that gaming with a mouse and keyboard presents. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction you feel after lining up and executing a perfectly-timed headshot in Call of Duty, or any other first-person shooter for that matter.
This is why PC players would be happy to know that Days Gone would support keyboard and mouse controls, so they can prepare to do some serious precision aiming. The game will also have support for a wide range of 1st and 3rd party controllers, so if you'll rather plug in an old Xbox 360 gamepad instead, you can.
3 Super Resolution Photo Mode
Photo modes sure seem to be all the rage these days. And what better way to show off the improved graphical fidelity on offer in the PC version of Days Gone than with a fully customizable photo mode.
PC players will be able to take stunning, high-resolution photos at any point while playing the game. So they can put their photography skills to good use by capturing moments from their playthrough. The developers themselves have encouraged players to share those photos with them on any of their social media pages, so it seems we can all expect to have our timelines flooded with such photos once the PC version releases.
2 Downloadable Content
One of the advantages of tackling a game like Days Gone two years after its original release is that players get to play with all the downloadable content that was added to the game post-release. And the same is true about its forthcoming PC version.
The PC version not only includes the core game, but it also comes with all the free downloadable content that has been made available for it. These include New Game Plus, Survivor Mode, Challenge Mode, and additional skins for the player's bike. This could very well be the tip of the iceberg too, since any renewed interest for the game the move to PC might bring could result in even more DLC being released. The sequel might have been shelved for now, but players can still hope for additional DLC.
1 Mod Support
And lastly, the forthcoming release of Days Gone wouldn't really be a PC release if it didn't also bring with it the possibility of user-created mods. The PC modding community is notorious for creating some of the most imaginative mods, with open-world games like Skyrim and GTA V tending to be particularly popular.
And while no official word has been given about support for mods in the PC version of Days Gone, it is only a matter of time before someone replaces Deacon St. John with C.J. from GTA: San Andreas, or worse, the Freakers are replaced by an army of Barney the Dinosaurs. The game launches on both the Steam and Epic Games stores on the 18th of May, 2021, so modders won't have to wait too long before they start tinkering with it.