'Batman: The Telltale Series' glitches on PC cause fan backlash

By Brad Jones August 3, 2016

Batman - The Telltale Series (Episode 1) — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The first installment of Batman: The Telltale Series was unleashed yesterday, but it seems like the launch didn’t go quite as smoothly as intended. The game currently holds “mixed” user reviews on the Steam storefront, with many players taking issue with an array of bugs that are affecting the experience.

The game’s resolution is a particular point of contention, according to a report from Polygon. Some players find themselves unable to select a resolution higher than 720p due to user interface issues, while others are apparently unable to change these settings at all.

During gameplay, there are reports of crashes, audio glitches and frame rate drops — some players claim that they’ve seen the game run at a dismal 10fps. These problems don’t seem to be caused by sub-par hardware, as some of the user affected state that their system far exceeds the recommended specs for the game.

The going theory is that Telltale’s Batman is forced to run on a computer’s integrated GPU, rather than the dedicated GPU that would be preferred in most cases. It remains to be seen how easy it would be for the studio to fix such a problem via a patch, if indeed this is the source of players’ headaches.

It’s a shame that the game is being spoiled for many by these issues, as the opening chapter seems to be a promising start to Telltale’s new series. The Digital Trends review of the first episode noted that “if you like Telltale games, and you like Batman, then this is absolutely the game for you.”

However, even the most dedicated Telltale fan is likely having some doubts about the studio’s technical expertise at this point. Despite claims that a new engine is being implemented this year, the company’s output has long been criticized in relation to bugs and glitches.

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Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

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