Steam's Christmas sale has both of these titles on sale right now. First of all I really want both of these games as I'm a fan of Arkane and especially the Dishonored universe but I can only get one right now. Out of everything on sale this year and knowing what's been on my wishlist these are the choices I'm drawn to. My first choice would be Dishonored 2 because I love that world they created. However I'm hesitant. When they released that 3 level demo some months ago I got a chance to play it on my system. Unfortunately I had to spend about two hours tweaking it to get it to play nice. I finally had it configured to where I could finally enjoy it and it looked good and was playing pretty smooth for the most part. (I'm a gamer who does not like to play at a locked 30 fps if at all possible. I like 60fps but I know the engine they chose for this game has issues and apparently does not run like Doom's IdTech6 engine.) However, once I reached Karnaca the game just turned into a turd. I was sad to see that nothing that I tried at that point with the options helped. So a major bummer. That was months ago and I understand they patched the game again but can anyone confirm that it made a meaningful and noticeable difference specifically when it comes to arriving in Karnaca? Like I said I got it going pretty good but once I hit that city it became almost unplayable. And I'm talking about the port and docks. I never even made it INTO the city because it ran so bad.

I know different people with different setups get different outcomes especially with this game but I'd like to know if that last update helped in any significant way? I wouldn't even care if it still didn't run perfect as long as I know it was improved because I mean it when I say it became unplayable when I got to Karnaca Port. I also don't care about the unavoidable performance drops on certain levels in this game that I hear about. I just would like to know if its more stable and consistent? What's frustrating is that I don't think that I can get to Karnaca in under two hours and see for myself before running out of time for a Steam refund. I also have not been able to find out whether or not the free demo version was every updated with the same update so that I can go check for myself to see if it improves Karnaca and I really don't want to spend hours downloading it only to find out the demo wasn't updated with this patch.

Now for Prey. How optimized is it? I understand that its on the Cryengine but I've had Cryengine titles in the past that have had some issues. I wouldn't mind any opinions either of both games as far as how enjoyable they are. I'm pretty certain that I'd love both of them but for the sake of convenience and because I can only choose one right now I'm more interested in picking the game that's going to play the best right out of the gate with minimal headache and I can just save the other one for another time.

Windows 7 64bit
core i7 4790k 4@4GHz
16GB Ram
EVGA GTX 970 4GB

Haven’t played D2 in a while, but I posted early thoughts here:

http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4310598/2

Some significant patches listed that should help.

https://bethesda.net/community/topic/21736/dishonored-2-game-update-patch-notes

I haven’t played since the patch. Regardless, I just got bored with it, I didn’t quit due to performance, so it wasn’t a killer problem. Demos are usually based on pretty early builds, that might explain it.

Both ran great for me, but I do have a more powerful video card (GTX 1070). Dishonored 2 lacks the interesting story of the first game, some of the maps are not as interesting and overall just isn't as good as the first. I hated some parts of it, but overall it was fairly good.

Prey had poorly done side missions, which required too much backtracking, an annoying scavenging system, unlocks that were poorly thought out and often penalized the player. But it was still good in some ways. But at times you get caught up so much in the busy work you forget what you were trying to do in game. The quality has its ups and downs. Worth playing, but not a "great" game.

I thought both games were great. I sort of agree with Flogger about D2. It was not as compelling for me as D1, but that often happens when in a sequel for a new game concept. The novelty is gone. Still, I really enjoyed it.

I have to disagree about Prey though. I thought it was fantastic. Both games ran like silk for me, also have a GTX 1070. The setting, the toys, the progression were all excellent for me. If I had to get just one of these games, having played them both, I would choose Prey, if for no other reason than it's new and unique, if you've already played Dishonored 1. It's worth it just for the zero gravity stuff alone IMO.

Agreed, that's why I got bored with it.
I need to try it again from the girl's perspective to see if I like it more.

Thank you for the feedback all. I'm still not sure. If I get one I'm leaning towards Prey a then later down the line purchase D2. I'm finishing a second play through of D1 so maybe later this year if it goes on sale again I'll be in the mood and ready to finally pick it up and just live with however it performs because regardless I'm a fan and want to get it eventually. With everything I read about Prey it just sounds like a scifi game that rises and stands tall amongst the classics like the original Half-Life and so forth. That's the feeling I get when reading these positive reviews. I also like the idea of a sort of stylized 60s retro space look that it apparently has.

I wouldn't say it looks very retro, but some of the furniture in the lounge or office areas look somewhat like Rapture from Bioshock. In a lot of ways it is a combination of Bioshock and Dishonored.

The problem with Dishonored 2 is the story doesn't have the mystery of the first, and as the events unfold it doesn't seem as realistic as the first game. At least, not as intriguing. Dishonored had a well crafted world. Yes there was magic, but events and how people would react to them seemed fairly spot on for the mid 1800s or similar time period. Dishonored 2 carried the visuals over, but a lot of the story details didn't feel as well though out.