All this game of the year talk has had this game mentioned several times already so it got me curious. We're in that post holiday dry spell, especially so on PC games so I've been considering picking it up. I need a break from trying to S-Rank Fallout: New Vegas and my main questions are: 
 

• Is it a good time sink? I like time sinks.
• Is it a good port? I don't like bad ports (I'm looking at you GTA IV).
• I've checked the recommended specs and meet or surpass them all with my '09 MacBook Pro but that was also the case with GTA IV. 
• I don't have a gamepad and don't even know if it supports them but assume so, though does it control well enough with just mouse & keyboard?
  

man i didnt even know there was a pc port of this game O_o

Some things are objectively better with a mouse, but third person action games ain't one of them.

Play with a controller. Just. Dude. By an old Xbox for 10 dollars, throw out the box, and use the controller.

Dude, just watch a run of this game on YouTube, you won't play it more than once.

So is this port any optimized?

" Dude, just watch a run of this game on YouTube, you won't play it more than once. "

Game runs fantastic on my system.  I'm playing it with a 360 controller, and despite people's complaints about a lack of visual tweaking options I think it looks incredible, and rarely drops below 60 frames per second.  I'm having a great time with the PC port so far, not having played the console version.

This game is good  on the PC, runs great on my system.  q6600 3ghz gtx 480
 
I did have a problem with crashing, but i fixed that by just running the darksiders executable file from the folder it was installed in.  It was unstable with steam on my system for some reason.

Just bought it on Steam the other day for ten bucks....great deal! The port is pretty fantastic. It runs great on my PC, though my system is pretty beefy and, despite all controller warnings, it plays pretty great on keyboard and mouse! I just had to remap block/dash to a more comfortable position, but after that it felt great. I've been playing for about six hours and have only just found the second dungeon, so this game is definitely a time sink. The combat is great and the puzzles escalate in a nice progression. I'm enjoying the story, characters (pretty great voice acting), and overall art as cartoony as it can be. Pretty bummed I didn't try this out earlier! Can't wait for the sequel.

" Dude, just watch a run of this game on YouTube, you won't play it more than once. "

" I've heard otherwise, but my wireless xbox pc controller seems flawless. No lag/latency at all. And eliminating a wire from a controller does me just fine.  And I agree about 3d person, and even first, both batman and fallout 3 can attest to that. "

I'm playing it with M&K and it works just fine.  I thought it might be problematic trying to aim melee strikes with M&K in a character action game, but there's a healthy amount of subtle lock-on to your attacks in Darksiders, so the slightly less directional nuance of not having analogue control isn't an issue, and you have the upside of more fluid and tactile camera control with a mouse. 
 
There are some annoyances to the controls in the in-game menus, and some functions would make more sense if they were consolidated with other functions onto one key (Separate keys for swim up/down?  Why not just have jump = swim up, jump down = swim down?), but overall I haven't encountered any intolerable control problems and none of them hinder my ability to play the game competently (or as competently as someone who isn't very good at character action games can).
 
And yes, this game is a time sink to be sure.

" Some things are objectively better with a mouse, but third person action games ain't one of them. "

" @august said:

" Some things are objectively better with a mouse, but third person action games ain't one of them. "

I thought so, too, until I played Lost Planet 2 on the PC both with the controller and then mouse/keyboard.  It's still much more fun with mouse and keyboard. "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @august said:

" Some things are objectively better with a mouse, but third person action games ain't one of them. "

I thought so, too, until I played Lost Planet 2 on the PC both with the controller and then mouse/keyboard.  It's still much more fun with mouse and keyboard. "

Lost Planet is a third person shooter though. Different kettle of fish really. "

" @bybeach said:

" I've heard otherwise, but my wireless xbox pc controller seems flawless. No lag/latency at all. And eliminating a wire from a controller does me just fine.  And I agree about 3d person, and even first, both batman and fallout 3 can attest to that. "

Only because the clunky ass Fallout HUD is built around controllers. If they built it with mice in mind like DAO had, mice would be the way to go. And if accuracy meant a damn thing. "

"@KaosAngel: Not a time sink then? Oh well, New Vegas and Civ V will always be there. "

Finally was able to download it yesterday. Got 8 hours in it already. Runs great on my 9800gtx+

I got like an hour in and it seems great. Very Zelda-like, so I cant imagine it being anything other than a time sink.
Personally the idea of playing it with a mouse and keyboard makes me want to vomit, but if that's what you're used to than I'm sure it will work fine for you. Have you played similar games with m and k?