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Dark Souls 2 fans angry about console graphics downgrade

by Mark Tyson on 17 March 2014, 11:45

Tags: Namco (TYO:7832), PC

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Namco Bandai released the Dark Souls II game to eager fans just before the weekend. This gaming sequel was made available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on Friday 14th March (the PC version is set to be released on Friday 25th April). The problem is that the released game bears little resemblance to the previously published official preview videos showing gameplay. An internet based campaign has been started with the hashtags #DarkSoulsDowngrade and #YOULIED.

You can see the huge differences in graphics qualities of the trailed version of the game and new PS3 footage of the released version of the game above, published by IGN magazine. The notably superior graphics are easy to see in the side-by side and A-B comparisons in the video. Texture quality, detail, complexity, lighting, effects and draw distance all look poorer in the relased version of the game.

Most commentators think that Namco Bandai has been using PC gameplay footage as representative of the game on all platforms in most of the previously released footage and trailers. However previous footage from what was said to be the PS3 version is also apparently been downgraded.

It's not that unexpected for a game on the last generation consoles to look poor compared to the PC version but software director Yui Tanimura previously talked up the importance of graphics and the improvements coming to Dark Souls II. "One of the first things we immediately tried to improve in terms of Dark Souls 2 was the graphic quality of the game," he told IGN. "One thing we really focused on obviously for Dark Souls and more so in Dark Souls 2 is how much you can get deep into the game emotionally and physically, and one of the things we felt was critical to that was the graphical improvements for more reality, more realistic expressions of everything we want to show in the game."

The PC version of the new game should be in line with expectations as it is trailed on the Steam pre-order page. The PC sequel is promised to be better than the original in terms of graphics which were limited, at launch, to 720p and 30fps.

HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

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Posted by sykobee - Mon 17 Mar 2014 12:00
A game made for 2014-era PCs is inevitably going to look a bit crappy in comparison on 2005/2006 era console hardware. But that lava effect is abysmal.
Posted by Ferral - Mon 17 Mar 2014 12:03
Big fan of the Souls series after clocking 80 hours on Demons & 90 on Dark, already clocked just over 20 hours on Dark Souls 2 since Friday and loving it.

Some places do look way better than others but its not really bothering me, its an enjoyable foreboding experience. First 3 hours or so have been the hardest so far must admit, the rest of it though has been plenty co op play to learn boss enemies attack patterns before going for it myself.

My main gripe is the Human Effigies (Similar to Humanity on the first game), trouble is the drops are extremely rare (more so than the Humanities in the first game so turning back to human is something that you should only do in a situation that needs it. Its a catch 22 situation also, every time you die your life bar gets smaller until it hits 50% and the only way to restore it to full is using a Human Effigy. With the way the game is laid out you do die a lot (especially people that are relatively new to the series) so could end up trying to get through it with little health after all their Effigies are used.

Granted there is a ring you can get outside The Cathedral of Blue which stops the decrease at 75% but you won't visit that area till after you have killed the Last Giant and Pursuer (Pursuer is optional boss)

They need to do something though, the performance has been ok and adding more detail etc will hinder it, they will also need to do something with drop rate on Effigies as you can't farm areas to get them as after killing the same enemies on a level a set amount of times they no longer appear. As an example at The Lost Bastille, just outside McDuffs Blacksmith, there are 5 dogs which can be killed easily, you can farm these to try and get Effigies. So doing a little experiment I killed the five, visited bonfire to reset them. It was either 10 or 12 times before they disappeared, so either 50 - 60 dogs killed in total and there was only 1 Effigy dropped. That's a really low drop rate for something that is REALLY needed and used in the game.
Posted by zdn1042 - Mon 17 Mar 2014 12:09
I'm so sad to hear this. At least the developers should have been upfront and honest about it. If there's one thing you don't want to disappoint are your eager fans.
Anyway, I still can't wait to get my hands on Dark Souls II for PC.
Posted by Hicks12 - Mon 17 Mar 2014 12:25
Seems like alot of the owners of last gen consoles are raging because they got substandard graphics on such an old platform… should be thankful they got the game at all, very surprised people expected PS4/XBONE and PC like graphics on a 360 or PS3, demo footage on PC so you cant expect like for like!

Need to play dark souls at some point :P.
Posted by Flurk - Mon 17 Mar 2014 12:29
NO sympathy … everybody knows consoles is a cheaper and easyer way to game like pc gamers but in limited specs … if your complaining about a downgrading in spec on consoles buy a gaming pc next time and don't complain it nothing new this happens …. remember GTA 4 Graphics had to be downgraded also for xbox 360 en PS3 why? cuz it's a console … ya'll might wanne be like a pc gamer and have a full game expierence but you'll never have. saying it's both the same is just like saying ferrari(pc) and williams(ps/xbox) f1 racing team is the same … it just means ya'll can drive the track with us but don't ever expect to win the race ya'll can complain as much as you want but never ever ever … :)

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