Dark Souls

[Kail]

So, whats the install limit on this under GFWL?

Going with 10.

As far as I know (and I'm not the most knowledgeable about this) GFWL's current activation policy is like Steam's: your CD Key is tied to your account once you use it, and once you do this you have unlimited activations.

[Mrbloodworth]

That's new then.

[koro]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/dark-souls-gfwl-discussion-ongoing-say-developers/094637

Looks like it's possible Dark Souls PC may not have GFWL in the end after all. Let's just hope this doesn't bite people in the ass if, in July, From Software suddenly goes Origin-exclusive with it due to losing GFWL.

[NiX]

I doubt that's likely with Unbounded having been on Steam.

[Fabricated]

I'd just go with Steam because Steam literally advertises your game for you. Even if Valve gets a cut having Dark Souls splashed all over the steam store front page for a week or two would likely help.

[schild]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/dark-souls-gfwl-discussion-ongoing-say-developers/094637

Looks like it's possible Dark Souls PC may not have GFWL in the end after all. Let's just hope this doesn't bite people in the ass if, in July, From Software suddenly goes Origin-exclusive with it due to losing GFWL.

There's nothing out there about Dark Souls that even suggests Origin is a remote possibility let alone one worth mentioning.

[Hawkbit]

Dark Souls on Steam and PC DLC coming to consoles.  Seems pretty win-win.

http://kotaku.com/5914504/dark-souls-coming-to-steam-computer-dlc-coming-to-consoles

[Falconeer]

I don't get it. The PC version will be out this August with the new content, but the PS3 will get it as a DLC... next Winter?

[Ingmar]

Presumably they developed it for the PC as they were doing the conversion of the whole game, now they have to port it for Xbox and PS3 and it also has to go through the Microsoft and Sony approval process.

[Lucas]

Geee....well, thanks for the honesty, I guess?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-07-from-software-having-a-tough-time-porting-dark-souls-to-pc-frame-rate-issues-remain

"To be completely honest, we're having a tough time doing it due to our lack of experience and knowledge in terms of porting to PC. First we thought it would be a breeze, but it's turned out not to be the case. We're still developing right now - we're crunching right now.
"In Japan there's not much of a PC market and we haven't really taken into consideration that audience before. That's one of the reasons why we haven't been able to step up on the PC platform until now."
Uchiyama went on to confirm that it hasn't fixed the frame rate problems that had hobbled certain parts of the game on consoles.
"In terms of the frame rate for say, Blighttown, From Software sincerely apologises for that happening [in the console version]," he said.
"In terms of the PC version, the quick answer is no, [we won't be fixing the frame rate problems]. Because we wanted to get the PC version out as soon as possible, it's more strictly a port from the console version. We haven't been able to step up into doing any specific optimisation for PC.
"However, in exchange for that, we have prioritised adding new content for both original players and new players."

[Hawkbit]

I'm still buying it, along with the PS3 DLC when it comes out.  They might not work on PC games in the future, but I'm personally of the opinion that any money I funnel to them to make the next Souls game is money well spent.

[NiX]

Geee....well, thanks for the honesty, I guess?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-07-from-software-having-a-tough-time-porting-dark-souls-to-pc-frame-rate-issues-remain

"To be completely honest, we're having a tough time doing it due to our lack of experience and knowledge in terms of porting to PC. First we thought it would be a breeze, but it's turned out not to be the case. We're still developing right now - we're crunching right now.
"In Japan there's not much of a PC market and we haven't really taken into consideration that audience before. That's one of the reasons why we haven't been able to step up on the PC platform until now."
Uchiyama went on to confirm that it hasn't fixed the frame rate problems that had hobbled certain parts of the game on consoles.
"In terms of the frame rate for say, Blighttown, From Software sincerely apologises for that happening [in the console version]," he said.
"In terms of the PC version, the quick answer is no, [we won't be fixing the frame rate problems]. Because we wanted to get the PC version out as soon as possible, it's more strictly a port from the console version. We haven't been able to step up into doing any specific optimisation for PC.
"However, in exchange for that, we have prioritised adding new content for both original players and new players."

Much like the last time he said something that sounded overly honest, it was a translation and communication issue, so I'm inclined to wait and see what happens. Theres been talk of the frame rate actually being better in the PC version from people who got hands on time with it.

I'll buy it. They listened to their fans and did what they could. Rockstar never told us GTA was going to be a piece of shit. Appreciate his honest if it's all true.

[Wasted]

Thanks to some region discrimination this moved from a certain buy to a fuck you Namco.  Fuck you and your $70 bullshit.

[Kageru]

It was 40$ during the steam sale (not actually on sale) so I went to check if the expected had happened. Yep, suddenly up to 69.95 USD.

Thanks to some region discrimination this moved from a certain buy to a fuck you Namco.  Fuck you and your $70 bullshit.

I agree entirely.

[Morfiend]

Probably one of the few games that is actually worth that much.

[UnSub]

Not when we know others are getting it for $30 less.

[Outlawedprod]

frame buffer user patch is out
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=41336203#post41336203

[Soulflame]

Enjoying this so far.  I'm using an xbox controller for windows, which from a quick read of the dark souls steam forum is probably a really good idea.  I did restart, mostly because I read a player tip to attack the guy by the bonfire in lordan.

Don't do that.

[Kail]

Wish I could say the same.  Looks like my computer isn't up to the task of running it at 30fps, so the entire thing runs in sloooooow moooootiooooon (my own fault for not meeting the min specs).  And yeah, don't get this if you plan on using KB+M, the interface is really, really bad (like, leaves the mouse cursor on the screen, bad).  So, looks like it's time to save up for a new PC.

[Ruvaldt]

Or you could buy a PS3, probably for less than saving up for that new PC.   

[Kail]

I don't have a TV, though, so it's not just the console.  And the PS3 itself is getting kind of long in the tooth, isn't it?  PS4 allegedly coming out what, next year or so?

[Ruvaldt]

I bought mine in April and have gotten my money's worth between Dark Souls, Just Cause 2, Disgaea and Dragon's Dogma.  I don't know when the PS4 is coming, but I'm not generally an early adopter when it comes to consoles.  I like a larger library to pick through and lower costs.

[Trippy]

I don't have a TV, though, so it's not just the console.

Don't need one if your monitor has a DVI or HDMI input.

[Nightblade]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiz3fzY0kSY

Seriously, I dicked around with my n52te's options to try and make this game's controls USABLE, but the damn camera just destroys any hope anyone has of playing this with a mouse. You need a Xbox360 or PS3 controller for this. So much for the 40 dollar price tag.

[Ginaz]

I was thinking of getting this and playing this weekend since I cancelled my GW2 pre-purchase, but from what I've heard its a very bad port.  If I wanted to play a game ported to the pc where the resolution is shit, the fps is capped at around 30 and the mouse and keyboard is inferior to a game pad I would just get this for my PS3.  What a disappointment.

"Dark indeed -- this is one of the worst ports we've ever seen."
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dark-souls/1225854p1.html

[bhodi]

So I got back into this, sorta, figuring maybe the coop was shared between ps3 and pc. No such luck. I started a new character and did well against the world, except that I would continually be invaded by level 1 people with ubergear who'd one shot me. I only assume there is a group of people that home from school and do nothing but invade newbies over and over again for laughs, because I got invaded by 4 separate people, each with a different look and weapon and every one completely untouchable.

So I just decided to stay hollow, hit the brick wall that was the capra demon in the fucking 10x10 sq foot box and just turned off the game. I can't believe they didn't patch that shit out or at least remove the dogs or something.

[Lounge]

I can't imagine trying to play this without a controller.  When they announced the PC port I tried for a while to come up with a keyboard control scheme that i thought made sense.  There are just too many inputs for this game to come up with any kind of reasonably sane control scheme.

- 2x analog sticks (usually wasd/mouse)
- 4x dpad buttons (1,2,3,4 maybe?)
- 4x face buttons ( i got nothin on this one )
- 2x light attack trigger buttons (mouse1 and mouse2)
- 2x heavy attack buttons (modifier + mouse1, modifier + mouse2)

Even that (which I think is better than what they shipped) sounds tedious to me.  What would you guys do if you were them and trying to make a usable pc/mouse control scheme?

I repurchased this when it came out with the PC hoping that it would look better.  I've been playing with the resolution hack and having the internal render set at 2x 1080p and the display resolution at 1080p.  It looks *significantly* better than the PS3 version.  Additionally I've noticed improved online support.  Much faster to get summoned, much faster to invade, etc.  I'm extremely happy with the port so far.

[Kail]

- 2x analog sticks (usually wasd/mouse)
- 4x dpad buttons (1,2,3,4 maybe?)
- 4x face buttons ( i got nothin on this one )
- 2x light attack trigger buttons (mouse1 and mouse2)
- 2x heavy attack buttons (modifier + mouse1, modifier + mouse2)

Even that (which I think is better than what they shipped) sounds tedious to me.  What would you guys do if you were them and trying to make a usable pc/mouse control scheme?

I dunno, the keyboard has some drawbacks as a control device, but lack of buttons is not among them, I don't think.  There are a ton of examples of console titles using the keyboard, but if I had to hazard a guess at a general control scheme, I'd point out that there are a lot of buttons you're ignoring (spacebar, mouse3, mousewheel, F, R, C, LCtrl, LShift, etc.) which are used in a ton of PC games.

Though I don't think the problem is so much in the default keybinding (with the exception of binding "open menu" defaulting to home instead of esc, which is just baffling to me) as it is everything else.  The mouse pointer showing up on screen, the issues with the camera, in-game prompts which tell you to hit left bumper without telling you what left bumper is, the general mouse wonkiness of the menus, that kind of thing.

[Yegolev]

So I just decided to stay hollow, hit the brick wall that was the capra demon in the fucking 10x10 sq foot box and just turned off the game. I can't believe they didn't patch that shit out or at least remove the dogs or something.

Heh, patch out the dogs and Capra becomes trivial.

That is waaaaaaaay before Real Dark Souls begins.  I stopped at Sen's Fortress because the traps make me all frustrated, and that's not even the hardest part of the game.

If I had to play this on PC, I'd use a controller.  It's ball-crushing enough without handicapping yourself.

[apocrypha]

This is currently on special offer on Steam for £20 in the UK.

Picked it up, installed high-res fixes, got the holy snot beaten out of me by the Asylum Demon a few times.

Looking forward to more pain! 

[Job601]

Bought a steam key for this on Amazon for $20 last week.  Love it so far.  I skimmed through the thread, but there's a basic systems question I didn't see an answer to -- is there any reason not to level up?  I understand that spending souls on items is more efficient than using them on stats, but is there level scaling or another reason not to level, or is grinding at a bonfire a useful way to get a slight advantage if you're stuck in an area?

[Fabricated]

Bought a steam key for this on Amazon for $20 last week.  Love it so far.  I skimmed through the thread, but there's a basic systems question I didn't see an answer to -- is there any reason not to level up?  I understand that spending souls on items is more efficient than using them on stats, but is there level scaling or another reason not to level, or is grinding at a bonfire a useful way to get a slight advantage if you're stuck in an area?

There's no reason to NOT level up unless you're saving souls to buy a specific item (or armor set) or upgrading items, some merchants sell armor sets and titanite and so on. Past a certain point souls are pretty much just for replenishing arrows or homeward bones or whatever. I'm not into DS enough to know what is flat out optimal though; I'm not sure if any of the buyable armor sets are better than the stuff you just find.

[Muffled]

The most important consideration regarding leveling if you're playing online is PvP. 
My personal experience is entirely with the 360 console version, so adjust for what the PC Dark Souls community is like accordingly.

[jakonovski]

Got it from the Steam sale, rolled a sorcerer because lack of magic was what annoyed me the most playing as a Ranger in Demon's Souls (never finished that one btw, got stuck in geometry at a crucial point and kind of burned out).

edit: welp, controls seem to be horrible on the gamepad. I die constantly because the button presses don't register.

[jakonovski]

4 hours in, should've gotten the PS3 version. I refuse to believe that this game is actually worse than Demon's Souls. Has to be the port.