Dark Souls 2: "Let DLC be granted so the money might be extended..."

[AlphaRuby]

What's with the high scores, then?

[Badnik Mechanic]

What's with the high scores, then?

 

You think a review site would do that? Just go on the internet and post over hyped/positive reviews?

 

But in all seriousness... I really don't know, I don't doubt the game is good... However, I have my suspicions it's not as good as people were expecting it to be.

 

For instance heres a quote from someone who has the game thanks to a broken street date (yes this has been verified).

 

I'm five hours in. This game is astonishingly ugly on all fronts. The art direction is inconsistent and the textures are abominable. Decent-looking areas are connected with wooden, gray anus tunnels that all look the same. Lighting is practically nonexistent, and when it does exist it slows the framerate to the low double digits and single digits. I have only seen the framerate touch 30fps in unlit tiny rooms. It fluctuates like crazy during gameplay and it makes combat difficult

.

Speaking of combat: there's one encounter design so far. Walk into area -> see cluster of guys -> just kidding there's also one far away with a bow! Either that, or single BIG SLOW dudes. It's not varied at all.

[Blue Wisp]

That last dragon screenshot comparison.

 

Where did all the colour go?

[Badnik Mechanic]

That last dragon screenshot comparison.

 

Where did all the colour go?

 

The PC & inevitable Next Gen version of course!

[Blue Wisp]

The PC & inevitable Next Gen version of course!

THE FUTURE OF GAMING EVERYONE.

 

Gray and dull colours for realistic purposes. Just like in real life.

[AlphaRuby]

The PC & inevitable Next Gen version of course!

No, it's the Black And White version!

 

They made it as a tribute to 1940's films!

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Are we absolutely sure this is all legit? That last dragon screenshot looks more like a photoshop than anything.

[Autosaver]

The downgrade is legit. Look at the gifs that Hoggy posted.

 

The screenshot I'm not entirely sure. There are moments in games like Tomb Raider where the game turns black and white so you can spot things. It could just be an awfully timed screenshot.

[Badnik Mechanic]

The last screenshot has had the original E3 character position put on it. However nobody has come out to dispute it since it was taken from a live stream thing.

 

The more concerning one though is the mirror night fight.

 

Here's a video demoing what it looked like from an earlier build of the game.

 

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

 

Vs this.

 

[Badnik Mechanic]

... ... Shit....

 

Old

Release build

Top image is the old, bottom is the release build.

 

 

Top image is old... bottom is release.

 

 

More here.

[SuperStingray]

This doesn't make any damn sense.  I mean, there was a beta.  People got to see the game before release and I don't recall any complaints about the graphics back then.  Why would they just decide to flub them up now?

[Blue Wisp]

This doesn't make any damn sense.  I mean, there was a beta.  People got to see the game before release and I don't recall any complaints about the graphics back then.  Why would they just decide to flub them up now?

EHEM. 

 

 

This has happened before.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Aliens

 

This is different. 

 

Colonial Marines never had any public demo or any press demo aside from a multiplayer hands on.

 

Colonial Marines' trailers were complete frabrications compared to the final product. Most like it was pre-rendered stuff or even 'performance target stuff.'

 

Dark Souls 2 on the other hand has clearly had a downgrade from an earlier build. It was and has been demoed and given hands on playtime to both press and the public. But for some reason the game has had a last seconds downgrade. Now what the reasons are for this I've no idea... however I can hazard a guess, both a technical one and a conspiracy theory one. Technical would be frame-rate/performance issues (some people with the game are reporting the odd screen tearing issue) The other would be Namco, for the past few years they've strived to have a big Feburary-March release, last year it was Ni No Kuni.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I'd say the likes of this more so comes to mind:

[Badnik Mechanic]

Sonic 06

 

Erm... no... this is nothing like that at all.

 

The game from what people are saying is working, doesn't have any major problems with it other than the odd screen tearing issue. The main problem is a graphical downgrade.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

 The main problem is a graphical downgrade.

The look of things was what I was referring too, though I apologize for vagueness on my part.

[Blue Wisp]

This is different. 

 

Colonial Marines never had any public demo or any press demo aside from a multiplayer hands on.

 

Colonial Marines' trailers were complete frabrications compared to the final product. Most like it was pre-rendered stuff or even 'performance target stuff.'

 

Dark Souls 2 on the other hand has clearly had a downgrade from an earlier build. It was and has been demoed and given hands on playtime to both press and the public. But for some reason the game has had a last seconds downgrade. Now what the reasons are for this I've no idea... however I can hazard a guess, both a technical one and a conspiracy theory one. Technical would be frame-rate/performance issues (some people with the game are reporting the odd screen tearing issue) The other would be Namco, for the past few years they've strived to have a big Feburary-March release, last year it was Ni No Kuni.

Oh. First thing I thought when I heard of this was the Aliens drama, specially after the E3 demo was completely better than the final version.

 

Did they report framerate and performance issues before the game released though? Like, in the demos and betas and stuff?

[Kat]

Looks like all the previews showed the PC version.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_JFDPCtXFY&t=2m58s

 

No torch needed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vnErlYgKo8&t=2m55s

 

I guess that's one of the reasons why I have to wait six more weeks to play the game ;-) (and avoid the internet until then :|)

[Badnik Mechanic]

It's just....

 

 

I mean look!

 

 

 

The cobwebs... the gates... clear evidence that objects were removed.

 

Though I think we might have a clear understanding of what has happened with this one.

 

 

 

Don't look at the lighting, look at the ladder. In the demo the ladder is made of metal, it has smooth shapes which are not uniformed, it looks like an old metal ladder... Now look at the final one. The metal ladder has been replaed with a bad looking wooden one.

 

Heres the question... why? It's debatable as to which ladders fits more (I'd say metal). But why remove it for a wooden one? Why not just downscale it?

 

Well... a wooden ladder would require a lot less poylgons to generate, add to the mix the fact that wooden ladder looks terrible and very well designed. I think we have a case that FROM have hit the polygon/size limit. So instead of working some magic... downgrade it goes, and in some cases assets have been replaced comepletely to lesser demanding variants. In this case, swap a high resource using metal ladder for a low resource demanding wooden one which isn't very nice looking.

[Kat]

Hmm, strange. But look at the button captions of the last two images. Is that PS3 vs XBOX? Or is that just how PC shows the controls?

These really look entirely different. Has anyone played the beta?

[Autosaver]

@Kat

 

It's E3 vs 360

 

 

Was the E3 version even running on a PS3? It could have been a high spec PC.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Some of the videos shown do have the PS3 button prompts, if that was running off a PC or PS3 is anyone's guess. Though it's looking more and more like FROM/Namco have pulled a fast one with one of the most anticipated games of the year. 

[Autosaver]

 

I'm dying

 

this is hilarious

[Badnik Mechanic]

We have review scores. Tons of them.

 

CVG: 10/10

VideoGamer: 10/10
Gamer365(Hungary) 10/10
GameInformer: 9.75/10
AusGamers: 9.6/10
Famitsu: 9/10/9/9
M!Games: 90%
IGN: 9/10
Gamespot: 9/10
Destructoid: 9/10
Polygon 9/10
Eurogamer: 9/10
Edge: 9/10
Gamereactor(Spain): 9/10
Press-Start: 9/10
OPM(UK): 9/10
Pixel Enemy: 9/10
Metro(UK): 9/10
EGM: 8.5/10
OXM: 8/10
Guardian(UK): 5/5
US Gamer: 5/5
Gamesradar 4.5/5
Escapist: 4.5/5
HardcoreGamer: 4.5/5
Rev3: 4/5
Kotaku: Yes

 

The links are on Gaf, really don't want to insert them all.

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=782478

 

 

I'm dying

 

this is hilarious

 

You're going to love this then...

 

This is a gif from an earlier trailer which more or less sold people on the game, and it's amazing, it looks fantastic. 

 

 

Here is what it looks like in the console version.

 

 

Changes.

 

* Lighting effects are gone.

* Torches are gone.

* Stained glass windows are gone.

* Enemy is no longer animated.

* Statues eyes are no longer glowing.

* Path is not as wide.

* Missing objects

* Missing debris

* Fog door is different (not sure if it's better)

* Flag has been downgraded (not as torn/wavy).

* Geometry of the path is much more flat.

 

 

And there's a few other problems. With Dark Souls, it was hard to tell which was the best version, PS3 or Xbox 360? They were both near equal. 

 

With Dark Souls 2... the choice is obvious.

 

Do you want painfully bad screen tearing issues but a smooth 30-40 frame rate? Buy the 360 version.

 

Do you want virtually no screen tearing but a frame rate of 30 with noticeable drops? Buy the PS3 version.

[Maddnsk]

 

* Enemy is no longer animated.

* Statues eyes are no longer glowing.

 

 

 

Do you want painfully bad screen tearing issues but a smooth 30-40 frame rate? Buy the 360 version.

 

Well when i played a 360 version i didn't noticed any screen tearing honestly. And in this area statues are definitely animated and the eyes are glowing, In this gif they just don't awake for some reason. And while graphics on consoles are definitely worst, they still has gorgeous looking areas like a castle drowning in lava, and especially area with dragons, in my opinion is the best looking area. But i already bought the game on steam though. The only real problem that will affect gameplay is lighting, i never had to use torches in the whole game, there is no catacombs in this game where you don't see shit. Maybe in PC version torches would be useful, but on 360 they nothing. I even wounder if there a day and night system because when i go to that area that was shown in demo, i saw everything without using torch.