Dark Souls 2 [PS3,X360]

[patsu]

I am alive ~!

Found out from a random person Dark Souls 2 is out and here I am.

Is it good ?

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I am alive ~!

Found out from a random person Dark Souls 2 is out and here I am.

Is it good ?

According to reviewers its a potential GOTY. It will unlock day after tomorrow for me, will provide impressions then.

@Scofield: I can't really imagine how there can be such a huge downgrade if they could get it to run on a ps3 with that level of detail. I mean its night and day. I can understand brightening the ambient light otherwise it would unplayable without a torch(which means u HAVE to take torch, which kills any choice), but its not just lighting in those screens, but lots of polygons and most weirdly, a lot of texture changes too. WOuld like to know what happened.

From teh review videos, the game still hs tons of atmosphere, and everyone is loving the atmosphere but we can see the aim was much much higher.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Apparently it's still a terrific game, though. Downgrades or not. Ultimately that is what counts. Besides, it's not like the first 2 games didn't have their fair share of bland looking spots. Didn't stop them from having a magnificent atmosphere regardless.

 

[Billy Idol]

I'll wait for the PS4 version...game sounds really good...

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Apparently it's still a terrific game, though. Downgrades or not. Ultimately that is what counts. Besides, it's not like the first 2 games didn't have their fair share of bland looking spots. Didn't stop them from having a magnificent atmosphere regardless.

Yup, thats why I ain't worried at all. I loved Demons SOuls atmosphere. I skipped Dark Souls, even if this looks only as good as Demons, I will be happy, but I can already see the characters looks immensley better than Demons Souls. Maybe their heavy focus on making characters look good made them tone down the environments a bit. I don't know, but I can see some of the environments look very very good, some are bland as hell. Maybe just a matter of not getting time to optimise every area, so they just brute forced those environments. The opening areas look phenomenal on youtube.

 

[Sigfried1977]

The game looks quite handsome for the most part (and it does get really dark too). Don't be fooled by a couple of specifically selected screen-shots.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

^Yup, a friend is playing already and he just called up and he says: be ready to be wowed ! 14th can't come soon enough !

 

[L. Scofield]

The game looks quite handsome for the most part (and it does get really dark too). Don't be fooled by a couple of specifically selected screen-shots.

There's no cherry picking going on. It's simply a comparison of what FROM was showing until a couple months ago and what the real game ended up being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhckus8ktgE

Dark Souls 1 look better simply because they're far more polished products.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I know it's not cherry picking. All I'm saying is that the game looks certainly good enough in plenty of other spots. Remember how bland the area before the Crystal Caverns in Dark Souls looked? Or the terrible eyesore that was the area with all those jumping t-rex asses?
I like my pretty visuals, and I certainly wouldn't mind them in this game, but it's simply not what I'm playing DS for.

 

[DrJay24]

The IGN video review made a point that the torch light changes the look immensely, by design. The torch/no torch looked like the picks being shown as a downgrade. Check out the end of the video review.

 

[HokutoNoKen]

Is it possible that the PS3 version originally was running with FP16 (HDR)? DF analysis of the game shows that the game is rendered @1280x720. FP16 combined with 720p would exced 10Mb and therefore it would require tiling. So to keep platform parity they may have had too choose another frame buffer format?

/ Ken

 

[Sigfried1977]

I'm not an expert on these sorts of things, but simply using a lower precision lightning model most certainly wouldn't result in changes like that. And if you look at the comparison shots, the lighting hasn't merely been changed a little. It's drastically different. Down to the placement of lightsources (or the complete omission of said light sources)

 

[Inuhanyou]

maybe the earlier assets are based off the PC and inevitable next gen versions, but they are more focused on the current gen because of install base

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Also, it's not just lighting, one can clearly see lesser geometry and simpler textures too. Only From knows what they did and why as a friend of mine who was at TGS sYs he played the demo and it was not downgraded then. Which means ps3 was able to run the game with those visuals

@Scofield: I am not saying there is no downgrade, thats evident. but all areas aren't as bland as some. Some of them are breathtaking while some seem to have no real lighting at all. Its more like some areas got polished on time and some could not. Hope the ps4 version, if it arrives, has a very good AO solution too on top of the last year's lighting model. But its a japanese company, we never know if a ps4 version is in the plans at all or not. Best to enjoy it while u can.

As for the torch mechanic, if an area is unplayable without a torch , it kills player choice of a two handed weapon. Maybe that is why they added a bit of ambient light while still keeping the enemies who fear light so that players who sacrifice their damage output over torch get an advantage too. Also, watched a VaatiVidya video on youtube aBout 6 new mechanics and it showed an area whichw as completwly dark except for the small amount of light around the hero.

 

[messyman]

Yes



It's not about the technology, but the aesthetics and gameplay. Atmosphere has taken a major blow and pitched black areas that previously required a torch to advance through them are now filled with gray light bright enough to make this gameplay feature pointless.

Just look at this and tell me the difference is just a technical banality:

I know the Souls games aren't about graphics, but this makes me sad

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Just a few more hours ! Time to catch some sleep.

 

[L. Scofield]

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Fuck fuck fuck ! The game is fantastic ! My life is over ! And as far as the inital areas are concerned, the game looks great too ! The enemy characters are beautiful , I mean beautiful !!!! The game is pure magic

 

[patsu]

[Downgrade talks]

I bet it's getting ported to iPad. ~~~

Fuck fuck fuck ! The game is fantastic ! My life is over ! And as far as the inital areas are concerned, the game looks great too ! The enemy characters are beautiful , I mean beautiful !!!! The game is pure magic

That's why I need to plan my life around this game. Probably will play it when I have a long stretch of vacation days.

 

[Wynix]

I hope the PC version retains features from the old builds.