Dark Souls Review/News

[Rennn]

This sounds odd considering I haven't been killed by any of these things online yet. The only guy who killed me did it with an (apparently) upgraded sword with a high chance to cause bleeding. I'm not saying that some spells are not at least a little overpowered, but it's not enough to sway the course of most invasions. Having said that, I've only put 50 hours into the pc version so far and I'm usually hollow, so invasions are rare. I also think it's silly that black phantoms complain about getting hit 3 vs 1. It was always my understanding that as a black phantom, you're expected to be outmatched. Otherwise nobody would ever make any progress and everyone would bash the game for having a **** community or something.

 

Anyway, I'm happy to say that my 460 is more than capable of maxing Dark Souls, using DS Fix SSAO, with a DoF resolution of 810p, with screen downsampling at 1152p. The game looks gorgeous and is still smooth (aside from a couple tiny spots in Blight Town). Even the Demon Ruins are good 99% of the time, which is surprising considering I didn't know if a 460 with 768MB of vram would handle many games at 1080p, let alone the 1152p I'm using in Dark Souls with SSAO. It runs much better and looks much better than Skyrim on my rig.

 

Has anyone considered that perhaps the sporadic framerate drops are the result of White Light Gates scaling with resolution? Various effects such as fur and particles scale with resolution in DkS, so it wouldn't surprise me if White Light Gates scaled heavily. It seems like one is on-screen or in front of the player behind obstructions whenever there's slowdown.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Rennn

[hoofhearted4]

I also think it's silly that black phantoms complain about getting hit 3 vs 1. It was always my understanding that as a black phantom, you're expected to be outmatched. Otherwise nobody would ever make any progress and everyone would bash the game for having a **** community or something.

 

this was a complaint back in Demons Souls too. i always used to say, if i get invaded when im playing the game, then its anything goes. no bowing. no waiting in plain site. no restrictions on spells or weapons. and if i have two phantoms, then 3v1 is fair game. as far as i was concerned, if your invading my game then youre being a douche. whether or not youre an honorable invader means nothing to me. youre impeding my game and thats that. people who regularly invaded always got bent out of shape at me for saying this (on the DS community Forums). if i want a fair duel, i will go to 4-1 or something. and wait and bow. if im not, then im killing you by any means necessary. it did get to the point where i was good enough that i didnt need to use any advantages to win, i could kill any invader at any time, but still. and if i was a Blue Phantom, same thing, i would gank with the host and do whatever it took to kill a BP.

 

that said, i do find it dumb when a BP invades an area known for invasions (ie the forest) and there are people waiting for him at spawn. thats different. when you invade and run into three people vs when you invade and find them waiting for you. those people are literally sitting there waiting for invaders to gank, and that is just lame. however its unavoidable. but its also why i dont invade. only did it for trophies. and it was a pain because invading more often then not led to me being ganked by people who knew what they were doing and were well equiped for it :P

 

i always did find PvP in Demons/Dark Souls very boring. rarely did it. unless i was invaded.

[Rennn]

 

this was a complaint back in Demons Souls too. i always used to say, if i get invaded when im playing the game, then its anything goes. no bowing. no waiting in plain site. no restrictions on spells or weapons. and if i have two phantoms, then 3v1 is fair game. as far as i was concerned, if your invading my game then youre being a douche. whether or not youre an honorable invader means nothing to me. youre impeding my game and thats that. people who regularly invaded always got bent out of shape at me for saying this (on the DS community Forums).

 

Hah, yeah. This exactly. I keep trying to use Force in Dark Souls to knock Black Phantoms off platforms in Blight Town. It doesn't usually work given the short range, but it gets them running and quitting. I used Firestorm with the Insanity Catalyst, Ring of Magical Sharpness, and the Kris Blade all together for a similar purpose in Demon's Souls. At that point it's almost always a one-or-two-hit kill, even considering that magic doesn't scale as much with level in DS compared to DkS. If they're invading, how can they expect a fair fight? The very idea is a conflict in terms.

 

I never actually PvP much for its own sake, and I never PvP'd at all [with the Red Eye Stone at least] in Demon's Souls. With Demon's Souls it's because of minor lag, and in the PS3 version of Dark Souls I didn't PvP because of much worse lag. In the PC version of Dark Souls it feels pretty fair, if only because dodging actually works without lag. I "like" black phantom invasions now because of the tension it adds, but I still wouldn't actively seek PvP. I'm not really into competitive modes. There's too much melodrama.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Rennn

[lonewolfkai]

Are there any flamey weapons in it?! :dance:

[hector530]

you can enchant fire to weapons but they wont flame up. Quelaag's Furysword lights on fire when you swing the weapon though

[lonewolfkai]

Sounds pretty cool.

 

Does this game still have Games for Windows Live still tied in. I heard it was snuck in despite From saying they won't use it.

[Rennn]

Sounds pretty cool.

 

Does this game still have Games for Windows Live still tied in. I heard it was snuck in despite From saying they won't use it.

 

it wasn't "snuck in", because From never said they were ditching it. They said the game would be available on Steam, and it is. However, the Steam version still uses GFWL drm, which caused some confusion originally. So yes, it still uses GFWL.

If you're worried about save deletion, a widely used mod called DSfix fixes many aspects of the port and also can be used to back up your saves automatically.

[lonewolfkai]

Sounds pretty cool.

 

Does this game still have Games for Windows Live still tied in. I heard it was snuck in despite From saying they won't use it.

 

it wasn't "snuck in", because From never said they were ditching it. They said the game would be available on Steam, and it is. However, the Steam version still uses GFWL drm, which caused some confusion originally. So yes, it still uses GFWL.

If you're worried about save deletion, a widely used mod called DSfix fixes many aspects of the port and also can be used to back up your saves automatically.

No its not just the save deletion, it's GFWL period.

[Loshirai14]

o_O