Dark Souls II Was "Unplayable" Before Graphics Downgrade

[Steven Bogos]

Dark Souls II Was "Unplayable" Before Graphics Downgrade

The PC version of Dark Souls II should still look and play the way the game looked and played in preview builds.

Forbes source [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/11097-Dark-Souls-II-Review-Dark-Souls-Refined] has explained that the reasoning for the graphical downgrade was in pursuit of a stable framerate, as the game was practically "unplayable" on last-gen consoles before the downgrade.

"This is what it comes down to: a playable framerate. The early builds that the screenshots came from were playable but only just so. The game was not in a state where it could be sold at that point. I strongly suspect that they were focusing heavily on delivering a top-notch experience on PC and underestimated the challenges the new systems would pose on PS3 / Xbox360. That's my analysis, anyway. But, factually, the early builds played like Blighttown the entire game."

"I sincerely don't think they intended to deceive," said the source, "but in the end they sacrificed a huge amount of graphical fidelity at the very end of development because they couldn't resolve the framerate in any other way. They had to promote the game with screens and trailers, but at that time even they had no idea they were going to have to drop the settings so much, I suspect."

"The game would have been much worse without the change, as in, many would call it unplayable and broken," he added.

The source's comments heavily suggest that the PC version of the game will still look as great as it did in the preview builds. So, if you're a true Dark Souls fan, you may want to wait until the PC version [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123242-Dark-Souls-2-PC-Version-Wont-Be-Half-Assed] releases in April.

Source: Forbes [http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/03/20/dark-souls-ii-was-unplayable-and-broken-on-consoles-before-graphics-downgrade/]

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[Denamic]

Rather than a complete downgrade for everyone, they're keeping the better graphics for the PC? I... don't know what to say. As a PC gamer, I'm almost never given this much respect on multi-platform releases.

 

[AdagioBoognish]

Am I correct in understanding that it was only a problem on last-gen consoles and assuming the game would have been playable on PS4/XBoxOne? If that's true, then is there a significant amount of work involved in shipping down graded graphics for last-gen and the preview level graphics for current generation players?

Props for deciding not to ship a game with choppy frame rate issues.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Rather than a complete downgrade for everyone, they're keeping the better graphics for the PC? I... don't know what to say. As a PC gamer, I'm almost never given this much respect on multi-platform releases.

this pleases me greatly also.

However, in a game like this, I can see them wanting to keep a decent framerate going. so props to them for making that right decision rather than shipping the game out and having 8 billion customer support calls on why their system was on fire after 2 hours of playing the game. (lets face it, alot of console gamers stick their consoles in little cubby holes with bad ventilation)

 

[Flunk]

I think it would have been better if their response had just been "the preview was of the PC version of the game".

 

[Elfgore]

Well, it's always nice to see PC players not get screwed over. But I'm not a big fan of how people are just giving this a free pass because it's Dark Souls. Seems slightly biased to me.

 

[Kopikatsu]

For example, preview versions featured a lighting system that seemed to plunge the world of Drangleic into deep darkness, traversable only with the help of a trusty torch.

Well, that explains why I always found the torch useless (aside from puzzle solving) even though my TV traditionally does horribly as far as brightness goes. 'cause it was meant to be an important mechanic that was cut at the last moment. Huh.

On the other hand, I did just kill The Last Giant on NG+ while dual wielding Ladels. So I guess the graphical fidelity isn't as important to the fun as...everything else is.

 

[The Lunatic]

It was rather silly for console gamers to expect the game to look that good and run on hardware as old as the PS3 and Xbox.

Hopefully, they're not misleading on the PC version however.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Well, it's always nice to see PC players not get screwed over. But I'm not a big fan of how people are just giving this a free pass because it's Dark Souls. Seems slightly biased to me.

I've seen a considerable number of people raging hard over this because of it being "false advertising," so it's certainly not getting away with it, so to speak. Granted, I can buy the graphical fidelity argument, and I think people should know better than to acknowledge alpha/beta/whatever gameplay as "advertisement." This does sort of remind me of the whole Watchdogs hullabaloo though, which seems to have garnered a great deal more venom for whatever reason.

At least the game is good enough even without shiny graphics, though I am admittedly disappointed.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I remember watching the preview and thinking, "That's too dark. How am I going to be able to play in that?" So I guess I'm the only person on the planet that's okay with this. I don't know, I think they made the right call. Make it so the game is playable and enjoyable verses it's so pretty that it can't be seen by mortal eyes.

 

[FancyNick]

Honestly, I could care less about how fancy the graphics should of been. It's not why I buy a soul's game. I appreciate that they thought of frame-rate first as shitty frame-rate would ruin this game. Game has been pretty great so far, it's cool the pc guys get something a little more shiny

 

[antigodoflife]

Well, it's always nice to see PC players not get screwed over. But I'm not a big fan of how people are just giving this a free pass because it's Dark Souls. Seems slightly biased to me.

I've seen a considerable number of people raging hard over this because of it being "false advertising," so it's certainly not getting away with it, so to speak. Granted, I can buy the graphical fidelity argument, and I think people should know better than to acknowledge alpha/beta/whatever gameplay as "advertisement." This does sort of remind me of the whole Watchdogs hullabaloo though, which seems to have garnered a great deal more venom for whatever reason.

At least the game is good enough even without shiny graphics, though I am admittedly disappointed.

People complain about Watch_Dogs graphical downgrade, I actually noticed an improvement but people don't seem to grasp that what changed was the colour pallet, which went from a B/W contrast, to a more subtle gradient colour pallet. B/W Contrast looks good in screenshots but is a nightmare to play (see here: most modern games), while a more gradient colour scheme, while superior, causes complications for those who can't tell colours apart (majority of males, especially younger male adults) which makes it appear worse. A gradient colour scheme makes the game more colourful (subtly) and infinitely more playable as more things can be visible (and pop-out) at any given time. They also removed a lot of the blacks and the whites and replaced them with more greens and blues, which is more attune to how the human eye works but again few people will notice this and will fly over their heads.

I actually see it as an upgrade in lighting, however, they appear to have not upgraded the anti-aliasing software or reflection models to compensate, or can't. I don't know about the weather effects though.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Seems like an engine limitation. You can only get it to run so lean before it starts taking big bites out of your framerates.

I will be happy when the port comes out and at least has all the prompts in KB & M, not that I'll use them. I always found a controller was more precise when trying to dodge fighting more than one enemy. Better graphics will be nice too. I do love me some good textures.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Good to know that there's never going to be a middle ground for console players seeing as how there's a new current gen that's been here since last year and it's nowhere near as weak as last gen and it's already coming out for PC "untouched" so I really can't see a reason for them not to put it on the current gens so fans don't have to go out and spend money on a new rig if they already have a current gen console, having options I've been told time and time again are a really nice thing for people to have, this is the case where there should be another instead of jus PC or old gen.

I may not be a fan of the series at all but hell if I see some options that can be used and even though PC users aren't getting screwed this time (as if they get screwed 100% of the time that's made out to be) I'd say console users are and it's not a "pffft you should have expected a downgrade you plebeians", it's better to expect at least a future version on the new current gens, they are new and here for a reason, to say it's too much effort or work is bs, to say they were working on old gen first is also bs since the games now out they should plan on a current gen release since current gens are "basically PC's" after all.

 

[seditary]

Why is this coming from a guy at Forbes talking to a source instead of the developers just saying it?

 

[Grabehn]

This does sort of remind me of the whole Watchdogs hullabaloo though, which seems to have garnered a great deal more venom for whatever reason.

That might be cuz whenever there was any Watchdogs' advertisement, it was related to how good it would look and then the gameplay stuff, asides from it pretty much being called the "next-gen flagship", so with all those expectations a lot of people didn't take well the delays and a considerable visual downgrade.

This game on the other hand, I've always heard about the setting is really good, and that the gameplay is really good but pretty hard to learn at first.

 

[ExtraDebit]

I'm sure if they really spend sometime with the engine they would be able to do it, logic being there are games before it on these consoles that looks better and runs smoother there's no reason why they couldn't do it if they would apply themselves.

 

[Jorec]

I'm actually kind of ok with a graphical downgrade if it means the whole game isn't going be another blighttown situation. And honestly Dark Souls wasn't anything to really write home about graphically speaking but it still looked pretty damn great, and I'm sure Dark Souls II still looks pretty damn good for a downgraded PC to console port.

 

[weirdee]

It'll be fine if they put in ACTUAL KEYBOARD AND MOUSE CONTROLS this time.