Dark Souls II Hi-Fidelity Screenshots Removed From Steam

[DeadEyeDan]

It's still a fantastic game which looks great, and runs a lot smoother than the original did.

For people to completely write it off now that it doesn't look quite as good as early demos then they'll be missing out on such a great experience over such a petty reason.

 

[Cybylt]

According to people who played older builds with all the shiny effects still ine it's because they haven't yet nailed down how to pull off the pretty without severe dips in the frames per second, with one tester describing it as going into "seconds per frame."

Well this is unexpected. I know several youtubers that held off doing LPs of this awaiting the grossly incandescent PC version. *insert The Price is Right fail music*

Mild spoilers

Spoiler

On the other hand no amount of graphical prowess will make up for how poor the ending is. Your time up until that nonevent may be pretty fun so its not all bad. The final boss is even kinda scary which is a step up from "press L2 to win", and the "amazing talking turd" which were the previous two. The plot/lore/npcs/bosses are a step back...and off a cliff compared to the previous entries in the series.

Spells look awesome though, as do several locations.

The gear looks nice though, with plenty of cloth physics. Gear is also mostly pointless other than for fashion souls. The returning weapons all have different movesets, which are the same as their base weapon type.

I just started a new game as a mage as I skipped magic my first time through until endgame having a few pyromancies was all but required because sometimes you need an aoe ._.

Casting eats at your catalyst's durability now, which is a legitimate problem. I understand giving it low durability to discourage me from beating people with it but when I need to spam soul arrow to take out a handful of hollows I don't want to see my staff is close to breaking. This is especially a concern as unlike weapons, you don't get access to a back up staff, or the means to repair a broken one until a little ways into the game. I would imagine their are plenty of Mega Mule asshats invading new players that love nothing more than to spam acid attacks at every sorcerer they find in the starting areas knowing that if they break their staff (and they don't know where to get another one) then they are SOL until they unlock the blacksmiths shop.

Personally I'd rather just go back and play DS1 a few more times. DS2 was more of an chordeal than a game.

Playing with no shield or armor drastically changes things up though. I did wuss out and summon the npc for the Dragonrider fight because I'm not pro at ninja dodging giant halberd swings yet and I didn't wanna have to burn an effigy after my learning curve. I'll learn after I get that sweet sweet Ring of Life Protection ^_^

I'm hoping the game grows on me because as it is I don't really even want to go on to NG+ on my first file to see the various changes. I anticipate playing mage at least up until Lost Sinner fight. I really don't want to have to iframe my way through the game but that fight will be pretty crazy without a shield + getting a cast off before she dodges or tears into me.

I really think all the story and style issues can be attributed the loss of a single creative vision being replaced by a team. I hope Miyazaki's latest project has him as the driving force though he said himself that the reason he didn't take the helm again was because he wasn't sure what he could add to the Souls games from there.

But there's one huge advantage it certainly has over its predecessor, it's a finished game and doesn't have the bullcrap slog of everything post Anor Londo. How terrible everything that came after Ornstein and Smough is really hard to overlook. 2 might not have the highs of the previous game but it sure as hell never goes as low either.

On a more personal note, I'm incredibly pleased with the move from being totally gear based to being more build and play style based. Dark Souls entire play strategy was getting just enough stats to equip something, be it weapon or spell, and then pumping endurance and vitality for the rest of the game because lol stat scaling, damage type? What's that?

Yep, that's elitist all right, and it's pretty in line with the attitude I attributed to WoW players. Those kinds of people are unpleasant. But unlike you, I simply haven't seen that attitude in my extensive interactions with Souls fans. Not even a little. Feel free to tell me which website you found these idiots on so I can avoid it.

If I had to take a guess, sounds like /v/ and occasionally /vg/ "Git gud" is a pretty constant refrain from people who don't actually know anything but want to feel like they do.

 

[Elfgore]

I have a massive grin on my face right now. I can't wait to see how the Dark Souls fans come justify this. (if it is true.) I'm expecting a lot of denial and "gameplay is all that matters." arguments.

Though I do hope it isn't true. I don't hate dark souls, I just really don't like the fanbase.

What exactly is it you don't like? I can tell you, from the inside, it's about as good a fan base as I've been a part of. We get characterised as "elitist" yet if you need help and put a query out there you will get a number of detailed, helpful, friendly responses. Compare that to so many other games (like WoW for instance) where daring to ask a question instantly marks you as a worthless noob to be sarcastically misled at best, and randomly abused at worst. Also, if you look at some old Souls threads, I think you'll find that if there's hostility in there it's usually being brought in from outside, from one of a number of passionate haters who believe their taste is objectively right for some reason.

And for my part, I genuinely don't give a flying fuck about graphics and never have, which is why I was content to buy the PS3 version in the first place. I guess PC Master Racers are likely to be annoyed though.

From the outside looking in, The Souls fanbase is very elitist. Remember the whole Dark Souls 2 easy mode fiasco? That was my first encounter with the fanbase. And I'll I saw was a bunch of people complaining about casuals entering their game. Then I've seen some people here scorn Watch_Dogs for lying about graphics, but not Dark Souls becuase all that matters is gameplay. I've seen some treat it like an idol that can do no wrong. That's why I don't care for the fanbase.

Note: These are once again just my view from outside the fanbase. I've never been a part of it, so feel free to enlighten me if anything is wrong. (this isn't sarcasm btw.)

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

if From screw me over on this game, I think it'll be a long time before I preorder ANY game again

 

[Incomer]

-snip-
.

You clearly haven't seen the vast majority of dark souls elitists. When someone new asks a question about an item? Get good is the response, A person asks how to beat a boss? Nope, just get good. Thats the dark souls fanbase's answer to everything, just "get good, one person clearly wants help from other fans and they just barrage him with noob comments and tell him to somehow out of nowhere to just get good, isn't that unfair? Not to mention if you don't play a souls came your classified by dark souls fanboys as casual. Hows that NOT elitist?

Honestly, the "get good" answer usually comes after whiny tantrums about how the game is not fair or how it should be changed so are able to rush through it like you are used to from your other sources of entertainment. It also works pretty well in the Souls series, some obstacles can't be vanquished any other way then getting good or at least better...

 

[Cybylt]

From the outside looking in, The Souls fanbase is very elitist. Remember the whole Dark Souls 2 easy mode fiasco? That was my first encounter with the fanbase. And I'll I saw was a bunch of people complaining about casuals entering their game. Then I've seen some people here scorn Watch_Dogs for lying about graphics, but not Dark Souls becuase all that matters is gameplay. I've seen some treat it like an idol that can do no wrong. That's why I don't care for the fanbase.

Note: These are once again just my view from outside the fanbase. I've never been a part of it, so feel free to enlighten me if anything is wrong. (this isn't sarcasm btw.)

I think part of the response to the graphics is from two things.

1 - Souls started as low budget titles and even now they're still middling budget at best, so you have a fan base that's not really expecting the most polished look.

2 - Watch_Dogs got torn into by everyone because during the reveal Ubi was just completely "THIS IS THE POWER OF NEXT GEN! WE'RE MAKING GAMES SO MUCH PRETTIER NOW AND THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS" versus From's "We're trying a new engine out and we hope it will look this good but we're still not sure it can feasibly be done."

Unlike a lot of developers From's pretty open about what's going on on their end more often than not and I think that's what makes people more forgiving about these kinds of things. They cut down on the pretty effects because they'd rather not put people through framerate drop or input lag.

As for the elitism, yeah, it happens. I think a lot of it came from Dark Souls and Bamco towing the whole "It's the hardest game ever" nonsense, and the entire gaming community totally buying into that.

But the thing is, every game has that crowd. Every multiplayer game has that group of assholes out there trying to make it not fun for anybody else, especially when PVP comes into the mix. Even with that crowd around I'd still say that overall the community is still very nice, friendly and helpful because the series whole nature was to evoke the days of sharing secrets found in whatever game with your friends on the playground and far more often than not that's what you'll get.

Personally, I was a little bothered by the "Easy Mode" idea because I think people mistake the difficulty from coming strictly from enemy damage/defense when it's not and that's all that the people saying "Well why not add an easy mode?" were offering. Most of the difficulty of the games comes in it punishing you for mistakes that are easy to point out in hindsight if you sprung them or easily spotted if you take the game at a slower pace, as intended, not from slogging through a monster with high health and damage.

I'm all for ways that make the game more approachable to newcomers or offer some help to people who need it, but it should be done within the game, not a menu. That's why they added stuff like the Way of the Blue/Blue Sentinels, that's why they changed the matchmaking system in NG to stop the low level griefing, and that's why they have a more thorough tutorial zone. Just adding "easy" isn't going to do anybody, especially new players, any good with the way this series is built.

 

[Ishal]

Well this is unexpected. I know several youtubers that held off doing LPs of this awaiting the grossly incandescent PC version. *insert The Price is Right fail music*

Mild spoilers

Spoiler

On the other hand no amount of graphical prowess will make up for how poor the ending is. Your time up until that nonevent may be pretty fun so its not all bad. The final boss is even kinda scary which is a step up from "press L2 to win", and the "amazing talking turd" which were the previous two. The plot/lore/npcs/bosses are a step back...and off a cliff compared to the previous entries in the series.

Spells look awesome though, as do several locations.

The gear looks nice though, with plenty of cloth physics. Gear is also mostly pointless other than for fashion souls. The returning weapons all have different movesets, which are the same as their base weapon type.

I just started a new game as a mage as I skipped magic my first time through until endgame. I picked up a few pyromancies was all but required because sometimes you need an aoe ._.

Casting eats at your catalyst's durability now, which is a legitimate problem. I understand giving it low durability to discourage me from beating people with it but when I need to spam soul arrow to take out a handful of hollows I don't want to see my staff is close to breaking. This is especially a concern as unlike weapons, you don't get access to a back up staff, or the means to repair a broken one until a little ways into the game.

I would imagine there are plenty of Mega Mule asshats invading new players that love nothing more than to spam acid attacks at every sorcerer they find in the starting areas knowing that if they break their staff (and they don't know where to get another one) then they are SOL until they unlock the blacksmiths shop.

Personally I'd rather just go back and play DS1 a few more times. DS2 was more of an chordeal than a game.

Playing with no shield or armor drastically changes things up though. I did wuss out and summon the npc for the Dragonrider fight because I'm not pro at ninja dodging giant halberd swings yet and I didn't wanna have to burn an effigy after my learning curve. I'll learn after I get that sweet sweet Ring of Life Protection ^_^

I'm hoping the game grows on me because as it is I don't really even want to go on to NG+ on my first file to see the various changes. I anticipate playing mage at least up until Lost Sinner fight. I really don't want to have to iframe my way through the game but that fight will be pretty crazy without a shield + getting a cast off before she dodges or tears into me.

I don't get why people are so down on the ending. It makes perfect sense to me. DKS has simply built up a mythic status among gamers, and rightly so. However, it doesn't totally eclipse this entry, which vastly improves on 90% of what they did in Dark Souls.

Also

Spoiler

I anticipate playing mage at least up until Lost Sinner fight. I really don't want to have to iframe my way through the game but that fight will be pretty crazy without a shield + getting a cast off before she dodges or tears into me.

You won't be worrying about just her and her multiple gap closing punishing moves. She has two pyromancer phantoms with her as well. NG+ changes everything. And that imo is what puts this game above it's predecessor.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Isn't this a bit like Watch Dogs? Or rather, precsely the same as Watch Dogs? Selling the game on hi-res imagery then releasing a lower (visual) quality final version?

F*****g developers are shown to be liars. I have no love for liars :-\

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

and thus I'm glad I never really paid attention to the graphics that much, because then I wasn't tainted by expectations like that. Considering the fact that the game still has an atmosphere I can cut with a freaking knife I obviously didn't miss much.

 

[Craphon]

Didn't From say, that they did this because a) the Beta-testers complaining about everything being too dark and b) the dynamic lighting causing horrible lags? If I remember correctly, they said, that the entire game would play like DS1's Blighttown...

 

[alj]

At this late stage ? I bet you 20 esturs flasks that the assets will still be in the game and be able to be turned back on through a ini hack or mod. Ether way not as dark is a plus in my book and i see no reason for them to take out textures and replace them with lower res ones not now its so late. i mean its less than 30 days now it will have gone out out press the disks by now, the textures where be there on the disk somewhere.

 

[Baresark]

Here is the thing, the PC version will still look a lot better than the console version. It won't have framerate issues. The last generation of consoles just can't do it. Maybe it won't look as good as some of those screen shots we saw when the game was in Beta, but it'll still look a lot better on the PC. And even if they got rid of some of the shinier elements, as I understand it, it will still run at a true HD resolution and won't be upscaled like the last one was. Also, dynamic lighting is still in the game, but only near a bonfire and when you are carying a torch. It's just not as dark as we say in those early videos.

 

[Branindain]

I have a massive grin on my face right now. I can't wait to see how the Dark Souls fans come justify this. (if it is true.) I'm expecting a lot of denial and "gameplay is all that matters." arguments.

Though I do hope it isn't true. I don't hate dark souls, I just really don't like the fanbase.

What exactly is it you don't like? I can tell you, from the inside, it's about as good a fan base as I've been a part of. We get characterised as "elitist" yet if you need help and put a query out there you will get a number of detailed, helpful, friendly responses. Compare that to so many other games (like WoW for instance) where daring to ask a question instantly marks you as a worthless noob to be sarcastically misled at best, and randomly abused at worst. Also, if you look at some old Souls threads, I think you'll find that if there's hostility in there it's usually being brought in from outside, from one of a number of passionate haters who believe their taste is objectively right for some reason.

And for my part, I genuinely don't give a flying fuck about graphics and never have, which is why I was content to buy the PS3 version in the first place. I guess PC Master Racers are likely to be annoyed though.

From the outside looking in, The Souls fanbase is very elitist. Remember the whole Dark Souls 2 easy mode fiasco? That was my first encounter with the fanbase. And I'll I saw was a bunch of people complaining about casuals entering their game. Then I've seen some people here scorn Watch_Dogs for lying about graphics, but not Dark Souls becuase all that matters is gameplay. I've seen some treat it like an idol that can do no wrong. That's why I don't care for the fanbase.

Note: These are once again just my view from outside the fanbase. I've never been a part of it, so feel free to enlighten me if anything is wrong. (this isn't sarcasm btw.)

Well, I hardly want to open the whole easy mode can of worms again, but for my part, Souls is my favourite franchise and, in fact, the ONLY franchise which is made the way I want a single player game to be made. It occupies a niche which is filled by nothing else, and even after several years of success no imitators are on the horizon. For people like myself who feel that way, some defensiveness and resistance to change is perhaps to be expected, especially if the impetus for change is coming from people who aren't Souls players in the first place. I can see how it looked bad from the outside though.

To your other point, I can only speak for myself, and I'm not angry at Dark Souls II's graphics, but I wasn't angry at Ubisoft either.

 

[Baresark]

I have a massive grin on my face right now. I can't wait to see how the Dark Souls fans come justify this. (if it is true.) I'm expecting a lot of denial and "gameplay is all that matters." arguments.

Though I do hope it isn't true. I don't hate dark souls, I just really don't like the fanbase.

What exactly is it you don't like? I can tell you, from the inside, it's about as good a fan base as I've been a part of. We get characterised as "elitist" yet if you need help and put a query out there you will get a number of detailed, helpful, friendly responses. Compare that to so many other games (like WoW for instance) where daring to ask a question instantly marks you as a worthless noob to be sarcastically misled at best, and randomly abused at worst. Also, if you look at some old Souls threads, I think you'll find that if there's hostility in there it's usually being brought in from outside, from one of a number of passionate haters who believe their taste is objectively right for some reason.

And for my part, I genuinely don't give a flying fuck about graphics and never have, which is why I was content to buy the PS3 version in the first place. I guess PC Master Racers are likely to be annoyed though.

From the outside looking in, The Souls fanbase is very elitist. Remember the whole Dark Souls 2 easy mode fiasco? That was my first encounter with the fanbase. And I'll I saw was a bunch of people complaining about casuals entering their game. Then I've seen some people here scorn Watch_Dogs for lying about graphics, but not Dark Souls becuase all that matters is gameplay. I've seen some treat it like an idol that can do no wrong. That's why I don't care for the fanbase.

Note: These are once again just my view from outside the fanbase. I've never been a part of it, so feel free to enlighten me if anything is wrong. (this isn't sarcasm btw.)

Well, to be fair, you can't listen to those dicks on the forums saying, "get gud". Those guys are morons and are not indicative of the entire fanbase at all. Most of us just really love the game. I spent my entire last two Saturdays helping a buddy with his game, at his house, because he fell behind when the PSN ate his save game. If you want to see the actual majority fanbase at work, you should go to the wiki and look at the scrolling chat on the left hand side. That is just a ridiculous number of people talking and helping each other out, offering to coop with someone or show them how to find something. Those guys aren't in the Steam forum saying, "get gud". They are actually playing the game.

The easy mode thing was entirely not what you are making it out to be. The only way to truly make that game easy is to change the combat, and I think that most Souls players understand that. That would completely ruin the game. The combat is basically perfect in the second game. They made backstabs harder to pull off, the animation doesn't lock you in anymore like it did before. I have cooped more than I thought and I genuinely went against players who won or lost based on skill due to the combat changes.

Also, what is to deny? So the graphics aren't so pretty. I don't think anyone who likes these games legitimately cares one bit if the graphics are "super mega the best". I hate to fall into your trap, but the gameplay is all that matters. It plays better than ever so some lost dynamic lighting and darks that are not as dark is not a big disappointment. I have been playing the PS3 version, but I already have the PC version pre-purchased. I waited till playing the PS3 version before I got the PC version so I wouldn't get caught up in the bullshit involved with this. No matter what happened, people were gonna whine about the game.

Edit: I apparently confused your comment with some other comments I read. You didn't bring up the dicks on the forums, so I apologize about that. I did respond to yours though. So I'll leave that here.

 

[josemlopes]

Was beta gameplay live? because trailers can be prerendered quite easily to the point of allowing it to render the script for a day or needed. (and more, ect)

Yes, as in you could actually download and play it yourself in your PS3. It would have been expected that the full game would at least look the same or better, right?

 

[Clovus]

So the graphics aren't so pretty. I don't think anyone who likes these games legitimately cares one bit if the graphics are "super mega the best".

I'm a big fan, and I absolutely do care.

I hate to fall into your trap, but the gameplay is all that matters.

Not for me. Dark Souls definitely has great gameplay, but I would never have started NG+ for the gameplay. I kept playing because I love the world so much. Seeing that world with the highest resolution possible is very important. From Soft has done an amazing job with tons of little details. Being able to see those details more clearly is a big bonus.

Also, I really enjoyed the lore and story in Dark Souls. I especially liked how so much of the game reflects on a theme: perseverence. The gameplay mostly requires perseverence, not twitch skills or anything. The main story is all about whether you want to keep the Age of Fire going just a bit longer or not. The PC and NPC's are mostly in a battle against "going hollow". The dead bodies with souls you find weren't killed in those spots; they gave up there. Dark Souls is not just pure gameplay, it's a complete work of art.

I'm thinking there's a pretty huge chance that the screenshots were changed solely due to the lighting. I really will be very disappointed if we can't get a high-res texture pack on PC. I'd really like to see something closer to the original artwork that was created, rather than a compressed version. I could understand them wanting to guarentee the console experience to a wide range of PCs. But hopefully they'll have a texture pack to download for those who can run it.

It is true that I'll end up playing either way at some point. But, it is also true that an "HD" Dark Souls II is better than a non-HD Dark Souls II. It's also true that a non-HD Dark Souls II is better than many, many other games, regardless of whether or not they have great graphics.

 

[Elfgore]

Snip

You bring up some good points, but I disagree on a few.

The combat, I agree with. Dark Souls' combat is difficult by design. Since you play the game you know that. I learned that quite quickly when I played it as well. But maybe easy mode could just make enemies deal less damage and have you take less damage. Even with those handicaps and buffs the game would still be challenging, but so much more welcoming to newcomers or the more casual crowd. In a game when the terrain is just as dangerous as a giant skeleton.

Onto the graphics. I agree 100% that gameplay is more important and the game needs to be stable. The latter is a must have for Dark Souls as dropping frame rates would lead to cheap deaths. What is aggravating me is that, as the evidence points to now (it could always change) , Dark Souls 2 lied about their graphics and no one seems to care. Several have said the beta had these nice graphics, even on PS3 and 360. But they were cut from the final edition without the team ever saying "Hey, our graphics aren't going to be as pretty as shown." I know that a lot of developers do this, I think they too should be held accountable for it.

 

[zerragonoss]

I didn't really care until I read how the dynamic lighting system was tied into gameplay. Shiny graphics I can do without but when a central mechanic is just removed I get a bit miffed. Think I'll pass on this for the time being.

In all honesty it probably just makes the game play better. There are a few strange artifacts left, but not having much of the game require a torch seems like a big improvement. I would not actually be surprised if getting feed back the the all darkness was not a fun thing was one of the reason for the change.

 

[Kleft]

Why are some people acting like the news that they pulled unrepresentative screenshots A MONTH before release is some new scandal?

Sure the console release was a bit sketchy what with the screenshots being shown actually AT release being unrepresentative of the game being sold. But thats not what this article is about.

This looks like an honest move a long time in advance of the PC release to downgrade the screenshots being shown to promote the PC version of the game.

Its a shame the PC version wont be as pretty was we all hoped, but afaik the dark souls people themselves never said the game on PC was gonna look that good despite the downgrading on consoles, it was just speculation on the part of journalists.

Now, pre release, they are saying themselves that it wont. Its a shame but its not a dishonest move on their part.