Dark Souls Port Brings Console Problems to PC

[trlkly]

If the game were better on PC, then console gamers (with decent PCs) would buy it. Now, the only people who have any reason to buy it are those who never got the console version. Why in the world is announcing that you're one of those who bought the game already somehow such a freaking offensive thing?

Don't get me wrong, it's still nice that they listened, and that PC-only gamers will still get to play the game (heck, I'm one of them). But acting like those people mentioned above are wrong or claiming that there's no downside to making a game that is the same quality as the original is just ridiculous

BTW, people, the thing about most other ports is that they are designed from the get-go to be ported to PC, along with other systems. This almost certainly wasn't.

 

[runic knight]

My god, got to love the shear amount of circle jerk going on here. Console fanboys saying the same damn thing over and over and over (this being "pc gamers expecting more then just copy/paste? How entitled").

You sit closer to a monitor then a tv screen, things like fps are a hell of a lot more noticeable and harder on the eyes when it is right up in your face like that. And it isn't like what people are asking for here is some sort of graphical overhaul. It is asking for screen resolution and fps adjustability. Shit, that games a decade and a half old ported to the pc had such options should tell you the extent of what people are asking for.

Now as I said before, I don't care too much about graphics, fps or anything like that. I just want a good game without a lot of bugs. But I am sick and tired of reading the damn echo chamber of people talking out of their ass and ignoring the damn points people have. It is not that pc gamers want some massive better product, it is that they want a product that is compatible with their machine. Not one that will hurt to look at, not one that because people sit so close it will be blatantly noticeable the choppy frame rate (in a game like this, that might even be sort of added difficulty.) Saying otherwise, claiming they are asking for something they are not is dishonest misrepresentation of their stance. Saying that is entitled is, quite frankly, stupid. If I am shopping for a car and it doesn't meet my needs, it is not entitled to not buy it, it is common sense. If I am grabbing dinner and the restaurant doesn't have what I am looking for, not buying it is not entitled. Telling the restaurant that you didn't stop there because of a specific lack of something should be common sense if you like some of what they have and want to shop there but can't because of the incomplete experience. It isn't entitled, no one is claiming we are owed something, merely some are just saying they wont buy it if it isn't good enough to merit their purchase, with the issues of fps and resolution given as why it is not good enough. If this was a new game released on the pc, no one would care why so many people refused to buy it. Why should their standards of quality change because it is a port? Because some wanted the game? Well damn right they dd, I still do, but pc gamers wanted their version game, not the ps3 version slapped in. This would be like porting it over to the 360 but screwing up the controls all up because you refused to adjust them to the new system. Oh, you can still play it, but it is a damn lot less enjoyable having to work around something to enjoy the game.

If you want to whine about people daring to ask to have a game that is made compatible with a pc, not just a glorified emulator, fine. But don't act like this is a group of people acting stuck up or entitled. They want the game and experience but then acknowledge the differences in the mediums in which things like resolution and fps would factor in and why not allowing change to them would be a bad thing. Crying about that makes anyone come off as bitter and ignorant. Oblivious to the differences between the mediums and trying to push their assumptions onto the rest with an air of patronizing asshattery. Seriously, knock that shit off already.

 

[IDS3Remix]

Am I the only one that is disappointed by the news of an inferior PC port, but am looking forward to playing it more and more each day? I want to continue my online Souls experience with a bunch of fresh new friends/victims, I don't care if it looks like it's close to a console experience, as long as it's still playable. I gladly signed the petition to get Dark Souls for PC, and I'm going to follow through and buy the game!

Besides, the game will most likely be modded and tweaked with at some point to allow for a better framerate anyway, no use crying that anything can't be done before the game is even available.

 

[thiosk]

If the game works, I'm satisfied.

Period.

We asked for a PC port, lets not quibble over whether or not the developer wanted to recode large portions of the game.

For gods sake, we're the same community that plays Dwarf Fortress.

 

[Stripes]

A classic case of "miscommunication", isn't it... When people asked for this game on the PC, they actually meant that they wanted a proper PC port, not a half-assed copy paste cash grab. I played Dark Souls to death on the PS3, but was still planning on buying it for the PC just so I could play it with many of my friends who are not console owners and yet were very interested in the game. Then, of course, they read shit like this and lost their interest, and so did I. So, all our sales are effectively lost for the company, and I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones who feel that way. Still, I feel that the game will do reasonably well, which is a shame. The ideal for me would be for it to tank hard and for clearly defined reasons that will be communicated to the devs/publisher, so that they know, for future reference, that if you plan on serving the PC crowd shit, they are not going to eat it. They had a very unique and, in my opinion, quite large niche of gamers to appeal to with this game. A niche that, even on consoles, is apparently large enough to support the development of a game of such ambitious scale like Dark Souls. A crowd which, on the side of PC gaming, is much, much larger and way more thirsty for a game like that. A great port might have potentially brought about changes of perspective in the industry. So much for that...

Considering the PS3 market managed to keep them going through demon's soul's and they had no plans to release onto PC, only on 360 and PS3, im going to say that the market is larger on consoles considering they seem to have left the PC alone. Wonder why.

So you want the game to tank? Thats ridiculous. That wont say 'the PC market needs to be supplied a greater product than the console plebs' it will say that the PC market 1. doesnt live up to its promises considering this only came about via a petition (which did not state the game had to be of superior quality to the console version) and 2. is not a market worth supplying, since attempting to would create a loss for any company not already involved.

Why must you be so high minded to expect a game, which was never even intended for PC release from a developer which has worked (to my knowledge) exclusively on consoles (if im wrong then mostly on consoles), they did it themselves (I think) because they were worried about making a loss which is very understandable (entering a market you know very little about is always risky, in their shoes I wouldnt drop loads of money on it either), to have a higher quality than it has on consoles? When did it somehow be unnaceptable to have not-fantastic graphics (or god forbid the same quality as consoles have) for a game on PC? Is it really that important?

Is the game already good? Yes. You are getting a great game, cheer up.

 

[TwentyPercentCooler]

Christ, people are getting really fucking worked up over graphics. I guess this means that developers should spend more time on graphics and let gameplay go die in a ditch huh? Isn't that what you people want?

Because if From spent a couple more months (or assigned more than 2 guys to) porting the game to PC, obviously the gameplay would suffer for it?

And for the last frickin' time, this isn't people getting worked up over graphics. I think the number of times things like textures were mentioned as something From should improve is something like one. Nobody was expecting a model/animation/texturing rework, better shaders or dynamic or any advanced graphical technologies like tesselation, subsurface scattering or whatever. Nothing like that. It's about display options of the most basic fucking kind.

Wow. Does everything have to turn into a PC vs console debate with the two sides at each other's throats?

I don't know, at which point do you think the conversation should have stopped?

-1024x720 rendering resolution and 30FPS? The game's going to be a blurry mess with oversized UI, and it's going to run about as well as those paper animations I used to make in my books. This is below standards back in 2004, shitty port, poor effort, not worth 40 bucks.
-This is bad to you? Well I played this on my console and it looked and felt great, ergo you should enjoy it too!
-That doesn't make the game any less of a blurry, choppy mess. Maybe I should also point out that people sit many times closer to their monitors than they do their TVs, making any display deficiencies vastly more noticeable and irritating?
-Stop being such a whiny bitchy entitled elitist pig.

See all this is, is people who are generally PC gamers pointing out the outright shit quality of the port, and console gamers getting offended/spiteful. Whether it's because they feel personally insulted that their consoles' rendering resolution is shit or something like that, I don't know, but this is the entirety of the thread. "Stop bitching" in this thread can be entirely replaced by "Stop having standards" without the argument changing one bit.

I don't really see a problem with this. The devs admitted that they didn't have experience with the PC and that it was going to be a direct port. It's not like we PC gamers were promised a shining, golden version of the game that could cure cancer and feed the homeless.

So are some of the most basic standards supposed to be completely suspended as long as developers say "Hey, we're inexperienced on this platform."? Not to mention this cannot possibly be the reason for them not even bothering to add different resolutions. Do you honestly think a studio of 200+ people is incapable of doing this (never mind that they could've outsourced to a couple of jackoffs down the street who actually are experienced), or do you think the deadline might have something to do with it?

I am a PC gamer. I always have been. I hate modern consoles with the unbridled fury of a thousand collapsing stars, and I hate what they and "social gaming" have done to the culture landscape surrounding video games. I hate crappy ports just as much as the next PC gamer - I wrote a letter to Bethesda about Skyrim and how disappointed I was at the state of the UI on the PC (seriously, different speeds for the x- and y-axis of a mouse?).

I still think this whole debate is a little ridiculous. The devs of this game didn't want to make a PC game, or they would have done it from the start. Reading between the lines, admitting inexperience was basically a warning, saying, "This probably isn't going to be a very good port." And it wasn't. Yes, it is the developers' fault. Yes, people should point out the specific features that PC gamers demand, like a myriad of resolution options, so that the developers can learn.

Getting angry and chewing them out, though, isn't the answer. It's only going to make them say, "Huh. Those PC gamers relentlessly demanded a port, even though we said we weren't really comfortable with the platform. Now that we've made one, they're angrier than a swarm of bees with a smashed hive? See if we ever develop for the PC again." Thus, more developers refuse to primarily develop for the PC, and the cycle continues.

TL;DR: You are not helping.

 

[Something Amyss]

I missed this in my Inbox earlier, but....

if they can't then they need to pull the stick out of their asses and get over it

sides 'PC gamers' did ask for a port of a game, from a company that last i checked, doesn't really do PC games, if they where expecting perfection well, they can go back to Skyrim >.> oh wait ......

XD. Good points.

But when have gamers been happy with anything they're given. >.>

 

[Lunar Templar]

I missed this in my Inbox earlier, but....

if they can't then they need to pull the stick out of their asses and get over it

sides 'PC gamers' did ask for a port of a game, from a company that last i checked, doesn't really do PC games, if they where expecting perfection well, they can go back to Skyrim >.> oh wait ......

XD. Good points.

But when have gamers been happy with anything they're given. >.>

>.>
<.<

me or in general? cause in-general we are an ungrateful bunch that whine about anything, even when presented to us as we requested.

unless we're talking 'pc gamers', then, THOSE are entitled, whiny premadonnas that think they're better then every one else for no valid reason and constantly ***** about 'consoles holding things back' but really only mean 'holding graphics back so they can justify the totally unnecessary graphics card upgrade they just got'

 

[DustyDrB]

If the frame rate stays at 30 FPS and doesn't drop, that's not too bad is it? Dark Souls is worth the compromise, right? The fact that you will be supporting a port that was driven by fan response is worth it, right?

The Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-09-dark-souls-pc-preview-the-devils-bargain] article I read said that it is very much a console experience ported to PC (due to the resolution and the 30 FPS cap), but that it is also the definitively best version of the game (due to the large amount of extra content and the lack of performance issues consoles had in places like Blight Town).

I wonder if Blight Town is going to be as choppy and buggy a mess for them as it was on the PS3 and 360... would only be fair!

Like the framedrop rate in Blighttown...

From the article I linked, just in case you're curious:

To cut to the chase, the frame-rate on consoles has always been a major area of complaint among Dark Souls fans, and the notorious Blight Town or New Londo Ruins areas are usually singled out as the big offenders. The implication of a PC release is obviously that all these problems can be tackled by the brute force of a faster CPU, and though there are very light hitches here and there, it's a relief to say Blight Town now plays without all the constant chugging. The improvement is staggering to those that endured the treacle-like pace of the area on PS3 and 360, already making this version a winning proposition.

 

[bigwon]

I'm buying.

I signed the petition as i loved the game on ps3.
added multiplayer functionality (arena pvp), and new content.

I wanted it on pc, and now i'm getting this on pc

 

[Sandjube]

Oh God, this is atrocious! This game needs to die in a pit of flames and death, I just... I won't be able to play this game at all, in fact, I should just reject the terms of service of Steam and have my account terminated. THIRTY FPS?! That's... Who can ever play a game at 30FPS?! Even though that's the standard FPS of many things and the human eye can't see much more.

AND CONSOLE RESOLUTION?! OH GOD PLEASE STOP NO MORE! God forbid, you'd think that i'd buy the game for the gameplay... which is why any normal human being would buy the game. But I buy games exclusively on my PC because I only play them for graphics, I hope the developers die for this. This game is probably worse than those shitty busts like Super Meat Boy and League of Legends. Who the hell would play those? The graphics are terrible. At least I still have Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, what an amazing, brilliant game that is.

I was playing Borderlands before, dropped down to 40 frames and though "Dammnit this is annoying and laggy, hopefully it will go back up to 60".

Then it did, and I was happy. Ipso facto, you're completely wrong about the framerate thing. Also try reading about the fact that monitors and televisions aren't the same thing (weird I know).

You're completely wrong about the frame rate.

The human eye can only see as high as 60. However until it gets as low as about 25, you shouldn't notice much of a difference. It's probably just a placebo effect that you thought the game was really laggy and choppy (like seriously, Most of my friends play PC games at 30fps at most, none of us see anything laggy or choppy about the said games).

Also, I have two computers, I've tested them side by side. One of them plays games at 15-30 FPS, the other plays them at 60+. Unless the first computer dips to 15, there's literally no difference between the quality.

Edit: You know what my post was far too snarky and self-satisfied, honestly we're probably not going to agree and I can't be bothered being one of "those" escapists that argue with everyone so let's just drop it.

They didn't even intend to do a PC port in the first place... soo.. it's being entitled.

I don't even give two shits about that, I just think it's ridiculous that people are complaining about something they can barely even see. Don't kid yourself, 30FPS doesn't make much difference to anyone.

1. Go to this thread: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.385029-What-is-this-obsession-with-framerates-over-30FPS?page=2
2. Maybe read some comments, look at this perhaps: http://boallen.com/fps-compare.html or this http://frames-per-second.appspot.com/
3. Realise how you are wrong and gracefully let this argument die.
4. ???????
5. Profit.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

As an addendum, they could have not even attempted creating a PC port. Frankly, I would not have been bothered by it. But now that they actually have, they are subject to the standards of this platform.

I bet CD Projekt would kick themselves if they knew they could have half-arsed the 360 port of The Witcher 2, claimed platform inexperience, and have everyone be cool with it because they'd just be grateful for the game in any form.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Interesting thread, but I shall get back to playing Dark Souls now...

 

[TwentyPercentCooler]

I am a PC gamer. I always have been. I hate modern consoles with the unbridled fury of a thousand collapsing stars, and I hate what they and "social gaming" have done to the culture landscape surrounding video games. I hate crappy ports just as much as the next PC gamer - I wrote a letter to Bethesda about Skyrim and how disappointed I was at the state of the UI on the PC (seriously, different speeds for the x- and y-axis of a mouse?).

I still think this whole debate is a little ridiculous. The devs of this game didn't want to make a PC game, or they would have done it from the start. Reading between the lines, admitting inexperience was basically a warning, saying, "This probably isn't going to be a very good port." And it wasn't. Yes, it is the developers' fault. Yes, people should point out the specific features that PC gamers demand, like a myriad of resolution options, so that the developers can learn.

Getting angry and chewing them out, though, isn't the answer. It's only going to make them say, "Huh. Those PC gamers relentlessly demanded a port, even though we said we weren't really comfortable with the platform. Now that we've made one, they're angrier than a swarm of bees with a smashed hive? See if we ever develop for the PC again." Thus, more developers refuse to primarily develop for the PC, and the cycle continues.

TL;DR: You are not helping.

I asked you a fairly specific question about where the conversation was supposed to stop. I also asked you a fairly direct question about whether or not you think the deadline has had anything to do with the quality of the port. This "Hey, check out something else we may or may not have in common!" shtick isn't something that helps your argument in any even vaguely direct sense. Answer the questions.

Given that the developers by default are at least somewhat proficient as far as PCs go simply because they spend their working days, most of the 200+ of them, sitting their asses in front of a monitor and doing shit, I refuse to accept this claim that they need shit like different resolutions to be actually pointed out. If they're half as competent as people think they are, they know it perfectly god damn well. What they need is a kick in the ass to learn that dipping below 2004 standards is lazy to a shameful level. Of course, apart from the harsh words on some forums here and there, there is no kick coming to them in the foreseeable future.

This is where I go back to my original question. Do you think these people are actually incompetent enough not to be able to implement something as simple as a fucking resolution option, or did the deadline they were working with have something to do with it?

Define getting angry and chewing them out, and then explain exactly how someone on some forum actually has enough sway on them to get their poor little hearts offended to the point of them giving up on the platform.

As an addendum, they could have not even attempted creating a PC port. Frankly, I would not have been bothered by it. But now that they actually have, they are subject to the standards of this platform.

I wouldn't believe for a minute that a modern game developer would be too incompetent to know how to implement an option to change resolutions, unless it's some kind of insane engine limitation. I also think that a 30 FPS cap was a bad idea, because HDTVs and computer monitors display things in a totally different manner. 30 FPS is going to look terrible, especially in an action-heavy title.

As for your other question, debating which is better, PC or console, is sort of like debating whether your plate of garbage from the corner dumpster tastes worse than the plate of garbage being eaten by the person next to you. It should have stopped before it started, because it's a pointless argument. This thread is about the very specific deficiencies of a particular game.

You do know that companies actually now hire people specifically for the purpose of getting involved in social media and the internet? Companies are more attuned to the attitude and wishes of the public than ever, regardless of whether or not they actually give a damn about either. I don't think their delicate little flowery sensibilities are going to be offended by people kvetching on a forum, but at the same time, backlash like this is at least a part of why some developers don't think making PC games is worth it anymore. You're absolutely right, they didn't have to make a PC port at all, and I'm guessing that right now they wish they hadn't. Standards, on a PC, are sort of nebulous. Either way, they can work to fix it, or they can hide in a corner and forget the PC port exists. My opinion is that the former option is probably more likely if they're not being targeted by the Internet Hate MachineTM.