How about the 60 frames per second!
Everything looked more crisp on the PC. The PS3 textures looked blurred.
My hat goes off to you if you can see 60 fps on youtube.
That’s the joke.
I made a deal with my wife for her to take a shopping weekend and then watch the kids the weekend this comes out. Does that seem reasonable?
The funny thing is I’m not going into this expecting it to be an all-time favorite game. I just want to decide on it for myself before everyone passes me by. This will probably be the only game this year I feel like doing that for.
One can never be sure :). After all, a major gaming website went ahead and actually uploaded graphics comparison of a game to a service that greatly reduces image quality. Mind = blown.
USGsays we’re making the right choice.
the cosmetic and functional improvements make the console versions feel like the laserdisc to the PC port’s Blu-Ray
Hey, this is clickbait for platform trolls, not science.
As long as it’s a smooth 60 with passable textures, I’m happy.
The fact that it looks noticeably better on a youtube (compressed) video should be all you need.
However, Giantbomb talked about it on the podcast and the verdict is “this is the definitive version” and in addition, it was noted that (using a standard non-SSD hard drive) the load times are 2-3 seconds vs. the 20 seconds on the console version. That alone is worthwhile.
Now, the problem of course comes from potentially hacked accounts 30 minutes after it unlocks. And since there isn’t really a way to play without invasion (from what little I understand of the system?) this could be a problem. Time will tell, I suppose, but it has my pre-order, for what its worth.
Will this game use Steam Guard or Steam Shield or VAC or whatever Steam’s anticheat platform is? It’s really, really insane to release a MP game without even token anticheat measure these days, especially when there are OTS solutions like Fairfight or (ugh) Punkbuster that at least do something.
No one seems to know, the Giantbomb guys thought it would be VAC but they were just speculating. I hope something is put into place, because it’s a big bone of contention I have with the game right now. On the plus side, it’s tempering my expectations and excitement for the imminent release.
Constant invasions don’t seem to be a problem from what the console players have said.
Multiplayer cheaters are one of those things I acknowledge exist, but they haven’t ruined my fun in 20 years of gaming. I barely ever encounter an obvious cheater.
Here’s the Giant Bomb Quicklook of the PC version. Contains some slight early game spoilers. The 60fps is niiiiice.
It looks like they are being proactive against cheaters on the consoles. I hope they do the same for the PC version.
http://support.bandainamcogames.com//index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/425/0/dark-souls-ii---why-is-my-account-blockedbanned-from-using-the-dark-souls-ii-servers
It appears that the Dark Souls II server team has been going through the servers and banning/blocking players that have violated the End User License Aggreement. Players who use external save data, hacks, mods, or any other cheats/exploits are in violation of the EULA and your account will be banned if your profile/gamertag is found to be using them.
*Generally, you should receive a notice informing you to delete your save data within a certain amount of time or you will be banned/blocked from using the Dark Souls II servers.
If you believe that you have been banned/blocked from using the Dark Souls II servers by accident, please send an email to our support mailbox along with your gamertag/profile name, the system you are playing the game on and we will be able to inquire as to whether or not your account/profile ban status can be revoked.
BANDAI NAMCO Games America Customer Support team
*A notice to the player is not required and is at the sole discretion of the Dark Souls II server team.
Can’t we still block Dark Souls 2’s access to the internet, with our firewall or router? I did that with the original Dark Souls the entire game because I didn’t care about seeing other people’s messages and I didn’t want to be invaded. I’ll be sad if I can’t play the same way again. I don’t mind if the AI invades me if that’s part of the game.
That’s actually probably possible, but I don’t think anyone has tested it with DS2 yet. Maybe you could even play after launching Steam in offline mode, too? Either solution may work.
All the Souls games have always included an offline mode; unless they removed it specifically from the PC version for whatever reason, you can just play that.
Chris Woods
Getting invaded is a non issue. I think it happened once in my first 60 hour play through, outside of the forced pvp areas. If you are really worried about it you can just burn an item at the bonfire.
Forced PvP areas? Ugh.
Two of the areas load you into the other players world - you lose no progress if you die and a nice reward if you win. The other two are very short and you can run to the end before invasions happen or just go offline.
The correct response in the PC thread is “don’t worry about it, you’ll see how it works soon enough.”
Don’t worry about it, I’ll be sure to pm you all future posts for your approval.