Multi-Plat Dark Souls 2

[Elemmire]

<3

 

[Raesvelg]

Yeah, I never played the first one, but I did like that trailer lol.

 

[Elemmire]

You should go get the first one and play it! It's fun as hell! The Souls series might be my all time favorite series at this point.

 

[Ecks]

No idea what any of that meant, but it did look cool.

 

[Xalioniaf]

It's hard for me to get excited over a CG trailer. I've heard some mumblings about making the game easier and more straight-forward, but I have faith in the devs! I'm also curious about the changes the press release said they'd be making to the online system. Coming from Demon's Souls, the server shards in Dark Souls was terrible and made it unnecessarily difficult to group with your buds.

 

[Elemmire]

They claimed it won't be easier, but it'll be better in terms of like, tutorial. Which is something the souls series could use an improvement on, but at the same time I always liked the minimal way of the souls series in that regards cause it means you have to figure things out yourself

The change of Miyazaki no longer being director is a bit worrying, but at the same time he's still the "Supervisor" and last I knew Miyamoto is only "supervisor" for all the games he's a part of (as is Chris Metzen from Blizzard I think), and that seems to mostly go well. So I think Miyazaki will still have basic control/say over things, but isn't doing a lot of the micromanagement a director has to. I'm hopeful of that at least.

And there were no servers in Dark Souls. It was player to player connection. That's why people are happy about servers coming back like Demon's Souls. Tends to mean better fights for PVP, but I imagine it'll still be hard to find your friends to play with. Souls series was never really about playing with your friends easily. Though the PC version you could make it easier to play with your friends.

 

[Xalioniaf]

I understand that playing with others was P2P, but I'm referring more to the act of invading as well as the orange soap stone messages. From what I remember reading back when the game launched, instead of the all of those being on one server like Demon's Souls was, they were on separate shards that were supposedly governed by what covenant you were in and other random factors. Nice in theory, but in practice it made the soul sign landscape seem barren (compare the 1-1 in DeS with Undead Burg in DaS), and it also made the Gravelord and Dragon covenants broken and unusable.

So, you know, I'm interested in what they're planning to do with the multiplayer this time. Here's the PR if anyone hasn't seen it yet.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – December 7, 2012 – Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today proudly announces that the critically acclaimed Dark Souls™ saga marches forward with Dark Souls™ II, currently in development at FromSoftware in Tokyo, Japan. Dark Souls II will continue a legacy of goading its passionate fan base with unrelenting challenge and suffering that are considered a hallmark of the series; while presenting new devilishly devised obstacles for players to overcome. Dark Souls II will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PCs.

Built upon the foundation established by Souls series creator and Dark Souls II Supervisor, Hidetaka Miyazaki with development helmed by FromSoftware Director Tomohiro Shibuya, Dark Souls II will feature a new hero, a new storyline, and an unfamiliar world for players to survive in while delivering its signature brand of unrelenting punishment that players hunger for. Epic battles with gruesome enemies and blood-thirsty bosses await adventurers as they traverse through a devastated world filled with death and despair; only those who are strong willed or cunning can survive this journey to achieve great glory. Players seeking to share their experience will discover a revamped server-based multiplayer mode that will put a distinct Dark Souls II twist on the concept of playing with others.

“Dark Souls II retains the core essence of Dark Souls while evolving to present new twists and challenges that are sure to please longtime fans and attract new comers to the series,” says Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing at NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “FromSoftware is going to take a very dark path with Dark Souls II; players will need to look deep within themselves to see if they have the intestinal fortitude to embark on this journey.”

“This new chapter in the Dark Souls saga presents opportunities for us to drive innovation in gameplay design, develop an entirely new story, and expand the scope of the world in which the player interacts with the game. We have taken these necessary steps with Dark Souls II in order to evolve the overall experience of the Dark Souls series,” says Tomohiro Shibuya, FromSoftware Director on Dark Souls II. “The entire development team is striving to make Dark Souls II an experience that is fresh while not forsaking its roots in presenting players with challenging gameplay. Our goal is to surprise and delight our fans with new experiences and plot twists while enticing new players to join our dark journey.”

 

[Elemmire]

Well, the problem with Undead Burg in DkS was more you didn't get it until after the Taurus unless you chose master key first and I remember a ton of people having problem with Taurus I did too until I learned the fun of Resin + drop attacks (which Demon's Souls never had).

What made Gravelord seem broken is that it intentionally doesn't work for those who aren't in NG+ and beyond. So people joining it on their first play through wouldn't see their effects. Sadly.

The problem with Dragon covenant is partially that, but also because no one really seems to want to summon someone to attack them. Especially since I think if you summon a dragon dood you can still be invaded, but I don't remember, not much experience there. There were definitely a lot of things that didn't go as planned, but seemed good idea from concept standpoint.

My friend says he will find it hilarious if Dark Souls 2 isn't a direct sequel, prequel, or so but more of a Gaiden you know, a side story. Something happening at the same time as DkS. I think that'd prolly piss off a lot of fans (prolly piss off ENB somewhat), but ya. I just hope we get more info soon. More info about the gameplay and what might have changed specifically.

 

[Strid]

With Tomohiro Shibuya being involved at all, I'm a bit worried. It is only a matter of time before they kill this off like King's Field (came with a director shift), but hopefully it's not quite time just yet; still not holding out too much hope though. What's great though, is that there will be a PC version and seemingly made during the same time frame as the console version. Hopefully they learned some things from the horrible PC port of DkS, but at the very least, now we know they'll be spending more time on this one's PC version (at least in mind).

 

[Elemmire]

I disagree that DkS was a "horrible PC port."

It worked, it worked better on PC than on consoles, and it was every bit as good. The only thing it didn't do well was using mouse/keyboard which I just don't see the gameplay style working well with mouse/keyboard (at least it had rebinding options which is more than many ports as well as other PC specific setting options). I'll never get PC elitists. They're ok with using a joystick for flight sims or whatnot and other peripherals, but when the best way to play is a controller/gamepad? Oh shit hits the fan then >.>

People who bitched about the DkS PC Port imo were idiots :\ it could have been better, but it certainly wasn't a bad port and certainly not "worst port ever" like many exaggerated.

 

[Strid]

Eh, it's right up there with some of the worst ports ever. Me thinks you need to learn what a bad port is and the standards of the system. That doesn't necessarily make it a worse version, it's just a simple metric. It's by far the best version... especially now that the community fixed it up.

 

[Elemmire]

It was the best version even before the community added the nice resolution and frame rate patch, but those patches really didn't change anything.

And honestly, what makes it a bad port then? If you compare it to every port in history, it's well above average. And even on the PC, it still seemed fine to me. I don't care if I had to use a gamepad over the mouse and keyboard. Sometimes the mouse and keyboard is just a bad option, even for a PC game. Again, Space Fighters/Flight Sims as a prime example.

 

[Strid]

It was the best version even before the community added the nice resolution and frame rate patch, but those patches really didn't change anything.

And honestly, what makes it a bad port then? If you compare it to every port in history, it's well above average. And even on the PC, it still seemed fine to me. I don't care if I had to use a gamepad over the mouse and keyboard. Sometimes the mouse and keyboard is just a bad option, even for a PC game. Again, Space Fighters/Flight Sims as a prime example.

No, no, no. If you create a game for a system and the native controls are useless, that alone is a fail. Sure, playing a fighting game on the 360 is better with a stick, but that doesn't give Capcom the right to skimp on 360 controller support. Having zero support for any sort of high resolution, full screen, or any of that -elementary- graphical stuff was number two. Given those issues, Blighttown should have ran flawless on a PC, it doesn't. It's much better than on consoles but it's not "fixed". And if I may, it took one guy 23 minutes to fix the graphical issues... one guy, 23 minutes. What does that equate too? DkS PC being a lazy ass port turned out for a quick buck. I'm OK with that though, it is better than the console versions, far better, but to give it a pass of a good port is just trying to be different (as well as an insult to good ports), and come on now, we're adults anymore, no need for that crap.

Let's also not forget that it requires GFWL...

 

[Elemmire]

GFWL was due to them just porting it directly from 360 cause that was the only way they would have had it out by August on PC with the new content. It would have been better for them to push it back, but it was still a problem.

And I still think calling it a bad port is stupid though. It was possible to play it on mouse and keyboard, I tried it for the first week, it was annoying cause it didn't feel as fluid as a controller, but that's not what it was designed for. Again, why can other genres get to do this SAME THING on PC, but another can't? Double standards :| people who called it a bad port still seemed like people who have never played a truly bad port on PC or are PC elitists that just whine all the god damn time anyways when anything hints at being related to a console.

I don't deny the port could have been better, but every port could be better, without a doubt. Every game could be better, but time and costs are an issue you can't ignore that most do.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Gosh no I come to the Dark Souls 2 thread to read opinions about Dark Souls 1's PC port.

 

[Strid]

Meh, not much to go on now. I wont speak for others, but when it comes to the Souls series I'm not big on speculating the actual contents of the games. They're so far removed from any set of norms it just seems useless for me. No point in talking about what I want from it either. They could take the same damn game, slap new levels, enemies, and what not on it and that's all I need. DkS is perfect (Save for the online, but I'm not a fan of it in the first place) just the way it is.

GFWL was due to them just porting it directly from 360 cause that was the only way they would have had it out by August on PC with the new content. It would have been better for them to push it back, but it was still a problem.

And I still think calling it a bad port is stupid though. It was possible to play it on mouse and keyboard, I tried it for the first week, it was annoying cause it didn't feel as fluid as a controller, but that's not what it was designed for. Again, why can other genres get to do this SAME THING on PC, but another can't? Double standards :| people who called it a bad port still seemed like people who have never played a truly bad port on PC or are PC elitists that just whine all the god damn time anyways when anything hints at being related to a console.

I don't deny the port could have been better, but every port could be better, without a doubt. Every game could be better, but time and costs are an issue you can't ignore that most do.

What other genres? The ones you mentioned typically aren't ports, mind you, and to this date I've yet to play one that even "pretty much" requires anything other than a keyboard and mouse, unless it came with something (not that I've played very many). "That's not what it was designed for" is not an excuse, never has been, never will be.

 

[Elemmire]

Edge Magazine has a blow out on Dark Souls 2 this month, and the details are out. Brace yourselves for the horror and anticipation of a brand new journey.

- Edge says they were shown a 10 minute playthrough of Dark Souls 2, and it is a huge step forward graphically. It looks on par with Watch Dogs and Star Wars 1313 in terms of "next-gen"-ness, or so they claim.

- Miyazaki is not working on the development of Dark Souls 2. He is not a director or producer, and is merely a "supervisor".

- Even as a supervisor, he isn't making any development decisions. He only tried to reinforce the team's commitment to releasing things on time, because of the bad experience they had with the patches in Dark Souls, and he also recommended the return to server-based gameplay ala Demon's Souls.

- The new directors, Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, are indeed the From Software staff who previously directed the Another Century's Episode series. The decision to have the two directors replace Miyazaki was a company decision made by both From Software and Namco Bandai Games to help move the series forward in a fresh direction.

- Miyazaki is working full time on directing a new game. He will not disclose if it is a new IP or a sequel to something else.

- Darks Souls 2 will be a direct sequel, and have an open world of about the same size, but more dense with content.

- It does not take place on Lordran. The name of the world is the key of the story, they will reveal it at a later date.

- One thing Shibuya wants to enhance is the action in the game. He feels that he can contribute because of his experience working on action games in the past.

- Shibuya says he wants to make things like the Covenant system clearer and more accessible, and he wants to make the story and messaging less subtle.

- He promises there will still be "hidden" elements in the story and world which can be missed.

- Development started in September last year, and was done in parallel with some of the Dark Souls patches and DLC content.

- The game is 25% complete, and the team is substantially larger than Dark Souls. The world creation internal staff for the sequel is nearly double that of the first game.

- The game might not make it for 2013.

- They showed a fat grotesque creature, which Shibuya said was the result of the fusing of different creatures by a mad scientist character in the game, like Frankenstein.

- Another new enemy is a Nazgul-like black rider, who apparently serves as an executioner of evil doers. Shibuya confirms there is some sort of morality system in the game.

Edit: - They are also exploring vehicles for the game, and the potential of players controlling them. By vehicles, think things like chariots and boats instead of cars.

sad... they're making in Dark Scrolls instead of Dark Souls... I might not get it after all. But, we'll have to wait and see. So sad.. so very sad.

I hope a boycott or petition gets spread. I'm so angry that NamcoBandai pushed out Miyazaki all cause they wanted to make it more "Accessible" and make more sales. Fuck corporations, fuck their greed, fuck them to hell. Worst invention man ever created, the idea of a corporations. They only stifle creativity.

 

[Strid]

Another Century's Episode series is a great series, but the games all have one problem, a problem absent from Armored Core... they are not difficult at all, not in the slightest. I knew being worried about this change in staff was the right way to be. Shame though, the story telling in both Demon's and Dark is absolutely stellar, almost like that of, say, Super Metroid. To touch that, now, after what we've come to know and love; just no, no thank you. It told a story in only a way a video game could, such a shame. As for the new King-Dingaling and his action game experience, it was on Monster Hunter which has basically the same style of combat, I have no idea what he thinks he can bring to the table unless of course he's taking in the criticisms of both the Souls series and Monster hunter, in that the controls make the game too hard...

So the only interesting new news, it'll have a new engine, a completely new engine, assuming the same one they'll build Armored Core with and that interest me greatly.