Support NeoGAF

Griss · Oct 17, 2017

KeRaSh said:
Watch Dogs and Alien: Colonial Marines would like to have a word with you.

I missed the Alien: Colonial Marines fiasco as I was never interested in the game, but judging by what people say about it I'll take your word for it - whenever lawsuits are involved you know there was an epic bait and switch. Less of a legit downgrade and more of a 'fraudgrade'. I still think DSII is a bigger drop than Watch Dogs, though. Watch Dogs still looked alright. Dark Souls II was distractingly ugly, almost all the time.

Ravelle said:
There were mods available that improved the lighting a lot, torches weren't critical still but at least they created some atmosphere when you walked around with them.

Yeah, but I was on console

JavyOO7 · Oct 17, 2017

I think the game looks good on the right side, bland, but still good.

Octavia · Oct 17, 2017

Static meshes with 1 repeating texture, no UV mapping always got me. That is the epitome of rushed. Only reason I still harp is it happens in DS3 a lot too.

Morrigan Stark · Oct 17, 2017

Joey Ravn said:
How long until this guy makes a Horse Armor video?

lol.
Loot boxes video in 2020 coming up

that'd actually be more justified tbh

jim2point0 said:
I imagine he has a list of older controversies to dig up in case there's no recent gaming topics to make videos on. Jim Sterling probably has a similar list.

Damn

Shredderi · Oct 17, 2017

The newer looks a bit sharper but also a lot more duller. The first look had a lot more atmosphere to it. But that's just graphics, I do think that playing in such darkness would have been detrimental to moment-to-moment gameplay.

scitek · Oct 17, 2017

What did he mean by this? said:
Whats wrong with downgrades? Game development is hard and stuff changes. Maybe because I never preorder anything I dont really care what previews show

They used assets from the pre-downgrade version to promote the final product.

horkrux · Oct 17, 2017

Shredderi said:
The newer looks a bit sharper but also a lot more duller.

I think this is simply due to how the game was captured. CrowbCat probably recorded 1080p footage while the original reveal is stuck at 720p (and not the best quality). And we know how much their textures benefit from upping the resolution.

Tarextherex · Oct 17, 2017

GrizzNKev said:
does this dude do anything other than attack game developers? he really has to reach back like four years just to find something for us to be mad about? From have admitted their mistakes and made two more souls games since then, move the fuck on

This. He doesn't even sound like he plays games, dude just whines on whatever people whine the loudest

Tbh the torch is far from a failed mechanic. It had many uses, most of which adressed parts of the game people love to bitch about, notably the Shrine of Amana. With the torch you could see the pits much more clearly, you also had extra range to hit the annoying enemies with one of the five types of ranged attacks. But no, this isn't dark souls, screw using any strategy that isn't rolling and backstabbing smh

Coma Ecliptic · Oct 17, 2017

Coma Ecliptic said:
The dynamic lighting is the one that hurts the worst. Imagine the atmosphere with the dynamic lighting from having to actually USE the torch.

Such a missed opportunity.

Zomba13 said:
Yup. The entire torch mechanic is pointless outside of one area in the game where the entire point of the area was "shits dark" which was basically already done in DS1 with the Tomb of the Giants in the same way (either get lucky/pro enough to have the sunlight maggot or use the head torch thing and go 1 handed/without shield).

The sunlight maggot felt sort of like a cop out and their way of solving it.

I remember when they announced DS II and showed that video it instantly reminded me of Blade of Darkness from PC, which had an awesome dynamic lighting model at the time.

EDIT Worth mentioning that Dragon's Dogma get's night VERY VERY VERY RIGHT. Pitch black darkness.

Stolen gif from our own http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=171363614 thread.

Clear · Oct 17, 2017

Tarextherex said:
This. He doesn't even sound like he plays games, dude just whines on whatever people whine the loudest

Tbh the torch is far from a failed mechanic. It had many uses, most of which adressed parts of the game people love to bitch about, notably the Shrine of Amana. With the torch you could see the pits much more clearly, you also had extra range to hit the annoying enemies with one of the five types of ranged attacks. But no, this isn't dark souls, screw using any strategy that isn't rolling and backstabbing smh

Several enemies retreat from fire/light also, not to mention that in Scholar there are several instances where lighting braziers actually spawns red phantoms or has a specific effect on the level (Dragon skeleton in Aldia's).

Its also worth noting the god rays in the exterior areas are missing from the pre-release stuff, and generally the wide-open areas tend to be the best looking parts of the game.

MDSLKTR · Oct 17, 2017

GrizzNKev said:
does this dude do anything other than attack game developers? he really has to reach back like four years just to find something for us to be mad about? From have admitted their mistakes and made two more souls games since then, move the fuck on

Poor From software. I'd rather have Clifford being savaged for the rest of the year.

iHaunter · Oct 17, 2017

Inuhanyou said:
dark souls 1 was pretty impressive, demons doesnt hold up so well. even so, that doesnt really disqualify the label "AAA" graphics. there are plenty of AAA games that have worse graphics than either from last gen

Demons had such good atmosphere too!

That Latria tower still scares me to this day!

That being said, this looked like a downgrade sure, the "Better" graphics also looked a bit muddy though; Still the entire game was pretty much as advertised, set aside some graphical issues.

Alo81 · Oct 18, 2017

HeelPower said:
Imagine Dark Souls 2 tedium with added 0 visibility.

It was a terrible design choice that needed to go away.

And lets not forget that Dark Souls 2 came out PS360. Lighting and particle effects were impossible.

The original release of Dark Souls II on PC had ENB support added to it. This allowed implementing "real" lighting (turn off the universal lighting.) I talked a little bit about my thoughts on it in another thread before, but I think playing with real lighting has a profound impact on not just the visuals, but the gameplay too. Most relevant part bolded.

Alo81 said:
Lighting used to be a huge game mechanic. The torch was implemented for a reason originally. In the final game its mostly useless, but with the original lighting there was some actual, real severe darkness which meant you needed a torch, which meant you were stuck fighting handicapped with only one arm if you wanted to see enemies.

Think of someplace like Blighttown from DS. It would be significantly less memorable if it wasn't for that poison floor. It gave the area a real sense of dread and an anxiety that you need to hurry to make it out alive. Now imagine if that was just stripped out.

That happened throughout a lot of Dark Souls II. I played through the entire game on PC and I absolutely loved it. On a second play through I used a ENB lighting mod that reintroduced true, actual darkness and many parts of the game played hugely different.

Huntsmans Copse was hugely tense and exciting because of the darkness. That sense of walking through a dark forest with only your torch to guide your way. Seeing monsters appear from just outside the darkness. A strange mist falling from above poisoning you. It was terrifying and magnificent. Imagine a player who goes through the whole game turtling with sword and board. It would force them out of their comfort zone of the shield and they would need to actually learn to time dodges and manage to keep the torch lit.

It isn't simply a lighting change, because the lighting itself was a gameplay mechanic and it shows in the final product.

Example GIF:

Wagram · Oct 18, 2017

GAF needed its daily shit on Dark Souls 2 thread.

Thanks CatCrow.

Support NeoGAF

CrowbCat: Dark Souls 2 downgrade full comparison

Griss

Member

JavyOO7

Member

Octavia

Unconfirmed Member

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk

Shredderi

Member

scitek

Member

horkrux

Member

Tarextherex

Banned

Coma Ecliptic

Member

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster

MDSLKTR

Member

iHaunter

Member

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist

Wagram

Member

Similar threads