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Dark Souls III - E3 Demo Impressions

Lanrutcon

Member
Did this really just turn into a "better not be 30fps on PC" topic? Just enjoy the game. FPS doesn't change gameplay. It creates a better feel in the game. It makes the world more immersive. The consoles are plenty powerful to hit 60fps. Developer is probably just sees this as an artistic choice to better portray the game.

I'm curious about visiting your world. How exactly would I get there from this one?
 
I can't help but wonder if there's some kind of technical issue specifically on your end, because I've played through twice and it runs great. The only frame stutter is when you transition into a new area.

I was in a CD before and about 4 of those gangly hook assholes were spawned by one of the witches; it went to about 15fps for a good 2-3 seconds. Oh, From (but yeah, those instances are very few and far between).
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
I was in a CD before and about 4 of those gangly hook assholes were spawned by one of the witches; it went to about 15fps for a good 2-3 seconds. Oh, From (but yeah, those instances are very few and far between).

I'm not talking about actual frame dips due to mass enemies, I'm talking about the constant choppiness in motion due to the pacing issues. I can just be running around with nothing on screen and it's there. I honestly wish I could become one of these people who thinks the game looks smooth, it would allow me to enjoy the game and others like it much more.
 

Daverid

Member
Good to hear that apparently many of the horrid changes in DaSII are getting reversed.

However I'll only believe it when I see it, and I still ain't throwing down my $$$ this time until I get to try it. There's other aspects of the game which can't be adequately described by journos, and since I don't have a PS4 to try Bloodborne and see if 'From' really do still have chops, I'll remain sceptical.

Sounds like a good start anyway, and hopefully it will turn out great, because I loved DeS/DaS(1), and I want nothing more than to enjoy another Souls game.
 

takriel

Member
Did this really just turn into a "better not be 30fps on PC" topic? Just enjoy the game. FPS doesn't change gameplay. It creates a better feel in the game. It makes the world more immersive. The consoles are plenty powerful to hit 60fps. Developer is probably just sees this as an artistic choice to better portray the game.

You can't tell me that if developers had the choice to go 60 they would willingly keep it at 30. No way.
 

rhandino

Banned
Another type of magic? Cool, maybe they can use it to replace Miracles since they are mostly useless in Dark Souls II

Also really liking that they getting rid of the Agility stat =D
 

tcrunch

Member
The way the "branch of magic" bit reads it sounds like speculation from the author, not a suggestion from Miyazaki. Again, such is the way of E3.

The PCGamer article also mentions their target multiplayer count is 6 like SOTFS, but it would not be surprising if they couldn't make it since they couldn't in Bloodborne.
 

Walpurgis

Banned
rbFrosty
The first area in general reminded me very much of 1-1 in demons souls. There were lots of shitty useless enemies, and then some crazy strong, really interesting knight enemies.
[...]
There was also an encounter with two big, fast, scary as shit knights. Firstly, they look incredible. The armor shines in a very dynamic way, and overall just looks really fucking good with the cloth physics and their little tuffs of red fabric poking out of their plate armor. As for how the encounters were, it reminded me of the red eye knights of demons souls. They were just so aggressive. There was the standard sword knight and spear knight. The spear knight would attack behind the shield and poke, but then would swap into a 2h mode then what seemed like a “weapon art” stance for the weapon where it had some attacks similar to the pikes running attack from Dark Souls 1.
This quote excites me the most because I really felt like something was lost when going from Demon's Souls to Dark Souls. Dark Souls had a great opening but Boletarian Palace 1-1 gave me such a sense of achievement, in huge part thanks to the red eyed knights and the dragons. I also felt that Demon's Souls had a better atmosphere and world than Dark Souls. I am glad that they are looking back at Demon's Souls for inspiration.

I also like how, despite the pained cries of many fans on the internet, they are NOT throwing all the Dark Souls II code in the trash and lighting it on fire. It's great that they are taking the handy stuff from Dark Souls II (like the upgrade system and online aspects) while removing the bad parts (tying roll to a stat, soul memory). It's also great to hear that Miyazaki is designing the world because even though the Dark Souls II team made a lot of improvements, that was one area they really screwed up. I hope I get into the network test for this.

Does anyone know if there is a gameplay video online or is the info in the OP all we have?
 
What would be cool is having different magic covenants, each specialising in different types of magic. Eg. Defensive magic, offensive, ranged, etc
 
I'm not talking about actual frame dips due to mass enemies, I'm talking about the constant choppiness in motion due to the pacing issues. I can just be running around with nothing on screen and it's there. I honestly wish I could become one of these people who thinks the game looks smooth, it would allow me to enjoy the game and others like it much more.

Ah, yep. Soz. I know what you're talking about. Pre-patch Old Yharnam was Chop City.
 

Blade30

Unconfirmed Member
Lol he personally took over level design. Guess it wasn't up to par. I'm sure he will create something beautiful.

Isn't level design his realm and speciality? It wouldn't surprise me if he'd be the lead designer on all the games he'll direct, since that was his main condition (being highly involved in developing games) for accepting the position as the president of the company.

How big is FROM now? I know that from their homepage it was 227 (last update: march 2014), but I am curious to now how big the staff got after the release of Demon Souls in 2009.
 

artsi

Member
Is something wrong with you guys' eyes? BB plays awesomely, yes, but it stutters CONSTANTLY. Looks rough, even though the framerate mostly sticks to a solid 30.

Don't know, maybe there is, I've never noticed the effects of bad frame pacing (what I'm hearing it is) in my gaming life.
Not in Witcher 3 either, though many were saying that the effect exists. I believe, but just can't see it.
 

tcrunch

Member
Does anyone know if there is a gameplay video online or is the info in the OP all we have?

No public gameplay until the next set of conventions (Gamescom etc.)


This has some interesting comments around 2:46, he talks about the world not just being end-of-cycle like it usually is in Souls, but in fact the world is melting/disintegrating. In addition to the dead dragon that has been mentioned in the previews, he says the zombie dogs in this installment (lol a Souls game without zombie dogs) have skin that is sort of sloughing off ("they've been out in the sun for way too long"), and the dreglings/hollows instead of being pink and meaty are ashen/white.

edit: full thing
GameTrailers (@2:46)
In Dark Souls, things are bad, right? You go to a place: it's ruined, it's got moss growing in all these places, there are these weird creatures. Dark Souls III feels more...it feels like the world that was already bad is dying, it's going away. You encounter familiar enemies- you encounter these zombie dogs, but it's like the skin is coming off them, they've been out in the sun for way too long. You see these hollowed figures that are normally a kind of gross pink color are just this sick white. And everywhere, I mean absolutely everywhere, is covered in ash. In one of the coolest moments- I wish I could have taken a picture of it and hung it on my wall -is you're going through this area and it's almost like snow is falling, but you realize very quickly that it's ash, and you get to see its source. You go over, and there's just this gigantic dragon humped over a crumbled bridge, and the ash is emanating from its body and populating the entire place. That's the scene for Dark Souls III.
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Don't know, maybe there is, I've never noticed the effects of bad frame pacing (what I'm hearing it is) in my gaming life.
Not in Witcher 3 either, though many were saying that the effect exists. I believe, but just can't see it.

Witcher III drops and locks to 20fps, if you can't notice that then I don't know what to say. I'd love to hear a scientific reason for why some people are completely oblivious to performance issues while others like myself are hyper sensitive to them. I know it's party due to what you're used to but it can't just be that.
 
Witcher III drops and locks to 20fps, if you can't notice that then I don't know what to say. I'd love to hear a scientific reason for why some people are completely oblivious to performance issues while others like myself are hyper sensitive to them. I know it's party due to what you're used to but it can't just be that.

Some people are just born with Motion Plus.
 

CivRab

Member
I'm guessing this screen is the dragon bit from the demo
716i_OCMr_Xr_L_SL1238.jpg
 

Neoweee

Member
Hope the hit detection is at the level of DS1 and BB in DS3.

Yuck.

All of the games have problems with vacuum grab attacks, and BB might be the worst offender of all. So... many... grab attacks...

Witcher III drops and locks to 20fps, if you can't notice that then I don't know what to say. I'd love to hear a scientific reason for why some people are completely oblivious to performance issues while others like myself are hyper sensitive to them. I know it's party due to what you're used to but it can't just be that.

Everybody has different issues that will make them lose their shit. CA and FoV issues are okay with me, but frame pacing and text speed issues drive me insane.
 

Neoweee

Member
....? Joke Post? Bloodborne's hit detection is so refined.

It isn't an issue of hit detection, it is an issue of slight hits sucking the player into grab or visceral or backstab animations. Fuck Winter Lanterns, but so many people are busy running from the frenzy that they don't actually get fucked by the grab. Removal of all special attack animations will be a glorious day for the franchise. Fuck ceiling drop slimes, fuck hippos, fuck hags, and fuck that one pursuer move that I got hit once by across the 30 or so encounters with him. They all suck.

But I'm sure I'm going to get slammed with pages of cherry-picked gifs, because that's how these threads roll.

The entire series is about magically phasing through enemy attacks, but flagrant violation of hit detection is perfectly fine if you wave your hands and yell "i-frames!"

EDIT: Are any of the games really calculating different hit detection for players based on the height/body-type they use? Like are smaller characters, or thin ones, harder to hit?
 

tcrunch

Member
Another E3 interview http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/ne...ex-areas-says-director-hidetaka-miyazaki.html
DigitalSpy
Humanity and systems around bonfires will see "adjustments" compared to previous games, while bonfire warping will return and be similar to what was seen in Dark Souls 2, which allowed players to jump between any previously accessed bonfire from the start of the game.

Meanwhile, the enemy respawn system will move away from the Dark Souls 2 approach of stopping enemies from appearing in the world after a certain amount of attempts. "The respawn system that you have seen in Dark Souls 2 will not be reproduced in Dark Souls 3," Miyazaki said.
 

ElFly

Member
It isn't an issue of hit detection, it is an issue of slight hits sucking the player into grab or visceral or backstab animations. Fuck Winter Lanterns, but so many people are busy running from the frenzy that they don't actually get fucked by the grab. Removal of all special attack animations will be a glorious day for the franchise. Fuck ceiling drop slimes, fuck hippos, fuck hags, and fuck that one pursuer move that I got hit once by across the 30 or so encounters with him. They all suck.

Hilariously, some people think that the grab escapes are actually a bug

http://illusorywall.tumblr.com/post/117328860484/bloodborne-button-mashing-to-escape-grabs-is

which makes the grab attacks even more fucked up. Luckily, this fuck up benefits the player a lot.

That's clearly a bug.

Well yeah.
 
I know you can simply just not use the warping option, but I wish they'd include an option to turn it off. It should be a reward like in DkS1 I think.
 
I know you can simply just not use the warping option, but I wish they'd include an option to turn it off. It should be a reward like in DkS1 I think.

Short cuts lose all meaning with warping everywhere from the beginning. Getting deep into an area with no way back was another risk you had to take.
With DS2 and Bloodborne it was all forwards. Beat a boss in that area, you're done. No reason to go back.
It also makes the world feel less interconnected even though it is.

Depths, Blighttown and Ash Lake would have been a joke in the first DS if there was warping everywhere. I miss that.
 
Short cuts lose all meaning with warping everywhere from the beginning. Getting deep into an area with no way back was another risk you had to take.
With DS2 and Bloodborne it was all forwards. Beat a boss in that area, you're done. No reason to go back.
It also makes the world feel less interconnected even though it is.

Depths, Blighttown and Ash Lake would have been a joke in the first DS if there was warping everywhere. I miss that.

This is exactly it. Theres a very stark difference between having great level design and having great level design and forcing the player to actually take advantage of it.

I want that "im stuck with no choice but to push forward and persevere" feeling to return. Make the player earn the warping.

If level design is as good as we hope it will be, theyll give us an item like the master key which will allow people to sequence break and get to warping much faster on subsequent playthroughs.
 

Orayn

Member
DSII warping is good. No point in having to waste time walking between places.

I dunno, it lead to some pretty memorable moments like having to fight your way back from the bottom of Blighttown. Maybe they could compromise with "one-way" bonfires or something?
 
I am more excited than I thought I would be that kicking will be back. I hope that they return to the DS1 way of parry and riposte-ing, I could never quite get the hang of the timing of it in DS2.
 
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