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[CountAntonius]

Looks great. I'm not going to mention the frame rate yet, but at release it needs to be rock solid. There's no room for 20 FPS drops - this is technically the fourth iteration. I truly hate how this series gets a free pass on frame rate all the time yet it's VERY gameplay intensive. FPS matters greatly.

edit: also no PC release is a bad choice.

You mean simultaneous release?

 

[SargerusBR]

edit: also no PC release is a bad choice.

Uhh... the game is getting a PC release.

 

[RVinP]

The visuals look good in these beta footage.

Most important being
- - Cloth animations

Other less important visuals
- Less specular on armors
- Torch lighting looks great, gives out a nice ambiance
- Very dark areas (so cool)
- Nice particle effects; only a few and subtle, but looks great for this game

 

[Sajjaja]

Looks great. I'm not going to mention the frame rate yet, but at release it needs to be rock solid. There's no room for 20 FPS drops - this is technically the fourth iteration. I truly hate how this series gets a free pass on frame rate all the time yet it's VERY gameplay intensive. FPS matters greatly.

edit: also no PC release is a bad choice.

There will be a PC release shortly after the console release you silly goose.

 

[Error]

loving the spear backstab animation.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Red phantom enemies are back, hell yes!!!!!

 

[Yasae]

Yeah no simultaneous release, but if it's within March that's fine too. I haven't been keeping up with news.

 

[popyea]

The visuals look good in these beta footage.

Most important being
- - Cloth animations

Other less important visuals
- Less spectacular on armors
- Torch lighting looks great, gives out a nice ambiance
- Very dark areas (so cool)
- Nice particle effects; only a few and subtle, but looks great for this game

Do you mean less specular? That's kind of bothering me. The Knight's set is looking kinda dulled compared to the first game. Though I acknowledge that it depended a lot on the location. Reflections on armor looked amazing in Firelink and the graveyard for example. Looks like it's made out of plastic in a few areas of the beta.

 

[TheCongressman1]

This time around you might actually have to hold a torch to see where you're going instead of just glowing for some reason. GET HYPE.

Also, the way the larger enemies explode into flames looks far more satisfying than the white puffs that were used in DS.

The reason they glowed was because of the Augite of Souls item in Demon's Souls. It's just a glowing shard attached to your character at all times. Of course characters still glow in Dark Souls, but for some reason the item doesn't ever appear. I'm really not sure why.

I agree about the large enemies. Looks much better than huge ragdolls with the wrong physics.

 

[Red Liquorice]

I got excited every time they opened the menus :3

 

[moonbeam]

I've trying to go in blind as much as possible but I think I recall when the very first Dark Souls 2 trailer come out, Edge magazine claimed that they had seen footage of the game and that visually it was very similar to the trailer, ie pretty amazing looking. So what happened? All the bits I've seen since the original trailer look pretty much like the original Dark Souls or perhaps a little better but nothing like the original trailer.


Edit: here's a quote from the Edge article (Dec 2012): "Dark Souls II, ..., looks effortlessly ready for the next generation of consoles, on par with the fidelity of, say, Watch Dogs and Star Wars 1313."

 

[feel]

Here's another video that I didn't see posted yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUSRQL11mBg

Nnnngh those cloth physics. Good to see a player getting owned.

 

[nailbombxx]

Still thinking that some of the animations need more polish to look more natural like they did in OG Dark Souls.

 

[AJ_Wings]

The inventory screen looks sooo much better than Dark Souls.

 

[Megatonne]

The framerate looks a lot better hopefully the entire game is consistent

 

[kevm3]

Reminds me of the PC version of dark souls. The textures look improved, but otherwise the visuals are about the same... which isn't too much of an issue wit me. The gameplay looks a bit faster, which I don't mind.

 

[daniels]

Wind and moving grass :O

 

[luca1980]

exploring in souls games....priceless!

 

[deddonpachi]

this looks so good! i hope i will get beta access

 

[mickcenary]

Holy shit. Does anyone else agree with me in saying that this looks a whole lot less like "Dark Souls 1.5" than initially thought? It looks fucking beautiful.

 

[ijed]

Also noticed:

Bar underneath the weapon icon - to show durability I'm guessing
Can't cut grass to get rupees
Multiplayer list on the side with health bars is a nice touch
Breaking boards covering windows lets more light in to rooms
Trees etc. transparent when too close to the camera

this looks so good! i hope i will get beta access

Dried Fingers Crossed!

 

[Superman]

I want it nowww
I hope I get chosen for one of the Beta phases.

 

[Serra]

Looks great! Would be lovely to see PC footage at some point.

Im kinda not loving the seemingly easy availability of healing items. Its one of my biggest dislikes about Demon's. Sure, it got a bit stupid in Dark too when you had 20 estus and lots of humanities but it was worse in Demon's.

Also I really dislike that running/walking animation. Not enough knee/hip extension with too much spinal extension makes it look kinda weird.

Can't wait until march...

 

[Zushin]

Aww yiss. This is looking excellent. So hyped, 6 months is so far

 

[Infinite_Daremo]

Some stuff people on Reddit Noticed:

-You can light/save at a bonfire at any time, even with summons.
-Phantoms are able to interact with the bonfire?
-It seems like summons can loot enemies. These items are separate than the host's
-White phantoms are unaffected by the host's estus.
-White phantoms can use lifestones and estus.
-Different weapon types: dagger, short sword, long sword, curved blade, cleaver?, baton?, rapier, axe, maul, spear?, club, whip, blowgun?, and a bow.
-Backstabs take time to initiate, the grab must come in contact with them in order to execute the maneuver. An enemy can escape if they, for say, jump out of range before you can grab them.
-Right at the beginning, you can see a merchant.
-At 0:12 seconds, you can see the Longsword strong attack is the running slash, not the stab.
-The Pyromancer set is returning. You can see the bloodstain ghost wearing it at 0:41 and 3:20.
-Gestures menu (at 2:24) show old and new gestures: Point Forward, Bow, Wave, Joy, Hurrah!, a shrug of some sorts, and the last one kinda looks like a "watch out, we got a badass here" thingy.
-Human Effigies restore your humanity, but do not recover any missing health.
-At 3:10 beards!
-New autosave indicator. A scroll being written on. Looks kinda annoying IMO.
-At 5:06, when the trees get in front of the camera, they become transparent, so you can still see what's happening.

Good, I hope this shit is nigh on impossible in PvP.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

That save icon is atrocious.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Hmm I want to watch... because I'm so impatient. But I also want to go in fully blind. What a dilemma! #firstworldproblem

-Backstabs take time to initiate, the grab must come in contact with them in order to execute the maneuver. An enemy can escape if they, for say, jump out of range before you can grab them.

Very interesting.

-At 3:10 beards!

OMG YES finally!

 

[Yoshichan]

Fuck! I just saw this thread... how much spoilers?

 

[SlipperyFishes]

Fuck! I just saw this thread... how much spoilers?

It's a beta. Not a proper section of the game.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

So Endurance is now only stamina. Then there's the stat for run/roll speed and another one for item burden.

Woah. Making builds is gonna be a lot trickier with that spread right there. Add to that elemental weapons now scaling off stats as well... this is the end of lvl 1 runs.

And all the healing boosts are gonna suck for invasions.

I don't know... I trust From but uh...

 

[SJRB]

Putting the "dark" in Dark Souls. Jesus, most of the time you can't see anything without a torch.

 

[CountAntonius]

Two new Videos:
First
Second

 

[Dictator93]

I watched for 2 seconds and got a mega-boner. Lack of specular on armor is strange though...

Stopped watching further because I want to avoid spoilers.

Spoiler

mega-boner was finished off in fap session: do not worry

 

[Yoshichan]

FUCK IT I THINK I'M WATCHING IT

edit: NOPE! I AM NOT.

 

[ebullientprism]

Good, I hope this shit is nigh on impossible in PvP.

Backstabs are kinda necessary in PVP though. Otherwise you can put on the best Def/Poise armor and just estus with no fear of consequences.

I think this compromise is acceptable.

 

[Divius]

Fuck yes. Looks great. Guy playing seems noobish.

 

[Funchameleon]

Fuck yes. Looks great. Guy playing seems noobish.

lol yeah hes a fail ;p

 

[SargerusBR]

Two new Videos:
First
Second

I'm downloading all these for backup, i bet they will go all down today

 

[OFFIS]

Two new Videos:
First
Second

Both links are the same, in the video he was summoned for ~3minutes and then "task completed" text popped up and he was kicked out, and that bossfight

Spoiler

3 grimreapers and 3 BONEWHEELS(!)

oh boy... prepare to die!

 

[Fried Food]

I thought the new lead designers said they were going for a feeling of despair and loneliness. Kinda hard to achieve that when you got multiple people joining you. I don't plan on summoning people outside of hard boss fights.

 

[Vicetrailia]

Got new mechanics/playstyles for archer, sorc, dual swordsman and people wanna be soldiers! Is there any gameplay for those three classes out there?

 

[Outright Villainy]

That may change. I asked Tanimura about the fact that you don't have an Augite of Souls (or whatever they call it in Dark Souls) and he said they're still working on adding some of the lighting. I don't know... I have a feeling it's going to stay the way it is in the beta, though.

They can give you very limited lighting so in pitch black areas they're not impossible, like Tomb of the Giants. You can do that without a skull lantern or maggot head, it's just really god damn hard.

 

[MoogleWizard]

It's so beautiful, lighting seems much improved. Praise the sun!

But since when can phantoms use estus? That will make the game too easy...

 

[eot]

I think it has a softer look than Dark Souls, I don't know how to describe it better than that.

 

[Outright Villainy]

But since when can phantoms use estus? That will make the game too easy...

It looked a lot easier in Dark souls 1, when you could heal your phantom, since they could just run up and wail on the boss and you could keep healing them without them needing to stop at all.

With slower Estus chugging and both parties needing to stop to heal it looks like it'll be more balanced.

 

[bigol]

It looked a lot easier in Dark souls 1, when you could heal your phantom, since they could just run up and wail on the boss and you could keep healing them without them needing to stop at all.

With slower Estus chugging and both parties needing to stop to heal it looks like it'll be more balanced.

Besides phantoms have a life cap,like 25% less and estus heals less and slowly when you are in phantom form

 

[Serra]

I thought the new lead designers said they were going for a feeling of despair and loneliness. Kinda hard to achieve that when you got multiple people joining you. .

To be fair this is a network test beta. So it kinda makes sense to summon/invade dudes.

 

[SargerusBR]

But since when can phantoms use estus? That will make the game too easy...

Phantoms could use humanity that heals full health in DaS, nothing different really.

I thought the new lead designers said they were going for a feeling of despair and loneliness. Kinda hard to achieve that when you got multiple people joining you. I don't plan on summoning people outside of hard boss fights.

Is up to the player's choice if he wants to summon someone, its not the devs fault.

With slower Estus chugging and both parties needing to stop to heal it looks like it'll be more balanced.

You can use Estus and Healing stones while running though.

 

[JoeFenix]

Have the animations been downgraded? Look at the way the guy runs. Looks absurd.

Other than that I like what I see. Seems like a return to Demon's Souls dark environments.

I immediately noticed the same thing, looks super goofy and really poor. The other videos I've seen had much better animation, not sure what's going on here.

 

[MoogleWizard]

It looked a lot easier in Dark souls 1, when you could heal your phantom, since they could just run up and wail on the boss and you could keep healing them without them needing to stop at all.

With slower Estus chugging and both parties needing to stop to heal it looks like it'll be more balanced.

Well, I guess it depend on if they limit estus or not. 3 players in coop with 20 estus each would be easy mode-Souls...

Can invaders use estus too? I hope not, I hated that in Demon's, matches would take forever and it's very annoying to get invaded by two players because one can always heal while you fight the other.

Phantoms could use humanity that heals full health in DaS, nothing different really.

Yeah, that's true. Humanity is gone, I forgot about that. Estus for phantoms makes more sense now.