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#DarkSoulsDowngrade and #YOULIED \\ a.k.a You got some splainin' to do, Namco
- Thread starter Havel
- Start date
This has my vote.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
ThatGayWolf
Member
A lot of us are waiting for the PC version.
Hopefully it''ll be
Dark Souls II PC |OT| Now with less Dark
I thought the capital letters made it obvious.
I'll have to take the blame on that. I thought it was pretty overt.
zephervack
Member
Vastly different.
Retail
1. Weird Green/Grey hue everywhere.
2. Missing FX, look at the moment the boss lands the jump, Demo shows splashes of water, missing from retail version
3. Skybox is very simplified in Retail, gone are all the clouds from demo
4. The boss is less reflective, the normal map had a huge downgrade in retail
5. The ilumination on the map and characters looks much better on the demo when there are lightning strikes.
I think anytime someone says Games and Journalism back to back like that there needs to be quotes somewhere. I think the enthusiast press is done a disservice by being called 'journalism' and it's also misleading to the consumers. Sorry for getting off-topic again.
ThatGayWolf
Member
Many people also liked it. Me, for one. Also, if they were going to remove the mechanic, they shouldn't have done such a lazy job. The sconces should be out except where absolutely necessary, and they should have fixed that trash ass boss fight.
You guys never run out of strawmen do you?
DrROBschiz
Member
Man...
April 25th cannot come soon enough
Going to be very very interesting to have people pick it apart and get some answers
April 25th cannot come soon enough
Going to be very very interesting to have people pick it apart and get some answers
Lalalandia
Member
I honestly don't get their reticence on this point as many have pointed out this doesn't effect the game's desirability for most folks who will still get the higher res textures and framerate (surely) they want. Hell the console buyers would still have bought the game too as the gameplay they want is the same, hell some folks wanted that mechanic dropped as evinced by the posts in the Beta thread
Vastly different.
Retail
1. Weird Green/Grey hue everywhere.
2. Missing FX, look at the moment the boss lands the jump, Demo shows splashes of water, missing from retail version
3. Skybox is very simplified in Retail, gone are all the clouds from demo
4. The boss is less reflective, the normal map had a huge downgrade in retail
5. The ilumination on the map and characters looks much better on the demo when there are lightning strikes.
Just so I'm sure, the GIF on the LEFT is the retail version right?
From Software are one of those companies that struck gold in a niche area of the market and snowballed commercially via word of mouth and a dedicated fan base, they are the victims of their own success. There's no doubting the Souls series from a gameplay and design standpoint but technically they are (I feel) woefully inadequate and have to prove themselves in the graphics and performance department and with more eyes than ever on them their flaws are revealed on mass.
legacyzero
Banned
Im completely ok with this. It does sound like more of a pain in the ass than what's necessary.
However, it seems like they almost completely removed decent lighting in general.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Yes.
They review the game that ended up in front of them. Taking preview footage and other stuff into account is exactly what they shouldn't do. In an ideal world the people doing previews should be totally separate from the people doing reviews
Metalingus5150
Member
On the website, they're still showing screenshots of the game before the downgrade.
PetriP-TNT
Member
Nice to see someone sees the effort to dig those up instead of quoting the same gif over and over again. Apt username even!
It honestly took me a second to figure that out. :lol
The GIF on the left looks better to me, but that's the problem with vertical slices I suppose. I do see the missing water splash, but the colors look WAY better in the Left-GIF.
Stone Ocean
Member
Do you even have to ask? lol
If they removed it due to feedback then it's even worse, because they did it completely half-assed without any regard to how the dark areas would look. So instead of just the lighting the mood is completely killed and you get these damp PS1-esque-gray areas.
Why wouldn't they when they have those screenshots on the damn game case.
How does green tint = way better colours?
Yes, definitely. 60fps is enough to make me buy it, artbook and soundtrack are enough to make me preorder it, but I still want to know what exactly it is that I'm buying.
DrROBschiz
Member
Of what version!!
You have to expect them to market the superior version of the game man.
Every cross gen game so far has. I think Kojima is a pioneer on how honestly he has distinguished the versions of his game
I swear I'm not shitting you, I thought the GIF on the right was the downgraded version until I noticed the water splash.
Unknown Soldier
Member
In all of gaming history, no game has ever had a technical downgrade when the developer realized they could not reach their original goal with engine, asset, or design. This unprecedented downgrade, the first ever in all of gaming history, requires direct intervention from the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Japan! #OBAMASAVEDARKSOULS #ABEONEGAISHIMASU
The Mirror Knight gif isn't anywhere close to as night and day as the skeleton dragon gif. Let's be realistic here, the retail version of that still looks pretty good to me.
I'm glad the torch mechanic was really reduced in importance though. Having a whole game that needed that would have really sucked.
Hey man, I'm with you. Of course, the last thing I'm looking at when a giant metal knight jumps at me is how the water around my feet splashes. It's days like these that I'm glad I've never been one to really care about any of this stuff.
The most surprising part of this thread has been finding out that people actually enjoyed Tomb of the Giants and it's pitch black mechanic. I agree that it added atmosphere, but it also added an incredibly large amounts of BS that I was glad only existed in that one zone.
#YOULIED might come off strong, but it's also cute and funny once you get the joke. Do you think it's inaccurate?
And about the wopper thing: I made a post on one of the previous pages arguing that, for me, this does greatly affect the "taste" of DS2. Maybe it's different for you, but I know it's that way for me and many others.
So they should just ignore blatant false advertising? I have no problem with it not affecting the score but at least take the time to mention to your readers that things advertised up until the game was released aren't in the game.
It would be like if they took out the Beetle from Skyward Sword and didn't tell anyone about it. Sure the games quality would still be pretty much the same, but it would still affect the gameplay and people would be (rightfully) pissed off.
zephervack
Member
Wait what?? I guess thats your opinion, but can you say why you find the colors better on the retail?
It looks completely washed out, the walls dont have shadows on, look at the Demo, everything is shadowed correctly.
Those gifs are pretty small to be fair. I can see how you'd think that if you prefer the green colour.
Stone Ocean
Member
The Mirror Knight fight is probably the best of the downgrades and yeah it still looks pretty good, but I'd say the lighting and skybox shouldn't leave any doubts as to which version is which.
Zomba13
Member
But that's not false advertising. Neither is using those shots on the back of the box. People should know the game doesn't look like that any more
/s
Relaxed Muscle
Member
I don't agree, I think lighting looks way better on the old demo. But is really more evident in video form.
CuckFupertino
Banned
There may be some areas with lower-than-usual resolution textures, but nothing that approaches it "looking like a PS2 game." It looks nothing like a PS2 game. It looks like a PS3 game trying to push the envelope at the end of a console cycle - one that ended up making a few (too many? you decide) sacrifices.
If you were in charge of marketing, how would you go about making it "clear" that PC looks better than console? And who is that message for, really? People with PCs and consoles, so they can decide between the two versions? If you own a gaming PC, you know it's going to look *way* better than consoles. Should people without a PC be notified their version is graphically inferior? If you're a Dark Souls fan, which is indeed a niche group, I seriously doubt you're going to pass on this one because of the graphics. Finally, if you only own a PC and no consoles, then what are you complaining about?
This is far from the only game to use suped-up PC footage when showing off the game at trade shows, etc. Point me in the direction of any cross-gen game that came out recently, and I guarantee you they all used the best in-game footage available for marketing (i.e. high-end PC or next-gen). Hell, many games don't even use in game footage in their marketing - just CGI explosions and the like.
I've watched about a dozen videos and seen a ton of GIFs and I'm honestly torn as to which version objectively looks 'better' to me. The retail seems like the brightness was overcorrected and some effects have been removed (some normal maps, texture pop in is evident in videos) but I can actually SEE the game in the retail version which is a big plus for me.
It's probably the small GIFs that got me.
Stone Ocean
Member
ThatGayWolf
Member
Wrong thread. The Dark Souls II general is that way.
legacyzero
Banned
Holy shit, for real?
zephervack
Member
Everyone, read the actual thread, the gameplay is amazing and worthy of the name dark souls, our issue is that they did a huge bait and switch with the trailers before.
The biggest problem is tons of people saw the lightning running on PS3 2 months ago, and now they completely removed it.
DrROBschiz
Member
The explanation is going to be "the limits of the hardware"
What else could it be?
Good job, I like them both
PetriP-TNT
Member
"We felt like it, LOL" obviously.
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