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The Darkness: The Official Thread

SpudBud said:
Whats this remind you of......

4y9su3q.jpg

My first wife?
 
Just finished this (360) and summing up from me I thought the length was about right (actually bigger than I thought it would be). It has left a serious lasting impression like a good film does. For me totally spellbinding, thought provoking and a classic that I will play over and over. Definite keeper and I hope they do another!

For me regarding the gameplay it seems to be a marmite type game. I wasn't expecting a GOW or a 1st Person shooter I was expecting a story driven game with fighting now and again which is what it does well for me and the story carries this perfectly for me. If you want an action fest this isnt the type of game for you.
 
Man holy shit is The Darkness' multiplayer laggy. Since my 360 freezes playing the single-player I've played a few games of multiplayer. Laggiest game of all time. It's fast and frantic and pretty fun...But the lag!
 
multiplayer in the Darkness is really bad, I was kinda excited to play it, but it is just horrible and laggy also.

they should have took the single player charms and put them in multiplayer instead of having a really bad deathmatch.
 
I'm playing the Darkness demo since my copy hasn't arrived yet (1 week after shipment! WTF -__-). Anyway Holy Sh!t is it awesome. Mutilating enemies has never been so fun!:lol
Love the graphics and the atmosphere of the game.
 
The Darkness demo is up on the PSN. For any Playstation 3 owners reluctant to pick it up because of a "bad port," I can say there is no such thing. It's really good. Jaggies are barely noticeable, and I kind of like the lack of blur better than the thick layering of it in the 360 game.

Overall it holds up really nicely. So get it if you want it.
 
Y2Kev said:
The Darkness demo is up on the PSN. For any Playstation 3 owners reluctant to pick it up because of a "bad port," I can say there is no such thing. It's really good. Jaggies are barely noticeable, and I kind of like the lack of blur better than the thick layering of it in the 360 game.

Overall it holds up really nicely. So get it if you want it.
Couldn't disagree more. If you're not playing the 360 version you're not playing the real game. The 360 version is markedly better looking and has a better framerate. The motion blur and AA add a lot to the visual experience (making it a lot more cinematic). The PS3 version should be avoided, if possible.

But even then, rent this game. From a gameplay standpoint, it's a completely unsatisfying experience. Presentation, voice acting and mood are well done. The actual gameplay is a half-baked bore.
 
If you have a PS3 and want to play this game but don't just because the thought of needing more AA and not having blur is standing in your way.....then "GO F*CK YOURSELF!!"
 
ToyMachine228 said:
Laggiest game of all time. It's fast and frantic and pretty fun...But the lag!

Yeah, it's a shame. Made me nauseous trying to gut a few games out. Too bad, the Darkling gameplay mechanic could have been really fun.

Any word on a patch?
 
urk said:
It's visceral and authentic and the story is very well crafted.

I have to disagree here. The whole game hinges on this main character who we're supposed to believe is 21 while he sounds like Michael Madsen. And he's been an assassin for the mob for how long now? What did he do, do contract killings for minimum wage as an after school work program?

And what mobster dresses like a Trent Reznor fan?
 
HomerSimpson-Man said:
If you have a PS3 and want to play this game but don't just because the thought of needing more AA and not having blur is standing in your way.....then "GO F*CK YOURSELF!!"

You hear that JB, go **** YOURSELF! :lol
 
JB1981 said:
Couldn't disagree more. If you're not playing the 360 version you're not playing the real game. The 360 version is markedly better looking and has a better framerate. The motion blur and AA add a lot to the visual experience (making it a lot more cinematic). The PS3 version should be avoided, if possible.

Maybe the final game is different from the demo? I had to really look to see the "extra" jaggies. And I hate excessive motion blur. You get motion blur in this game from turning. It's completely unrealistic and annoying. I also hate how it blurs when you get shot. When I'm getting shot, the last thing I need is my vision ****ed up. I'm not sure this doesn't happen in real life either, but I bet it doesn't. Unless you get shot in the eye.

That said I beat it on 360.


But even then, rent this game. From a gameplay standpoint, it's a completely unsatisfying experience. Presentation, voice acting and mood are well done. The actual gameplay is a half-baked bore.

Yep. Really wasn't satisfied with the game.
 
urk said:
Yeah, it's a shame. Made me nauseous trying to gut a few games out. Too bad, the Darkling gameplay mechanic could have been really fun.

Any word on a patch?

There's word on the patch at the Darkness myspace page.
 
just played the psn demo and holy shit at all the jaggies. why are you devs cutting my eyes?!

Edit: sorry. it's just that sigma is a jaggie mess too, and the 360 version looks really nice (i played the darkness on it before i had to send in for repairs again).
 
jetjevons said:
There's word on the patch at the Darkness myspace page.


Check your bandwidth speeds and follow these guidelines. This should ensure that you minimize or completely eliminate the lag.
- below a 1.5 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 3 players
- 1.5 - 4 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 4 players
- above 4 megabit/s upstream, host up to 8 players.

Wow. Pretty high upstream requirements there.
 
urk said:
Wow. Pretty high upstream requirements there.

Holy crap!!! I never noticed that it said "upstream", mine is like 250kb or 500kb up and 8 MB down. That's ****ing unreal.

The premium service I could get for $20 more a month would give me 1MB up, btw.
 
Ragnarok10 said:
The patch info pretty much dates the next Sony FW update. August.

Yeah, that's what the myspace says. They're dating the PS3 patch to coincide with the August update.
 
Granted that yes, it's just a demo, but this particular demo has really steered me away from outright buying this one. The combat doesn't feel particularly interesting, and the darkness powers aren't half as cool as I thought they'd be. Looks good though, if you're into the angular approach.

Oh yeah, and I was right; Mike Patton comes through as a cornball here. Sounds like me when I was a 16 year old ultra-satanic twig screaming about corny shit into microphones.
 
AltogetherAndrews said:
Granted that yes, it's just a demo, but this particular demo has really steered me away from outright buying this one. The combat doesn't feel particularly interesting,

It's not.

and the darkness powers aren't half as cool as I thought they'd be.

They aren't, really. :\ They're too exploitable and unbalanced.

Looks good though, if you're into the angular approach.

Oh yeah, and I was right; Mike Patton comes through as a cornball here. Sounds like me when I was a 16 year old ultra-satanic twig screaming about corny shit into microphones.
:lol
 
Check your bandwidth speeds and follow these guidelines. This should ensure that you minimize or completely eliminate the lag.
- below a 1.5 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 3 players
- 1.5 - 4 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 4 players
- above 4 megabit/s upstream, host up to 8 players.

:lol You've gotta be kidding me.
 
Check your bandwidth speeds and follow these guidelines. This should ensure that you minimize or completely eliminate the lag.
- below a 1.5 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 3 players
- 1.5 - 4 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 4 players
- above 4 megabit/s upstream, host up to 8 players.

HOLY CRAP! O_O
 
Check your bandwidth speeds and follow these guidelines. This should ensure that you minimize or completely eliminate the lag.
- below a 1.5 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 3 players
- 1.5 - 4 megabit/s upstream, host only up to 4 players
- above 4 megabit/s upstream, host up to 8 players.

I think some of you may be confused about the difference between a megabit and a megabyte.

Wikipedia said:
The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb.

1 megabit = 1,000,000 bits which is equal to 125,000 bytes or 125 kilobytes.

Meaning:

1.5 megabits/sec = 187.5kb/s

and

4 megabits/sec = 500kb/sec


That's not that bad.
 
RPS37 said:
I think some of you may be confused about the difference between a megabit and a megabyte.



Meaning:

1.5 megabits/sec = 187.5kb/s

and

4 megabits/sec = 500kb/sec


That's not that bad.

Upstream?

I download at like 1meg/sec, but my upstream is like 60k/s max.
 
AltogetherAndrews said:
Granted that yes, it's just a demo, but this particular demo has really steered me away from outright buying this one. The combat doesn't feel particularly interesting, and the darkness powers aren't half as cool as I thought they'd be. Looks good though, if you're into the angular approach.

Oh yeah, and I was right; Mike Patton comes through as a cornball here. Sounds like me when I was a 16 year old ultra-satanic twig screaming about corny shit into microphones.

There's a reason why Starbreeze only showed unplayable cut scenes in the trailers for this game. Because the combat never comes together. There won't be a single point in the actual game where you get to throw dudes around and just absolutely clean house like they showed in the trailer. I spent most of my time knocking out lights and sitting in corners regenerating health. The mansion sequence was particularly frustrating. That said, the presentation is first rate. I really enjoyed Jackie's brother from WWII. Great voiceover work. Best actor in the game, by far.
 
JB1981 said:
There's a reason why Starbreeze only showed unplayable cut scenes in the trailers for this game. Because the combat never comes together. There won't be a single point in the actual game where you get to throw dudes around and just absolutely clean house like they showed in the trailer. I spent most of my time knocking out lights and sitting in corners regenerating health. The mansion sequence was particularly frustrating. That said, the presentation is first rate. I really enjoyed Jackie's brother from WWII. Great voiceover work. Best actor in the game, by far.

Agreed on all points. The story and presentation are great, it's worth renting but definitely not a buy at its current price.
 
Played about two hours of The Darkness on my friends 360 since mine is freezing up. Even more non-linear than I expected. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing. Looking forward to playing more of the game when I can.
 
JB1981 said:
There's a reason why Starbreeze only showed unplayable cut scenes in the trailers for this game. Because the combat never comes together. There won't be a single point in the actual game where you get to throw dudes around and just absolutely clean house like they showed in the trailer. I spent most of my time knocking out lights and sitting in corners regenerating health. The mansion sequence was particularly frustrating. That said, the presentation is first rate. I really enjoyed Jackie's brother from WWII. Great voiceover work. Best actor in the game, by far.
That pretty much sums up everything. There was something about the gunplay I just really didn't like. I loved the pistols, but that was about it. You couldn't reload when you wanted to, there was no gauge to show you how much ammo you have. I don't know, it just seemed like the gunplay was an afterthought. And the Darkness powers weren't fully developed either. There were a lot of great things and ideas added in, they just didn't really polish them all.
 
JdFoX187 said:
That pretty much sums up everything. There was something about the gunplay I just really didn't like. I loved the pistols, but that was about it. You couldn't reload when you wanted to, there was no gauge to show you how much ammo you have. I don't know, it just seemed like the gunplay was an afterthought. And the Darkness powers weren't fully developed either. There were a lot of great things and ideas added in, they just didn't really polish them all.
You can reload anytime you want to.. press B. Doesn't work when the clip is full of course.
Also, whenever you press B you see how much ammo you have left.

I don't know, I did some really awesome stuff with the darkness powers.. walk into a room, shoot one guy, pick up another with the darkness arm, throw him into a third who then stumbles, walk up to him and execute him. It didn't always work perfectly perhaps, but I had a lot of fun with the battles.
 
JB1981 said:
There's a reason why Starbreeze only showed unplayable cut scenes in the trailers for this game. Because the combat never comes together. There won't be a single point in the actual game where you get to throw dudes around and just absolutely clean house like they showed in the trailer. I spent most of my time knocking out lights and sitting in corners regenerating health. The mansion sequence was particularly frustrating. That said, the presentation is first rate. I really enjoyed Jackie's brother from WWII. Great voiceover work. Best actor in the game, by far.

Yeah I just went through the mansion tonight and it was quite frustrating.
I thought I'd be throwing helicopters everywhere and opening black holes that would break shit up
so it would look like a Marilyn Manson hotel room after party...
but no, nothing.

Gunplay was meh, it lacks variety, powers were meh, the story was interesting
for the most part... IMO the ending is crap
... overall it was OK but I was expecting much more. And even though the voice acting was spot on, I think the script was a bit too much in the bitch / **** / asshole / mother****er department.
 
JB1981 said:
There's a reason why Starbreeze only showed unplayable cut scenes in the trailers for this game. Because the combat never comes together. There won't be a single point in the actual game where you get to throw dudes around and just absolutely clean house like they showed in the trailer. I spent most of my time knocking out lights and sitting in corners regenerating health. The mansion sequence was particularly frustrating. That said, the presentation is first rate. I really enjoyed Jackie's brother from WWII. Great voiceover work. Best actor in the game, by far.


Great (Great?) Grand Father
 
no one download the darkness demo-_- if you do it wont let you save any of your games tryed to save a mlb franchise and i lost all my progress right after i deleted the darkness it saved perfectly!!!! be aware!!
 
I am having a LOT of fun playing with The Darkness (PS3), the only problem and least enjoyable part of the experience was loading time between one section and the next (ok, also the lip.synching for quite a bit of characters), but thanks to the "cut-scene" idea it never really bothered me much besides the side-mission in which you have to keep going back and forth, back and forth quite quickly between various places (to kill a certain number of people for one of the "elders"). That aside, I could not put the game down (it does help, to get you in the right mood to play the rest of the game, to read The Darkness comics present in the Extras section, especially the one set during WWI).

The Xbox 360 version might very well have better AA and other effects, but to say that the game on PS3 looks poor, well you must be pretty jaded or lying through your teeth. there are some areas (especially
inside the mind of the Darkness
) like the Village (I really like the river's shaders) or the Fortress which are really mind-blowing when you look at the scale of things, the texture quality, the lighting in the scene (this game has some amazing dynamic lighting and shadowing... smacking a ceiling light to have shadows dance madly around the room is pretty nice and rewarding :D), etc... I did not experience V-synch issues (if there is screen-tearing it is pretty well hidden) and never really got a slide-show frame-rate wise. Once you adjust a bit the control settings and you learn to work around some of the limitations your Darkness powers have, I have not really been frustrated by the game yet and it is not like my character never died in the game...

The game is not a straight run and gun oriented FPS, sometimes (good for us Shenmue fans) it feels like a 1st persone Shenmue game (although Ryo can at least run faster than Jackie): great story (the
Orphanage section with the ghosts/memories of Jackie and Jenny
and its epilogue were quite touching [if you tried at least a bit to immers yourself in Jackie's feelings]), awesome characters (3d modeling wise some are good looking too, but I was talking about how the major story characters' personalities were defined and polished), believably free-roaming environments, wonderful voice acting (I did like the voice of the Darkness :P), and everything from graffiti, to people's clothes, to the wall and floor textures, to the menus, to the choice of music used in the game, realy tired to bring a consistent and polished appearance of the world the game is set in to the player. It is enjoyable to walk around the game's version of New York city.
 
Oneself said:
Yeah I just went through the mansion tonight and it was quite frustrating.
I thought I'd be throwing helicopters everywhere and opening black holes that would break shit up
so it would look like a Marilyn Manson hotel room after party...
but no, nothing.


I was so pissed when that happened! I spent that entire time saying "Give the game back to me! I want to do the damage damn it!"
 
tribal24 said:
no one download the darkness demo-_- if you do it wont let you save any of your games tryed to save a mlb franchise and i lost all my progress right after i deleted the darkness it saved perfectly!!!! be aware!!

Whoops... I did download it, but played it only 5-10 minutes before deleting it (I had just received the retail game). Luckily it is quite worse than the retail game so I feel confident to say that you won't miss much if you do not download the demo ;).
 
I am having no trouble with the PS3 version of this game and find the graphics to be fine. Seriously, the little non-consequential stuff is a big issue among fanboys only.

This is a great game, no matter what system you play it on. The cutscenes are amazing, great gore, great story, great cutscenes. The gameplay is a bit of a letdown and the game seems to have a hot/cold difficulty. That about sums up this game, IMO.
 
Lightning said:
I am having no trouble with the PS3 version of this game and find the graphics to be fine. Seriously, the little non-consequential stuff is a big issue among fanboys only.

the graphics of the ps3 version based on the demo are because of the aliasing. please do not described them as "fine". this shit should not be acceptable no matter what side of the console fence you are on.

edit: fyi i really hate jaggies
 
WickedLaharl said:
the graphics of the ps3 version based on the demo are because of the aliasing. please do not described them as "fine". this shit should not be acceptable no matter what side of the console fence you are on.
I haven't played the demo on PSN nor do I care for it. I purchased the game, demo not required. The graphics are fine, the 360 version has graphic glitches in it as well. The graphic glitches are not bad, and don't take anything away from the game itself.

I will say it again, the PS3 graphics are fine, except if you are a nitpicky graphics whore. For graphic whores every game must have CoD or Killzone 2 graphics and cost out the ass to produce only not sell enough copies leaving companies with a blown budget.
 
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