Dark Souls: Prepare to Die players will have to put up with framerate and buffer shortcomings.
If there’s one thing PC gamers like to talk about, it’s graphics. Graphical fidelity is usually enhanced on the PC compared to console editions, which is one of the reasons many people hold out for a PC version of popular games. Enter Dark Souls: Prepare to Die, the latest From Software edition of the hardcore fantasy die-die-die game, that has already been rumored to be slightly on the problematic side. A rush to get the PC port out “as quickly as possible” – according to developer Daisuke Uchiyama – might, the rumors went, mean that frame rate problems and other concerns wouldn’t get fixed.
Weeeell … hard luck, PC gamers. “While the frame-rate’s rough edges have been filed down,” said Eurogamer, which has had access to a pre-release version, “you’re still going to be playing at 30FPS out of the box.” There doesn’t appear to be an easy fix for that problem, but it gets worse. “On close inspection, it appears that Dark Souls PC uses the very same 1024×720 internal framebuffer as the console versions, regardless of which resolution has been set in the menus.” There’s no way to change that basic image quality, which means that “PC gamers will very much be getting the genuine console experience here, right down to the pixel.”
Still, there’s some comfort to be had. The game is still as difficult as it ever was, and there are extra areas for the player to poke around in – and die a lot – with new enemies prepared to squish you like a gnat. The visual tone is as striking as ever, and the frame rate is much smoother than it has been before. But, if you were looking for graphical greatness, better readjust your expectations. When Uchiyama said “we haven’t been able to step up into doing any specific optimization for PC,” he really meant it.
Source: Eurogamer
Published: Aug 9, 2012 04:26 pm