Yeah, performance has been spotty for many. I did get the first bonfire crash but switching the lighting to low is a workaround that's been suggested in the forums and on PC Gamer and that worked for me. Played for a few hours and got through Vordt without any more issues. Performance for me with everything on high (Except for the lighting obviously) has been great. Rock solid and smooth with only a couple hitches when the game saves periodically.
GTX 770 2gb and i5-4670k. The recommended specs seem inflated for sure.
Also
FUCK the Lothric knights. They gave me more rage inducing trouble than the bosses so far
I guess I kind of won the lottery on this one, considering I have a more powerful graphics card and a not powerful enough processor...
I'm loving the visuals though. Everything has come through nice and clear for me, without the 'gobbyness' of the first two (where you lose details at distance and a guy looks like a hunk of no framerate wandering meat).
Oh man, that's what I was thinking until I slammed dick first into a boss in that area. Jesus christ it went down poorly. I am absolutely loving the weapon skill system though, so that's fun. I need to find out if this one works on a strike, pierce, slash system so I can plan out encounters more.
Yeah the game is gorgeous! I was genuinely surprised considering Dark 1 & 2 are not known for their visuals. I can't wait until the crashes are patched and I can turn the lighting back up.
Haha oh man do you mean
The Dancer? I saw a few messages on the ground telling me to kill that lady in the chair but also a bunch of bloodstains around so I figured that might be bad advice! Then I found out later that you can start the Dancer encounter that way so I might go back. I'm trying to play with as little help from the internet as possible. Vordt was pretty tough until I realized how aggressive you have to be in this game.
I'm having fun so far, but a word of caution: there seems to be an issue where people with GTX 6XX and 7XX series GPUs (and much less commonly AMD R9 series) are reporting crashes frequent enough to make the game almost unplayable. I have had no issue, but I have a GTX 980, so those of you with older cards considering the PC version may want to wait for FROM or Nvidia to figure out who fucked up and fix it.
So after about four hours of Dark Souls 3 under my belt I am ready to give you guys who care a first impressions. I played on PC, well on a gaming laptop that's about 3 years old. Game runs okay, the frame rate is mostly stable however there are periods where the game will briefly pause completely before resuming. Luckily this pausing doesn't skip frames and the game seems to resume exactly where it leaves off. It does throw off the rhythm a bit at times, but it will probably be patched out soon enough.
Next, the game looks....very Bloodborne-y. Like the mobs look, act, and behave like Bloodborne mobs. However their A.I. is a bit better as dogs with juke you and try to hit you from the side like fucking veloceraptors, making blocking them a *****. Frankly I was hoping for a more Dark Souls look, not that I mind, it just feels like I'm playing Bloodborne 2 instead of Dark Souls.
The last thing I want to talk about is probably the worst aspect so far. That's the combat. I play a melee class, always have, always will. For my start, I picked the Merc and I was really impressed with the moveset on the duel swords you start with. The problem is that the swings are a lot slower than it seems, which resulted in me trading blows a lot, frustrating blows that I don't feel should have hit me. Additionally, dodge rolling feels sluggish and not because of my weight limit. When I push the dodge button, the character takes a few frames to do the action which in turn causes me to get hit by stuff because the character does not dodge when I tell him too. This caused me epic amounts of yelling on Vorpal as timing the dodge to avoid the charge attack was fucking impossible. This has made the combat feel sloppy to me, not nearly as tight as Bloodborne or Dark Souls 2, where my fucker rolls when I fucking tell him to.
Also this game has an extremely wonky enemy curve. The game forces you to fight knights, and shape shifters that fucking wreck your shit. But at the same time gives you basic and fairly simply enemies to fight. I find myself trying to avoid things with shields because event he most basic guy with a shield is several levels tougher to deal with than other enemies. This makes the difficulty feel all over the place, however a few upgrades into my starting weapon helped. Which in turn also worries me, because it feels like it is forcing me to pick and stick with a weapon right out of the gate, when I know there is a ton of stuff to try in the game. But because I have committed to leveling my starting weapon, it makes me unwilling to try the other weapons I have found. Not that the other weapons wouldn't be viable or just as good, it just creates a mentality of "I upgraded this, so I should stick with it." At least until Titanite shards are literally raining from the sky that they can be poured willy-nilly into whatever.
Overall I'd say that I am so far very disappointed in DS3, mainly due to the combat feeling like I am constantly fighting in sludge. Perhaps it is a case of just needed to adapt to the way this game feels but you'd think it wouldn't take more than 4 hours to get used to things, on a basic level.
So after about four hours of Dark Souls 3 under my belt I am ready to give you guys who care a first impressions. I played on PC, well on a gaming laptop that's about 3 years old. Game runs okay, the frame rate is mostly stable however there are periods where the game will briefly pause completely before resuming. Luckily this pausing doesn't skip frames and the game seems to resume exactly where it leaves off. It does throw off the rhythm a bit at times, but it will probably be patched out soon enough.
Yeah this is a big issue. I have a 770 and ran into the crash at bonfires. I mentioned above a lot of people have addressed this by turning lighting down to low for now until it is fixed.
CritialGaming said:
Next, the game looks....very Bloodborne-y. Like the mobs look, act, and behave like Bloodborne mobs. However their A.I. is a bit better as dogs with juke you and try to hit you from the side like fucking veloceraptors, making blocking them a *****. Frankly I was hoping for a more Dark Souls look, not that I mind, it just feels like I'm playing Bloodborne 2 instead of Dark Souls.
Fair enough. I haven't played bloodborne so I have nothing to compare it to. To me it just feels like the mobs and ai are more aggressive and smarter which is an interesting and at time frustrating change haha. Same goes for the aesthetics. To me it's new and exciting so I'm pleased.
CritialGaming said:
The last thing I want to talk about is probably the worst aspect so far. That's the combat. I play a melee class, always have, always will. For my start, I picked the Merc and I was really impressed with the moveset on the duel swords you start with. The problem is that the swings are a lot slower than it seems, which resulted in me trading blows a lot, frustrating blows that I don't feel should have hit me. Additionally, dodge rolling feels sluggish and not because of my weight limit. When I push the dodge button, the character takes a few frames to do the action which in turn causes me to get hit by stuff because the character does not dodge when I tell him too. This caused me epic amounts of yelling on Vorpal as timing the dodge to avoid the charge attack was fucking impossible. This has made the combat feel sloppy to me, not nearly as tight as Bloodborne or Dark Souls 2, where my fucker rolls when I fucking tell him to.
I have run into a similar issue. I started with the merc and I anticipated my swings being much faster than they are quite often. I traded a lot of hits myself which I felt were undeserved, which I guess is another throwback to bloodborne, but without the regain mechanic it feels a little unfair. I think the rolling feels good and weighty, but yeah the timing is definitely something you have to adjust to. But with the mobs moving so much faster I found myself quite frustrated as well.
CritialGaming said:
Also this game has an extremely wonky enemy curve. The game forces you to fight knights, and shape shifters that fucking wreck your shit. But at the same time gives you basic and fairly simply enemies to fight. I find myself trying to avoid things with shields because event he most basic guy with a shield is several levels tougher to deal with than other enemies. This makes the difficulty feel all over the place, however a few upgrades into my starting weapon helped. Which in turn also worries me, because it feels like it is forcing me to pick and stick with a weapon right out of the gate, when I know there is a ton of stuff to try in the game. But because I have committed to leveling my starting weapon, it makes me unwilling to try the other weapons I have found. Not that the other weapons wouldn't be viable or just as good, it just creates a mentality of "I upgraded this, so I should stick with it." At least until Titanite shards are literally raining from the sky that they can be poured willy-nilly into whatever.
This is my biggest issue. There are HUGE variances in difficulty within zones. The Lothric Knights are brutal and I gave up bothering with the shapeshifters unless you took out the hollow before it had a chance to transform. As for upgrades, I have heard that titanite is extremely plentiful in this game so you don't have to be worried about wasting materials. I don't know for certain though. I found a broadsword that I am enjoying much more than the starting scimitars actually.
Yeah the game is gorgeous! I was genuinely surprised considering Dark 1 & 2 are not known for their visuals. I can't wait until the crashes are patched and I can turn the lighting back up.
Haha oh man do you mean
The Dancer? I saw a few messages on the ground telling me to kill that lady in the chair but also a bunch of bloodstains around so I figured that might be bad advice! Then I found out later that you can start the Dancer encounter that way so I might go back. I'm trying to play with as little help from the internet as possible. Vordt was pretty tough until I realized how aggressive you have to be in this game.
The lighting bit is definitely weird for me. At the startup screen I turned my brightness all the way down, and then turned my monitor brightness down, and then the contrast down and then changed it to 'cool' colour set, and I could STILL clearly see the image that is supposed to be invisible. I have no clue what is going on there.
Its actually Mr. Boreal Forest himself that is causing me trouble, but I gave after one try since it was late. I think a big part of the problem is that I did not bother to level up or reinforce anything yet and I was just dancing around him trying to see his moveset. I got the fire crystal as a starting gift so maybe I'll try that.
Okay so quick question; How do you attune spells? I can't for the life of me figure how to place a spell in my attunement slots. I'm playing as an Assassin and I got Spook in place with one more attunement slot empty. I bought Soul Arrow from the old lady at the start of the game, but now I can't place it. Anyone know what fuck is going on here?
You know, I'm not actually sure. I've just been using spook without trying any other spells. Is it not just attuning at the fire? I saw the option for that.
Okay so quick question; How do you attune spells? I can't for the life of me figure how to place a spell in my attunement slots. I'm playing as an Assassin and I got Spook in place with one more attunement slot empty. I bought Soul Arrow from the old lady at the start of the game, but now I can't place it. Anyone know what fuck is going on here?
You know, I'm not actually sure. I've just been using spook without trying any other spells. Is it not just attuning at the fire? I saw the option for that.
Okay so quick question; How do you attune spells? I can't for the life of me figure how to place a spell in my attunement slots. I'm playing as an Assassin and I got Spook in place with one more attunement slot empty. I bought Soul Arrow from the old lady at the start of the game, but now I can't place it. Anyone know what fuck is going on here?
Bonfire at Firelink. I'm guessing it's the only one, but since you need to port back to level up anyway, and you can port right from the get-go, it shouldn't be much of an issue...
Yeah the game is gorgeous! I was genuinely surprised considering Dark 1 & 2 are not known for their visuals. I can't wait until the crashes are patched and I can turn the lighting back up.
Haha oh man do you mean
The Dancer? I saw a few messages on the ground telling me to kill that lady in the chair but also a bunch of bloodstains around so I figured that might be bad advice! Then I found out later that you can start the Dancer encounter that way so I might go back. I'm trying to play with as little help from the internet as possible. Vordt was pretty tough until I realized how aggressive you have to be in this game.
The lighting bit is definitely weird for me. At the startup screen I turned my brightness all the way down, and then turned my monitor brightness down, and then the contrast down and then changed it to 'cool' colour set, and I could STILL clearly see the image that is supposed to be invisible. I have no clue what is going on there.
Its actually Mr. Boreal Forest himself that is causing me trouble, but I gave after one try since it was late. I think a big part of the problem is that I did not bother to level up or reinforce anything yet and I was just dancing around him trying to see his moveset. I got the fire crystal as a starting gift so maybe I'll try that.
Okay I gotta agree with everyone that the dodging and combat aren't as tight as say BB or Dark Souls hell I'm at under 50 percent equip load and my character still moves like a tank. Also for everyone who has problems with the Knights get the Uchiganta sword, it makes parring feel like a breeze
Well, over 8 hours on the clock now, time to pass initial judgment:
- Definitely feels like Dark Souls alright.
- The visual design skews more towards Bloodborne combined with Dark Souls I rather than a pure fantasy look: there's lots of dilapidated and crooked wooden buildings, uneven landscapes, crazed mobs in robes, and the architecture leans more towards the renaissance and victorian periods rather than medieval.
- Parrying and Estus are back to being single speed all the time, thank fucking christ
- Why the hell do we still need to go to a separate character to level up?
- Spook seems like a hugely unbalanced spell to give to players right at the start of the game (I started with an Assassin). If you know how to use it right, you can bypass huge chunks of the game.
- Power stancing from Dark Souls 2 gone, WTF??? It was one of the best things about DS2. Now only specific weapons can be wielded in pairs. I started with an Assassin, intending to make a dual rapier wielding dexterity build, and kept wondering why my character wouldn't go into power stance. That's a paddlin', From Software!
- The game world seems absurdly packed. Despite it not seemingly being very big, the use of verticality and multiple levels ensures the feeling of "When am I going to reach a dead end???" I love it
- Giant Enemy Crabs!!! Literally!!!
- So far the weapon special moves have seemed kind of perfunctory. Granted, I've only been using the Estoc, but only on a couple of occasions have I actually found it tactically useful.
Being less than 10 hours into the game and already having countered the first Lords of Cinder, the Abyss Watchers, I have to wonder how the structure of the game is going to play out. Seeing as there are actually five thrones for the lords in Firelink, but only three of them are mentioned in the opening, I'm intrigued to know what still hasn't been revealed
Well, over 8 hours on the clock now, time to pass initial judgment:
- Definitely feels like Dark Souls alright.
- The visual design skews more towards Bloodborne combined with Dark Souls I rather than a pure fantasy look: there's lots of dilapidated and crooked wooden buildings, uneven landscapes, crazed mobs in robes, and the architecture leans more towards the renaissance and victorian periods rather than medieval.
- Parrying and Estus are back to being single speed all the time, thank fucking christ
- Why the hell do we still need to go to a separate character to level up?
- Spook seems like a hugely unbalanced spell to give to players right at the start of the game (I started with an Assassin). If you know how to use it right, you can bypass huge chunks of the game.
- Power stancing from Dark Souls 2 gone, WTF??? It was one of the best things about DS2. Now only specific weapons can be wielded in pairs. I started with an Assassin, intending to make a dual rapier wielding dexterity build, and kept wondering why my character wouldn't go into power stance. That's a paddlin', From Software!
- The game world seems absurdly packed. Despite it not seemingly being very big, the use of verticality and multiple levels ensures the feeling of "When am I going to reach a dead end???" I love it
- Giant Enemy Crabs!!! Literally!!!
- So far the weapon special moves have seemed kind of perfunctory. Granted, I've only been using the Estoc, but only on a couple of occasions have I actually found it tactically useful.
Being less than 10 hours into the game and already having countered the first Lords of Cinder, the Abyss Watchers, I have to wonder how the structure of the game is going to play out. Seeing as there are actually five thrones for the lords in Firelink, but only three of them are mentioned in the opening, I'm intrigued to know what still hasn't been revealed
So after a few hours more into the game I want to give an update.
I rerolled to the knight class, and holy fucking shit! What a difference. It almost feels like the Knight is complete or something. It feels stronger, the roll is perfect (I was able to beat both the first boss, but also the crystal dragon in the first zone, without taking a hit), and call me crazy....the game runs better on the knight. No frame skips, no awkward pauses, none of that.
The game feels a lot more fun to me on the knight. But what the fuck? Did the game not release properly? Am I playing a beta, in which the other classes are a little janky and broke?
Ugh, I hate to say it, but it looks like Dark Souls 3 is another AAA game that released a bit on the broken side.
So after a few hours more into the game I want to give an update.
I rerolled to the knight class, and holy fucking shit! What a difference. It almost feels like the Knight is complete or something. It feels stronger, the roll is perfect (I was able to beat both the first boss, but also the crystal dragon in the first zone, without taking a hit), and call me crazy....the game runs better on the knight. No frame skips, no awkward pauses, none of that.
The game feels a lot more fun to me on the knight. But what the fuck? Did the game not release properly? Am I playing a beta, in which the other classes are a little janky and broke?
Ugh, I hate to say it, but it looks like Dark Souls 3 is another AAA game that released a bit on the broken side.
It's not the Knight itself that's fixing your issues, but rather the fact that the Knight is the only class that starts with a face-covering helmet, which disables the hair physics and such. For any other class, go into the graphics options and turn the lighting down to low, that should fix a lot of the problems. Hell, do it anyway, even if you're playing the Knight, it should boost performance quite a bit.
So after a few hours more into the game I want to give an update.
I rerolled to the knight class, and holy fucking shit! What a difference. It almost feels like the Knight is complete or something. It feels stronger, the roll is perfect (I was able to beat both the first boss, but also the crystal dragon in the first zone, without taking a hit), and call me crazy....the game runs better on the knight. No frame skips, no awkward pauses, none of that.
The game feels a lot more fun to me on the knight. But what the fuck? Did the game not release properly? Am I playing a beta, in which the other classes are a little janky and broke?
Ugh, I hate to say it, but it looks like Dark Souls 3 is another AAA game that released a bit on the broken side.
It's not the Knight itself that's fixing your issues, but rather the fact that the Knight is the only class that starts with a face-covering helmet, which disables the hair physics and such. For any other class, go into the graphics options and turn the lighting down to low, that should fix a lot of the problems. Hell, do it anyway, even if you're playing the Knight, it should boost performance quite a bit.
Actually the merc wears a shroud around his head, so there is no head physics there. And I already set the lighting to low while on my merc. It did nothing to improve things. Additionally it doesn't explain why the Knight's roll is better, tighter, and more fluid than my merc, especially when you consider that the knight wears heavier armor to start. No there is something off with the merc, and maybe other classes as well.
So after a few hours more into the game I want to give an update.
I rerolled to the knight class, and holy fucking shit! What a difference. It almost feels like the Knight is complete or something. It feels stronger, the roll is perfect (I was able to beat both the first boss, but also the crystal dragon in the first zone, without taking a hit), and call me crazy....the game runs better on the knight. No frame skips, no awkward pauses, none of that.
The game feels a lot more fun to me on the knight. But what the fuck? Did the game not release properly? Am I playing a beta, in which the other classes are a little janky and broke?
Ugh, I hate to say it, but it looks like Dark Souls 3 is another AAA game that released a bit on the broken side.
It's not the Knight itself that's fixing your issues, but rather the fact that the Knight is the only class that starts with a face-covering helmet, which disables the hair physics and such. For any other class, go into the graphics options and turn the lighting down to low, that should fix a lot of the problems. Hell, do it anyway, even if you're playing the Knight, it should boost performance quite a bit.
Actually the merc wears a shroud around his head, so there is no head physics there. And I already set the lighting to low while on my merc. It did nothing to improve things. Additionally it doesn't explain why the Knight's roll is better, tighter, and more fluid than my merc, especially when you consider that the knight wears heavier armor to start. No there is something off with the merc, and maybe other classes as well.
The Merc's headwrap still leaves his face visible. People have tested this fairly extensively, it only works if you wear a full helmet of some sort. Just because it covers your hair, that doesn't mean it disables whatever visual glitch is causing the issue.
As for the roll, I find that difficult to believe. Yes, lower weight gives a slightly tighter roll (the difference isn't anywhere as pronounced as in DS1), and the Knight probably starts with a higher VIT, but the starting classes aren't inherently different in mechanics, just in base stats and gear. I'm not saying you're lying, but it does seem unlikely. I know that my Warrior rolls better when I take off his stuff, so there is a difference in rolling based on weight (besides the Fat roll that starts at 70% load).
I'll try testing out the Knight when I get home; I was planning on trying out one of the other classes, might as well do that one. But do me a favor, try taking off your Knight's helmet and see if performance drops. I'm curious about this.
The game is definitely a bit janky at the moment (I said as much in an earlier post in this thread). Not DS1 levels of jank, but a lot of room for improvement. But I'm just glad it's good and hope they get the patches out soon...
So after a few hours more into the game I want to give an update.
I rerolled to the knight class, and holy fucking shit! What a difference. It almost feels like the Knight is complete or something. It feels stronger, the roll is perfect (I was able to beat both the first boss, but also the crystal dragon in the first zone, without taking a hit), and call me crazy....the game runs better on the knight. No frame skips, no awkward pauses, none of that.
The game feels a lot more fun to me on the knight. But what the fuck? Did the game not release properly? Am I playing a beta, in which the other classes are a little janky and broke?
Ugh, I hate to say it, but it looks like Dark Souls 3 is another AAA game that released a bit on the broken side.
It's not the Knight itself that's fixing your issues, but rather the fact that the Knight is the only class that starts with a face-covering helmet, which disables the hair physics and such. For any other class, go into the graphics options and turn the lighting down to low, that should fix a lot of the problems. Hell, do it anyway, even if you're playing the Knight, it should boost performance quite a bit.
Actually the merc wears a shroud around his head, so there is no head physics there. And I already set the lighting to low while on my merc. It did nothing to improve things. Additionally it doesn't explain why the Knight's roll is better, tighter, and more fluid than my merc, especially when you consider that the knight wears heavier armor to start. No there is something off with the merc, and maybe other classes as well.
The Merc's headwrap still leaves his face visible. People have tested this fairly extensively, it only works if you wear a full helmet of some sort. Just because it covers your hair, that doesn't mean it disables whatever visual glitch is causing the issue.
As for the roll, I find that difficult to believe. Yes, lower weight gives a slightly tighter roll (the difference isn't anywhere as pronounced as in DS1), and the Knight probably starts with a higher VIT, but the starting classes aren't inherently different in mechanics, just in base stats and gear. I'm not saying you're lying, but it does seem unlikely. I know that my Warrior rolls better when I take off his stuff, so there is a difference in rolling based on weight (besides the Fat roll that starts at 70% load).
I'll try testing out the Knight when I get home; I was planning on trying out one of the other classes, might as well do that one. But do me a favor, try taking off your Knight's helmet and see if performance drops. I'm curious about this.
The game is definitely a bit janky at the moment (I said as much in an earlier post in this thread). Not DS1 levels of jank, but a lot of room for improvement. But I'm just glad it's good and hope they get the patches out soon...
While I haven't really done in depth testing between classes, the more I look the more I get a feeling that those base stats are doing more in DS3 than they were in DS1. I'm having essentially zero bugs or slowdown running the game regardless of character or light setting (won the lottery there from the sounds of it), but the knight does absolutely feel different than the assassin.
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