The Dark Souls PC version controversy.

[The Lunatic]

They were upfront and honest about this.

I respect that, but, It wasn't something I wanted to buy immediately.

I might buy it down the line, but, it seems a bad idea right now.

 

[Louzerman102]

anc[is]

Most of it is understandable and reasonable. The only one I have a real problem with is the 360 buttons. That knocks it down from acceptable port to asking $40 for an emulator.

What do you mean by "360 buttons"?

I have heard on here that the button prompts in game on the PC version are xbox 360 buttons, regardless if you actually have a controller plugged in.

The game is made off of the Xbox 360 version of the game because 360 to PC is easier than PS3 to PC. In game the button prompts are the xbox controller buttons. Green A, Blue X, RB to attack, etc.

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

Eh, its a bad pc port but to be honest, Id still consider buying it just because the game is so fucking good, and on PC its cheaper and you get beter performance then consoles...sorta, it wont stutter in blighttown.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Does anyone know how many PC copies it sold?

 

[lapan]

I dont have any problems with the controls as i have no problem with just connecting my xbox controller to the pc. The fps is fine too, although i noticed it slightly stuttering in one small spot in Blighttown, nothing serious though.

GFWL was a pain in the ass, mainly because i forgot my password and had to wait for it to send me confirmation mails for 15 minutes.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

It could come with a voucher that pays all my bills for a year and I still wouldn't touch it due to GFWL.

The unofficial res fix makes it look sweet though. Anyone else ONLY know of, or watch twitch.tv due to Dark Souls? Its original release had me glued to the screen flipping between players and having a weirdly awesome time.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

It could come with a voucher that pays all my bills for a year and I still wouldn't touch it due to GFWL.

I hope that when the servers go down (if that's the way the game works), there will be some form of alternative online play option.

Anyone else ONLY know of, or watch twitch.tv due to Dark Souls? Its original release had me glued to the screen flipping between players and having a weirdly awesome time.

Yeah I love streams of all sorts so I keep an eye out for them, the Dark Souls ones were definitely fun watches (of course me being obsessed with the game helps that a lot)

 

[Jfswift]

I'm not clear why they felt they needed to do that. If they had said it's an aesthetic choice I think most people would have understood but if they were just worried about upsetting console owners of the game (such as myself) all they had to do to quell the masses was setup a time for the console dlc to be released and maybe offer it free or at a discounted price for the long term supporters of this game.

 

[Stripes]

The guy who managed this had been preparing quite a bit. Furthermore simply being a game developer does not make you inherently more skilled than amateurs, some of the mods released for various games should have proved this outright (especially considering some of the best games ever made have been made exclusively by modders and ex-modders), they worked exclusively on consoles before this and repeatedly told people they did not have very good experience with the PC. They didnt get another company to do the port to reduce costs, they did it themselves because they did not know how well the game would do and spending a lot on the port for it then to flop would have been very damaging. The problems with the game come from it being a rushed port done by an inexperienced team.

To add to this you get the DLC for free. This is both because you waited so long and because the port is not high quality. From Software is clearly trying to be your best friend, if they were trying not to hurt console gamer's feelings they wouldnt charge 1600 MP, something like £15, for the DLC you get for free. Furthermore, if console gamers cared that much about graphics they wouldnt be playing on console. This conspiracy is just plain stupid.

 

[kingthrall]

Conspiracies LOL, I dont even give a shit about the graphics on this game but when I have to push Q instead of A to pick up the first dungeon key... How can they expect me to even learn the game if they game doesn't even have proper keyboard commands.

I had to alt F4 the game to exit because there was no esc menu command and when I did find the menu options it was the freaking Page down key. The page down Key?!~ I feel like im in 1995 playing Killer isntinct on the Snes download port for pc.. Its a bad joke.

This is the worst game ive ever played. Not for any other reason than at least all the other worst games I played I can get out the freaking dungeon in less than 10 minutes JESUS and not have to press every ******** button on my keyboard to find out what the hell it does!

Cry all you might about them saying it wont be a great port blah blah blah, we dont see Total war games on the Console for this exact same reason.

 

[SilverUchiha]

Wait... so the controversy is over how the game looks? ... Seriously? ... I mean, I get that it's a sign of lazy porting in the context of this situation... but seriously? That's the big deal? That's really... really.... really stupid.

 

[thom_cat_]

Conspiracies LOL, I dont even give a shit about the graphics on this game but when I have to push Q instead of A to pick up the first dungeon key... How can they expect me to even learn the game if they game doesn't even have proper keyboard commands.

I had to alt F4 the game to exit because there was no esc menu command and when I did find the menu options it was the freaking Page down key. The page down Key?!~ I feel like im in 1995 playing Killer isntinct on the Snes download port for pc.. Its a bad joke.

This is the worst game ive ever played. Not for any other reason than at least all the other worst games I played I can get out the freaking dungeon in less than 10 minutes JESUS and not have to press every ******** button on my keyboard to find out what the hell it does!

Cry all you might about them saying it wont be a great port blah blah blah, we dont see Total war games on the Console for this exact same reason.

PAGE DOWN KEY!?!?
Fuck, I read lots of this thread trying to form an opinion and that just set mine in stone.
Page down, fuck. That's utterly hopeless.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Wait... so the controversy is over how the game looks? ... Seriously? ... I mean, I get that it's a sign of lazy porting in the context of this situation... but seriously? That's the big deal? That's really... really.... really stupid.

It's more an issue of optimization. It begs the questions.
1. Is it "entitled" for people to expect a quality port?
2. What could have been done to prevent this controversy? From Software knew they were bad at porting, they had no experience in it. Why couldn't they have sought additional help?
3. Why did this happen?Did Namco force them to rely on a shoestring budget
4. Regardless of this port's quality, should we support From or wait for them to fix their issues?

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I am playing this game, on the PC, and having fun with it.

I use a controller and the resolution fix mentioned in this thread.

The port could have been better, yes, but it is still easily one of the best games I've played this year. Isn't that all that really matters? That it's a good game? Sure, it's a good game for a different console entirely, but I've never had an issue with that.

Even the Steam(Powered) User Forums don't complain about the porty-ness as much as threads like this. That says a lot.

Indeed, and I'm happy that it is the case. It's selling well on Steam and hopefully this indicates that future ports are viable options. It shows that people are willing to either look past the porting problems and GFWL or are happy enough with the resolution fix.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

snip

These aren't the trolls you're looking for, no seriously.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Don't join the herd by ridiculousness as well. A bad port is a bad port which this is. Unlocking frames and resolution is pretty standard. While I'm glad they tossed us a bone, doesn't mean I won't call them out on the flaws of it or nothing would get better in this industry.

The thing is, it's not a bad port! It's at worst Average. I can understand something being "bad" because it's glitchy. I can understand something being "bad" because the controls don't work. I can even understand something being "bad" because it plays too much like it was meant for consoles, yet this isn't bad at all, it's the exact same game for all systems!

Here's something to keep in mind: there is next to no mouse and keyboard support. Think of a console game who's controls are completely broken and you have to buy peripherals to get working. You'd be complaining too.
OT: Its a terrible port, yes, and I hope the next game they make isn't this shit. Why didn't they get someone to help them, I don't know. With that said, I have faith modders will fix the biggest issues by the end of the year and make it tolerable. As for me, I'm waiting to get a gamepad before I can actually try playing.
As for the game itself: Its awesome. I'm glad that I can actually get it without having to hunt all over the bloody city to find a $90 copy.
Or order it and wait for two weeks with hit and miss shipping.