Dark Souls II - PC Release Date Announced

Couchpotato

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Seems the release date of the picture from a few days ago was correct. Namco Bandai sent out a new press release announcing the PC release date is April 25th.

CHALLENGES AWAIT PC GAMERS! DARK SOULS II FOR PC IS COMING ON 25TH APRIL, 2014!

PARIS, FRANCE –6th March 2014 – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S. announced today that DARK SOULS™ II for PC and STEAM® is scheduled to launch in Europe and Australasia on April 25th. DARK SOULS™ II for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft will be available on March 14th, 2014.

Adventurers will be delighted to discover that the PC & STEAM® version will fully benefit from PC capabilities: increased texture resolution and an enhanced frame rate option. On top of that, FromSoftware have been working to perfectly adapt the game for a mouse & keyboard combo.

As for console, and while supplies last, fans pre-ordering the game will receive the Black Armour Edition – containing an Exclusive Metal Case, the Original Game Soundtrack and an early access to the Black Armour Weapon Set – or if pre-ordered on STEAM® fans will get bonuses - digital soundtrack and the early access to the Black Armour Weapon Set, the Official Dark Souls™ II Artbook in PDF format and The complete Dark Souls™ II Digital Comic Book (written by Rob Williams and Andi Ewington with art provided by Simon Coleby) as digital extras for a complete immersion in the universe of DARK SOULS™ II.

“We’re conscious of the high expectations from PC gamers and are working with FROMSOFTWARE in ensuring that the PC version of Dark Souls II offers the best experience possible. said Mathieu PIAU, EMEA Marketing Director at NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe. “After an amazing first opus, DARK SOULS II promises an even more engaging, richer and challenging adventure that should please all gamers, regardless of their platform of choice.”

Dark Souls II will be launching in Europe and Australasia on March 14, 2014 on the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft with the PC edition to follow on 25th April 2014. To learn more about Dark Souls II and pre-order the game, please visit www.DarkSoulsII.com/.
More information.
 
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With 1 trip through anor londo this game went from instant preorder to I don't know if I'll get it.

I was loving the first one, the atmosphere, exploration, combat are all top notch.

Then I hit sen's fortress and anor londo and the game morphed into a platformer. Dodging rocks, swinging axes and arrows, balancing on narrow paths, fighting guys on 12" ledges, pulling levers, rotating bridges etc.

Those things are not my cup of tea so it lessened my enjoyment of the game some. The rest of what I played however has been excellent so I can overlook a couple areas like that.

The bigger problem though and the main reason for my angst is the invading. I've played the whole game to this point hollow to avoid that but ornstein and smough proved too much solo. So I went human to summon help. The problem is by the time I get to the boss and kill the 2 giants I get invaded. 4 times out of 4 tries so far.

3 time the invader easily killed me the 4th time I killed the invader but was out of estus flasks as a result and got killed by the boss.

The first time I went to the blacksmith and was upgrading my stuff and getting ready for the boss and when I get done the invader is waiting to backstab me.

Needless to say I hate the multiplayer crap and if it's always on in the 2nd game I fear that would kill any enjoyment. If you can't even stop at a merchant without being invaded. If they confirm an offline mode I'd get it but it would be too bad to miss the messages people leave.

The game is brilliant in many ways but this is a killer for me. Reading online reveals that there are certain builds that are far better for MP and I don't want to have to build my character in a way that I don't want just so I can stand a chance against MP. Also there are many people that only play the game for MP and spend hours upon hours making MP shit brick houses and spend several hour a day just invading people. I doubt guys like me that are just playing PVE are going to stand a chance.

It's pretty disheartening.
 
I play in offline mode - no worries about being invaded.
 
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Indeed if you don't like pvp and coop you really don't have anything to lose by playing offline in DS1… (No idea about how much you lose out on in #2 yet of course, but offline mode is certainly available). Like I have said I would not have bothered with this game at all if offline mode (and M+K support through DSmfix ;) ) was not available, even knowing how much I like it. Life is just too short :)

If you go human while offline you can summon Solaire to help with Smough and Ormstein and he makes the fight more than possible for any build…. Generally speaking most difficult Boss fights have an NPC you can summon to help (for some though his sign may be a bit hidden and you may need to summon said NPC in a previous fight for him to be available in a later one and so on and so forth)
 
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I hated Sen's fortress too. For most of the game if it's difficult it just means that you need to level and gear up somewhere else and then come back. But in Sen's fortress your level and gear doesn't matter, it's all about timing.

Anor Londo didn't bother me as much. It was really hard, but it felt more fair.

Oddly I never got invaded except by NPC darkwraiths. Staying in the starting faction is supposed to make invasion less likely, but I did also spend a lot of time hallow.
 
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I was under the impression though that you needed GFWL in order to save? apparently not though if you all played offline.

I'm not having too much trouble with bosses this is just the second boss fight that I'm getting help with. the other was the gargoyles. 2 enemies at a time give me trouble. I almost beat O&S the only time I was able to get to them with Solaire but after fighting the invader I didn't have any estus and died with just a about a 10th of Smough's health bar left.

It's the invaders that are making the game annoying now. I wonder if the cheat. I had a bandit knife +10 and a lightning spear +2 and I wasn't even making a dent in a couple of then and they were killing me in 2 to 3 hits and I have 1000 health. I wear leather though and they were all decked out in amour I've never seen.

I'm guessing they just play PVP all the time and just have better equipment for it.

As far as sen's and anor londo I just don't like the platformy feel. It wasn't so much the difficulty. The 2 archers on the ledge in Anor though were brutal.
 
You can set GFWL to use an offline profile, but you have to stay that way; characters are not playable in both online and offline modes so if you have already started with an online character, you will have to start a new game with your offline profile active.

I hated Anor Londo. I made it through Sen's but that part in Anor where you had to run up the narrow ledges with knights shooting arrows at you had me blocked for an entire weekend. Now the Smough and Ormstein fight has me stuck.

Even if I never finish it, I think I got my money's worth. I probably have 50 hours in it at this point, for a $7.49 Steam purchase. That's pretty cheap entertainment. I will almost surely pick up the sequel.
 
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I am pretty certain that I was able to play online once when I was DLing something in the background. Not only that but my first play-through did start as online as I had to install the game then play. You just have to mandatorily be online if your PC has an active network connection or something (and GFWL detects it?) ? Not sure but not an issue for me if so as I have the PC unplugged at the router. (and also no reason to play online anyways as I said ;) )

For the two gargoyles fight you can also summon Solaire and he trivializes that fight.

Sen and Anor Londo are tough But I never had an extreme problem with them and I do like the design of Anor Londo and the puzzle/gamey challenge and secret finding of Sen's (although Traps and swinging Axes are not exactly my top preference either ;) ) If you don't like puzzle like exploration and gameplay there is a possibility you will enjoy DS2 less overall (I am under the impression they may be adding to that element more).

They are a challenge that may be more suited for a high poise build. It never took me more than a few tries to get past them (2-3 in my first run?) you just run to the first cover point, wait for the arrow, run to the top of the ledge and take the one at the right trying to get as close as you can without getting hit (either forward roll when he shoots or block trying to be certain that you are angled so that the knock back won't throw you off the ledge. High poise will help and so will the wolf ring in that vein). When you are close the knight will draw his sword. And you generally try to knock him off the ledge and not be knocked off (it may take a couple of tries and I can only assume its rather tough for a nimble dex build that is focused on mobility). The other one you can ignore at that point but he is easier to handle afterwards if you want (you face him straight on so the knockback should keep you on the ledge etc).

I am sure most of the PVP trolls all have specialized dex/fire builds and have farmed high lvl equipment while staying at a low Soul lvl just to mess up with people (never understood trolls and the joy they derive from crap like that. An unbelievable moronic utilization of one's time :) ). But then again I never put my self through that so I don't know for sure. I am sure that there are hackers aplenty out there too…

EDIT: Apparently Offline mode will be pretty much like in #1 Tanimura says Not sure about summonable NPCs but I imagine they will be in too as in #1 (he doesn't come out and say it but they want to put the online mode at the forefront obviously so this aspect is not often discussed)
 
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I'll have to test out the offline thing. Also I practiced my riposte for a couple hours and had no problem with the archers, a couple rolls the a couple riposte and I'm through.
 
Yeah parries should work great if you are comfortable with them by this point (I do use them on the Silver Knights some times but probably chickened out on that on the Ledge :D ). In my Mage run I used Heavy soul arrow a couple of times iirc and than knocked him off the ledge (iirc, not 100% sure, but heavy soul arrow's Knockback definitely worked to knock the Demons off the ledges at that place as I recall).
 
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Looking forward to it. Offline mode ftw, worked like a charm for both souls games so far.
 
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