Dark Souls - Prepare to Die Edition - Review @ PC Gamer

PC Gamer has a 3-page review for this game 89/100
A quote about if the game is for you:

Ask yourself how you pronounce ‘PC game’. If your emphasis is on the ‘PC’, then run. Run far from Dark Souls and don’t look back. There is nothing for you here. There are many reasons to run. The twisted, shrouded, uneasy medieval fantasy land of Lordran stretches away like the darkest night. Go the wrong way, probe too deeply into the inky depths, and the things that lurk there will get you. My best analogy: it reminds me of being six years old and hearing a noise downstairs in a dark house.

A quote about the unfairness in the game:

I don’t blame you. That feeling never goes away. Fifteen hours into Dark Souls, I fought a ten-foot bipedal goat man. He was armed with two vast cleavers, and supported by two vicious dogs. Raising my shield, I could deflect the goat demon’s blows, but staccato bites from his mutts raised my poison gauge to critical levels. Swinging my mace in a wide arc, I crushed the skulls of the dogs, but I was poisoned, losing health as I was backed into a corner. The goat demon reared back to strike. I darted between his legs, aimed a blow at his heel, and promptly keeled over, dead from the dog’s venom. YOU DIED. This is bullshit, I’m turning this off.

And the conclusion:

If you know the trip downstairs will be long, hard, and sometimes uncomfortable, but you want to take it anyway because you know it will reward you like nothing else – if that noise downstairs leaves you too curious to climb back into bed and cover your ears – then Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition is waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs. I suggest you go and investigate.

More information.

It's a damn great game, too bad they put so little effort in the PC version.
By far the the laziest port in years.

Originally Posted by Tuco
It's a damn great game, too bad they put so little effort in the PC version.
By far the the laziest port in years.

Indeed it is a port in all sense of the word - i.e. almost nothing has changed from the XBOX version. It took someone less than a day to find a mod to fix the internal resolution problem, another to map the number keys to weapon/item slots, and someone else who admitted they know nothing about programming to find a fix for the twichty mouse camera movement. It makes me wonder how they programmed the game on PS3 and XBOX in the first place - did they use a drag and drop software to make the game with gamepad and touchscreen for input?

At least the PC platform makes user fixes easy.

The 30 FPS cap is most likely never fixable since it is hard coded and would require access to the source code. Dark Souls feels the 30 FPS intensely, making it very choppy and grueling. If they ever made it run at 60 FPS it would play so much better. For now, it is only worth buying when it drops to $5 in 6 months. Too bad for them.

Originally Posted by Brumbek
Dark Souls feels the 30 FPS intensely, making it very choppy and grueling.

I've never seen a game look "very choppy" at 30 fps. Are you sure you're even getting 30 fps?

It doesnt look choppy at all, especially since its at a constant 30 FPS (on my computer at least, i checked with FRAPS), it doesnt fluxate like most games do.. The animations are tied to the FPS, that's why it can't be changed that easily. I'm enjoying the game more than ever on PC.

This game offends me. I have not felt more ripped off since Diablo 3 and unlike that, I doubt I'll be able to get a refund here. =(

Seriously. What the hell? This is what console gamers have been crapping themselves in delight over all this time? A ridiculously cumbersome ultra-linear action game that isn't even fun?

60 FPS is a bit overrated. it is hardly different than 30 FPS in terms of visual leisure. I remember switching between 30 FPS and 60 FPS in Quake 3 ( by console commands ) just for the curiosity. There was difference in 60 FPS, sure. But not big enough to be bothered by the lack of it at all.

Although not trying to defend this port. Laziness behind making it is remarkably overwhelming.

Originally Posted by darkling
This game offends me. I have not felt more ripped off since Diablo 3 and unlike that, I doubt I'll be able to get a refund here. =(

Seriously. What the hell? This is what console gamers have been crapping themselves in delight over all this time? A ridiculously cumbersome ultra-linear action game that isn't even fun?

Says the guy that got killed by the first boss…
The next time play more and judge less please.

Game is a lazy port, but it is old-school gaming heaven - no more single button clicks for thousands of combos; you can parry, block, roll, light and heavy attack (different buttons!), long range weapons and magic, character customization, weapons have different weight and feel, unique enemies and bosses, grim and yet beautiful and artistic backdrops, beautiful music (shame the steam version did not include the soundtrack), good physics, and can not be completed in a weekend.

Originally Posted by darkling
This game offends me. I have not felt more ripped off since Diablo 3 and unlike that, I doubt I'll be able to get a refund here. =(

Seriously. What the hell? This is what console gamers have been crapping themselves in delight over all this time? A ridiculously cumbersome ultra-linear action game that isn't even fun?

Its not linear at all, and it doesnt have lame level scaling like most RPG's. One of the best games i've played in many years, and it's extremely fun if you like non-derp 1 click combat. I can tell you probably didnt even kill the first boss..

Is it really possible to play with keyboard and mouse? ( In serious doubt )

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Is it really possible to play with keyboard and mouse? ( In serious doubt )

No, that wouldnt really be possible.

Originally Posted by vurt
No, that wouldnt really be possible.

I am playing with mouse and keyboard and it is fine for me, particularly since I never touched a gamepad in my life. It takes some getting use to the various buttons for combat and items, but after that it is fine. You can also map the keyboard buttons to your liking (you can map number keys to weapons and items through the game's ini file). I use a similar setup to DeepO, this is from his previous post:

"Most of the time is spent running around and killing enemies and for that k+m is without issues in my book. I use the usual wsad for movement, "f" for parry, "left shift" for block, lmb is fast attack, rmb is heavy attack, pressing mouse wheel locks on target, scrolling it circles items, space is for running and rolling … standard stuff ."

@Vurt. Say that again? It's been released on PC yet isn't playable with mouse and keyboard? Is this for real? If so, I'd best get rid of it off my watch list.

Edit: Thanks SpoonFULL. I just missed your post. That's good to know.

I tried it briefly, the mouse/keyb controlls were terrible, mouse sensitivity was ridiculously high for me.. i would compare it to playing Baldur's Gate using rudder pedals and a flightstick, i mean i'm sure it's possible and you would get used to it, but i would try to avoid it

How do you even move slowly? Is there even a button for that? Sneaking is very important sometimes or just being able to move very slow where there are heights so you dont fall to your death (there's a lot of those).

Originally Posted by darkling
ultra-linear action game

That´s just bullshit.

Originally Posted by vurt
No, that wouldnt really be possible.

So far I´ve really enjoyed the 14 hours I´ve spent in the game and I´m playing with k+m.
I´ve killed the Capra dude or tower bell bros, for example, without any serious problems, so I´d say it´s definitely possible.
After remapping some keys, the only real issue I see is the mouse look, but personally I got used to that quite fast - and if that gets fixed, all that would be left are two minor nuisances (inventory, gamepad prompts).

I think the way the game got ported is inexcusable, but with the Durante´s fix in place and after figuring the controls out I can enjoy the game just fine.

Originally Posted by vurt
How do you even move slowly? Is there even a button for that?

WSAD + left control in my setup (I think I´ve left that one on default).

Originally Posted by vurt
I tried it briefly, the mouse/keyb controlls were terrible, mouse sensitivity was ridiculously high for me.. i would compare it to playing Baldur's Gate using rudder pedals and a flightstick, i mean i'm sure it's possible and you would get used to it, but i would try to avoid it

You can reduce the sensitivity from the PC Settings menu. There is also a mouse sensitivity mod fix on the Steam forums (not tried any of the solutions since I got used to it):

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum….php?t=2910072

How do you even move slowly? Is there even a button for that? Sneaking is very important sometimes or just being able to move very slow where there are heights so you dont fall to your death (there's a lot of those).

Look in the game manual (available on Steam page)!