Dark Souls II - PC Review Round-up

mogwins said:

I'm sure you do. Luckily, I that's not what I did, eh? I said "it's well worth picking up a controller just for Dark Souls 2." It's my opinion. I didn't tell you to do anything.

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Sorry, Didn't know you were just thinking aloud. I thought you were giving advice to people and since I'm a people...

mogwins said:

It was made with m&k controls in there, sure. But what I said was "it is a game designed from the ground up for a pad." Which is really a different thing entirely.

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Considering a random guy modded K&M support in to DS1 that worked flawlessly (never had an issue in my 240 hrs) I'm not sure designing from the ground up is necessary.

What does that mean anyway, "designing from the ground up for controller". I doubt they said, "we have a controller now what kind of game can we build around it".

I'm sure they made the game they wanted and then assigned moves to the controller, just as the could do with K&M as evident from the random guy referenced above.

If I had my preference I'd rather they didn't even have default controls. Just give me they ability to map any action to any key, button or mouse click. Then let people assign them to their input device of choice.

Just my thoughts though.

mogwins said:

Anyooo, I'm sure lots of non-controller types will appreciate you sharing your m&k set-up. The more people that get to experience Dark Souls, the better!

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Agreed.

JonNik said:

No thanks

@sakichop my mouse is pretty simple in comparison to yours I bet, but even so I find myself unable to use the two side keys it has. For some reason it confuses the hell out of me Definitely different strokes for different folks in those things…

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Yeah, It took some getting used to. When I first got it, I thought I'll never use all those keys.

Now I can use them all reliable except for 2, The scroll wheel can be click to the left and right. I haven't been able to execute that reliably though so I don't use them.

With 11 buttons available on the mouse alone though I typically run out of stuff to assign before I run out of buttons.

Some further questions on the usage of mouse and keyboard gentlemen for clarity!

1. Can you configure R3 (pressing the mouse wheel) for target lock as you could using DSMfix in the original game? I'm guessing scrolling will also select equipment and spells?

2. Has anyone experienced very much input lag and if so, what was your solution?

3. I only have a simple Logitech G400, nothing fancy, so I won't be doing anything elaborate with my mouse setup. Left click normal attack and right click for heavy attack got me through NG+ in Dark Souls. I use left shift for blocking as well and the spacebar for running! Hopefully my basic configuration is still viable, as I've heard odd things about the default setting for double click for example...

4. I used the escape key and enter key for most of my menu navigation. I also relied upon the arrow keys for weapon menus and key selection menus. Hopefully these habits will easily translate into the sequel as well?

The more honest and straightforward information on mouse and keyboard usage the better, thanks in advance JonNik and Sakichop! (and anyone else playing that way for that matter...). I'm yet to purchase the game, but certainly, it won't be too long now and the reports make it hard to resist.

You could just try using a controller? :runsforbombshelter:

Update : I think I've found why my graphics were so bad : It seems it's because in the video settings it was on "autodetect" (to set the quality of the graphics depending on how the game detect the video card). If, instead of that, I manually choose "Medium" or even "High" for the graphics, it's better.
So I've started to give it another try but I don't think it'll go too far because I'm still having too much trouble playing with mouse/keyboard.
Also, it seems there is no map of the areas explored. Why have they done that ?!?! I really don't want to have to manualy draw a map on a piece of paper while playing...

Pessimeister said:

1. Can you configure R3 (pressing the mouse wheel) for target lock as you could using DSMfix in the original game? I'm guessing scrolling will also select equipment and spells?

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Not to my knowledge, you change targets by moving the mouse, I had the same scheme configured in dsmfix but here it needs a more abrupt/longer move. As in #1 roll wheel up = spells, roll wheel down = quick items.

Pessimeister said:

2. Has anyone experienced very much input lag and if so, what was your solution?

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There is some with the mouse, very little with keys. If something is throwing you off you can put it on a keyboard key or follow sakichop's advice and use a third party program. Blocking might be a problem to a lot of people hence I assigned it to a key. There is a dumb problem though with keeping a key pressed and the mouse keys not working. So if you want to i.e circle through your quick use items you need to block by i.e. keeping the right button pressed.

Pessimeister said:

3. I only have a simple Logitech G400, nothing fancy, so I won't be doing anything elaborate with my mouse setup. Left click normal attack and right click for heavy attack got me through NG+ in Dark Souls. I use left shift for blocking as well and the spacebar for running! Hopefully my basic configuration is still viable, as I've heard odd things about the default setting for double click for example…

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Well, I tried left click for normal and right for heavy a bit and it did not work really well. It does work but the thing is it relies on your timings and the absolute need to not click spam. That is because to my knowledge the game waits that initial time for the second click on the mouse keys and even if nothing is set for the 2-click input if you double click it will do… nothing! (very dumb). So for me what works (and considering that the initial delay in the attack mouse click is something I could easily adapt, this and the need to synchronize with animations/lack of click spam is very familiar to the serial gothic re-player ) is:

Use item: Q
Interact: E
parry/Strong shield attack: tab
block: Lshift/ right mouse button press(when I need the wheel. I always drop the shield when I am attacking anyways and that is a good habit imho)
attack: left mouse button,L-alt (so guard break= w+L-alt)
Strong attack: double click left mouse button,x (so jump attack = w+x)
run/roll/jump back: space
jump: F
Thats it iirc…

Pessimeister said:

4. I used the escape key and enter key for most of my menu navigation. I also relied upon the arrow keys for weapon menus and key selection menus. Hopefully these habits will easily translate into the sequel as well?

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Yep that works. But you could use the mouse you know too

mogwins said:

You could just try using a controller? :runsforbombshelter:
)

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Aww running away so soon? I've done my controller duty with Demons' Souls, but thanks nonetheless for the advice. I guess I prefer the greater feeling of freedom and control that a keyboard and mouse supplies.
I also think that having played the Gothic series this way, given the general similarities in the third person perspective and combat, I'm much more comfortable playing this way.

Cor, I really love the Gothic games, but definitely despite, rather than because of, the controls. I think both Souls and Gothic rely more on timing, rather than pointing, accuracy. So a controller is ideal. Other opinions are available.

Cheers for the breakdown, JonNik, I appreciate the information.

The way you describe target selection makes me think of an option/control style from the Witcher 2 when I played it. The absence of the R3 option for me is a little unfortunate, but hopefully a Dark Souls purist/veteran will make a fix before I get to playing the game.

The left click/right click dynamic sounds fine to me, I never spam click, so that at least sounds do-able for me. I also like your key configuration; it's essentially the same as mine.