Dark Souls - PC port "having a tough time"

Originally Posted by darkling
If they can't do it right, why bother?

I would rather have a console port than nothing.

I wholeheartedly cheer this statement. It may not be good news, but it's straight-up. I was willing to accept a port of the game just to play it again in a different way. I won't have to put up with disappointment now, when the Ui hasn't been redone. It's not the best news, but I'll take it, and cheers to that brave, brave man.

They have computers in Japan. However, they use them mostly for work, I think. Some years ago, I saw a Danish? documentary - or maybe it was German or British? on how the Japanese live.

And they do live in very, very tiny apartments. And besides kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, there'll usually be one (tiny) living space with just enoguh room for tv and maybe a console. In the kitchen, there will be a transistor-radio or maybe today a DAB+ Radio, a very small one. On top of this, the inlaws will be living there as well, especially if they've lost their husband or wife. There's a reason why the Japanese sort of invented the portable radio, the walkmann and why Sony's PS3 console is very smaller and thinner than Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. The Wii is also a console you can use in the home, it too, is very small.

Yes, the statement is refreshing in its bluntness, but it's lost the company a release-date purchaser in me.

If that's the state of things in development, I'll wait for either reassuring reviews or for a substantial price drop before buying.

I'm curious what the price is going to be at release. I hope they don't think PC gamers are willing to pay $50-$60 for an unoptimized console port.

Imo they'll need to keep the price at around the $40 mark or less in order for Dark Souls to sell a significant amount of copies.

It's available for pre-order in the UK, and it's the normal price of £30, so at least they're not adding an extra £5-10 like some publishers have recently starting doing (£40 for Risen 2!).

Here's how I see the situation.

From Software was perfectly happy to leave this game on console only, but fans petitioned and begged them to put it on PC, and they agreed to do it. (a mistake imo)

Now partway into development, they're having a hard time with it; harder than they thought. Now that they've agreed to do it, in the middle of this frustration, fans are asking them to promise not just a port, but that they went back to the drawing board and reworked the game to run better. And they're simply answering with an honest "No, we're just doing the port."

I don't like apologizing for developers, but I feel bad for From in a way. I think they should have never agreed to do something based only on fan petitions. I think they should have left it alone on the consoles where they were receiving praise, because I think PC fans will rip them apart, despite having begged for the game.

I played the game on PS3 and I loved it, but I don't think it will translate well to PC RPG fans.

Originally Posted by Kefka
I would rather have a console port than nothing.

Exactly.
Imagine if the PC-modding scene decides to fix-up Dark Souls PC…
Modders have done wonders for numerous titles on the PC…

I really hope From Software can find a way to get things under control for Dark Souls PC, performance-wise…

Originally Posted by Raldor
Here's how I see the situation.
…

Yep. That's about how I see it too.

Re Mods:
Yes, if they would release it as is but provide the framework then I have no doubt in my mind that the modding community would turn this into a 10 year title.

Is he saying that PC gamers will get the new content for free and Consoles will have to buy it, or am I misunderstanding?

I'm disappointed, looks like since they are having tough time properly porting it they got mad and decided to not fix anything and as they said 'release it as soon as possible' and by that ignoring any extra work that might increase the game quality and like this this game is going to fail on PC and they will learn that in order to succeed on PC you will need to make quality titles not some rushed games that full of issues don't blame the PC community if you are releasing a bad product to begin with.

Originally Posted by mwe12
I'm disappointed, looks like since they are having tough time properly porting it they got mad and decided to not fix anything and as they said 'release it as soon as possible' and by that ignoring any extra work that might increase the game quality and like this this game is going to fail on PC and they will learn that in order to succeed on PC you will need to make quality titles not some rushed games that full of issues don't blame the PC community if you are releasing a bad product to begin with.

That is officially the longest sentence I have ever seen.

Originally Posted by JDR13
That is officially the longest sentence I have ever seen.

I'll try to use commas next time

Honest. I like it.

So, PC porting is quite a bit more challenging than a lot of developers would have us believe, which is why so many PC ports flat out suck. It doesn't explain why so few are being honest though. Usually, they're going on about how "they built the interface from the ground up to perfectly suit PC gamers" while the truth is they botched it completely.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Honest. I like it.

So, PC porting is quite a bit more challenging than a lot of developers would have us believe, which is why so many PC ports flat out suck. It doesn't explain why so few are being honest though. Usually, they're going on about how "they built the interface from the ground up to perfectly suit PC gamers" while the truth is they botched it completely.

Well porting a game is easy. Optimizing it on the other hand is a bitch. If the game was designed to play on a console you have to change the interface and code.

Lets not forget the bugs that weren't fixed or new ones that pop up due to porting. Also don't forget every user has different hardware that you have to consider.

So ya it's more work then most admit.