Dark Souls II

F1ngers wrote: »

No, just no.

I like the loneliness of a crestfallen warrior battling against the odds, struggling against mighty behemoths, gargoyles and other great dead and undead creatures.

Leave s***e like that to WoW or the other mmorpgs.

Aye, seeing some ridiculous looking boss and thinking "ah what the hell" as you're on your own against it is part of the fun.

Tommy_NDX wrote: »

No not like that, your still on your own or with a summon or two but the boss's health is spread across the server meaning you need to face it multiple times to contribute to overall damage.

Like you fight it, it legs away then you fight it later on? I wouldn't mind that, hell let it spawn in different places, keep you on your toes.

Tommy_NDX wrote: »

Pretty much. In Dragons Dogma it's a post game optional boss. You get around ten minutes to do some damage until it goes away for a while. When it's overall health is low enough there is a short time period where a player can land a killing blow for extra reward. Then after each time it's been killed it repsawns with even more health. I'm still pretty new to that fight so I may be wrong on some parts. There's also an offline version with much less health you can take on yourself.

That would be pretty cool, online/ co-op only sidequests, nothing too long just the odd NPC or boss.

One thing I really hope they add for DS2 is some finishing stats, enemies killed, times died, humanity used etc. Be interesting to see how your first playthrough compares to subsequent ones.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

i dont know

on the one hand yes I'd love that but on the other the lack of them kind of adds to the dreamlike arty ******ry of dark souls. it's not a game about killing 500 hollows, collecting a million souls or finding amazing chests, you might lose a bit of the mystery if you were confronted with numbers and statistics post coitus

Oh I wouldn't want challenges or trophies or that guff in it, purely a final game screen showing what you did on a build. i know there are trophies in it now but it's stuff like ascend a weapon to it's highest stat and stuff like that.

Achievement unlocked: went 5 minutes without running away from something or rolling off a hill.

As I'm sure all you Dark Souls fans know by now, Dark Souls 2 is coming out March this year on Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360. Are you getting it on release and what platform are you going to get it on?

Personally I'm going for it on PC and I'm pre-ordering it as so as I can!

Michael Cravez wrote: »

PC version is released after consoles so probably won't be March for the PC release . I really hope it does though.

http://ie.ign.com/games/dark-souls-ii/pc-149852

Release date was announced for the 14th on all 3 platforms.

You can preorder it on amazon now: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Namco-Bandai-Dark-Souls-PC/dp/B00B19GUYE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1376986622&sr=8-3&keywords=dark+souls+II

Originally was going to get it on PS3 but with possible new 120hz monitor purchase coming up I can't resist playing it on PC. I wonder if it'll still play better with a plugged in controller or if they've made it easier to control with KB/M

Scavenger XIII wrote: »

Communication between departments is terrible, just cryptic orange writing scawled everywhere. Don't get me started on getting phantom managers summoned to your world for a meeting.

Ha, a load of injokes could spring from working there. "Did you get my summon sign to the meeting at 12? we need to engage in some jolly cooperation"

krudler wrote: »

Ha, a load of injokes could spring from working there. "Did you get my summon sign to the meeting at 12? we need to engage in some jolly cooperation"

HR having to get involved in an array of harrassment cases after one co-worker keeps accusing others of being "quite fond" of them.

in a creepy way too


EDIT: Think I'll go for black armour as well. Might check gamestop or gamesnash though as I really want this on the Friday.

Taken form January issue of EDGE, Interview with Y u i Ta n i m u r a
http://www.edge-online.com/features/dark-souls-ii-prepare-to-die-die-and-die-again-in-fromsoftwares-expanded-sequel/
Apologies for the formatting, taken form an OCR scan

When we met last year, you spoke of making Dark
Souls II more accessible than the first game. Since
then, it’s become clear that this is very much a Souls
game. What did you mean by ‘accessible’, and how
have you balanced the desire to attract new players
with the need to keep existing fans happy?
First of all, we apologise for using the word ‘accessible’
and misleading the fans. By ‘accessible’, what we mainly
meant was going through the process of streamlining and
carving away the fat to more clearly communicate the
true essence of Dark Souls. There are two main concepts
we concentrate on when developing. One is the sense of
satisfaction when overcoming the hurdles and challenges
in the game. We aim for players to achieve a huge sense
of satisfaction as they proceed through the game – for
the highest sense of achievement possible, we make the
game challenging. Second is the loose
connections with other players in the
same world. This is done through
elements such as blood messaging, blood
stains, summoning and invasions,
[providing] a sense of the other players
who suffer the same experiences in the
Dark Souls universe. Our main intent for
Dark Souls II was to enhance the
experience to better express these
underlining concepts more directly to the
players, and to cut away a lot of the
tediousness that was included in Dark
Souls that did not have to do with the
communication of these concepts.

There are obvious visual improvements in lighting,
cloth physics and animation. Why stop there? Why
make the game for 360 and PS3 when Dark Souls is
the kind of game that could sell new hardware?
At the start of development, we felt that there was still a
lot of potential that remained unused in Dark Souls. I
hope this can be seen with the demos and footage that we
have released. Our intention was to capitalise on the total
potential of [seventh-generation] consoles and deliver
the game to fans as soon as possible.

The PC version of the first Dark Souls wasn’t a good
port. How did that make the team feel, and what are
you doing to ensure that the PC iteration is better
this time around?
We understand and accept a lot of the feedback we have
received from fans around the world who have played the
PC version. We first decided to port over to the PC
platform as a result of the petition signed by players
around the world. And with our goal to release a PC
version as soon as possible, it was a decision to simply
port the experience over in the shortest amount of time
possible. For the PC version of Dark Souls II, the
game development will be based on the PC – we will
make sure that the main PC game features are supported
and also do our best to attend to a lot of the user
feedback that we have received.

What would it take to bring the PC version of Dark
Souls II to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One?
We have not put any thought into this yet, so
I unfortunately can’t answer at this point.

Miyazaki isn’t directing. Has his
distance from the project changed the
way Dark Souls II is developed?
The basic thinking behind how Dark Souls
II is developed has not changed. Team
structures and members have changed a
little bit, and we may think a little more
together to bring ideas together. But
because we are aligned in regards to what
has to be communicated with the game,
we have not faced any major changes
internally. Miyazaki is still involved as a
supervisor, and I seek advice when
necessary. There are small things here and
there [that Mizazaki might not have chosen], perhaps,
but whenever we go back to the core elements of the Dark
Souls experience, I feel that the thinking behind the game
development is similar. I do want to state [there are]
some differences between Dark Souls I and II, so I think
the players can also look forward to new elements when
they pick up the game.

Players can no longer hide from invasions by staying
Hollow, and are punished for doing so by having their
HP affected by death in this form. How are you
balancing this shift in thinking? Being invaded on
your way to a boss that you wanted to summon help
for is one of Dark Souls’ most irritating moments and
appears to be contradictory to greater accessibility.
First off, my main intention was to have players play with
the idea of wanting to stay as a living [human]. [That’s]
when players immerse themselves more into the
character; we wanted players to strive and grasp onto life,
and sense the sorrow, remorse and loneliness when
playing the game. For this, when players play as a living,
we have implemented methods to help the player
out, such as The Way Of Blue Covenant and other items
that will not make the player completely vulnerable to
being invaded. The invaders will also have their risks
when invading and so there will be a strategising
element for invaders to determine whether they want to
invade or not.

What are the biggest challenges in
balancing a game of two very
different components – PvP
interactions that permeate a PvE
world? Many of the beta changes
seemed to be aimed at tweaking PvP,
but is there not a risk that catering
for one group of players risks
upsetting the others?
For the sake of the network beta test, we
wanted to encourage PvP gameplay in
order to fully understand the impact on
the servers, and also learn patterns of
how players around the world play and
enjoy the game. The final game will
obviously prioritise PvE, but at the
same time [it will] make enhancements
to the PvP systems.

To what extent is the world shown in
the beta the same as the final game?
Bonfires and item drops in particular
were very generously spaced for
player testing. Can you confirm if this will this be
the case in the full game?
The environment used for the network beta build was
unique and is difficult to directly compare with the other
venues. The pacing of bonfires will change based on the
environments, and we are still in the midst of tuning and
balancing the game progression. Items, too, were more of
a beta decision. We will take the user behaviour and
results to continue tuning the game to its top level. Life
Gems are still being balanced and tuned, but I can tell
you that the number of items will be limited to balance
the game progression. How the items are to be used [is
something] the player will have to decide, but in tight,
intense moments, the Gems may help a little more, since
players can walk away while recovery takes place.

In terms of size, how does Dark Souls II’s world
compare to that of Dark Souls?
We are thinking about the same size world as Dark Souls.
The storytelling will be fairly similar, but in regards to
proceeding through the world, we want to give more
freedom for the players to choose their decisions, and so
the unfolding of the world will hopefully be unique to
each player.

Dark Souls was P2P based; Dark Souls
II uses servers. Why the change? Has
the beta confirmed that this was the
right decision?

In connection with enhancing the
roleplaying elements for Dark Souls II,
we wanted players to take on their role
in the universe. For this to be most
effective, we felt that returning to a
server-based game system will allow for
more visibility on the loose connections
with other players. The beta, we feel,
did prove a lot of the game’s
functionality, and with the results we
will continue to tune for our ideal game
balance with online game play.

Did you find any of the classes were
in need of rebalancing?
This is a very good point. The classes
available in the network beta were only
preset characters that we created
internally and do not represent the
balancing or characteristics in the final game. The balance
of the classes is important, but the players will have the
freedom to develop their own characters.

What of players who are daunted by Dark Souls’
difficulty? What would you say to them?
A main theme in all games developed by FromSoftware is
to not fully explain all the elements of how to play and
challenge players to figure it out for themselves. We
would like to encourage players to conquer the elements
they face by paying attention to the surroundings and
also being creative in strategising

In game character graphics look a bit funky after all that CGI at the beginning. Still a day 1 purchase though.
I've ordered the Black Armour edition on Amazon for £37. The standard version is £39 for some reason.

2smiggy wrote: »

Lots of CGI but I liked that. The graphics are fine for me, all about the fighting and game world design. If they get that right again I will be happy

Where are ye ordering this ? The amazon one is tempting, but I would be waiting till the following Tuesday or Wednesday to get it. Or would parcel Motel get it there for the Friday ? It is a long weekend that weekend so it would be a pity to be stuck without it

With my parcel motel address, Amazon guarantee a release day delivery. So I'd expect to get it from Parcel Motel Saturday 16th.

I will get it for the PS3. I might just pay the extra money and buy it in the shop on the Friday, as the nearest parcel motel point to me is 25 miles away from me, and that would be a bit annoying to have to collect on the Saturday, and the cost of petrol so not saving much really. If I was not looking forward to it so much I would just wait for amazon super saver delivery

Pshhh I saw itin post 189 hours ago, earlier this morning!


Looks poor, I repeat!


Crap graphics and Resi looking enemies.