http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1402881-dark-souls-discussion-14/


The PC version is now out. A simple mod will allow the game to run at higher resolution it seems. Some changes have been made to the game compared to console versions, for example the Dark Wood Grain Ring is now 25% of equip-load instead of 50%. Other similar changes are possible, but haven't been heard of yet.

Here's the resolution mod (?) http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/


http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/31/new-dark-souls-artorias-of-the-abyss-dlc-coming-to-consoles/



The dying will now continue in a scale never seen before, on all three platforms!






Has anyone tested out the arena yet? I believe the PC has this by default added to it?

Edit: Read wrong, reformulating post.



I thought you meant "Explanation department". You said exploration? Wow.

You're stlil early in the game and don't know anything yet so I wont bash you. I'll just say that those games wish they had a small percentage of the quality of Dark Souls' exploration.

If you're playing the game with a guide though, then that's a different story altogether. Cuz you're ruining the exploration that way and then whose fault is that?


When you beat the game you're gonna feel bad for saying that later hahaha.

You sound like you played very few open world games. That part at the start is the horrible example of free exploration. Exploration has choices and numerous routes to achieve one single goal, are you saying the game will provide 20 ways to approach a "stage"? All in different orders?

Well, they both have different kinds of exploration. Games like TES offer an entire world where you can pretty much dike around whenever and wherever you want. Dark Souls works a bit more like a Metroidvania; the world's not open, but there are all sorts of areas to go through, a lot of secrets to find, locks to open, and leaves only a light trail of breadcrumbs at most to guide you.

First Page so I guess I should put this for people new to Dark Souls. Maybe it'll help someone.

ShinGouki's Guide For Enjoying Dark Souls A Whole Bunch!

1) For your first playthough. Try to beat the game with your first character with no help.

Don't watch any guides for the game on YouTube. Don't read any guides about the game. No Wikis, no gamefaqs, nothing. Don't ask for help on forums, etc. Like I said in the intro explanation, the game is extremely fair, so if you're having a hard time you just need to look at the situation a little differently. The game is setup so that you have to discover a lot of things and that's a good thing! When the game first came out, no one knew how half the systems worked; and the beauty was in the mystery of the game. You can still gain that feeling of discovery by NOT READING ANYTHING.

This is number one because I'm REALLY serious about this. Look up NOTHING.

Trust me, you'll thank me for it later!

2) ROLEPLAY. When you start your character, create a story for them. A name, a background, a purpose, driving goal maybe, a previous occupation. Try to make a role for your character and plant their existance in the world. Then when you play the game, try to use weapons, armor, accessories, magic, etc that fits within that role, and try not to stray out of it. Too often I see people picking the "optimal" equipment, and they miss the point in the game's extensive diversity of weapons, armor, and magic along with its extremely balanced fighting system.

Here's a roleplay example:

Spoiler

My character's name was Huurwen. Based on Huurwen of the Fighter's Guild from Oblivion. So she started as a mercenary. Then I gave her a story that she one day wanted to become a knight. She started off with casual leather armor, but then I molded her to use Chainmail then knightly armor, and other similar things that only a knight would use.

Her skill in Oblivion was with blocking and sword usage, so good balanced shields for blocking and parrying were all I used. Especially ones that looked "knightly ". As for weapons, I only used swords a knight would use such as shortswords, longswords, and knightly greatswords. I played through the game roleplaying like that, and beat the game using that skillset.

Playing like this was fun as hell! The game let me roleplay in a way that worked for me. I wasn't limited by gear being "not good enough". Everything is balanced in a way that works well for your choices. It's also setup so that each weapon is different so the variety and depth of the combat is incredible.

So roleplay! Even if you roleplay AS yourself, pick weapons you'd feel work best for you if you were an actual part of the world. Optimal path equipment is so dull and lifeless, and you're not roleplaying anymore like that (in my opinion), not much different from playing with a guide, honestly.

3) Read item descriptions! A lot of goodies are stored in the item descriptions. When you get new items be sure to read them.

4) Let yourself be immersed. Look around, check out things, make conscious decisions, explore, test out different strategies, take risks, be careful, do all these things. Be a part of the world! It's a really fun one and it'll amaze you as long as you let yourself be a part of it.

5) Don't Farm! (ie: Don't sit in one place constantly killing things) This game may seem hard at certain points, but the reason you can't pass certain parts is almost NEVER because you
haven't farmed enough. The game's pacing is setup in a way that you will always end up with enough experience and money to get what you need and defeat it without needing to farm. I beat
the game very comfortably without ever having to farm.

Just keep pushing forward through the game regardless of what's ahead of you.
------------------------


The most amazing thing about Dark Souls is that it's a game that is centered around YOUR story.

- YOUR story about how YOU progressed through the world.
- Your story about how you got lost for a while and tried to find something, then found something else entirely.
- Your story about how you looked around and tried to find a way in one area and struggled and past through, or failed and turned back.
- Your story about how you found some secret and were amazed by what you found.

It's all about your story. Your JOURNEY. The Journey is way more important than the destination.

It's not a game to race towards the finish, it's a game to explore and to be amazed by what you experience!

Reading guides, or asking for help makes you lose that. It's a different kind of game, not one just to plow towards the end.

When the game first came out there was no info about anything anywhere, and people had to make do with what they had infront of them, and beat it on their own.
99% of the people who beat the game like that, had the freaking time of their lives!

I also was one of those people.

So I'm just trying to let all other players and fans of the game get to experience that. Hopefully, you take my advice


Good luck adventurer!

Well yeah unlocking secrets is pretty nice in this game, but it's more like exploring in Biohazard or D than like playing a full roaming RPG like BG 2 or FO. I'd call that puzzle solving not exploration.

Did the man not just say metroidvania *facepalm* There are different types of open world games, this isn't the traditional "true" open world. It does however provide a mostly open world to explore.

Seriously everything you listed are similar things to happen in castlevania style games. So I honestly don't know what your whining about.

Red Dead Redemption, Oblivion, Shivering Isles, Skyrim, Witcher, Fallout 1 - 3, Too many MMO's to count, Assassin's Creed(sort of?), lots of FF's, most of the Zelda series, ...I can go on for a long time


Yeah it has way more than 20 ways. Those ways are determined by you and your playstyle and vary from person to person so its infinite really....

Trying not to spoil anything, so I wont say anything about the "order".

But I think Xetirox put it best in that its a different type of exploration.

The exploration in those games I contend is more quantity: "We put a whole bunch of things everywhere on this huge map. Go find them." They're usually just quick fix finds.

Dark Souls is more like "Something here looks weird, lemme check it. Holy crap I stumbled on something incredible and/or expansive!" which I consider more on the quality spectrum.