Experiences with the PC version of Dark Souls

November 29, 2012 10:37 AM

Dark Souls for computer: any experiences?

I've got more free time now, and am picking back up some games. I mainly play and enjoy RPGs, and from everything that I hear I will love Dark Souls. The only problem: I am a PC gamer, have no Xbox/PS3, and I'm hearing not-great things about the port. Does anyone here have personal experience with it? Thanks!

Note: I do have a PS3 controller that I can use for the game, if that has an impact.

posted by Lemurrhea to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Not sure how much of the gaming press you keep up with but this is relevant to your interests and addresses one of the big problems many people had with the game. Also: this and this. Make sure to read the discussion threads.
posted by griphus at 10:39 AM on November 29, 2012

There are some great mods available now. If you don't mind mucking around a bit the port quality is no longer a problem.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:42 AM on November 29, 2012

The port is ...barebones... but not actually problematic in my experience. What I mean is, I haven't run into any serious bugs/crashes or problems, its just that the PC bells and whistles are poorly/not implemented. It has played perfectly functional to me. So yeah, dont let that stop you.

I definitely prefer using an xbox controller over mouse/keyboard though, and the DSFix resolution enhancer/framerate unlocker/save game backup utility definitely improves the experience. I have heard of (but not experienced) the occasional save game corruption so do consider that as a backup.

PC Gaming Wiki has a decent explanation for mods/'fixes'/troubleshooting tips that are out there
posted by McSwaggers at 10:49 AM on November 29, 2012

Oh yeah, and the biggest problem that I have personally seen is that for the online component, if everyone involved doesn't have their router port forwarding set up right it has a tendency to not let you connect with other players which does totally suck. These settings are in the wiki. This combined with the smaller community and greater percentage of hackers means that the online aspects are inferior to the console versions from what I hear (don't have a console myself), But this hasn't been a huge deal and I have quite enjoyed it despite this.
posted by McSwaggers at 11:00 AM on November 29, 2012

I just got sucked into it myself. It's a lot of fun, but 1. You want DSFix, and 2. You want a controller. I don't have much experience with the online components, though.
posted by CrystalDave at 11:03 AM on November 29, 2012

When I tried it at launch, the game was unplayable without a console controller. It seemed fine otherwise. There may be mods out there now to improve the controls
posted by WCF at 11:44 AM on November 29, 2012

I paid $40 for the game after reading the RPS review. The hassles from Games for Windows Live, the terrible interface, and the general shoddiness of the conversion kept me from getting past the tutorial. I tried getting into the game ~5 times, but kept being driven away in disgust.

Note: I regularly play Roguelikes and Dwarf Fortress, so I feel like I have a pretty high tolerance for difficult interfaces. This wasn't difficult though, it was just *bad*.
posted by Balna Watya at 12:41 PM on November 29, 2012

Hmm. Alright, thanks everyone! I'm pretty comfortable modding games to fix problems, and I don't play online much anyways (save my IRL friends). GfWL is a bit annoying with Fable 3 right now, but I feel like I can deal.

Thanks everyone! I will be sure to blame you all for my slow descent into madness as I get frustrated with the game proper.
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:07 PM on November 29, 2012

I just installed it today, and everything is working well so far. Windows live is never fun to deal with, and the interface feels super clunky on the pc, but nothing game breaking, and with a few fixes it definitely looks much nicer then the console versions.

Here is another RPS link, with a good overview of the tweaks needed. Took about 5 minutes to get everything set up.

Also you will absolutely want to use the controller. I tried it without and found it pretty much unplayable. This is not so much a traditional rpg, and much more of a "you did not press exactly the right button at the right time and now you are going to die 11 times (but in a fun way)." sort of rpg, and all of that button pressing was designed around a controller..
posted by St. Sorryass at 6:50 PM on November 29, 2012

Definitely play with a controller if you can - preferably an Xbox controller. It will make the experience so much better as the game just wasn't meant to be played with a keyboard.

The PC version itself is just fine. I've played through several times and it has always been rock solid. This is very much still a console game - no effort was made to add PC standard features, but if you're OK with that you'll be fine.

Folks above have posted some resolution and framerate mods. Use those if the stock configuration bothers you, but I don't anticipate that you'll have any trouble.
posted by owls at 3:18 PM on November 30, 2012