Dark Souls 2 heading to PS4 and Xbox One

#1

Namco Bandai - or Bandai Namco if you’re feeling saucy - has announced that From Software’s Dark Souls 2 is heading to new-gen consoles next year.

A new edition of the game called Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin will be released for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on 7th April.

All five versions will include the original game as well as the three downloadable add-ons released earlier this year, and From Software has made some alterations along the way.

The PC, PS4 and Xbox One versions will feature updated visuals, rebalanced gameplay, a higher maximum number of players in online games, additional and more challenging enemies, a new NPC to locate, ‘expanded lore’ and new in-game events.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v0GxBZcVmHc

The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions won’t have updated visuals and higher player counts online, by the sound of it, but everything else is in there, including the DLC packs and tweaked matchmaking.

Existing owners - you know, those of us who bought it earlier this year and then forked out another big whack for all the DLC - can console ourselves with a free patch that rebalances the game and matchmaking and introduces the expanded story content.

There’s no immediate word on whether you can transfer your save progress between console generations, so why not just throw that 80-hour file in the bin and buy it again?

Some guy who reviewed Dark Souls 2 for us earlier this year felt it fell a bit short of its illustrious predecessor but was still one of the best RPGs in a long time, thanks in large part to its intriguing and beautiful environments, fantastic combat and intricate systems.

The three DLC packs were also rather good. Crown of the Sunken King sent you into the depths of a claustrophobic underground pyramid, before Crown of the Old Iron King scaled dizzying peaks and Crown of the Ivory King transported you to a frozen kingdom.

Put together, then, Scholar of the First Sin is an unmistakably vast and impressive package, albeit another retro remake for a game that came out barely eight months ago.

I haven’t touched game yet and I could see myself getting the PS4 version if it has a stable framerate.

#2

As a PC gamer, FROM can go fuck themselves.

They intentionally gimped graphical features from the original PC retail version for feature parity with current gen consoles, features that were previously implemented in-game and used to promote the game. Then they release next gen version, with a DX11 upgrade for PC and the original features restored. So they want you to pay them again to get features that should have been there from day 1.

Fuck. You.

#3

Since I haven’t bought this yet, I’ll wait for the PS4 version.

#4

They are requiring a fee for a graphical upgrade?

Fuck that.

#5

Yeah, that was one of the reasons I didn’t buy the original release.

#6

PS360 and PC will get a patch with the same upgrades (Parity and all that), but if you want DX11 and the improvements that come with the PS4 version? Aka the ‘improvements’ that PC was originally supposed to be shipped with, that’s a paid upgrade.

It’s a good deal for new players on the new consoles, especially with the included DLC and all that, but it’s a cock in the bum for PC owners.

#7

#8

I’m getting this. Waited months after the release of Dark Souls and was rewarded with Artorias of the Abyss. And now Scholar of the First Sin.

#9

Yeah, don’t buy on PC if you already own it.

But that lightning stuff was most likely ditched for gameplay reasons. The promotional material made it look like an entirely different game, and the choice to make it a much brighter game in which the use of torches is very minimal doesn’t seem like something they could keep in some versions and not in others. Although i’m actually having a lot of trouble finding those early videos, so i’m probably wrong.