I've played it a little and I have some major concerns. I'd also like to note I'm playing with Dsfix 2.2.

First of all, this game looks like Resident Evil 4 lol. Graphics are terrible. Is there any way to enhance graphics without compromising performance? My PC is a very strong one but the port is poor so I guess I'm better off if I don't turn on every graphics setting. But at least I'd like to get some decent quality because like I said, it really looks like RE4. I'm playing on full screen 1920x1080. I turned off AA. Any advice?

The intro was great but when I started playing the game looks pretty... poor. I had a feeling like I was playing the first Gothic game. Fighting isn't great at all. The world itself isn't very detailed and so on. I don't know, maybe that's just my first impression but I really want to like this game because trailers look really good and I'm a huge fan of RPG games. But compared to for example The Witcher it looks very, very amateur. What can you tell me about it from your experience? Something to encourage me to play it or to enhance my gameplay experience?

Edit: I played around with some graphics settings and it doesn't look like RE4 anymore.

11 years ago*

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The game is old (sort of) and isn't really known for the graphics... maybe there are mods to enhance the game visually but I never heard of such thing. Try giving the game a try without thinking about the graphics much, might be the key to enjoy it. :P

11 years ago
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First of all in the Dsfix there are options that make the game look better. If you have them on full and you still don't like it there are a lot of mods with better textures in NexusMods . I like how i've made my Dark Souls look, but if you are looking for Crysis 3, sorry but you cant do that. The game is from 2011 and is a console port XD. I would give you the names of the mods i'm using, but i've forgotten and i'm too lazy to check. ( the same goes for taking a screenshot of the game XD)

11 years ago
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Finding the game beautiful or not is a matter of taste... I find it quite beautiful - certainly not technically groundbreaking but beautiful nonetheless.

Apart from ENB adding SSAO there's not much to add... You can find HD textures/fonts/UI on the Nexus.

edit : you use DsFix but did you change the inner resolution or whatever it's called ? I mean you can have it playing on 1920x1080 but it will be some upscaled garbage if you didn't tweak the DsFix ini properly.

edit2 : Oh and the game is incredibly deep and some places have an amazing atmosphere, the map itself is full of surprises, and the lore isn't given, you have to figure out a lot by yourself. I would definitely recommend it.

11 years ago
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I think I did. I'm not sure.

11 years ago
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Internal resolution should be the same as the rendering resolution, otherwise the image is just an upscale from a lower res. Open DsFix.ini and change these lines :

renderWidth 1920
renderHeight 1080

If it's not already done. You can also try to set them higher than your rendering res (provided they stay multiples of that res) for a bit more eyecandy but it quickly gets more resource-consuming.

edit : also :
dofOverrideResolution 540
FPSlimit 60

11 years ago
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Okay, I had that. But even then my FPS wasn't at 60. But below that FPSlimit there was another FPS option, I changed it to 60 as well and now it runs very smoothly at 60FPS! Now that's what I call comfortable gameplay :)

11 years ago
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That other value you changed... I think, when you change it, whenever the game fps drops below that value, the internal res gets decreased so the performance isn't affected. Which is why it's at 28 by default.
But whatever, as long at it runs smooth and you like it, it's perfect. I also suggest you turn on the save backup system (in DsFix.ini) so that you never have to fear save corruption again.

11 years ago
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Done, thanks.

11 years ago
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Try SweetFX, but note that I'll require much more than the original spec.

11 years ago
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I would play that game even if the graphics were fuckin terrible, Dark Souls is an amazing experience ruined by a bad port and GFWL, but you really should try your best to go trough these and play until the end, it is worth.

11 years ago
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are you trolling? :)

11 years ago
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Not at all. But I guess I was expecting something... more professional. Given that there's so much talk about Dark Souls everywhere. I created this thread because maybe I'm doing something wrong and someone could tell me what.

11 years ago
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and that talk is not about graphical prowess, just very atmospheric settings and unique gameplay

11 years ago
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Post a screenshot. I have trouble believing this part

it really looks like RE4

11 years ago
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Fighting with a broken sword is never great. Try playing until you ring the first bell or at least meet Solaire, things get much more interesting after that.

11 years ago
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I'm past the broken sword. But yeah, I'll definitely play some more.

11 years ago
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Oh, and do stay in human form as much as possible on your first playthrough. I wished I had stayed human instead of being undead all the time on my first playthrough. Living dangerously is the way to go. If you got overpowered by darkwraiths you can always Alt+F4.

11 years ago
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No use anymore, looks like there's no multiplayer anymore, is there ?

11 years ago
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I'm quite sure that the community is still alive. At least there's always more surprises to find when playing in human form.

11 years ago
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Last time I played... The game couldn't let me connect with my GFWL profile.
So I tried to lauch the game offline and it let me use my usual online character... While offline, which isn't normally possible. I assumed it meant multi had been closed for that game.

11 years ago
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GFWL sure does gives me headache. Goodluck figuring what's wrong with error to connect to GFWL. I solved my connection problem by disabling UPnP on the router, and then only some occasional disconnection every now and then.

Edit: it was UPnP, not NAT.

11 years ago
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But it let me play my usual online char while offline, which is not normally possible.

11 years ago
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GFWL sucks, but it's still online:)yesterday i went in human form and got invaded within a minute haha

11 years ago
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GfWL still lets me connect fine. If you're having issues, log onto XBox.com and find the latest version of Marketplace. Although the actual marketplace no longer works, installing this will update your in-game GfWL to the latest version.

11 years ago
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how dare you mock solaire, he looks way better than those RE4 zombies >:o

11 years ago
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If only I could be so grossly incandescent...

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Okay, now I played around a bit more with the DSfix and my graphics are way better than before and I also got it running in 60 FPS which is great. I'm also getting the hang on controls (I'm using the Xbox gamepad) and I'm starting to like this game.

11 years ago
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Tadaaa ! Hope your journey is great. May the flames guide thee.

11 years ago
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There can be physics issues by running at 60 fps, I would recommend running at 45, because the visual difference isn't that noticeable and it minimizes the physics issues you get at 60 fps.

11 years ago
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So I asked a friend of mine.

At first you need this so the Game works properly on PC.
Then, this for the online part so it works.
And the texture pack.

Hope it helps.

11 years ago
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"Fighting isn't great at all."

Oh. Oh dear.

11 years ago
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Dark Souls reminds me a lot of Monster Hunter.

11 years ago
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One quick caveat, "unlockFPS 1" in DSfix.ini can lead to some odd side-effects. Sometimes you try to slide down a ladder, and travel right through the floor to whatever's below. Also if you rest at a bonfire and get up too quickly you can become stuck in place, unable to move. :)

There's a lot of hidden stuff in Dark Souls, but try to resist heading to a wiki every time you're curious about something. There's a ridiculous amount of replay value; you don't need to find everything with your very first character. Read item descriptions, talk to NPCs, come back later and speak to them again. And don't think that dying means you failed. The only way to fail in this game is to give up. :)

There's an image here with non-spoilery beginner advice, just don't start poking around and spoil the whole game for yourself...

11 years ago
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I love N.20.

11 years ago
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Yeah, Capra Demon.

11 years ago
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Avoid graveyard and avoid ruins lol so I'm stuck already. Everything else is closed or unavailable :D

11 years ago
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Look closer, the most obvious path is the way to go :p

11 years ago
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Admittedly, the whole game looks like ruins at this point, so it might be difficult to see precisely which ruins to avoid. The image says "avoid the graveyard" and "avoid the flooded ruins" - if you manage to find a place with a lot of water, that's the flooded ruins it's warning against right now. If you're still in the Firelink Shrine area explore it carefully, but explore the whole thing.

Since there's no quest marker or map forcing you to explore "correctly" many beginners come to grief against those skeleton guys in the graveyard, until by chance they look in a different direction and find the path that's slightly less murdery. Good luck! :)

11 years ago
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Just to make it clear, you will have to go there eventually, just not right away. You will know when you're ready.

11 years ago
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The game is all about atmosphere, it's heavy (some says depressing) and no one will tell you what to do you. The fighting system is facking demanding, one error and you die horribly. The level design seems classic at first but it's pure genius.

About the "amateur touch", you're wrong, the gameplay mechanics are simple but very sharp. You need precision and a very good timing to defeat a boss or you'll get raped horribly until death and after. Even for a low level ennemy, you'll need to be careful, when you die it's almost never the game's fault, it's yours, that's how one can see a properly done gameplay.

Last thing, you should play at least through the first boss, if you still don't like it, don't bother, a videogame should be enjoyed not played forcibly because you heard about it. I do that for all my games, I play for me not to show or enlarge my epenis :p

11 years ago
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"you'll get raped horribly until death and after." Pretty accurate IMHO.

11 years ago
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graphics are are non-factor to me since forever.
a game must be "appealing to the eye"...limbo (and the whole indie scene) is the most famous example, that you can enjoy a game's visuals without any top-graphics-engine.

same goes for amnesia...quite old in terms of graphics, but it still manages to immerse you with it's atmosphere.

but there are, of course, personal tastes involved as well. for example, i think, that BF3 look "dull" and "unappealing". sure, nice graphics, but the first Bioshock game looks 100% better to me, for example.

11 years ago
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Use a back-up save mod too. On the PC version, you can fall through the floor. Get stuck in elevators. Get stuck on rubble. Get knocked into parts of the scenery that you can't get out of. And, most deadly of all, have your save file corrupted.

11 years ago
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DSfix comes with save game backup options.

11 years ago
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Well, this game keeps raping me. Repeatedly.

11 years ago
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the game is slowly poking your dead carcass to check if you show life signs, it will start to rape you after you have rung both bells. (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง

11 years ago
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Wait till you see O&S.

11 years ago
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Wait till you meet mister anus. I so fucking hate him.

11 years ago
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Manus? I feel silly for saying it, but I beat him on my first try. Seriously, I'm not kidding. I do hate Kalameet, though.

11 years ago
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He was easy for me in first game when i was already bit over-leveled and had maxed equipment. In ng+ tough... i gave up, and shot him with bow :P Khalameet is easy with decent shield and mid range weapon(spells or crossbow) unless you really want to cut its tail. Then you better watch some youtube vids and take your time...

11 years ago
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they are are the only ones which i killed on my first try :O

11 years ago
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Sadly, not everyone falls in love with Dark Souls. :) People often say the game is tough, but fair. It's not like games where you expect to get hit, and victory goes to the side with the higher DPS. If you're getting hit a lot in fights, you might want to rethink your strategy.

It's possible to wear the strongest armour you can find, and just trade hits with every enemy - but that's seldom optimal. Armour only helps if you get hit - if you don't get hit, it's just decoration. If you have a shield, you can block (or parry!) many enemy attacks, take no damage, and retaliate with an attack of your own. The different enemies you'll meet each have their own repertoire of attacks, and they are often telegraphed early enough that you can react appropriately. When he holds his arm up like this, he's getting ready to pummel you with his torch so look out. Or when he holds his weapon like this, he's going to parry your attack so don't attack yet. :)

It's possible you've explored your way to someplace that's just suicide for a new player, but the most difficult opponents you'll likely find at the start are optional and can be ignored completely, or defeated with some careful backstabbing or parrying. Trying not to spoil anything... :) Good luck!

11 years ago
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The game is terrible.Played for hour and never again

11 years ago
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How far did you get in an hour? :>

11 years ago
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If you think isn't great at all this game just might be not for you... Its all about fighting, while exploring. Then fighting some more. With death in between depending on your skill, patience and luck.

11 years ago
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Well, I think I'm leaning in the direction that it's not for me. But I love RPG games like Gothic, Risen and so on. But then again I love RPG games and FPS games and I hated Stalker which so many people loved. Some games which get a lot of hype I just can't get into. There's not many of those but there's a few. I'm afraid Dark Souls may be one of them. But I'll still keep trying. It's pretty nice but somehow I can't get hooked for more than an hour. The thing that annoys me the most is the respawn of the enemies after I die. That's just so damn annoying. Doing the same thing over and over again. I don't mind respawn in such games but in most of them enemies who respawn are either very weak or they don't respawn in great numbers OR they respawn in areas which are already cleared. Here, they respawn right after I die and ALL of them too. I don't like it.

11 years ago
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They're undead like you, so they re-spawn like you ;) BTW what controls do you use? Just don't say mouse+keyboard...

11 years ago
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Xbox 360 gamepad.

11 years ago
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Be happy that the game at least works for you. I have played it for few hours and cannot start it since than and the whole knowledge of the internet was useless to me so far. :( And I was pretty much getting into game.

11 years ago
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Did you tweak the dsfix .ini file? There are lots of settings in there you have to adjust according to your specs, that make the game look much better mostly without hitting performance.

The game itself is about exploration and atmosphere, if you're looking for a straightforward plot - you have to get bits and pieces of information from different places. Lots of metaphores, guessing and reading DS wiki (which might be very helpful in lots of cases).

Regarding dying and monsters spawning - first of all, it's about the world you're in and its laws. Remember, you're already dead. All your enemies are dead as well. Think of it as Hell or Paradise of some sort.

Secondly, you have to learn a lot to deal with them with ease. You might be killing your first enemies with ease? Soon you'll meet bigger guys who can strafe and dodge, who are very hard to kill (AI in this game is sometimes simply amazing). You'll meet other players who can invade your world and kill you or help you.

And the more you advance, leveling up and upgrading your weapons will cost more and more. Soon YOU'll be chasing each and every monster you can reach to get more XP (souls in this very case). The game's about learning the ways to survive.

TLDR: the game is amazing, you just need to play a bit more and not let the game to break you.

11 years ago
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It didn't "break me". I just don't think it's worth my time. I'm not going to spend a few days on doing something that doesn't bring me joy. I'll see, maybe I'll give it another shot or two but I'm not very optimistic.

11 years ago
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Personally I love RPGs and I've played lots of them - both oldschool and modern games. I'd say for me Dark Souls is one of the best modern RPGs with a taste of oldschool gaming. It was easier for me to start playing DS, cause my friend guided me through the first part of the game and literally just sat with me for several hours while I was playing and explained the lore and game mechanics to me.

This game is hard and it might be very frustrating sometimes - cause in the beginning you need to study the fighting system, learn the weak spots of the enemies etc. Otherwise you'll just die all the time and it's not fun to be constantly defeated and start all over again, and again trying to beat the same enemies. That's why it's rather hard to understand the fun of the game at first. But sooner or later you start progressing, you begin winning and you'll discover new places, new enemies, learn the world around you - the game starts to be interesting. It challenges you, it calls upon your feelings, it makes you reflex a lot. The more you play it, the more interesting it gets.

11 years ago
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It's not bad but I just can't get into it. And I love RPG's as well. I'm a huge fan of games such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Gothic etc. I think that constant re-spawn of enemies (after saving the game = bonfire and after dying) is the most annoying thing. It's like "I killed them already a second ago, it's getting boring doing it over and over again". I kill 20 enemies, try to kill a tougher one and when I die I have to go through the 20 easy ones just to get to the hard one. It's really boring me. Also locations seem... empty. I like exploration in games like BioShock, Gothic and classic RPG's where you could literally collect hundreds of items, read pages of stuff - here it's different. You just collect items and I don't even know what to to with half of them. It's like the game decided to keep me in the dark when it comes to plot, items, gameplay mechanics (aside from fighting, this was explained) and I don't like it. I don't like being told what to do all the time but the other extreme is not good either. It's like the game decides not to let the player know much. I don't like it.

11 years ago
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You've played 2 hours only and I guess you've not gone too far. I'll repeat myself, but the game is about atmosphere, exploration and learning. You'll need to kill more and more since leveling up and upgrading will take lots of XP. And you'll need to understand precisely how the weapons work, how the game mechanics work to be able to go further.

BTW do you know that there's an online multiplayer within the game? The blood spots and messages you're seeing - are coming from other online players. And you can actually meet them in the game, when certain conditions are met.

11 years ago
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Well, my first rule for games is, am I having fun? If a game isn't fun for you, play something else! I think life is too short to torture yourself with something just because you're supposed to like it. :)

Apparently in an interview the creator of Dark Souls explained one inspiration for the game being his wanting to share his own experience trying to puzzle through western fantasy novels with a poor understanding of English. :) There's a lot of story in Dark Souls, but you have to search for it. Item descriptions, NPC dialogue, the location of various corpses, the story is revealed piecemeal, and there's no journal entry or quest marker pointing to the missing pieces.

One good thing from this experience, now you won't waste any money pre-ordering Dark Souls 2. :)

11 years ago
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Yeah, I agree. I have tons of games I want to play and I'm sure I will enjoy most of them so I won't waste my time on something which is not pleasant or fun for me. Well, at least I tried ;)

11 years ago
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It sounds like you're more worried about how the game looks and not how good the game is.

This in my opinion is one of the best games ever created and has one of the best combat systems to ever exist in a game. If you're worried about how the game looks then this isn't going to be a game for you because even with dsfix you need to remember it's a 360 port so you're not going to get true 1080p and the game only offers AA on/off and no other graphics options. The game also has fps drops in several locations which happens on all systems.

Also keep in mind that dsfix changes a few things in the game (it adds bugs), so using it isn't really needed unless you absolutely have to have a slight increase in texture quality.

11 years ago
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+1 and regarding the combat system I'd say it's kinda upgraded Severance: Blade of Darkness fighting system

11 years ago
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Nah, I don't judge a game by its graphics. It was just one of the issues I raised but not the main one.
While gameplay and atmosphere is good in DS I don't like certain elements. Constant re-spawn of enemies for one. It's boring fighting the same enemies over and over again. At least for me. So whenever I want to come back somewhere I have to kill all those dudes all over again. It's like I'm overwhelmed by enemies. When I already killed them! I don't like it. I just can't get into it. But I was trying. A lot.

11 years ago
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Graphically, it does not have all the bells and whistles. It has a very solid art direction and some great (and unfortunately, some NOT great) texture work. It will not wow you with sheer polygon count, but it uses what it has quite effectively. It is dirty, it is ugly, it is rusty, and everything looks like it is almost to the point of breaking, or outright broken. It can also be stunning, but again, that is more due to art direction than sheer graphical power.

The fighting is purposeful. What are your issues with the combat? Witcher 2 had combat that KIIIND of mixed Demon's Souls's purposeful rhythm with Batman-like flipping out, but in the end did not do so as satisfying as either, Geralt was pretty fragile, but his hits felt weightless. In the souls games the hits are NEVER weightless. What is your issue with it?

If you are not enjoying it, that's a shame, but again, the Souls games are not for everyone. Those of us that like it are literally annoying evangelicals about it but it is very much so a game that if you don't love it, you will hate it.

Also, what the hell is wrong with Gothic? It's a damn great series, even if Gothic 1's control scheme really sucked.

11 years ago
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Graphics are okay after I played around with DSfix. Combat is good as well. I can't say a bad word about it after I got the hang of it. I don't hate it though like you said but I have a feeling it's not for me.

Why are you asking what's wrong with Gothic? I love the series, personally. Gothic 1, 2 (with the add-on) and 3 were great IMO. 4 wasn't really good though. And add-ons to Gothic 3 and 4 were flat out terrible!

11 years ago
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Your phrase "I had a feeling like I was playing the first Gothic game." Though could it be that the game is a total asshole about how it handles enemies? I mean, if you go to the cemetery thinking "oh hey skeletons, that ought to be easy" and then get destroyed because one doesn't know how to take advantage of everything yet?
Eh, I don't know. I read that as "this feels too archaic and unenjoyable" even if one likes Gothic. It does take a while to get used to both games though!

... Shit, now I feel like reinstalling Gothic 2. Or try Risen again. Bah.

11 years ago
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This game is all about concentration.
You just can't afford to go easy and relax (like e.g. in Skyrim).
The game exercises you, sometime to the extreme (Kill Bill?).
It forces you to hone your skills and thus be purged.
I went through the following transformations:
overconfidence -> WTF? -> anger -> frustration -> caution -> little confidence -> WTF?! -> more caution -> "don't try to kill, try to understand your enemy" -> understanding -> true confidence

On my list of 3 best games of all time.

11 years ago
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Closed 11 years ago by HustlaOG.