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Dark Souls II graphics downgrade for console versions angers gamers

Saqib Shah
March 17, 2014

Did Namco Bandai lie about the graphics quality of its dark fantasy RPG sequel Dark Souls II?

The internet is currently rife with gamers keen to voice their ire with the title’s apparently downgraded graphics on last-gen consoles such as the playstation 3 and Xbox 360, for which it was released last Friday  14 March (the  PC  version is set to be released on 25 April).

The problem is that the released game bears  little resemblance  to the previously published official preview videos showing gameplay. An internet based campaign has been started with the hashtags  #DarkSoulsDowngrade  and #YOULIED.

You can see the huge differences in graphics qualities of the trailed version of the game and new PS3 footage of the released version of the game below, published by IGN:

The notably superior graphics are  easy  to see in the side-by side and A-B comparisons in the video. Texture quality, detail, complexity, lighting, effects and draw distance all look poorer in the released version of the game.

Most commentators think that Namco Bandai has been using PC gameplay footage as representative of the game on all platforms in most of the previously released footage and trailers. However previous footage from what was said to be the PS3 version is also apparently been  downgraded.

Here are a few choice tweets from concerned gamers:

 

 

 

 

It’s not that unexpected for a game on the last generation consoles to look poor compared to the PC version but  software  director Yui Tanimura previously talked up the importance of graphics and the improvements coming to Dark Souls II:  “One of the first things we immediately tried to improve in terms of Dark Souls 2 was the graphic quality of the game,”  he told IGN.

“One thing we really focused on obviously for Dark Souls and more so in Dark Souls 2 is how much you can get deep into the game emotionally and physically, and one of the things we felt was critical to that was the graphical improvements for more reality, more realistic expressions of everything we want to show in the game.”

The PC version of the game is thought not to suffer from the same issues.

Source

About the Author

Saqib Shah

Tech/gaming journalist for What Mobile magazine and website. Interests include film, digital media and foreign affairs.

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