Game News Dark Souls II Gameplay Video and Q&A at IGN + New Trailer

[Kosmonaut]

Case in point, the faggot that posted above me.

 

[Jasede]

<- best taste NA

 

[Jack Dandy]

This sounds so great. They've already confirmed a bunch of things I really wanted-
1. Dedicated PC version, meaning no more framerate drops and a constant 60FPS from the get-go. (I won't mind if you still gotta use a gamepad, though)
2. Dedicated servers, meaning better multiplayer connectivity and less failed summons\invasions
3. A better second half of the game. In the original DaS got kinda boring after Anor Londo, and only the DLC areas made up for it.

All I can hope now is that there'll be no GFWL, and they'll instate better anti-hacking measures. (The stuff some people did.. nightmares!)

 

[Roguey]

Also Obsidian loves the shit out of Dark Souls, if you couldn't tell from the P:E updates- just like the art director of PS:T loves the Dark Souls art direction and artwork. Go figure. Quality attracts quality.

Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw loves Dark Souls.

 

[Kosmonaut]

 

[Sunsetspawn]

These fucking morons can't do anything but listen to dialogues and take everything being said at face value.

I've heard people defend Prometheus with this argument.
Luckily a videogame can have a derp narrative and not be shit. Prometheus defenders should be executed by a swarthy bearded dictator.

Liking Dark Souls is a sure way to detect very impressionable persons and groupthinking.

I won't beat you up for it, but you have no idea what you're talking about. People like Dark Souls because everything else is easy horseshit, even on TEH NIGHTMARE DIFFICULTY

 

[Kosmonaut]

I won't beat you up for it, but you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

this is a good game and you can't do anything about it

how does that make you feel

do you feel angry

 

[Serious_Business]

Something really need to be said in defense of "artsy" and "hipster" narratives, because there's a limit to wether or not a story needs to make "sense" and be "coherent". Why does everything need to be "coherent"? What does that even mean? Eh fuck it

 

[Sunsetspawn]

I'm a giant faggot

That's exactly what I was getting at, but I didn't want to be rude.

 

[toro]

All I can hope now is that there'll be no GFWL ...

This. +1

 

[Smejki]

All I can hope now is that there'll be no GFWL ...

wasn't that confirmed already?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Well, fuck all the whine from circle-jerkers like crawlkill and Mangoose, I'm buying the shit out of this.

 

[Black]

All I can hope now is that there'll be no GFWL ...

wasn't that confirmed already?

No, though the lack of GFWL logo on which platforms it'll be on suggests that maybe they've learned from their grievous mistake.

 

[AngryEddy]

Liking Dark Souls is a sure way to detect very impressionable persons and groupthinking.

I know that a lot of people hate you for this comment, but I have to agree with you [i'm currently playing Dark Souls as a Dark Sorcerer]. When I bring up legitimate criticism of Dark Souls narrative or mechanics, Dark Souls fans always have 20 reasons why it's acceptable to have NPC's who have no agenda/goal, a multiplayer system that doesn't work as well as it should, an inconsistent plot etc. It's still a good game, but most certainly not the greatest game the fanbase makes it out to be like this guy:



I'm still going to get Dark Souls 2, I just hope the bosses have more motivation than "Destroying the world because a piece of jewelry went missing" [Manus]. From the new director admitting that the PC port was shit, and the art design transitioning back to Demon's Souls, I have a lot of hope for DS2.

 

[Damned Registrations]

There were NPCs in dark souls that had no agenda? You must have explored the game more thouroughly than the entire fanbase combined. Where praytell did you find these aimless NPCs?

 

[AngryEddy]

You must have explored the game more thouroughly than the entire fanbase combined.

I wouldn't say that, I just don't invent fanfiction to make up for Japanese writing's shortcomings, unlike the Dark Souls fanbase. This phenomena wasn't present with Demon's Souls as far as I can remember, but it's a disturbing trend that I absolutely fucking hate, but then again, Demon's Souls actually flushed out most of the NPC's so there wasn't a need for the emotional/feminine fanbase to just start imagining up bullshit endings to unfinished characters.

As for the NPC's who either had their motivations stripped from the final product, or have none to begin with, and are inconsistent, i'll list a couple:

Shiva of the East, Oscar, Paladin Leeroy, King Jeremiah, Witch Beatrice etc.



If you want me to get in to specifics about the bad fanfiction, Kirk of Thorns is probably the most appalling example. Here's a guy who's sole existence revolves around victimizing other people for their humanity, and through in game lore only, he's presented as a complete psychopath. Well, from what the retarded fanbase has said, he's secretly working for the Chaos faction, and he's really just killing everbody to give the humanity to the spider, even though there are no in game references to Kirk from either the eggback or the spider herself. Kirks body at the Chaos bonfire could mean a million different things, but not to the fanbase! To the fanbase, it means Kirk is really just a poor, misunderstood, anti-hero, who really cares about life, despite him wearing poky armor and him constantly trying to kill you. You would think a betrayal to the Darkwraiths and a conversion to Chaos would be mentioned by Kaathe, the eggback, or the spider, or even his armor and weapons, but mysteriously enough, it isn't.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Most of those are just phantoms, they don't even have dialogue. Maybe you want to bitch about all the undead soldiers too? Where are their MOTIVATIONS!?!?! Why does this balder knight want to kill me?!?!

Shiva's the only one that's really relevant, and his subplot never got finished. Or more accurately, I suspect, it got slashed after some change in gameplay regarding how you get the chaos fury sword. And even then, he's an NPC that you won't even see unless you join a specific covenant.

Oscar became undead and went to Lordran on a pilgrimage because that's what the Way of White tells them is supposed to happen. Which is plenty of backstory for a guy who spouts a few lines before keeling over in the tutorial area. He's just there to give a bit of exposition.

Kirk is, again, just a phantom. Expecting some massive amount of ingame lore dedicated to him is retarded. For a guy you never even speak with he's got plenty of story. And I'm not sure how else you'd interpret the in game events besides that he's a chaos servant. There's no sign he has any connection to the dark wraiths at all. All 3 of his invasions occur along the route to Izalith. His corpse is in a room that contains nothing but a bonfire and the chaos servant convenant. He was either part of the covenant or had some sort of relation to it obviously. And if he wanted egghead dead he'd be dead.

But no, you figure he must secretly be a ninja assasin killing for Carim or something, but this awful game didn't put in the lore to back it up! Oh tragic day, why have the gods forsaken this poor shitposter? Why can't the game include full 10 page biographies for every single random enemy and sub boss in the game like every decent game should?

 

[AngryEddy]

Most of those are just phantoms, they don't even have dialogue.

I'm not the asshat writing fanfiction about Kirk, that's you people.

I wanted to have a real conversation about this, but nope, like all of the other Dark Souls fans, it's time to get all passive aggressive.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Most of those are just phantoms, they don't even have dialogue.

I'm not the asshat writing fanfiction about Kirk, that's you people.

I wanted to have a real conversation about this, but nope, like all of the other Dark Souls fans, it's time to get all passive aggressive.

PROTIP: Making blanket statements about the fanbase refusing to address your legitimate criticisms writing shitty fan-fiction is not a very effective way of starting a real conversation.

The argument over whether the story is refreshingly free of hand-holding and exposition dumps or frustratingly sketchy and under-developed is one that has been raging since the game came out and also entirely due to personal preferences and/or tolerance for ambiguity.

Re multiplayer, my impression is that the PvP system has been fairly aggressively criticized by the diehards since even before the PC edition. Google "lagstab" or "gravelord covenant"

As for fan-fiction, I've seen speculation running the gamut of plausible arguments based on in-game information to kind of wild ass-pulls, but this is highly variable and opinions on the backstory are different for different people. I have never seen the Kirk of Thorns ridiculousness you describe, let alone seen anything to indicate every single member of the fanbase holds that theory. So I doubt it is something widely believed.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Japanese writing's shortcomings

Why do people keep bringing this up? I don't see what is particularly Japanese about the game's story, or even the presentation of the game as a whole.

 

[AngryEddy]

Japanese writing's shortcomings

Why do people keep bringing this up?

Probably because Japanese aren't known for being good writers. The only good Japanese writing i've seen in visual entertainment, was Final Fantasy Tactics, and that is by far the best showcase of what Japanese writing could be, but isn't, in a market standard kind of way, as opposed to them being recognized as some of the best artists out there.

 

[AngryEddy]

Most of those are just phantoms, they don't even have dialogue.

I'm not the asshat writing fanfiction about Kirk, that's you people.

I wanted to have a real conversation about this, but nope, like all of the other Dark Souls fans, it's time to get all passive aggressive.

I have never seen the Kirk of Thorns ridiculousness you describe

Here you go. 24:32

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Most of those are just phantoms, they don't even have dialogue.

I'm not the asshat writing fanfiction about Kirk, that's you people.

I wanted to have a real conversation about this, but nope, like all of the other Dark Souls fans, it's time to get all passive aggressive.

I have never seen the Kirk of Thorns ridiculousness you describe

[video]

Here you go. 24:32

According to that video, the status of Kirk as a member of the Chaos covenant is actually explicitly made by the developer in an interview.

So it's not fan-fiction, its actual fiction.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Also the video looks decent, but I'm a little worried about those faces you stick magic stones into. Seems a bit Zelda-ish, but I think alot depends on how important/prevalent they are.