Dark Souls 2 is now available on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and if you haven’t yet plumped down the cash for it you might be wondering which is the best version.
While Dark Souls 2 is certainly a great game no matter what platform it is played on, there are some notable differences (and, in some cases, problems) that both the PC and console versions of the game suffer from.
Here are some of the major factors you should consider before choosing which version to invest yourself into.
Controller vs. Mouse and Keyboard
In many ways Dark Souls 2‘s PC port feels like the optimum version of the game, but then there are still some instances where it feels like developer From Software cut corners with the conversion from Xbox 360/PS3 to the Desktop. Chief among these examples of laziness is in the half-baked implementation of mouse and keyboard functionality.
All button prompts in Dark Souls 2 PC represent the buttons of an Xbox 360 controller, whether or not you actually have one plugged into your PC. There is no way to change this. On top of that, there’s the added problem that the default key bindings aren’t fully customisable, and navigating the game’s menus using a mouse and keyboard is is a torturous experience. Needless to say, if you haven’t got a controller for your PC, then you should probably go ahead and purchase one if you wish to play Dark Souls 2 on your Desktop.
In his review of the game PC port of the game, CraveOnline‘s Jonathan Leack wrote: “Where the PC version falters is in menu navigation when using a mouse. Truthfully, it’s an abomination that I couldn’t adapt to no matter how much I tried.”
“If you’re going to be playing with keyboard & mouse, you’ll want to use the arrow keys, backspace, and enter to move around menus. It’s a small price to pay for the better presentation, but there are times you’ll be in a tough situation and the menu controls might just make you suffer.”
Unfortunately, it’s been left up to modders to give the game a keyboard interface, which you can download that mod here.
Also, many users have had trouble getting Dark Souls 2 to work on PC with their controller. We have a guide on calibrating the DualShock 4, but it hasn’t worked with everyone. If you must play with a controller, the console versions are your only safe bet.
Graphics
Dark Souls 2 PC is a port of Dark Souls 2‘s Xbox 360 version, which means that it uses DirectX 9, not the superior DirectX 11, for its graphics. However, with the multitude of graphics options that typically come with PC games, you can get the game looking quite a bit prettier right out of the gate, with it running at a solid 60fps throughout.
However, there are a number of external improvements that can be made to the game via mods and the like, which we have previously detailed in our ‘Guide to Achieving Beautiful Graphics‘, including Durante’s mode and HBAO+ implementation.
Now that the game’s been out for a few days more mods have inevitably been released, including the SweetFX Preset. Adding this to your game will improve its lighting, colors and the washed-out look that surrounds its screen.
While Dark Souls 2 isn’t exactly a technical powerhouse on PC, adding a few of these mods will enhance its great art style so that its visual fidelity will be more in line with other triple-A PC releases. Dark Souls 2 Xbox 360/PS3 can certainly impress on the odd occasion, but its textures are lacking and venturing into particularly dark areas (of which there are plenty) really bring out the worst in it. With Dark Souls 2 PC’s mods, though, its issues with texture, lighting and colors can be rectified, meaning that it has the potential to look far superior to its console counterparts.
Community
Both the Dark Souls 2 community on PC and on the PS3/Xbox 360 are heavily present, with messages being left on the floor for you to read within every few feet, offering you tips, taunting you and, in some cases, leading you to certain death. The PC port’s community is more prevalent, though, with the aforementioned messages and bloodstains littering the floor. Cough it up to being newer, but the fact is that it’s so popular that it’s currently one of the top played games on Steam.
There’s also the modding community to take into consideration, too, though like its predecessor Dark Souls 2 doesn’t come Steam Workshop integration.
A setback for Dark Souls 2 PC, though one that is likely not the fault of From Software, is that some are having issues with summoning connectivity, in that a portion of players are finding that their Firewalls are prohibiting them from joining another player’s world/having a player join their world. Another problem, and this is one that is resting on the shoulders of From Software to fix it, is hackers invading PVP areas.
These are isolated incidents, though, and aside from that Dark Souls 2 PC definitely has the better sense of community in the world of Drangleic.
Functionality
Dark Souls 2 PC launched with some crippling issues, the most prominent of which was many players not being able to launch the game without it crashing. Namco were quick to respond to these issues, linking to a number of (quite ridiculous) workarounds in the Steam forums including “unplugging your HDMI cable and plugging it back in again“. Welcome to the year 2014, everyone.
However, swiftly after launch Namco released Update 1.05 which has rectified a number of its problems, including its crashing upon startup. Predictably, the Xbox 360/PS3 versions of Dark Souls 2 haven’t suffered from problems with their respective launches, because these are typically things that only we PC gamers have to suffer through. Still, though, we get all those pretty graphics and cool mods, so we can put up with it.
