The Daily Dose: Dark Souls PC, Prepare to Lag

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition is due to release on PC August 24th. What a lot of people might not realise is that this supposedly 'definitive' version of the game, is not being optimised for the PC platform it is finally making a move to.

I originally bought Dark Souls for the Xbox 360 after plenty of recommendations from friends and rave reviews I'd seen all across the gaming community. I was immediately sucked into the dark, twisted and unforgiving world that the game immerses it's players in. The game itself is incredible; tight controls, challenging but never unfair enemies and an atmosphere that most other games could only dream of.

The problem for me is the way the game struggled to perform as a console title. The constant frame rate drops that Dark Souls is plagued with drove me mental. I don't understand why console gamers are expected to put up with problems like this. Perhaps I'm spoilt as a PC player, but why should I pay full price for a game that has a technical issue that I feel can be such an immersion breaker.

The precise controls are tainted when too many enemies appear on screen or a massive attack from a boss fills an area. Time and time again I was left attempting to dodge or block an attack and ended up feeling even more of a walking tin can than I already did. This was also a major problem while trying to navigate through narrow ledges or traps. I would end up falling off or sliced to pieces due to a quick off-putting stutter.

No, that's not fear holding me back. It's the freaking frame lag!

I played a fair amount of the game before I originally heard the news of a PC release, and was so relieved that I decided to wait and carry on the game once it was out. I had hoped I would then be able to play Dark Souls in it's full twisted glory, without the worry of these issues ruining my experience. So much for that. It would seem that these technical issues are totally acceptable to producer Daisuke Uchiyama.

In an interview with Eurogamer he stated that:

“In terms of the PC version, the quick answer is no, [we will not be fixing the frame drops]. Because we wanted to get the PC version out as soon as possible." He goes on to say that “it’s more strictly a port from the console version. We haven’t been able to step up into doing any specific optimisation for PC.”

I'm no game designer by any stretch; so can someone explain to me why games that are originally designed on a PC need to be ported from their inferior console versions to create a working PC copy of the game? Or is this just the easiest route to take? I would have happily waited longer to get an optimised version of the game rather than some half arsed port, especially as it was the main reason I was looking forward to a Dark Souls PC release to begin with.

Now PC gamers are expected to pay the full £29.99 for a game that is being re-released and porting all its issues along with it. From Software are at least including three new areas, four extra bosses and a number of new weapons to supposedly make up for the lack of optimisation, but I guess I may as well just go back to playing the copy I already own on my Xbox. It just seems like these new additions are something the original adopters of the game should have received as much cheaper DLC content to begin with.

The ironic thing is that From Software have obviously "wanted to get the PC version out as soon as possible" for its easy returns, but due to this decision I'm sure many players will no longer be interested in buying the game at all. If you haven't had chance to play Dark Souls I would highly recommended it. It's a deeply rewarding experience. Just make sure that if you own either a PS3 or 360 you're probably better off buying the previously released and probably cheaper copy for your consoles instead.