Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (Xbox One/PS4/PC)

Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Is this worth getting, guys? I really want a Fantasy/ Dragons/ Magic game, but I don't really want a RPG. I struggled with Dragon's Age. Is this a 'hack and slash' with a slight RPG element?

I was thinking of getting Lords of the Fallen, is that a better option? Or I've been pondering getting Shadow of Mordor again. FFS, I just don't know......

The Fume Knight can do one

Gandalf wrote:Is this worth getting, guys? I really want a Fantasy/ Dragons/ Magic game, but I don't really want a RPG. I struggled with Dragon's Age. Is this a 'hack and slash' with a slight RPG element?

I was thinking of getting Lords of the Fallen, is that a better option? Or I've been pondering getting Shadow of Mordor again. FFS, I just don't know......

I'm playing Lords of the Fallen at the moment (PC version). I have to say find it slightly easier than any of the Dark Souls games (none of which I have ever persisted with due to their difficulty). Lords of the Fallen is much more accessible to me, not quite so punishing (although it's a relentless grind in the early stages to get your character up to an acceptable level to start facing-off against the game's second and third bosses), and it absolutely outclasses every DS game in terms of visual presentation (it looks fantastic on my PC, compared to DS II - although I haven't seen how SotFS looks running in DX11). I also really quite like the traditional fantasy stylings of LotF. I just wish it had some sort of random dungeon creator such as the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodbourne. That would have been really nice. There is some new DLC out for LotF - an additional SP level with a new Lord and a pretty interesting puzzle-like dungeon to fight your way through.

I just wanna lose myself in a dungeons/dragons world, with lush environments and all. Like Skyrim, that was awesome, yet again though I struggled with the RPG elements.

Might have to check out LotF. Thanks for your thoughts/advice, Cal!

I've only played Lords of the Fallen (it glitched and was on Xbox Live for €10.20) for 20minutes but it seemed ok, although I reckon its not as good as Dark Souls which I loved.

Gandalf, I have all 3 games you mentioned and I'd say Dark Souls 2 maybe the best of them, I also have Dragon Origins and I get why you dont like it but I think its pretty good.

Dark Souls games are odd, not least because they are japanese, the worlds are interlinked kind of like the Metroid prime games where you can go anywhere. It's all very strange but then it clicks with you and you get consumed with levelling and equipment. Essentially all 3 are hack and slash games and as wonderous as Shadow of Mordors combat is, the feeling of killing a big/hard guy in Souls is hard to surpass.

I was suprised how well Dark Souls 2 looked, being an uprezzed last gen game I was expecting the worst but the lighting and crispness really is stunning to look at.

Download Neverwinter (its free) on X1, its literally a dungeons and dragons game, although basic, it looks like it could be good, I've put a couple of hours into it already, also, Diablo 3 is half price which I also picked up and its JOYOUS, especially if you have someone to play co-op with.

gamerforever wrote:Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Bloodborne is the better option.

Dark Dragon 64 wrote:

gamerforever wrote:Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Bloodborne is the better option.

I'd even agree with this if I had a PS4, but I held off on DS2 specifically cos I always knew it was coming to this gen (the developer was always cagey when asked). So this is all essentially new to me and I cant wait to get lost in a souls game again.

gamerforever wrote:Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Just get Bloodborn for Pete's sake, it's by far the better game.

NickSCFC wrote:

gamerforever wrote:Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Just get Bloodborn for Pete's sake, it's by far the better game.

Not according to Metacritic (DS2 -91, BB - 92)

Anyway can we leave this topic to talk about Dark Souls 2 please? thanks.

Still playing BB, but this hopefully should come today. £31.99 from Amazon was too cheap to not get.

Already done the vanilla versions of DS2 on PS3, but didn't get any of the DLC. Having all that included within the main game- and from what I've read there's a lot of differences to the main game to make it worth playing through again.

Photek wrote:

NickSCFC wrote:

gamerforever wrote:Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Just get Bloodborn for Pete's sake, it's by far the better game.

Not according to Metacritic (DS2 -91, BB - 92)

Anyway can we leave this topic to talk about Dark Souls 2 please? thanks.

Metacritic isn't a definitive authority on games. Dark 2 was disappointing after spending 90 hours on Dark 1 but I'm enjoying the level design of Bloodborne a lot more than Dark 2.

I'd actually recommend that gamerforever completes Dark 1 first, without cheating, if he's unsure about Bloodborne.

To be honest DD64 I used Metacritic in a 'minor' troll sense as Nick uses it all the time, he used it in BloodBorne thread so just thought I'd use his own example in my post.

DS2 wasn't as good as 1 most definately. It was still a top quality game, but the world and boss design was really lacking in comparison to the first. I've heard the DLC is fantastic though, so if it's been integrated well, I'll be happy.

NickSCFC wrote:

gamerforever wrote:Is the upgrade worthy of a second try, or is bloodborne the better option?

Just get Bloodborne too for Pate's sake, it's by far the a bit better game.

Fixed that for you. Your sentiments are correct, your hyperbole is misjudged.

I think if you already own all the dlc with the original DS2, this should just be a free upgrade tbh...

DF said it has same graphical output on PS4/X1 but PS4 has advantage in FPS, when both are stressed X1 getting 40-50fps and PS4 50-60fps with the X1 getting a huge drop during a point in a boss fight to 36fps.

It does point out that the X1 is a huge step up from X360 version though and that FROM seem to develop for the PS4 and had another team do the port so it wasnt platform specific, which I expected. Bar Bayonetta, even in the PS3/X360 era a lot of japanese developers had worse versions running on 360, Final Fantasy XIII was one baffling example amongst a few others.

Digital Foundry -

From Software has described the Dark Souls 2 engine in terms of its viability for this generation, but it's now clear that PS4 hands in results closest to the developer's intention. Within the console bracket, it's no doubt the best version to date, while Xbox One claims second place in the running owing to its less stable frame-rate. By bullishly matching Sony's platform point-for-point across all graphical settings, Xbox One places Dark Souls 2's visual presentation above its playability to a certain extent. However, compared to the 20-30fps performance of last-gen releases it 's still a fulsome upgrade for owners of Microsoft's console.

All that remains is a question mark over Scholar of the First Sin's PC release, a DirectX 11 version that brings visual upgrades over the DX9 original. The value proposition is somewhat controversial given that it incurs an additional fee, especially for fans who already own the DLC and enjoy the benefits of patch 1.10. A defining point in the argument could well hinge on the extent of the API switch's performance differential and whether the graphical improvements go beyond those seen on PS4 and Xbox One - a subject we intend to cover very soon.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... e-analysis

Monkey Man wrote:Digital Foundry -

From Software has described the Dark Souls 2 engine in terms of its viability for this generation, but it's now clear that PS4 hands in results closest to the developer's intention. Within the console bracket, it's no doubt the best version to date, while Xbox One claims second place in the running owing to its less stable frame-rate. By bullishly matching Sony's platform point-for-point across all graphical settings, Xbox One places Dark Souls 2's visual presentation above its playability to a certain extent. However, compared to the 20-30fps performance of last-gen releases it 's still a fulsome upgrade for owners of Microsoft's console.

All that remains is a question mark over Scholar of the First Sin's PC release, a DirectX 11 version that brings visual upgrades over the DX9 original. The value proposition is somewhat controversial given that it incurs an additional fee, especially for fans who already own the DLC and enjoy the benefits of patch 1.10. A defining point in the argument could well hinge on the extent of the API switch's performance differential and whether the graphical improvements go beyond those seen on PS4 and Xbox One - a subject we intend to cover very soon.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... e-analysis

In all honesty - having just played the first 25 mins of SotFS on PC (I upgraded for the £11.99 cost on Steam) - I can't see any significant improvement in the visuals. Performance is fine - no glitches at all - but, seriously, I really can't see that the game looks any different to the DX9 version on PC.