As far as i know they said they would never be doing a pc release but after so many people petitioned they decided they would but to keep it fair to their console fan-base they straight up ported it so it would be the exact same game.

If the pc one got extras then the original fans would be rightfully upset but if it doesn’t the pc fans are upset.

I’m just happy to be able to play darksouls on another system since its such an amazing game.

spoidar:
pinothyj,

I reject your premise that we should just suck it up and buy crap console ports.Surely publishers have people capable of reasoning as basic as, “Game X, developed as a solid PC game, sold N hundred million copies, whereas game Y, a terrible port, sold M hundred thousand copies, maybe there’s a correlation here.”

Rewarding bad behaviour does not help anyone, surely that’s obvious?I think it’s irresponsible to suggest otherwise.

As to whether it shouldn’t have been made, no, it should have been made, but if they’re going to do such a half-arsed job of it, we shouldn’t spend our hard-earned money on it, it should be boycotted, then at least there’s the potential for a lesson to be learned.

I agree with the rest of the article for the most part though.

Wait, what‽ You do realise that, at the heart of it, I am strongly against the creation of the port in the first place. But all of that aside, I asked one question to The Colwill (who never replied to me :-[) whether, after all that he typed, he thinks that this whole situation would been better off if the game had never been ported.

I have no smegging idea where you extract all that of which I was supposed to have said or implied.

I am literally dumbfounded…

“If a product’s good, tell your friends. If it’s not good, tell us.”

Given the prevalance of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and even Youtube, telling devs/publishers that a PC port is not good has become a hell of a lot easier. Gearbox used this feedback to figure out what was wrong with the PC port of the original Borderlands (which, admittedly, wasn’t the greatest port ever) and fix it in the sequel.

This is especially relevant with the recent news of Target coming under fire for their kids clothing via their Facebook page.

…No, it isn’t and…

“If it sells badly, it’s just yet another nail in the coffin of publisher confidence in the platform. And that’s the last thing we need.”

…that isn’t a very good argument for not paying for intellectual property.

As long as there are PCs, there will be PC games even if the users have to create them theirselves. Take a look at steam. The mainstream game market is sprinting in the direction of mediocrity anyway, I’m not sure I’ll want what’s coming down the pipe.

Tim Colwill: Let’s not sugarcoat it guys, here are our options:

1) Don’t buy the game.

This will result in poor sales figures, and publishers will think “Let’s not bother bringing games to the PC. Even when we do, they just complain.”

There is no grey area here. Anybody hoping that publishers will research into forum threads and say “Gosh, it would have sold better if only it was optimised! We’ll do that next time” is kidding themselves. It’s wishful thinking of the highest order.

2) Buy the game

Good sales figures will show that there’s a PC audience willing to pay for content, not just pirate it. This will encourage developers to spend more time and money on making proper optimised PC games.

There really is no middle ground here, and anybody who thinks that they’re “sending a message” by not buying it is right: you are sending a message. You’re saying “PC gamers aren’t worth catering for”.

I disagree with your assumptions. The kind of companies that have no clue what the gaming community is saying about their game and aren’t able to fashion excuses other than ‘pc gamers are whingers’ are the type to respond poorly to both poor or high sales. High sales will just reinforce bad practices that made them money. If they are that clueless, then they are that clueless.

The sort of doom-casting. lamenting the state of PC gaming here feels extremely out-dated. There are plenty of good developers out there that do understand the PC market, they are making games that are worth spending money on. I have never been bereft of good games to play on my PC.

This kind of jingoistic flag-waving for PC parity with consoles is more than pointless and many years too late. The ‘PC gamer’ is an outdated concept almost, ‘Gamers’ are multi-platform, if you can afford a good gaming PC chances are you have a console or two lying around, a portable or a smart phone, maybe a tablet or netbook too. All different channels that can server different games for different needs.

The only thing we don’t need, is one device to just try to copy another.

They would have got my money though if they charged us the US price, I would have got it just on the basis that I prefer gaming on my PC to my PS3, but that is not enough for a lot of people and to dismiss them as wrong, and worse yet as harming the industry they support with 100-1000′s of dollars a year to companies that are doing the right thing is peculiar type of misplaced priorities.

If this game does not do well on the PC it is far from the end of PC gaming, it is not even another nail in the coffin or whatever downward slope some people are claiming. It is just one more company making bad choices in the whole swarm of developers releasing good and bad games regularly on all platforms.

At the end of the day, the ONLY thing we have in this market, where the signal to noise ratio means no-one gets heard or individually catered to, is our own discretionary taste and standards, nothing else is so important, especially one developer/publisher, that we need to compromise them.

Every time someone posts a comment like this, I just picture the suits of places like Blizzard and Valve having a laugh before clinking their brandy-filled glasses from the back of their solid gold hydrofoils.

The PC market isn’t dead, it has just changed with the times and is far ahead consoles who are still reliant on the dinosaur that is physical mediums and brick and mortar outlets. Companies that keep up with these changes are still raking in the profit. Those who don’t are usually the first to blame PC gamers for not throwing money at their early-to-mid 90′s business model.

Despite that I said I’m not arguing (because you’re not buying it anyhow I’m sure) my point was that the game (Darksiders II) is entertaining regardless of what features it doesn’t have. Also it still functions pretty well too. If I’m having a great time enjoying the game, it’s stable and runs smoothly then I don’t see why there is a problem? What, I can’t run the game at such a high resolution I can see the veins in my enemies eyes at 100 meters? Must be the end of the world. <_<

honestly I’m with the people that say eating up this shit will only make the publisher/developer serve us up more shit they will see this (if it is a success) as us saying to them “oh yes feed us your scraps like the baggers we are , we have been wrong all along we are the dirty pc peasants we long to eat at the table of mighty console master race”
well fuck that I’m not PC master race for nothing I expect quality when I play games I want the full experiences not some half ass port.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME don’t support half assed ports DEMAND quality and perfection, otherwise why the hell did we spend 1000+ on a tricked out rig just to play leftovers??
I shore as shit didn’t wast my money to play bad console ports

I hope some smart cookie mods the hell out of this game and makes it great!!
then maybe I will buy it.

rapidreload:
vcatkiller, you’ve already made up your mind as well. So what’s your point?

This.

If we take Tim’s argument to its logical conclusion, then ultimately very few developers will bother to give PC gamers any of the things we take for granted (e.g. options) simply because we’d still buy the game anyway. If a publisher/developer sees my decision to not buy the game as “needless complaining”, then it tells me that they were never interested in understanding why people complain in the first place. When we’re talking about full-priced games, you better bloody believe that I’d want a decent port with PC-specific features with it. Otherwise it’s shows contempt for the audience.

vcatkiller:
I’ve just come away from playing Darksiders II.Why do I bring this up?Because as far as ports go this one seems below average.Very little in the way of options and the whole game feels like it’s designed for a control pad.I’m having an absolute blast!So far this is one of the more entertaining games I’ve played this year!

The big difference is we’re going into Dark Souls with our eyes open.Just a thought for the day.<_<

*rolls eyes*

The first game was also below average for a port BUT YOU COULD STILL CHANGE YOUR RESOLUTION. Not every port needs every bell and whistle or option available for adjustment but there are some things that aren’t negotiable, and changing resolution is one of them.

commanderboom:
Tim Colwill,

I see no evidence for the arguement that “Every developer who makes the move to PC benefits the platform as a whole.” Supporting a port this poor does not improve the PC platform, but instead reinforces the apparently prevalent view that PC gamers will continue to support console-centric development, and be pleased with our ‘sloppy-second’ ports. This is not the sort ofdevelopment that we should encourage.

Agreed

Tim Colwill: Let’s not sugarcoat it guys, here are our options:

Good sales figures will show that there’s a PC audience willing to pay for content, not just pirate it. This will encourage developers to spend more time and money on making proper optimised PC games.

NO, it will show them that its ok to feed people SHIT and it will get worse if this is a huge success. DO NOT BUY.

The big difference is we’re going into Dark Souls with our eyes open. Just a thought for the day. <_<

Tim Colwill:
Good sales figures will show that there’s a PC audience willing to pay for content, not just pirate it. This will encourage developers to spend more time and money on making proper optimised PC games.

This is the part I have a problem with. With devs/pubs acting as you say wouldn’t they just as quickly react if the game was successful by thinking they did a perfect job and that no further effort need be done in the future?

Tim Colwill: Let’s not sugarcoat it guys, here are our options:

1) Don’t buy the game.

This will result in poor sales figures, and publishers will think “Let’s not bother bringing games to the PC. Even when we do, they just complain.”

There is no grey area here. Anybody hoping that publishers will research into forum threads and say “Gosh, it would have sold better if only it was optimised! We’ll do that next time” is kidding themselves. It’s wishful thinking of the highest order.

2) Buy the game

Good sales figures will show that there’s a PC audience willing to pay for content, not just pirate it. This will encourage developers to spend more time and money on making proper optimised PC games.

There really is no middle ground here, and anybody who thinks that they’re “sending a message” by not buying it is right: you are sending a message. You’re saying “PC gamers aren’t worth catering for”.

There are some great companies doing some great things on PC. But they’re more and more in the minority. We get our games late. We get them frame-capped. We get them price-jacked.

We need to take every opportunity to show that we support developers who support us, even if things aren’t as optimised as they could be.Every developer who makes the move to PC benefits the platform as a whole.

Take a look at the bigger picture before being worried about the resolution of the smaller picture on the monitor.

Dismissing a 30 FPS framecap and 720p resolution as “(not as) optimised as they could be” is disengenious in the extreme. We are not children to be satisifed with whatever scraps that should fall our way, and smilingly ask for more. Their answering our petition for a PC release of Darksouls with the laziest and most inept console port I can remember is insulting, and not behaviour we should be reinforcing with our wallets.

This is not an example of developers “supporting us” with a popular console exclusive coming the the PC, but instead an example of a developer seeing just how poor of a port will the PC community will stomach.

I see no evidence for the arguement that “Every developer who makes the move to PC benefits the platform as a whole.” Supporting a port this poor does not improve the PC platform, but instead reinforces the apparently prevalent view that PC gamers will continue to support console-centric development, and be pleased with our ‘sloppy-second’ ports. This is not the sort of development that we should encourage.