“Prepare to Die,” bellowed Dark Souls’ PC port, face contorted with such rage that when the wind changed the phrase stayed that way, as a subtitle. It never specified the means, though, and while we may have hoped for frequent demise at the end of a steel sentinel’s sword, it looks like it might be treacly frame-rates and limited graphical options that do for us.
Eurogamer have copped a feel of the game recently, and report that while Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition plays rather more smoothly than its console ancestors, frame-rate is capped at 30FPS. The graphics options menu, meanwhile,is limited to resolution and refresh rate variations, plus yay/nay check-boxes for anti-aliasing and motion blur.
Most nonsensically, Eurogamer have observed that in-game Dark Souls seems to have inherited the 1024×720 internal framebuffer it used on consoles; in other words, resolution choice will allow you to play the game on unusual monitor sizes, but won’t do anything to improve image quality.
Et tu, From Software? In all fairness, the Japanese devs have admitted they’ve been having a “tough time” adapting to PC development. Good on them for trying their hand, and let’s hope modders can pull the best out of Dark Souls once it arrives on August 24.