You may love this game on one of the geriatric twins, the Xbox 360 or PS3, but you're really shortchanging yourself the ability to experience Dark Souls II the way it was meant to be played if you aren't entertaining the idea of running the game at 1080p and 60 frames per second.
A couple of sites have rolled out some footage of the PC version in action, along with some startling shots of the game at 4K resolutions. It's quite a gap between what you play on PC and what you get on the home consoles.
There is a bit of a diminished return for some PC gamers, though, as the game's level of detail in the model quality and texture resolution don't quite live up to the standards that current generation PC GPUs are capable of producing. So while the game looks as sharp as the Wusthof hollow-edge Iron Chef cutting knife, the washed out textures and low-density models are on full display.
First, check out some of the screenshots of the Xbox 360 and PS3, courtesy of direct feed images from Gear Nuke.
Now here's one from the PC version at 4K resolution, courtesy of PC Gamer. Behold, the mighty power of the Glorious PC Master Race.
The fidelity of the assets mostly stay the same, save for, of course, the higher, crisper, cleaner resolution offered by the glorious power of the PC.
Here's another glimpse of the Xbox 360 and PS3's paltry and mudded native 720p (although based on Gear Nuke's estimation the PS3 version sounds like it could be upscaled to 720p) screenshots compared to the PC version at 4K. Of course, Digital Foundry does note that both versions are running at native 1280x720p. Check them out below.
And now... for the PC version running at 4K.
Digital Foundry also rolled out a frame-rate comparison of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, as you can see them barely maintain 30fps at a paltry 720p, dipping down as low as 14fps at times. Check it out.
That kind of awful judder and inconsistent frame-rate is the reason it was hard for me to appreciate games on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, Gamersyde – courtesy of community modder Durante – offers gamers a look at Dark Souls II running at 1080p at 60 frames per second on PC. You will need a pretty hefty rig to see the video and I should warn you that the Flash version didn't work as well for me as the HTML5 version. But whatever works best for you is what's recommended to use.
As you can see, there's a massive difference between the sub-30fps gameplay on the geriatric twins and the smooth as a baby's bottom gameplay on the PC, running at 60-high-class-frames per second.
While the PC version of Dark Souls II may have been delayed in comparison to its console-counterparts, the lack of screen-tearing, higher resolution and the ability to mod the game like Skyrim's little sibling should make for a much richer and more engaging experience.
Do I even need to say it? Glorious PC Master Race for the win.
