Darksiders II and the triumphant return of PC gaming

primesuspect

Darksiders II and the triumphant return of PC gaming

Soda

SICK. Because looking forward to torchlight 2, borderlands 2, and guild wars 2 isn't enough.

Sinjet

Finally! I have been looking forward to Darksiders 2 and Sleeping Dogs and my dilemma lately has been weather to get them on console or PC. I prefer PC but my fear being shoddy ports as you discussed; and this is the only article I have been able to find on Darksiders and its PC performance. Just wanted to say thanks for the great article. I now know I can safely get it with the best graphics and performance.

BuddyJ

Darksiders II sounds really cool. If there's ever a Space Marine sequel, I hope it uses the Darksiders II engine or at least brings in the changes to controls. The short gameplay and necessity for console controls in Space Marine have limited desire to play it, sadly.

When you said Darksiders II has Shadow of the Colossus elements to it, I was sold. This game will rule.

Church4252

This game comes out around my birthday. I cannot wait to play this!!!

mertesn

Brian, you have this way of using words to make me want whatever game or hardware or food you describe. I hate you.

Sure

Hype and bullshit, a common port job is in NO WAY "the .. return of PC gaming"

Thrax

What is being added to the rendering engine to differentiate it from the deferred DX9 renderer they'll be using for the console release?

I respect the addition of PC-specific controls, but I'd like to know more about what they've done to respect the performance advantage of the PC.

Quady-the-Turnip

"triumphant return of PC gaming"...

where did it go?

Thrax

It's no secret that the PC gaming industry was on the decline for a few years while the current-gen consoles reached the peak of their lifecycle (2008-2011). Now that the graphics tech in consoles is a good 8 years and three to four generations behind the PC, however, the pendulum has swung back in the PC's favor. PC gamers have recently received a fat wad of high-tech DX11 titles.

We'll repeat the "omg PC gaming is dying" "no way, consoles are just strong" "YAY PC GAMING IS BACK CONSOLES SUCK" cycle in approximately 2017.

Mr-TRiot

I'm happy to hear it's not tacked on console controls. There's nothing worse for a PC game then bad controls...

tanto

The wii u version is the best according to them.

The functionality makes it better

graphics dont make the game better

trooster89

Soda said:

SICK. Because looking forward to torchlight 2, borderlands 2, and guild wars 2 isn't enough.

I am going to be so poor. So many games, so little time.

Tushon

trooster89 said:

Soda said:

SICK. Because looking forward to torchlight 2, borderlands 2, and guild wars 2 isn't enough.

I am going to be so poor. So many games, so little time.

You're gonna have a bad time ... with us!

Sledgehammer70

@Thrax

A lot of it is how the game is setup to utilize multi-threading of today's PC CPU's. Also the addition of being able to adjust the .config file to boost that little bit more out of the game.

Overall Darksiders II is still very much a DX9 title and will not make use of DX11 perks. The biggest reason for this is the choice we took in crafting the game around an art style over a hyper realistic 'OMG that hair looks so real' style. In the end we are very happy with our choices and can’t wait for both the PC and Console crowd to get their hands on the title.

Quady-the-Turnip

@Thrax, sorry, but this is one of my MASSIVE pet peeves.

"It's no secret that the PC gaming industry was on the decline for a few years while the current-gen consoles reached the peak of their lifecycle (2008-2011)."

Did it? Really? I really don't see it, and I never have. The PC (and Mac, and increasingly Linux) contains such a massive range of gaming options, that I don't think it has ever been in decline in the years I've been playing games on it. The years you quote gave us Fallout 3, Starcraft 2, Mirror's Edge, Dragon Age, Civ V, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Wrath of the Lich King, and Darksiders itself, and that's only counting big budget blockbuster games. I'm aware that not all of those are PC exclusive, but they're games that I never heard complaints about shoddy porting. And I could keep listing more.

It's completely true that the console cycle creates this "death of PC gaming" cycle based around genuine technology differences for your average end consumer. It's also true that big game companies tend to follow the trends of that cycle in what they put out. But this bizarrely constant idea that "PC gaming is dieing" has never held water that I've seen.

I hope this doesn't come across as too angry or fanboy-ish, I just felt the need to vent, less at what's going on here on Icrontic, and more about other people out there on the internent and in meatspace.

Thrax

Did it? Really? I really don't see it, and I never have.

What you may or may not know about me is that I work for AMD. Specifically, I am the global marketing manager for gaming-grade Radeon cards. I can tell you, most certainly, that the revenue of the gaming industry and its dependents dipped during the time period I described. It's part of my job to know how to market around this.

Note that I did not say that PC gaming is dead or dying. What I did say is that we'll see the same prognostications again when we hit the height of the next-gen console cycle. Why will these prognostications occur? Because the height of the consoles will sap focus from the PC industry for a few years, increasing the number of multi-platform launches ("ports") and decreasing the number of PC exclusives. This process will course correct, as it is right now, when the console cycle hits its tail end.

Soda

Yeah, Thrax is quite right on this. PC gaming and consoles are linked, and they cycle based off of each other. Something comes out that boosts PC sales, consoles dip slightly. It's far more noticeable however, when huge console releases separated by 5 years occur. Also, just because a current console cycle could be causing decreased PC gaming sales, doesn't mean big titles don't come out during that time. In fact, it makes them more noticeable, because companies like blizzard can sell a game they release no matter WHAT condition the market is in, where as smaller companies may not. Anyway, if you don't believe him, I'm sure the market numbers are around somewhere, since all the companies that make their profit mostly on gaming hardware that I can think of are publicly traded.

Byron

I just started the PC game. No video options other than resolution, gamma, and V-sync are available in game. It starts at 1280x720, and then it fuckin doesn't save those changes after making me restart the game to change them. On top of that, there is no main menu that you can access until after you go through low resolution cutscene stuff. And I still don't know if the resolution change will hold this time.

primesuspect

I also have a PC copy, and my resolution changes are saved when I exit and restart.

primesuspect

Okay, I've got the PC retail release, and while the game is still truly awesome, I am disappointed that a lot of the glitches and bugs I noticed in the beta are still present, most notably texture problems.

It's especially jarring because for the most part the game looks amazingly beautiful, and then you see a low-res texture here and there and it just really sticks out, bad.

There is no graphic options at all other than "resolution", which kind of boggles my mind since I was told point-blank that there would be more graphic options. I was also told that the graphics would be further tweakable via .ini file, but there's nothing to be found.

The game is worth buying, for sure. There's a bajillion hours of content, deep and satisfying combat, beautiful graphics, a gratifying storyline, and enough variety for any kind of gamer... but the PC version is not what I had hyped it up to be. It doesn't feel quite like a console port, but the disappointments I've experienced are valid.

justln

WHAT A BULLSHIT PORT! Seriously, I'm so mad that Vigil/THQ decides to screw the PC gamers over this.

Graphical customization is missing, I can still accept this but key bindings? WTF is wrong with them?

UPSLynx

@primesuspect have you looked for .cfg file tweaks? I think Mat knows something about all that.

primesuspect

UPSLynx said:

@primesuspect have you looked for .cfg file tweaks? I think Mat knows something about all that.

There is nothing. Just PAKs. No .ini files, no .cfg files. No way to even change keybindings, as @justln up there mentioned.

Thrax

I bet those ini files are stored in %appdata%, %localappdata% or My Documents.

primesuspect

In %appdata&/local/Darksiders2 there are three files:

controls.dcon
gamepad.dcon
options.dopt

Opened in a raw text editor, they are just garbage characters. They're not plaintext config files.

CB

Having to modify INIs to change settings does not count as being able to change settings.

primesuspect

Sledge posted about key bindings:

To access the many keyboard commands within Darksiders II or even adjust the keyboard button layout follow the below steps. To access your Keyboard commands
Simply hit 'o' on your keyboard and navigate to the controller icon to the far right of the icon options list. Once you click the controller icon simply select the 'scythe' icon again to the first right of the icon options. (See the image below)

To remap your keyboard options simply click on the current keystroke option within the menu to reveal the remap screen. At this point hit the keyboard command you would like to use. (Image Below)

HorriblePCVersion

"I needed to give context for why I feel so strongly that Darksiders II is a triumphant return to PC gaming from the developer’s side of things.""

and

"On the question of graphics options, I was told by both Fitzloff and Everett that the PC version will have a fully tweakable config file as well as the standard in-game graphics options for various resolutions, settings, and options. However, if you want to get really deep, the config file will be there."

What a joke! There is no ini file either, what a bunch of lies. One of the worst PC ports ever.

Sure

hahahaha



yea man PC gaming is BACK!

primesuspect

Yes, Slowbro, this was covered three days ago.