By now the unofficial confirmations regarding a possible upcoming PC port of From Software's unapologetically hardcore action RPG Dark Souls are numerous enough that it's no longer meaningful to file this in the "rumors and wishful thinking" category. With that in mind, here are the top three reasons why I personally think having this game on PC is such a great idea;

1) Ensuring the long-term preservation (as well as incremental enhancement) of a truly great game.

Being able to play old games can be a hassle regardless of platform but console hardware developers such as Microsoft and Sony aren't exactly helping by severely limiting or even going so far as to actively strip out backward compatibility from their dedicated gaming systems, and the infamously subpar quality of (some) so-called "HD" re-releases of late don't inspire much confidence in the motivation of publishers to keep their older console games fully and faithfully playable on future entertainment rigs. Now, the PC platform has its own share of problems - enough of them, in fact, that entire commercial services (such as The Artist Formerly Known as Good Old Games) have sprung up to deal specifically with an increasing demand for easily playable classics patched up to work well with modern computers and OS setups. But the operative term here is "patched", since the inherent flexibility of the PC platform obviously allows both commercial and non-commercial actors to tinker directly with the game files and develop workarounds which adapts or even tricks the product in question to function properly on current operative systems and hardware configurations. An added bonus in this respect is modability, but at least in the case of Dark Souls I have a feeling that the focused design of the game in question makes modding a comparatively superfluous activity. User-made high-res textures, custom shaders etc. make a certain amount of sense but I'd probably put such efforts in the "modern compatibility" column since they don't directly influence gameplay.

It goes without saying that none of this perhaps needlessly pedantic concern with preservation would mean much if the actual product we're concerned with here wasn't worth saving from the slings and arrows of outrageous backward incompatibility in the first place. But despite not actually having played much of Dark Souls myself (I own PS3 copies of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls but have only played the former game extensively), judging from what has already been written about the grim brilliance of From Software's latest RPG I think it's already fair to say that it's one of the finest releases in its genre during the current hardware generation. Whether or not the cool but not altogether essential online functionality is switched off at some point - and here the PC as a platform could presumably make unofficial networking solutions a viable option - the mere thought of having this challenging, lengthy, multi-layered and extremely replayable RPG experience readily available on digital distribution networks such as Steam etc. for many years to come is enough to warm my old school heart.

2) Increasing the likelihood of more frequent console-to-PC ports of high-quality niche titles.

Provided that all those petition writers and forumites who have expressed their strong desire for a computer version of Dark Souls manage to put their money where their mouths are and actually support this PC release the game could do very well indeed; both immediately at launch and during a longer time frame which includes the inevitable price drops and Steam sales etc. In turn, that would make it somewhat more likely that the recent bout of more or less unexpected PC announcements (including Warren Spector'sEpic Mickey 2 and Yakuza developer Toshihiro Nagoshi'sBinary Domain) might become a real trend and carry over into the next console era, during which increased technological parity between consoles and PCs should at least in theory make the business of porting a less jarring "oh shit, this looks awful in 1080p"-kind experience.

More specifically, Dark Souls is probably the one big test case in terms of an almost universally acclaimed but still relatively niche title, which in all likelihood would never have been ported if there hadn't been a very vocal demand for it among both ordinary gamers and more professional journalists and media content producers alike. The broadly Westernized aesthetics might seem to make this is a somewhat special case, but I personally doubt that since one would have expected to see a lot more of, say, King's Field on PC if this line of reasoning was correct. Thus, a successful PC port of Dark Souls potentially could play a significant role for future PC releases of previously console-exclusive Japanese games.

3) Promoting a cease-fire in the unhelpful console/PC culture wars.

This third point is rather speculative, and there have admittedly been some not entirely unreasonable arguments made for why Dark Souls - with its' gamepad-oriented control scheme and resolute lack of quickload functions - could very well end up alienating at least those exceedingly dogmatic PC players who conflate platform standards with design imperatives (which even otherwise well-meaning enthusiasts sometimes do). If that indeed turns out to be the case, it's their loss.

However, I do believe that Dark Souls represents a golden opportunity for those often uninformed skeptics who mostly associate console gaming in general with, say, Gears of War and Final Fantasy to discover the rich Japanese subculture of challenging and often surprisingly Western- and/or PC-influenced console titles. Indeed, apart from their most recent titles Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, it's not hard to see why From Software's focused gameplay and understated art design have enabled them to make a breakthrough of sorts in the West at the exact same time that some of the Eastern heavyweights such as Square-Enix are disappearing further down the rabbit holeof tired JRPG conventions. Ideally, Dark Souls could serve as a rebuttal both to the notion that all Japanese games are messy, impenetrable and influenced by the least tasteful anime imaginable as well as the embarrassingly wide-spread idea that console games by definition are dumbed-down and shallow compared to PC games.

But, yeah, all I really wanted to say with this is that it sure is nice to know that there's going to be at least one version of this game without the much-discussed frame rate issues in Blight Town...

1) is not guaranteed to happen. The developer can choose to abandon it, and mods can only happen if the engine/code is setup to support them.

It's funny. I didn't clamor for it and I didn't sign any petition. I honestly thought From Software would just ignore it, besides I already played it on the PS3. Now that it's coming out I'm definitely buying it for the PC again.

Hopefully this trend continues, because I really doubt I'm buying anymore consoles. Also I'd love to know these other rebuttals, it's not really going to help skeptics who dismiss console gaming if they got the one game they wanted to play...

modding dark souls sounds like sacrilege to me, I dunno.

I'd be curious so see it running with a solid high framerate. And if this helps Dragons Dogma's chances of coming out on PC then even better.

@mosdl:I'm no tech wizard, but it's my understanding that at least some form of modding/custom alterations/unofficial compatibility upgrading is almost always a case of being more or less difficult, never completely impossible. Obviously, there's always going to be a vast gulf between eminently moddable titles such as Skyrim and more notoriously closed systems such as Mass Effect 2 (the latter nonetheless has got some noteworthy graphical mods etc.). However, the basic point is precisely that developers can in principle abandon the game without that necessarily spelling the end of the game's life cycle (as it would in the console world), provided that the game in question has enough of a dedicated fan base (something Dark Souls should not have a problem amassing...).

@TheHT:Oh, had completely forgotten about Dragon's Dogma. Given its obvious inspiration from Western action RPGs it's definitely going to be interesting to see if that curious game ends up on PC as well.

@Animasta said:

modding dark souls sounds like sacrilege to me, I dunno.

I doubt there will be serious modding (besides the inevitable character/inventory editors that are already out for the 360 version, or texture edits.) They'd have to design the PC version with mods in mind and even then that leaves for compatibility issues online unless they separate the game up to have a offline only version of the game that accepts mods. But I think people are getting too excited without seeing any footage of the game or how they're going to handle the PC UI. This port could be total garbage or really great, it's too soon to call. I'm also interested in seeing if they're going to throw in anti-cheat or store the saves server side and make online mandatory.

I've always liked the opportunity / idea of modding things, but it would feel a bit like sacrilege in this case. Gameplay wise I mean ... getting the world they've made looking even lovelier is always welcome.

Dark Souls is a cool game but I think some people are going overboard with how great it is. The game has as many flaws as it does unique industry innovations.

Dark Souls is a cool game but I think some people are going overboard with how great it is. The game has as many flaws as it does unique industry innovations.

I always like the idea of a PC port of a console game.This happened a lot last gen, making it easier to play those games without having to worry about setting it up properly on your TV, or having it look like ass, because it's not in HD.

@Spoonman671 said:

@Humanity said:

Dark Souls is a cool game but I think some people are going overboard with how great it is. The game has as many flaws as it does unique industry innovations.

Yeah, hopefully they completely fix the input problems for the PC release.

Or the same problem they still didn't bother addressing from Demons Sous which is fighting boss type enemies with thrusting weapons like spears. Some of the Dark Souls battles had me getting pretty upset, not because they were hard, rather because of the numerous times my spear would just whiff air or go right between the bosses legs. When I fought Siff? ..rhe large wolf, I kept dying because 90% of all my attacks where just not hitting him despite being locked on and right on top of him. Eventually I put on a stone shield, super heavy armor and my super heavy axe and slowly whittled him down while even his most powerful spin AoE attack took off 1/4 of my stamina when blocking. I was happy I could move in but it sucked I had to completely change my playstyle because that game aspect was basically broken with that particular boss.

This game getting a pc release is only a big deal to people that either have not purchased the game yet, or only own a pc. I do not think this is a big deal beyond that. I would love better frame rate for sure, but I am not going to buy it twice. Im sure a few years down the line I will pick it up digitally after my console copy is long gone.

2 things of note as a pc gamer. I think this game would not benefit from a kb/m in the least. I also think they should lock this game down as tight as fuck on the pc. No mods of any kind and every kind of anti cheat/anti piracy software they can. DS should not be modifiable in any way. It does not need it and it wont do anything but break pvp and ruin the single player game.

Will be interested to see if it's not a terrible mess of a port, and how many people actually buy it. As mentioned above, hopefully this may inspire Dragons Dogma to come to PC. That game looked like a ton of fun.

This is a good blog, I don't agree with 2. The problem pc gaming has at the moment is that it's getting too many ports and not enough high quility pc built games.

Dark Souls is a very, very rare exception of a console game that would fit the pc, as pc gamers are the most hardcore gamers around. For the most part console games are designed for people sitting on a couch, the games are a passive experience that are not as demanding as they probably would be if specifically built for the pc only. With the console you lean back, with the pc you lean forward and expect more demanding games with higher depth and complexity. At the moment barring Total War, Sins Of The Solar Empire and a few other titles, hardcore pc titles are low budget, buggy un-polished shit from Paradox Interactive and europe rather than AAA quility. At the end of the day though, i'd still put up with all the rough bugs and shit in a game like stalker than play stalker 2 designed with a console in mind.

@Spoonman671: Oh yah those are impossible to hit with a spear or halberd. The halberd is actually an awesome weapon - I used a claymore for the first half of the game and then switched. Great damage, good range, the sweeping heavy attack sorta sucks but if you surprise them it's alright. The only downside are those few bosses. I honestly can't remember many others that gave me a ton of problems. Gaping Dragon - it was impossible for me to hit the tail so I missed out on the dragon axe. Sif was super difficult. I thought that golem at Sens Fortress would be a nightmare but it was super funny cause I jabbed him a few times in the ankle and he fell over and off the side of the bridge - was really hilarious.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock: total war sucks dude, it's been the same damn thing since Rome

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock: total war sucks dude, it's been the same damn thing since Rome

I don't recall standing in lines and taking gentlemanly turns to shoot each other, boat battles, linear story driven missions, artillery stikes, RPG character development, or any of the current agent possibilities. Nor the same progressive nature of multiplayer. Realm Divide or specific end game allegiance didn't exist either from what I recall. It has been years though, granted.

Edit: Ah, I understand now. You didn't like what I had to say about Paradox. Sorry dude, it's true. Regardless of how buggy Total War games have been, it's fucking nothing compared to Paradox. They don't give a shit about the quility of the games they put out. Super, super low budget. Hell man, the fucking main menu in Shogun 2 has better presentation than anything Paradox has put out.

You see this tree... better presentation than anything Paradox has put out.

When a tree is beating all 1005 games you have banged out, it's not a good sign.

I really hope to see more action hack-and-slash on the pc. As with how devs try to make RTS work on consoles, devs should also try to make action games work with mouse and keyboard. Overall, DS coming to PC is a great omen.

Games isn't out yet, port could be total garbage so anything you say is premature.

Will it catch Kony by the end of 2012?

We need to raise awareness to the potential of using darks souls to capture kon....wait a minute...

@Animasta said:

modding dark souls sounds like sacrilege to me, I dunno.

Chances are there will be things in place to prevent it. All I want for mods are graphics mods, because I know it's going to look like shit. Because it's not going to look much better than the console versions. Maybe someone will make a first person mod like the one for Skyrim that uses the third person models and animations so you can see your body and the arms and stuff animate the way they do in third person (instead of completely differently like they do in vanilla) and even that I wouldn't only try out of curiosity.

That said, the game could kinda benefit from crowdsourced fixes. The PVP is kind of janked all to hell in some ways.

I was happy to see news of this, and it's a game I want to get...  although it's based on reputation alone, pretty much. I'm not sure if a gamepad would be a good idea since it started out as a PC game, but maybe they've gotten better at this direction of porting over the years? 
 
I also wonder how the online component's going to be organized.

@ahoodedfigure said:

I was happy to see news of this, and it's a game I want to get... although it's based on reputation alone, pretty much. I'm not sure if a gamepad would be a good idea since it started out as a PC game, but maybe they've gotten better at this direction of porting over the years? I also wonder how the online component's going to be organized.

What... this game NEEDS to be played with a gamepad where are you coming from?

The online can only get better. If they change the specific mechanics I'm going to get really mad. Can't wait to go darkwraith on all those new DaS players.

@Animasta said:

modding dark souls sounds like sacrilege to me, I dunno.

Icompletely agree. The design of Dark Souls is very debilitate and already excellent.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

... hardcore pc titles are low budget, buggy un-polished shit from Paradox Interactive and europe rather than AAA quility.

As a german this kinda offends me ... there are good games being made in europe, maybe not "AAA Call of Duty"-big, but not everything made outside of the US is bad (Witcher 2 comes to mind).

@2HeadedNinja said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

... hardcore pc titles are low budget, buggy un-polished shit from Paradox Interactive and europe rather than AAA quility.

As a german this kinda offends me ... there are good games being made in europe, maybe not "AAA Call of Duty"-big, but not everything made outside of the US is bad (Witcher 2 comes to mind).

Don't bother listening to him. There are plenty of great games being exclusively made for the PC and made in Europe as well. Sure, a good amount of the stuff developed by Paradox or published by 1C is often less than polished, but they often do stuff that no mainstream developer would ever think about doing. Mount and Blade is often brilliant in its design, despite perhaps being too sandbox-y for its own good and having graphics and interface that look on par with 1999s top releases.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Regardless of the quality of any Paradox titles, that is a pretty sick tree.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

This is a good blog, I don't agree with 2. The problem pc gaming has at the moment is that it's getting too many ports and not enough high quility pc built games.

Dark Souls is a very, very rare exception of a console game that would fit the pc, as pc gamers are the most hardcore gamers around. For the most part console games are designed for people sitting on a couch, the games are a passive experience that are not as demanding as they probably would be if specifically built for the pc only. With the console you lean back, with the pc you lean forward and expect more demanding games with higher depth and complexity. At the moment barring Total War, Sins Of The Solar Empire and a few other titles, hardcore pc titles are low budget, buggy un-polished shit from Paradox Interactive and europe rather than AAA quility. At the end of the day though, i'd still put up with all the rough bugs and shit in a game like stalker than play stalker 2 designed with a console in mind.

What? Niche markets are simply more common on the PC, since more people own computers than they do consoles. It has nothing to do with body position. A more likely difference would be the input scheme, but even that is a weak argument.

I was surprised that they haven't even tried to make a Souls game for PC before. It seems like a style of game that would thrive there.

Not sure if this will. but i hope it does affect the points you make.

@mosdl said:

1) is not guaranteed to happen. The developer can choose to abandon it, and mods can only happen if the engine/code is setup to support them.

Killjoy.

I've played so much Dark Souls already but I guess a version running at a silky smooth 60fps would be great. I could try a strength or magic build instead of my dependable dexterity build. Actually now I'm looking forward to it damn it!

Hyperbole.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock:

Total war more polished than than Paradox? It's like you've never even played a Total War game at release, Medieval II and Empire were broken when they came out.

Should I feel bad for not caring about this game at all? It just sounds like a nightmare to me.

@Phatmac said:

Should I feel bad for not caring about this game at all? It just sounds like a nightmare to me.

I think it's a great game since I personally love the unique mechanics and the universe (the monster designs are some of the best) but despite the glowing reviews of the series it's still a very niche product that will not appeal to everyone. Having said that, the difficulty is greatly exaggerated. It's really not that hard. It's just that people are impatient or aren't used to games not giving them a free pass if they fail. If there's one game I will compare it to is that it's essentially a 3D Castlevania Symphony of The Night. Except slower paced (but still satisfying) combat.

Even if you don't like the combat mechanics it's still a marvel in level design, environmental story telling and unique multiplayer components. I could say a lot more since I consider it the best game this generation but it doesn't change the fact that it's still very niche.

@ahoodedfigure: The soft, smooth precision of analog sticks on a gamepad really does come in handy when carefully navigating your character through Dark Souls' frequently treacherous environments. The binary harshness of keyboard inputs notwithstanding, I'm sure a good port can make M&K controls at least decent (regardless of whether the UI is adapted properly, something I'm far less confident of).

Really curious to see how this game will fare on the PC, hope they do a good job on the port. I have been bigging up this game to PC gaming collegues since it came out, it's my favorite game of all time. I hope the DLC rumors are true too, would love some new areas to die in, and some new monsters to be mauled by.

@SethPhotopoulos said:

I was surprised that they haven't even tried to make a Souls game for PC before. It seems like a style of game that would thrive there.

Not really. I mean there is a reason why no one makes that style of game any more on PC.

I can foresee massive amounts of pirating going on - it won't save any world.

@Animasta said:

modding dark souls sounds like sacrilege to me, I dunno.

What if you mod it to be even more difficult and punishing?

@Kaiserreich said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock:

Total war more polished than than Paradox? It's like you've never even played a Total War game at release, Medieval II and Empire were broken when they came out.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970701643/games?tab=all

When it comes to low quility pc games, Paradox are the worst offenders. I'm not saying all the games they put out are terrible. Some are very good and have that niche pc appeal.

However, saying they are as polished as Total War (or most games) is folly. With Total War I can take it from practically any angle to use that argument. Even something like Empire, part of the reason it had problems was due to the sheer scope of it practically 0 AAA games can touch to this day. With Paradox little or large, they tend to just get banged out the door. It's more quantity than quility.

Alot of the games sell good as well. Magicka sold something like, what was it? 1-2 million units and 4 million DLC sales? Thats more than Shogun 2. Yet the game has nowere near the polish or budget.

Imo it didn't deserve those sales at all given the state it was in.

When its a bad console port, pc gamers complain and throw hissy fits. When it's a low quility pc game in an even worse state, they totally ignore it because it's a pc game basically.

Bad mentality.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Kaiserreich said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock:

Total war more polished than than Paradox? It's like you've never even played a Total War game at release, Medieval II and Empire were broken when they came out.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970701643/games?tab=all

When it comes to low quility pc games, Paradox are the worst offenders. I'm not saying all the games they put out are terrible. Some are very good and have that niche pc appeal.

However, saying they are as polished as Total War (or most games) is folly. With Total War I can take it from practically any angle to use that argument. Even something like Empire, part of the reason it had problems was due to the sheer scope of it practically 0 AAA games can touch to this day. With Paradox little or large, they tend to just get banged out the door. It's more quantity than quility.

Alot of the games sell good as well. Magicka sold something like, what was it? 1-2 million units and 4 million DLC sales? Thats more than Shogun 2. Yet the game has nowere near the polish or budget.

Imo it didn't deserve those sales at all given the state it was in.

When its a bad console port, pc gamers complain and throw hissy fits. When it's a low quility pc game in an even worse state, they totally ignore it because it's a pc game basically.

Bad mentality.

The problem is you probably shouldn't be playing high quality console titles on a pc. You should use your pc to write documents or play Bejewled but leave the gaming to real gaming machines. Listen I'm not saying you can't play games on a pc - I played Minesweeper when I was younger too. You should just leave great atmospheric games and stop ruining them by trying to recreate the magic on a pc. Total War is a great example, it is like an excell spreadsheat with animated moving tamagotchis on your screen.