Can Dark Souls Remastered improve on the modded PC original?
Dark Souls Remastered is fast approaching its May 25th launch and based on our recent look at work-in-progress PS4 Pro code, there's the sense that we're looking at a refined, optimised port rather than a fuller, top-to-bottom refresh of the whole game. So where does that leave the original 'Prepare to Die' PC version, already improved significantly via some heaving community modding? Namco Bandai is actually withdrawing that version of the game to new buyers and offering a 50 per cent discount to coax existing users into purchasing the remaster, but with mods like DSFix and SweetFX already enhancing the game significantly, the official game has a lot to match.
Disregarding the game's mods for a moment, the Prepare to Die edition is clearly not fit for purpose in the modern era. Notoriously, it lets you change the output resolution, while natively it's still only running at 1024x720 - the same as on the last-gen consoles. Add in the fact that it's capped at 30fps with poorly implemented mouse and keyboard support, and the dismay back in 2012 is understandable. Compared to Dark Souls 3, where From Software's proficiency in PC conversions has grown hugely, the first outing was a massive disappointment for fans.
Coming to the rescue, Durante's DSFix smartly worked around its limits to let you play at any resolution, while also liberating the game from its 30fps limit. Eventually, this injector mod added options for anti-aliasing, depth of field, anisotropic filtering and screen-space ambient occlusion. Factor in the numerous fan-made texture mods for Dark Souls on PC since, and it's a transformed experience to the one the developer originally intended. The catch is that not everything is perfectly optimised with these mods: to this day the game still struggles to run at a smooth 1080p at 60fps, even on the most powerful hardware.
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