Day One Dark Souls 3 Patch Is The Real Deal!
Over the course of my review for Dark Souls 3, one issue I cited was the game’s lackluster performance in a few areas. While Dark Souls 3 is beautifully optimized for the most part, I did notice a few zones caused a heavy drop. PC users will feel this impact much less than console users, but it’s a huge impact on two difficult areas, and as such, it definitely hampered my enjoyment of both regions.
Fortunately, From Software has started to show they can develop well for the PC. With this day one patch, that bumps the game up to version 1.03, players can expect much more stable performance all around. Even as of writing, there’s another patch in the midst of dropping that further optimizes the game. I’ve gone back and tested each of these areas extensively, and found there to be no frame drops, even in heated battle.
That’s not all that players can expect though, as this patch also balances items that players in Japan noted were a bit too strong. A performance increase, along with the balance patch that helps level the playing field should help create a fairly even playing field on release day. That said, I’ve yet to find any notes of the game having fixed the issues with magic scaling.
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“Lastly, the culmination of updates makes bosses a smidge tougher, and each boss got roughly a fifth more HP to their pool, helping keep things suitably challenging near the start, while allowing bosses to scale a bit smoother all around.”
There are also various tweaks to the multiplayer side of the game, and finally, Bonfires prove to be a safe haven for players. No more invasions can occur if a player is near the bonfire, but otherwise, the moment you leave the warmth of the coiled sword, you’re fair game, as it should be.
Lastly, the culmination of updates makes bosses a smidge tougher, and each boss got roughly a fifth more HP to their pool, helping keep things suitably challenging near the start, while allowing bosses to scale a bit smoother all around. Between the various improvements to the game, be it the mechanics themselves, or the actual processing of the game and how it runs, it’s really impressive how quickly From has improved on the coding side of things.
From the abysmal port that was Dark Souls 1, to the smooth yet still buggy release of Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3 isn’t just a culmination of all the ideas that came between past games, but it is a testament to From Software being able to grow and meet the expectations of a studio that has seemingly come out of nowhere.