It’s easy to overemphasise the importance of difficulty to Dark Souls, but I’d still argue it’s integral. From Software’s gruelling RPGs do loads else that’s cool, but part of the appeal is bound up with the same satisfaction you get from climbing a mountain. You want that tension, and the blessed relief of finally beating a boss after chucking yourself betwixt its jaws for the 38th time. That’s why I have mixed feelings about this mod for Dark Souls: Remastered that turns the first game into a roguelike with randomised weapons, enemies and levels, and only gives you five lives to reach the end.

I love it. It scares me. It’s made by “Grimrukh”, the same bloke that made the popular Daughters Of Ash mod.

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Like the chosen undead they follow, there are few walls in the Dark Souls modding scene that can’t be broken without persistence. Since the original PC release was salvaged by stubborn fans, Dark Souls’s modding community has spent years breaking a game that defies being broken. For the longest time, though, getting custom level geometry was a boss beyond modders’ might. But once more, through bull-headed trial and error, another obstacle has been knocked away with Dark Souls’ first third-party map, seven years after launch.

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Peter “Durante” Thoman, the tinkerer whose unofficial tools have helped improve wonky PC versions of console games including Dark Souls and Deadly Premonition, has officially founded his own company dedicated to porting and polishing games. He’s consulted professionally on several PC ports since rising to fame and adulation, including The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel and Rez Infinite, but his new PH3 Games will make a real go of it. Thoman doesn’t name any games they’re working on now, and of course they’re only one studio, but it’s good to hear he’s out there, doing his thing.

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Pain and purgatory simulator Dark Souls: Remastered was released a couple of weeks ago, and within hours it was already the playground of a well-known hacker. Malcolm Reynolds, who is known to players from his exploits in other Dark Souls games, was invading players and throwing an accursed, hacked fireball at them, which inflicts diseases and a curse that makes the game even more difficult. He also has a history of getting people softbanned , which means their save file is flagged and they can only play with a small pool of other players (others who ve been softbanned). I spoke to Malcolm Reynolds about why he does all this.

I always say this to people that ask, he tells me, but every time they release a game I honestly wish they would have good anti-cheat. (more…)

Crack open a nice cold soul, fans of permanently holding up a shield while you walk. Dark Souls: Remastered has been released on Steam today, a day earlier than we d believed. The original Prepare to Die Edition was pulled from sale two weeks ago, so if you didn t buy it then, this is now your only PC doorway to popular resort town Undead Burg. The Remastered edition is half-price for those who already own the old version. But the changes are minor, and there’s a more unnerving problem. Players are under attack from a notorious hacker, a dark spirit who invades worlds and corrupts the save files of innocent undeads. (more…)

The PC’s original ‘Prepare To Die’ edition of Dark Souls will be removed from sale on STeam tomorrow, ahead of the launch of the mildly fancier Remastered edition, so buy now if you want it for posterity. Folks who own Prepare To Die will get a 50% discount on Remastered, but that’ll still work out more expensive, so the reason to buy now would be to have the old version. Why might you want that if you’ve gone almost six years without it? Ah, well, y’know, I don’t know the mysteries of your mind. Perhaps this is the final prod you need to check out some weird mod you saw. Or perhaps you collect delisted Steam games? People. (more…)

Folks who have the original Dark Souls on Steam will be offered a 50% discount on the upcoming Dark Souls: Remastered, Bandai Namco confirmed today. The revisions and additions in the Remastered edition aren’t huge but if you fancy returning to a fancier Lordran, that beats paying full price.

Remastered will be the only way to buy Dark Souls on PC, as Bamco also announced that they’ll remove ye olde Prepare To Die Edition from sale on Steam in a few weeks. (more…)

Whatever Dark Souls maestros From Software have planned for their next game proper is an only slightly-teased mystery, but here’s some fine news to make our own souls ache less during that wait. Dark Souls, the original and greatest in the series (Bloodborne excepted) and also one of the best PC games ever, sez us, is getting a remastered edition.

Update: confirmed for PC on May 25 via Steam, with 60FPS 4K support. Hurrah! (more…)

There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it’s important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we’re here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made. (more…)

Dark days for the world. Maybe videogames can save us? Haha yes of course they can haha.

Here are some really good videogames, though. They’ll take you to a better place for a while. These are the RPS team’s 13 personal favourites from the current Steam Summer Sale: we believe in these games, and we believe that you should play them too. … [visit site to read more]