Well, we can put the difficulty akin to roguelike though the level is not randomly generated. The benefit of this on PC? No more 10 FPS at Blighttown.

And you look at that. Currently 20888 signatures in 17 hours. Surely this will convince Namco-Bandai? If the game is ported to PC and sold well surely this will encourage more Japanese publishers/developers to take PC more seriously?

There’s new evidence that Namco Bandai’s dark, tough RPG, Dark Souls, will be coming to PC. A new post on the Dark Souls Facebook page says that “an announcement is coming” and there’s a reveal page up asking for Facebook likes. Interesting.

Elsewhere, in magazine land, the “Next Month” page of issue 202 of PC Powerplay, spotted on NeoGaf, features the blood red “YOU DIED” message that Dark Souls players will be very, very familiar with. Very interesting.

A petition to bring Dark Souls to the PC was started earlier this year. It gained tens of thousands of signatures and gained the attention of some higher-ups at Namco Bandai. It looks like all those signatures may have paid off. Would you pick up Dark Souls on PC?

A huge petition from fans helped to bring Dark Souls to the PC. Great news. But then, like a horror movie villain waiting for the most dramatic moment to strike, Games for Windows Live leapt out of the dark and started rubbing its gurning corporate face all over our lovely RPG. Get off it, GfWL, go on, get! Back in the closet with you.

So, in response, a group of players organised another petition asking Namco Bandai to surgically remove all trace of Games for Windows Live from Dark Souls. “GFWL is unpopular, difficult to use, inconvenient, and can be very annoying for many users,” says the petition. It has 20,350 signatures.

Namco Bandai have responded to say that the fans have been heard, and hint that the Games for Windows Live setup isn’t necessarily a done deal. There may yet be hope.

Namco Bandai publishing producer Daisuke Uchiyama told Edge that the developers chose Games for Windows Live because it’s “the established server that we used for the Xbox 360 version” but suggests that “the partnership decision is still ongoing.”

“We might have another announcement soon regarding the platform we’ll be using,” he added.

Head of marketing, Carlson Choi had this to say. “There have been a lot of questions about the digital partner, but we’re still in April and the game isn’t out until August 24. There is still a lot of time for marketing beats. More information will come – maybe at E3.”

Dark Souls has a smart and unusual online element. In the console version, players can leave each other messages. As you travel through the world, you can look at dead players’ blood stains and see their deaths play out as ghostly apparitions, providing hints as to what might lie around the next bend. At high levels players can even jump into each other’s game worlds to team up and fight monsters, or murder each other.

It’d be a shame to see these intriguing features marred by sign in problems, connection drops and all the other issues that come with that Games for Windows Live logo.

As we reported in September, Xbox Live will be a major part of Windows 8. Despite concerns that PC gamers are being pushed to the sidelines in favour of the console service, this has the potential to be a very good thing. After all, well-integrated support for games could do away with the need for Games for Windows Live, whose primary purpose seems to be to inject a strain of Kafka-esque absurdity into our hobby.

NeoGamr recently asked Microsoft whether GfWL would be receiving the axe with the launch of Windows 8, and the answer, emphatically, is no.

“Microsoft continues to support the Games for Windows platform” their response reads, “but we are making new investments in Metro style games. For the core PC gamer we launched ‘Age of Empires Online’ last year and ‘Microsoft Flight’ on February 29.”

This comes as gamers rally to prevent the upcoming Dark Souls PC from using the service. Its unpopularity comes from its tendency to foist multiple updates on players and its occasional ability to break games entirely.

Microsoft seem keen to reassure us that they’re still producing PC-exclusive games, but it’s only by solving the well-documented issues with their online gaming service that they’re going to win back the support of players. I recently got trapped in a cycle of broken GfWL updates while trying to play the Mortal Kombat Kollection, a curse I only broke when I tempted a passing stranger into taking my place. Sometimes, when it’s very quiet, I can still hear the sound of distant yelling coming from my Steam library.

Eurogamer have conducted an illuminating interview with Dark Souls producer Daisuke Uchiyama at E3. Sadly, it’s not good news. Dark Souls PC will still suffer from the technical issues that plagued the console versions, including the serious frame rate issues that affected certain sections of the game.

Oh dear.

“In terms of the PC version, the quick answer is no, [we won't be fixing the frame rate problems]. Because we wanted to get the PC version out as soon as possible,” said the producer.

“It’s more strictly a port from the console version. We haven’t been able to step up into doing any specific optimisation for PC.”

Daisuke told the website that time restraints and a lack of experience in PC ports is to blame: “To be completely honest, we’re having a tough time doing it due to our lack of experience and knowledge in terms of porting to PC. First we thought it would be a breeze, but it’s turned out not to be the case. We’re still developing right now – we’re crunching right now.”

From Software are bringing three new venues, four new bosses and additional weapons to the game in an attempt to compensate for the lack of optimisation.

Wow. My dreams of the definitive version of Dark Souls hitting PC on August 21st were just shattered. Porting framerate issues? Really? I appreciate that From Software might have encountered unexpected issues in development but I’d prefer a delayed release than a slightly shoddy one. And the threat of Games For Windows Live still lingers.

Petition time?

There were some worrying noises from the Dark Souls camp during E3 last week. Dark Souls producer Daisuke Uchiyama told Eurogamer that From Software “haven’t been able to step up into doing any specific optimisation for PC,” admitting that the framerate problems present in the console versions will likely persist. “It’s more strictly a port from the console version,” he said.

Later in the show, Graham asked Nobu Taguchi of Namco Bandai America about the challenges of bringing Dark Souls to PC. Taguchi painted a picture of a studio surprised by the sudden demand for a PC version, struggling to meet the expectations of a new audience. He admits that “from an experience background From Software and Namco Bandai ourselves, we don’t really have that strong PC experience.”

The project started when a petition showing support for a PC version of Dark Souls gained tens of thousands of signatures within a month. That spurred Namco Bandai into action. “At that point that’s when we brought it over to From Software to discuss the concept of ‘are you able to create this PC version of the game that everybody is asking for?’” Saguchi explained. “From Software being very community orientated said that “We’ll try out best” but one of the concepts they were fearing was that just bringing out a straight port wouldn’t suffice at all.”

From Software decided to expand the game to “alleviate” the optimisation drawbacks, in Taguchi’s words, “to create a brand new location and a strong extension which really expands what the game was originally about.” That extension takes includes the extra bosses and a new PvP mode being slotted into the Prepare to Die edition.

Will it be worth putting up with poor performance to access the new areas? Saguchi suggests that the severity of the port problems will vary depending on the power of the player’s machine. “While the game hasn’t been tweaked itself, because it’s very difficult to tweak, but for people who play on the PC, which is arguably a lot more stronger format to work off of, it does improve the framerate issues,” he said.

“I think it’s really inherent on the person’s setup in terms of what kind of power the game can use. So it’s a little bit more difficult to determine, it really kind of shifts along with the processor that you’re selling.”

“It’s definitely going to be better than the console version,” he added later. “It’s just that in terms of what PC gamers are maybe looking at in terms of what they usually play, it may not match up.”

Yeah, Steam+ Game For Windows-LIVE. At least can use steam for installation & offline profile for GFWL.

Well, the link to Steam now says "the item is unavailable in your region". I suspect it'd be the same as Arkham City, where those who purchased before can still access the game, but online components won't be accessible. Conclusion, f* you GFWL.

lol i cannot find this game in steam anymore, use search also came up nothing.... should have pre-order earlier 

Implying I didn't have $12 credits from trading in the free games.

Just to ask, where did most of you people buy the game from? I can't get it from Steam so where did you buy it from?