Digital Foundry to the rescue, again
Dark Souls III is weeks away from a worldwide launch, but it just released in Japan. In fact, the Xbox One version actually hit the Xbox marketplace a little early, meaning that initial impressions are already surfacing.
Digital Foundry, many people’s go-to resource on video game performance, has already had a chance to run Dark Souls III through the usual tests. Its findings, which are eloquently laid out in the above-embedded video, aren’t optimal but aren’t damning either.
With regard to resolution, it seems as if Xbox One isn’t hitting the 1080p that the PS4 beta version was at. Instead, Xbox One has a native resolution of 900p and upscales. But, Digital Foundry remarks that it “still looks very solid.”
As far as frame rate goes, consoles are locked at 30 frames per second on consoles. On Xbox One, it seems to remain mostly constant, but the introduction sees dips to 25 because of volumetric fog. Boss battles can be worse, with drops to around 20 at times. Still, Digital Foundry comments that “it’s only in isolated spots where Xbox One struggles, but when it does, it’s very noticeable.”
These issues aren’t ideal, but the game still seems to be plenty playable. Anyone overly concerned with things like this probably isn’t playing on an Xbox One anyway, because these are the sort of things that pop up regularly on that platform. No, those folks are more than likely squared away with their PC version, excited that Dark Souls III is supposedly going to run at a solid 60 FPS. We shouldn’t have to wait much longer to see if that’s the case.
