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[Jack_Bread]

I just started PvPing with my strength character. Oh man, the greataxe is wonderful. I've got mine +10 with 40 str and charcoal pine resin, I've been 2-3 shotting people. The few times I've lost so far have been due to poor stamina management against slippery caster types. Easiest dragon head stone of my life.

[Neyvn]

Just wanted to say I am Streaming it...
http://www.twitch.tv/ausgrizzly
Aussie so take care...

[GrizzlyAdamz]

I admit I've seen a lot of the same trend continuing.  Dark Souls 2 seems to be more "fast roll everywhere and throw magic, scoff at those melee guys" more than anything else.  Shields and physical damage got nerfed, and there's magic everywhere.

Shields nerfed how? In general I've felt more confident in my shield as a mostly pure melee than I ever did in DS1. But I assume you're talking PvP.

The guard break comes to mind.

[Gunner-Chan]

Shields only really seem weaker instead of actually act weaker in my own experience so far. And even then mostly since there's a lot less shields that block 100% physical damage. The guard break is so slow that if you got hit by it in PVP you pretty much deserve to lose on the spot, the kick was a lot faster and more deadly there.

I have actually found that if you're a lazy ass and forget to upgrade your shields this time that stability differences are also way more obvious than they used to be.

[WillowLuman]

Alright, I really really want to play this. But for the life of me I just can't figure out how to get the ESSENTIAL items/bloodstains/spells to render. The rest of the game looks perfectly fine and runs tolerably. But the damn things just won't render. Funny thing is, when I booted it up for the first time, the waterfall in Things Betwixt rendered, but upon discovering that the item on the body beneath it did not, I increased the graphics settings. The waterfall disappeared, and despite setting everything back, the waterfalls still do not return.

Should I just uninstall/reinstall?

[Gunner-Chan]

Hugo do you have an integrated graphics card? I've heard sometimes the particle effects go missing when it decides it wants to use integrated graphics instead of whatever card you have installed.

[WillowLuman]

I do have an integrated Intel card, and a separate AMD Radeon card. Steam in system info lists the Radeon as my card, so I assume that's what my games are using, but I have no idea how to check which card the game is actually using.

[Gunner-Chan]

I know Nvidia has a control panel, do you have some kind of AMD equivalent you can configure?

[nenjin]

Alright, I really really want to play this. But for the life of me I just can't figure out how to get the ESSENTIAL items/bloodstains/spells to render. The rest of the game looks perfectly fine and runs tolerably. But the damn things just won't render. Funny thing is, when I booted it up for the first time, the waterfall in Things Betwixt rendered, but upon discovering that the item on the body beneath it did not, I increased the graphics settings. The waterfall disappeared, and despite setting everything back, the waterfalls still do not return.

Should I just uninstall/reinstall?

Verify the install through Steam before you go that far. (Somewhere on the property page of the game entry in the library.)

If your integrated GPU and your PCIE extension slot were in conflict, it'd be a major conflict for your whole system, not just for Dark Souls 2. I'd first check your card is in range for the game specs. If I read the links above right, the game engine was written for DX9 compatibility. So it's kinda unlikely your card is that out of spec. So next I'd check drivers. Failing that, reinstall.

[WillowLuman]

Alright, I'm fairly sure that it's using my Intel HD 4000, instead of the AMD one, since through a google for "missing particle effects" I find people with the same intel card having the same problem. The AMD one is well above the minimum specs (but still below the "recommended" one in the readme) for the game, so if I could just get it to freaking use it somehow, I'm sure it would be fine. Problem is, AMD doesn't come with its own menu app.

[nenjin]

No, because the integrated chip is part of the motherboard. You need to go into your BIOS and turn off the integrated graphics card so it only finds your Radeon one.

I'm surprised. A few years ago I thought PCs wouldn't even start if two different graphics cards/chips were loaded.

[WillowLuman]

Turned it off and downloaded drivers for the AMD Radeon one. It's not recognizing the drivers though. DS2 works in the main menus but crashes upon the actual game

[Mishrak]

Did you verify your install via steam (as was suggested earlier)?  If so, you might try completely uninstalling and reinstalling your GPU drivers.

Do other games give you problems too, or is it just Dark Souls 2?

[Jelle]

You guys up for some lore discussion? I've been pondering the story, and there's a couple of things that elude me.

Warning, major spoilers.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why do the supposed dragons look pretty much exactly what were called wyverns in the previous installment? Was it an art change, or do the people of the time of drangleic simply call wyverns dragons?

Why does the ancient dragon at the peak of dragon shrine contain a giant soul? Does this have something to do with the presence of giant corpses in aldia's manor, or is it just a practical gameplay element to allow the player another giant soul?

Why do the dragon remnants covenant revere the black dragon kalameet? Even their dragon armor depicts the third eye of calamity, so there is no mistaking. Kalameet himself was already an oddity, being called a dragon but looking quite a bit different from the ancient stone ones.

Why does vendrick's soul have the same icon as a lord soul? Should he not have a dark soul, being a man? He did absorb the four lord souls as the cursed undead, but since those four are up and about again at the time of the story, one would assume he no longer holds any such lord souls.

Why is vendrick's soul located in a small inconspicuous cave in the shrine of amana? How did he part with it anyway, and why is it there specifically.

What did vendrick steal from the giants? Something that let's him breathe life in the lifeless as evident by his golems, and also something the giants held dear, but what could it be?

Why do the giants look so different from how we know them? Hawkeye gough, the blacksmith, and the three in sen's fortress all had their faces covered so it's possible they already had a gaping hole in their face, but these new ones also look lanky and imaciated. Have they gone hollow, can giants even become hollow? It would explain their crazed determination anyway.

Why can we absorb the soul of the giant king twice? Once in the memory, again as the last giant under the fort. Why is the soul of the last giant not a giant soul?

Who or what destroyed ash lake and killed the ancient dragon in the dragon memory? It's fair to say the dead dragon is the covenant leader one we met in the previous installment but it's not certain. Who or what could destroy all those mighty archtrees though.

Where is the kiln of the first flame? Since we're another chosen undead or however the game calls it, our final destination should be where we can link the flame, yet it is not even mentioned.

What is  the throne of want? Was it created by someone and if so by whom, and does it bear some connection to the kiln? The throne's style does resemble the kiln somewhat.

What does nashandra hope to do with the throne of want? All she ever had to do to bring forth an age of dark is prevent the linking of the flame, so why does she lead the chosen undead straight to there?

Why did vendrick's rule not see an age of dark, seeing as he did not link the flame? Or maybe the story plays right at the end of vendrick's age of dark? Or maybe there is a bit of a grace period where the flame can manage to stay alight until a new chosen undead comes along?

Why were there only hollow at the end of vendrick's rule? Linking the flame makes the curse subside, and vendrick did not link the flame. Shouldn't there have been hollows?

Why are there demons when the bed of chaos was in fact destroyed? Can demons be born in other ways?

Why does the lord soul of seath (old paledrake if you will) persist, while the soul of the four kings did not? Both were bestowed by gwynn (old king). For that matter, how is there an old king soul when gwynn did in fact throw himself in the flame to let his soul fuel the flame?

The iron king's kingdom predates drangleic, but vendrick absorbs the four lord souls before he forges his kingdom. For the new lord soul to have materialised by the time of our story this would have happened during or after drangleic's age, and yet the old iron king existed before that?

Why would we not have heard of the malfenito and the fenito in the previous installment. Both appear to be servants of the grave lord (old dead one), surely we would have encountered them then?

Aand I think that's all. Might come up with more though.

[WillowLuman]

Did you verify your install via steam (as was suggested earlier)?  If so, you might try completely uninstalling and reinstalling your GPU drivers.

Do other games give you problems too, or is it just Dark Souls 2?

Just DS2. I uninstalled and reinstalled my drivers, verified install, reinstalled the game, nothing gets particle effects to work. So I just decided to go through with a melee character. I know it's not feasible in the long run, but I actually got enough FPS to briefly do some co-op (and help someone kill the Pursuer early!)

Man, I hope I find a better weapon than the Homonculous Mace soon. I have no stats reason to switch to any other weapon right now, but it looks really ugly.