The benefits and banes of PC gaming is that you get a lot of freedom of accessibility when you play games, but you also get a ton of unknown circumstances that can ruin the mood as well... like start-up crashes.
In the case of Dark Souls II, some PC gamers are running into an unwelcoming problem that revolves around the game crashing just as it's started up. Thankfully, there are a few fixes available to help make the experience of dying and dying some more that much more enjoyable.
Crave Online has a quick guide up explaining ways to resolve the start-up crash problem; although you should be warned that this may work for some of you but not all of you.
According to the article, there are two fixes that can help put your game back into a state of playability. The first is as follows...
On AMD video cards, go to control centre. under Properties (Digital flat-panel) and enabling GPU scaling. Apply and start game.
There's another workaround suggested as well, although it's slightly more complicated. Check it out below.
* Select Dark Souls 2 in Steam.
* Unplug your HDMI/DVI Cable.
* Hit Enter (this will start the game).
* Plug it back in. Using this workaround the game is locked to windowed mode 1280×720.
* After setting your resolution and fullscreen mode in the options menu, restart the game using the same technique. For some people this will allow the game to be played at their desired resolution and in fullscreen mode. Some people have reported not having sound using this workaround.
As mentioned, this method works for some users, allowing them to get into the game and bypass the start-up crash like a perfectly good minivan carpooling to work while passing by a mangled corvette on the highway.
Additionally, TotalBiscuit also offers some solutions and insight into the PC version of the game, even explaining what resolution is best for downsampling. You can check out his own overview and minor suggestions for tweaking in the video below.
If those tweaks weren't enough for you, keep in mind that there are even more tweaks available for those of you who may want to get more of your gameplay experience or if you're looking for a better way to maximize the efficiency of your GPU when playing Dark Souls II on PC. The now legendary Durante has offered up a very detailed article providing solutions and tweaking methods for From Software's latest action-RPG over on PC Gamer.
Just check out some of the differences when making some minor adjustments to the settings.
For those of you who are still on the fence as to whether or not the PC version is worth the investment, and you're seeing an article like this and thinking “You Glorious PC Master Race members have way too much trouble playing and enjoy games”, just see the sacrifice you make by sticking to the console ghetto and playing at sub-30fps and the visually-bankrupt 720p resolution with this PC versus Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics comparison. 4K resolution and 60fps make a huge difference in how you enjoy and play the game. In fact, stable frame-rate is the exact reason why I made PC my main gaming platform.
You can pick up a digital copy of Dark Souls II right now for PC from participating digital distributors.
