Everyone just keeps throwing this picture up here, as if it's indicative of the graphical quality for the entire game. It is not. You've picked one area with one poor texture. If I wanted to (I don't) or I had the time (I don't have that either), I could probably find a texture that shitty looking in Crysis 3.
Guess what? It's a video game, and it's not always going to look photo-realistic. Especially in areas that the player isn't necessarily focusing on anyway.
Just accept the fact that the developers had to make some sacrifices in the graphics to make the game run smoothly (enough) on 8 year old consoles. Then accept the fact that those sacrifices aren't a big enough deal to warrant a some kind of a press conference by Namco/FROM to tell you they reduced the texture resolution of the lava in one area.
Dude, let's get real here. You're making hysterics over something that's just not a big deal. Nobody is being "apologetic." We're just saying you sound like an idiot raising your pitchfork and torch over some graphical changes that you should have expected anyway.
Stop assuming that everyone on here who disagrees with you is somehow blinded by fandom. Some of us just plain think you're wrong, regardless of being a Dark Souls fan.
It is remarkable how well publishers, developers and console manufacturers have whipped some gamers into line, so much so that they run defense on the indefensible. I just can't even relate to the psychology of this.
I mean, let's just take a minute to awe at just what this statement of your says. It suggests that we all should have just expected that a game which had been advertised a certain way
right up until the eve of its launch would be downgraded, and that it's ridiculous to get angry over it. Again, let's pause to highlight the absurdity. You expected gamers to predict that the game would be downgraded, despite all the media suggesting it was an entirely different way, because... why? We all should have expectations for what these systems can produce? On systems where games like Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 exist? Where titles like Alan Wake and Halo 4 are a thing?
Let's even assume for a moment you actually believe this nonsense. You're actually willing to put the onus for this 'problem' on the gamers who are surprised by it, rather than the company who willfully deceived potential customers up until the eve of its release?
I mean, christ, you're so far off point it's like a comic tragedy. Nobody is expecting a 'photo realistic' game, they are expecting
what has been advertised for ages now as a product containing these features. What was advertised before was never photorealistic or close. It was a game with an impressive lighting engine, one that apparently was going to tie directly into the gameplay. Now, no matter how they got around it, the point is it's not the same experience. It simply is not. And to try to ask your fellow gamers to put down the pitchforks because we all should have been psychics not only pushes responsibility away from who deserves it, but it's self-defeatist tripe.
I'm a massive Dark Souls fan, but I'm sorry, this shit is unacceptable. I don't care if it may still be a decent product, it doesn't matter. If I am going to buy a product, I expect to be informed as to what it is all about well before its release. I don't expect to be told I am getting a certain type of product only to be completely surprised when it is an entirely different sort of thing. Dark Souls II was one of my most anticipated games of all time, but see I don't play companies or walk any lines. They fucked up, and now they need to make it right. And yes, a press release would be a nice start.