'Dark Souls' Comes To An End With 'The Ringed City' Debut

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Bandai Namco and From Software have brought the Dark Souls series to an end with the release of The Ringed City expansion for Dark Souls III.

The Ringed City offers access to a unique location filled with new enemies and bosses. The expansion also includes new weapons, shields, armor, and other goodies. You'll also experience a new story in which the Ashen One--your player character--must chase the Slave Knight Gael as he vies for the "Dark Soul of Humanity." (You know it's about to get real when the final addition to a series revolves around one big reference to the franchise's title.)

You can get a glimpse at the gameplay from a trailer that debuted on February 8:

Bandai Namco and From Software also published a launch trailer for The Ringed City alongside a massive Dark Souls III patch released on March 24. That patch adjusted some of the characteristics of heavy armor, changed the damage dealt by Poison- and Toxic-based attacks, and introduced password matching to make it easier to duel friends in the Arena. You'll also notice an improved frame rate if you play on the PlayStation 4 Pro.

Aside from post-expansion tweaks and balances, The Ringed City is the last addition to the Dark Souls series we're going to see for some time. Series creator and usual director (others directed Dark Souls II) Hidetaka Miyazaki told GameSpot in November 2015:

I don't think it'd be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating Souls and Bloodborne games. I'm considering Dark Souls 3 to be the big closure on the series. That's not just limited to me, but From Software and myself together want to aggressively make new things in the future. [...] I believe that From Software has to create new things. There will be new types of games coming from us, and Dark Souls 3 is an important marker in the evolution of From Software.

You can experience what appears to be the last Dark Souls content on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One now. The expansion costs $15 on its own; it's also part of the $25 season pass that also includes the Ashes of Ariandel expansion released in October 2016.

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NameDark Souls IIIDark Souls III: The Ringed City
TypeAction/Adventure, RPG, Horror, FantasyAction/Adventure, RPG, Horror, Fantasy
DeveloperFrom SoftwareFrom Software
PublisherBandai NamcoBandai Namco
PlatformsPC, PlayStation 4, Xbox OnePC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Where To BuySteamPlayStation StoreXbox StoreAmazonBest BuyTargetWalmartGameStopSteamPlayStation StoreXbox Store
Release DateApril 2016March 27, 2017
Nathaniel Mott
Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • clonazepam
    I'm on PC and decided to start a new character first, to test the stability of the game prior to jumping into the latest DLC. For me, there's prolongued periods where frame latency hits over 280ms, driver not responding errors/crashes, and unrecoverable crashes that require a system reboot. When it does run, I can't alt-tab or exit the game from fullscreen or its unrecoverable. The solution for that is to switch to windowed mode, and then alt-tab / closing the program works.

    I hope its me and a fresh driver install or some other similar step fixes things up (though no other program has symptoms).

    I've heard its a great sendoff for the series, so looking forward to banging this out soonish.
    Reply
  • esco_sid
    19487203 said:
    I'm on PC and decided to start a new character first, to test the stability of the game prior to jumping into the latest DLC. For me, there's prolongued periods where frame latency hits over 280ms, driver not responding errors/crashes, and unrecoverable crashes that require a system reboot. When it does run, I can't alt-tab or exit the game from fullscreen or its unrecoverable. The solution for that is to switch to windowed mode, and then alt-tab / closing the program works.

    I hope its me and a fresh driver install or some other similar step fixes things up (though no other program has symptoms).

    I've heard its a great sendoff for the series, so looking forward to banging this out soonish.

    I think its most likely something to do with your drivers or system as iv had the game since release and never really encountered any of the issues you seem to have run perfect on 4k@60.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    One step closer to a Prepare to Die/Scholar edition. Can. Not. Wait.
    Reply
  • SinxarKnights
    19487203 said:
    I'm on PC and decided to start a new character first, to test the stability of the game prior to jumping into the latest DLC. For me, there's prolongued periods where frame latency hits over 280ms, driver not responding errors/crashes, and unrecoverable crashes that require a system reboot. When it does run, I can't alt-tab or exit the game from fullscreen or its unrecoverable. The solution for that is to switch to windowed mode, and then alt-tab / closing the program works.

    I hope its me and a fresh driver install or some other similar step fixes things up (though no other program has symptoms).

    I've heard its a great sendoff for the series, so looking forward to banging this out soonish.

    Yeah I've never experienced that personally but every rig is different. The fullscreen thing, yeah that is annoying though. However its been like that since DS1, super hard to tab out. One issue I did come across that has been in the game since release is sometimes upon exiting the game it turns off the monitors and cannot get them to turn on again.

    That one is a 144hz issue, have to put the refresh rate at 120hz and it is fine.

    Reply
  • paulbatzing
    19487203 said:
    I'm on PC and decided to start a new character first, to test the stability of the game prior to jumping into the latest DLC. For me, there's prolongued periods where frame latency hits over 280ms, driver not responding errors/crashes, and unrecoverable crashes that require a system reboot. When it does run, I can't alt-tab or exit the game from fullscreen or its unrecoverable. The solution for that is to switch to windowed mode, and then alt-tab / closing the program works.

    I hope its me and a fresh driver install or some other similar step fixes things up (though no other program has symptoms).

    I've heard its a great sendoff for the series, so looking forward to banging this out soonish.

    I have had the exact same problem since the first DLC hit. It usually works up until one or two deaths, and stops working after that. I have 900 hours in the game and never seen any kind of freeze before the first DLC. I have even reinstalled both game and drivers. Any help is particularly appreciated.
    Reply
  • Lannister in the North
    19489897 said:
    19487203 said:
    I'm on PC and decided to start a new character first, to test the stability of the game prior to jumping into the latest DLC. For me, there's prolongued periods where frame latency hits over 280ms, driver not responding errors/crashes, and unrecoverable crashes that require a system reboot. When it does run, I can't alt-tab or exit the game from fullscreen or its unrecoverable. The solution for that is to switch to windowed mode, and then alt-tab / closing the program works.

    I hope its me and a fresh driver install or some other similar step fixes things up (though no other program has symptoms).

    I've heard its a great sendoff for the series, so looking forward to banging this out soonish.

    I have had the exact same problem since the first DLC hit. It usually works up until one or two deaths, and stops working after that. I have 900 hours in the game and never seen any kind of freeze before the first DLC. I have even reinstalled both game and drivers. Any help is particularly appreciated.

    Do you have an NVIDIA card? You could try optimising the game via geforce experience;
    Another thing could be setting the fps limit to 60 under video settings. (I vaguely recall this is an option, can't verify right now.)
    Reply
  • paulbatzing
    19490215 said:
    19489897 said:
    19487203 said:
    I'm on PC and decided to start a new character first, to test the stability of the game prior to jumping into the latest DLC. For me, there's prolongued periods where frame latency hits over 280ms, driver not responding errors/crashes, and unrecoverable crashes that require a system reboot. When it does run, I can't alt-tab or exit the game from fullscreen or its unrecoverable. The solution for that is to switch to windowed mode, and then alt-tab / closing the program works.

    I hope its me and a fresh driver install or some other similar step fixes things up (though no other program has symptoms).

    I've heard its a great sendoff for the series, so looking forward to banging this out soonish.

    I have had the exact same problem since the first DLC hit. It usually works up until one or two deaths, and stops working after that. I have 900 hours in the game and never seen any kind of freeze before the first DLC. I have even reinstalled both game and drivers. Any help is particularly appreciated.

    Do you have an NVIDIA card? You could try optimising the game via geforce experience;
    Another thing could be setting the fps limit to 60 under video settings. (I vaguely recall this is an option, can't verify right now.)

    I have indeed an NVIDIA card, and I have tried this. Googleing a bit it seems related to gsync, so I will try playing without gsync and see what happens.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    I used Wagnard's Display Driver Uninstaller to completely wipe away all nvidia drivers / files in safe mode, and did a fresh install of the drivers. This cleared up the issue with alt-tabbing and exiting the game from fullscreen. That all works just fine now. There's still a frame latency of around 280ms for extended periods as new areas load in. I guess I'm stuck with that, and no crashing so far but I've not had much time to really put that to the test yet.
    Reply