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Dragon's Dogma finally comes to PC three years after the game first hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and arguably Capcom needs to deliver more than a straightforward port to justify such a late release. Previously, we've seen high some high profile Japanese titles poorly converted over to PC, with resolutions capped below 720p and frame-rates limited to 30fps - an experience well below the standard expected for a PC release. Thankfully, none of these issues are present with Dragon Dogma: Dark Arisen and Capcom delivers a largely excellent conversion that fits the bill as a full-on HD remaster.Rather than seeing a straightforward port, Capcom has taken the time improve much of the game's texture work, along with reducing the aggressiveness of the level of detail (LOD) set-up, resulting*in a more refined presentation that manages to hold up in 2016. Of course, resolution plays a large part in providing a substantial leap in graphical quality over the 720p console releases, and on PC making the jump to native 1080p and higher with decent quality anti-aliasing delivers a substantial increase in sharpness and clarity across the game's medieval-styled visuals. In this case, choosing the FXAA3 HQ option provides excellent coverage and doesn't smooth over texture details. By comparison, the 720p last-gen console versions appear rather murky by comparison and this isn't helped by the use of a low quality post-process AA solution that introduces visible blurring over the artwork.
The PC version is a substantial step up in this area, and the boost in resolution helps to bring out as much detail as possible from the revised assets. Rather than simply roll out the console artwork here, higher resolution textures and normal maps are deployed across characters and the environment throughout the game. This adds more intricate details to clothing and brickwork, along with more incidental objects that are scattered across the landscape.
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