Dark Souls

Plunging from a treacherous rampart, slowly succumbing to the poisonous bite or bludgeoned by a monstrous ice giant – Dark Souls wants you dead. And it doesn't care how. Dark Souls Shanking of the colossus That should come as no surprise, of course. Anyone who dared play last year's Demon's Souls knows all too well that …

[Danny 5]

based on this review

I'm going to give this one a miss. I'm a huge RPG fan (JRPG fan), but prefer party based games. I play RPG's for their story, not the challenge they pose. my personal view is that an RPG shouldn't be extremely hard to play, there should be plenty of stuff outside the main storyline to make things hard/almost impossible. I also feel like too much is being done to renew the genre, while for most fans it doesn't really need renewing at all, but that's a personal thing.

[Voland's right hand]

based on this review

I might actually consider it.

Finally a game which is as abominably difficult to win as Nethack.

I recently had a funny dialogue with my wife about Nethack: "Q:How long have you played it? A: 20+ years. Q: Have you won: A: No Q: Why do you play?"

Well, the answer is - for the sheer perversity and variety of the ways in which the game kills ya. This one sounds like close enough to warrant some attention :)

[jnewco81]

Don't let the difficulty put you off - it is usually your own fault you died for the nth time. You just have to take a defensive, strategic stance, rather than stride in swinging-like-it's-Golden-Axe.

But you'll still die. And yet keep coming back for another go.

Can't help you on the story though - DS has a minimal plot as far as I can tell so far. I do like the setting, characters and atmosphere however. It's very european in that sense, which is a relief having grown tired of the usual JRPG guff.

[Dandelion]

Misanthropic gits!

I seem to keep finding lots of misleading messages left by other players. There's the classic sorts of "try falling here" next to a cliff, and the ever amusing "illusory wall" next to a perfectly normal wall (it's amusing seeing other people's ghosts whacking the wall ;)... just like I did...) that are fairly entertaining.

But I really need to stop trusting the people that put "bonfire ahead" or "ally here" next to a door... that happens to lead to a quick and vicious death about 2 seconds later from a boss.

Still. That's all part and parcel of the fun of the game ;) Edge of the seat stuff, even from other people.

Properly awesome game. It's gonna keep me busy for weeks I'm sure!

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

Sounds like completing this is the equivalent of gaining Elite on the old beeb (without cheating)

Oh, and "Don't look at the mantlepiece when stoking the fire"

yuck.

[Tom_]

Sounds interesting

I'm buying it, based on this review. It had better be good. :)

[johnnytruant]

Demon's Souls was great

and Dark Souls is even better. A very welcome respite from brown worlds full of waist-high walls to "cover" behind and regenerating health.

Difficult is a good thing, sometimes, and boy this game is hard and unforgiving. It's genuinely scary in parts, frustrating in others, beautiful in some, yet the sense of satisfaction when you finally trounce that giant, unspeakably dangerous boss is something I haven't felt since the days of Doom (Demon's Souls notwithstanding.) The feeling from finally ringing the bell in the Upper Gargoyle Church, looking out over the glorious landscape with soft light from the permanently-setting sun above, was a mixture of intense relief at having made it, and immense foreboding at having to fight my way back down again, and then on into The Depths where things were no doubt orders of magnitude more horrific and dangerous. Utterly brilliant. Moments like that are so rare in gaming these days.

The lack of pause button or save/load - the game saves constantly, so you can never use the "save here, try X, reload if it doesn't work" tactic - just adds to the already massive tension.

I'm going to call it - even before I've played Skyrim which I'm looking forward to hugely - Dark Souls is my "Game of the Year 2011"

[Not Again]

It's like

It’s like (I’m told is pretty addictive) crack cocaine, plaid Demo Souls loved it and hated it.

Playing Dark Souls and it's the same again, but each challenge brings you back for more. The first boss for example, I thought I have no way to beat this (based on Demos Souls experience), I’m way too weak, but there’s a clue and it all works out :)

Back home soon to figure out how to kill those dame skelebobs with the big choppers, they keep ganging up on me and once again I’m dead.

Next challenge is to find somewhere to stash the kit I find, suspecting there’s now were and I can’t horde stuff for later 

[Bailey]

#Not Again

Small tip for you, Not Again... Don't bother taking on the skeletons if you're still too weak. There's plenty left to do in Undead Burg. Follow this video for an early farming opportunity (it yields 300 soul points each time) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKZz-d8xvs. Then spend the soul points with the Undead Burg merchant on a Short Bow and Large Arrows (Crossbow won't do). Depending which class you are (I was a Sorcerer), you might also need to boost your Dexterity to wield the bow.

Once you can wield the bow and arrow, head back to the Dragon bridge and snipe the Dragon's tail (takes about 20 shots) to collect the Dragon Sword. It's the most powerful single-handed early weapon you can get your hands on, and is relatively easy to wield for all classes.

That should give you a real head start...

[jnewco81]

Loved Demon's Souls.

And am delighted with this. Although I think it might be even more difficult!

[Destroy All Monsters]

Only on PS3 and Xbox?

Beuuuhhh~~