f13.net

Didn't see a thread.

Wanted to talk about the news out of E3. Now, obviously this isn't by the same designer, as he's moved on to make a new project for next gen, but it's still From Software.

- New rendering engine, apparently the lighting is quite good?
- Dual wielding is confirmed. No idea how that is gonna work.
- You can two-hand a shield.
- You can teleport between bonfires. Still don't know how I feel about that.
- No locking animations for backstabs or ripostes. A backstab is a move like any other, and same with a riposte, in that you can be interrupted out of it. Other creatures seeing you perform a backstab will come to assist, and some creatures even do shit like fall on you as you backstab them to interrupt you.

Were the first four not available in previous?  Maybe I was smoking the crack.  I didn't actually try to two-hand a shield in Dark.

I think the lighting was fine, though.

I two-handed a Black Iron Greatshield to run up to the Silver Knights in Anor Londo and let them smack me until they fell off their ledge.

You could also teleport  between camp fires once you got far enough in.

Guess that says how far I got.

And I don't think you could two hand a shield, I haven't seen any evidence online to support that.

I think you can have one shield for each hand. But a two handed shield? Don't think I've ever tried.

Hey, go play the game!  How far did you get?

*sigh*

The only news here is the change to backstab/riposte and that Nonentity isn't a gamer.

I DONT TRUST YOU

LISTEN I stopped at Anor Londo and then that was when I threw my controller into my TV, shattering it and promising myself I'd never play dark souls anymore.

...but I'd play a dark souls 2

Right, you are the one I always tell my friends about, that guy who darksouled his TV. Couldn't remember who was it, but I loved your photo of the incident.

I thought long and hard about video games and my stubborn attitude after that incident.

Well, the funny thing is that Anor Londo is not really that bad.  Lots of people think Blighttown is awful, and I suppose these people stopped where you did, but you really should go into the city.  Also you get to meet everyone's favorite two archers.

I should go back to Demon's Souls because I am awful at games but I think Dark Souls isn't terribly difficult.  Except that demon in the first area, that guy is awful.  No, the other one.  The one downstairs.

He's just super time consuming because you don't do any damage when you first find him. Overall Dark Souls is much easier than Demon's Souls.

I stopped playing Dark Souls a few hours in because I didn't feel challenged.

That would be because I had gotten so good at Demon's Souls.

Shame. They'll have to crank the difficulty up (somehow) on Demon's Souls 2 to really get me.

Man, hats off to you then.  That damn dual gargoyle with the axe tail you could hack off convinced me that I needed to uninstall Dark Souls before I broke something.  The thing in is, I felt that one boss was harder than any I fought in Demon Souls. 

It's always strange to me which Demon gave who the most trouble. I killed the two Gargoyles the first try, but the Capra Demon? Fuck that guy.

After beating Demon's Souls a couple of times I left the game feeling it was still reasonably hard.  Maybe I should give it another whirl.  I remember Flame Lurker and that god-damned spider being real bitches.

Just finished a replay of Dark Souls this week though and bent that game over hard.  Smough and Ornstein was the only fight with some real teeth to it still.  Can't wait for Dark 2.

I suppose Capra was the hardest one for me, but it's more fair to say that it was the combination of Capra, his dogs and his broom closet that was hard.

I cheesed that flame spider so hard in Demon's.  Cheesed Tower Knight as well, and I don't feel too bad about it.  I'll go back sooner or later.

<Recycling an old joke>

Capra Demon, more like Camera Demon, amirite?

If I had the skills, I'd edit up a GIF of the supply closet from UHF opening, and inside is Capra and his dogs.

Dark Souls is the type of game where I think it makes sense to make it more difficult for yourself by not leveling, using a weird build, not using armor, etc. Generally I don't like the response to "this game is too easy" being "well then stop using the game systems to their fullest" but in the case of Dark Souls it seems more acceptable for whatever reason.

I used the Gargoyle Tail Axe just because I thought it looked cool, even though I had the Black Knight Sword which was basically better in every way.

Black Knight Sword is better than most anything in most any situation, once you learn how to use it.  Which doesn't take long.

Some short gameplay footage bits from E3

Dual Swordsman - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKZfVnaooqc
Warrior - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtmY86i0ZH8
Temple Knight - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDBt00Z9iIg
Sorcerer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu9vgT13MV8

Mmmm.  Getting a bad feeling.

Could I get maybe something new? At this point, I'm feeling like they stumbled on solid gold randomly and are terrified of changing anything and losing the magic. The damn thing looks like DLC, not a new game.

It's subtly different in a bad way.  I don't like the big flash from arrow hits, assuming those are normal arrows.  Makes me think they are slipping into typical JP crap.

looks like someone machine translated this article - http://www.gamekult.com/actu/zoom-dark-souls-ii-A108297.html

and we got PC as lead platform, 60 FPS

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/542a066e4d3dc2c962baba62d86f748c/tumblr_mo9m3iWxXN1rmuxoxo1_400.gif)

DOOM I SAY

A preview with some details. I don't like the "get invaded while hollow" part. What's the value of forcing people offline if they don't want to get griefed? I predict it will be changed in a patch once they see player numbers falling when the catasses get rolling with level billion characters.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/9/18/4743612/dark-souls-2-hands-on-beta-preview-tgs

I originally posted this in the wrong thread. But this is a new trailer, right? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-o2KMm-5tQ)

Now that I have a new graphics card, I desperately want a patch for the original Dark Souls to remove GFWL :(

The first review is out on a German magazine, and someone at NeoGAF translated and recapped it (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=101632517&postcount=312). There's plenty of spoilers, most of them under a spoiler tag. Open at your risk. The score is 90%.

A few hightlights:

- Fast Travel available from the beginning of the game
- Archery and Magic use up Stamina
- There's a new kind of magic, on top of the previous ones
- You can respec through a rare item
- Combat is as good as usual

I'm really looking forward to this but I need to beat Ornstein and Smough, and then the rest of the game, before I pick up the sequel.  Fuck Ornstein and Smough.

Less bothersome than the Two Archers. :why_so_serious:

FUCK.THOSE.GUYS

Lovely.  I may actually finish this game some time summer 2015 at this rate.

You have to have already gotten past the archers when you meet Ornie and Sumo.  I'd just give one piece of advice: you only get the soul of the one you defeat last, so if you want both then you'll have to defeat the other one in New Game Plus.  I killed Ornstein first and I think I'm going to regret that while trying to take down SuperSmough in NG+.

April 25th!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/236430/

Costs less than southpark for the pc. Heh.

Only thing that could make that better is if they decided to patch out GFWL from the first game. 

Either way, sold!

Still needs to prove to me that the port isn't a piece of shit without third-party mods before I'll touch it.  And even then, not at full price.

The only game ever I didn't even consider playing on a PC. It could be perfect, it could be higher resolution, and I'd still feel "it's not right". For all the times I've complained that some games just need to be played on a PC, I feel this belongs to the PS3.

Maybe I just want to make sure I cannot tab out to Chrome and look for walkthroughs when I am knee deep into some hard shit part. It has to feel suffocating, and a console is perfect for that.

Relevant to this discussion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9x_koRZ2bA

CAN'T WATCH THAT! SPOILERS!

Yeah, spoilers for the first dark souls.  Also spoiler, when mario defeats bowser he finds out the princess is in another castle.

Sorry, I didn't even see it was Dark Souls 1. I am trying very hard not to know anything about Dark Souls 2 so I overreacted.

Video left out some things but otherwise surprisingly accurate.

"What's wrong seethe, you little biiiiiiiiiitch"  :awesome_for_real:

I tried Dark Souls but The controls were god awful and I couldn;t make it work. Damn you consolitis.

It's not consolitis though when a game was born and conceived for consoles, and the controls feel totally natural there.

True enough.

Were you using a controller?  Keyboard/mouse is not the only control scheme out there and I really hate that somehow controller started to = console when some pc games have been better suited to controllers for a very long time.

I also like a controller for a lot of PC games. Like remember back when we had a football game?  :oh_i_see:

No, i don't have a controller. For one thing I have pretty large hands and they are not designed for anyone above the normal hand size so they were never very comfortable for me. Anyway, doesn't matter much. I'll watch the videos.

So I went to the release party for this in San Francisco (It was 2 blocks from my work). I'm still bitter. The facebook invite said started at 6:00. A friend and I got there around 5:45 and there was a line of about 50 guys waiting. They opened to door at 6:00 and promptly started letting friends of the devs, and other industry people while us in line just got to stand and wait. Right next to an empty lot with 20 portable toilets in it. That stank. Oh yeah, and there was construction with jack hammering about 20 feet from us also. Every 10 minutes they would let in about 2 or 3 people from the line, and another 10 to 15 people who just walked up and got to bypass the line.

After an hour of this one of the guys who seemed to be in charge came out and stated "We are really really sorry for this guys" and my friend replied back "How about you just let everyone in then?" to which the guy responded "Oh we cant, the club is at capacity" right as they are letting another group of about 5 guys bypass the line.

We left and we to get a beer somewhere else. Fucking horrible event. Way to treat your best supporters like shit. I'm tempted to cancel my preorder because of this fuckery.

Looks like it was poorly planned, look towards the bottom:  http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/1zku3r/ds2_launch_event_in_san_fran_ca_this_week/

It was open bar, so I'm guessing nobody left.  I mean, I wouldn't have left either once I got into an open bar at a club. 

I'm thinking that the comment towards the bottom is our very own Morfiend, considering that it's the same thing that was posted here. :)

Filthy casual.

Any idea how much this new coop ring is gonna cost ingame?  If it's ridiculously expensive then I'll just get the ps3 version, which is the same price as 360 b4 live gold (which I refuse to buy).

?

clarification:  okay, supposedly to play coop w/friends (summon your friends and vice versa) you need a special ring along w/being in the same covenant.  This would make it worth it to me to buy the xbox version, as most of my friends play on it...  however, if said ring is a kerbiliion souls then eff that, I'll just buy the ps3 version and save the live gold subscription cost.  (I canceled my live gold acct)  There's been no indication on how much this ring will cost and if I wait until after release I obviously lose my pre-order.   note:  This go around the ps3 version is the same price as the xbox version, however the xbox version will obviously require a sub. fee.

Meh, maybe I'll just wait a day and see how much of a cockstab coop play is b4 worrying about it.  Screw the pre-order.

Why on earth would you expect said ring to be expensive?  The last game had hardly anything actually COST money, even some of the rarer items were somewhat simple to get(drake sword) If anything one would expect top get the co-op ring just for joining a covenant.

Unless this one is magially more difficult than Dark Souls, I'd not worry about it.

However, since this is a thing it means I'm going to have to get it on 360.

New trailer, dear god the music is so perfect.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/03/10/dark-souls-2-locomotive-breath-trailer

Not exactly the opening of Prey or the Mad World Gears of War commercial or even that GORGEOUSLY misleading Dead Island trailer. But at least it was gameplay footage.

Downloading it off of PSN now.

Downloads for the EU version are slowly crossing the digital oceans and won't arrive until Friday, so no gloating you fuckers!

Helpful hint they probably could have made more clear for people who have played the previous game, but you no longer level up at bonfires. You have to go to a particular NPC in Majula who is incredibly easy to overlook.

Pushing in the left thumbstick while holding down the square button to sprint is a horrible control scheme to use for jumping. I'm also surprised that they didn't put in an early boss. I'm a few hours in and still haven't seen a boss yet. Aside from that having a good time so far.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85916/ron_jeremy_react.jpg)

You couldn't even jump in Demon's Souls, and the practice wasn't completely in Dark Souls but overall it became second nature pretty quickly, especially considering jumping wasn't so overabundant. If you are complaining about this I can only assume there's more jumping early on this time around, and that's not cool even more so if it's a goofy action with a built in unresposiveness.

I hope you are just cranky and wrong.  :heartbreak:

Coop-with-friends ring is 6500 souls.  Not sure if you can find it on someone/thing somewhere, but it's definitely not something you can acquire straight away.

I think I'd rather not have a jump ability than relive Ultima 8.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm pretty heavy-handed with the controller, so any game where you need to press the thumbstick for something means I'm screwed.

Having played it for only a few hours there have been maybe three or four spots where it's used so far, most of them just to get items. I can make the jump typically but it feels clunky, and I have to have a couple seconds to mentally prepare myself to do it. I am slightly concerned that they'll throw in some horrendous jumping section or something in at some poin though.

Steam: Release Date: 25 Apr 2014

 :mob:

Beware the porting. Rent a console and save yourself some grief.

Nothing wrong with the dark souls port, why would this differ?

I own a PS3. I'd rather play it at 2560x1440 with proper textures.  :awesome_for_real:

Since they've somewhat build this one for PC as opposed to being a naked port, it should be better then the first. In saying that, time to come back to the thread on April 25th!

If anyone here tries the coop, let me know how it is. Specifically, can you actually play with friends or is it just randoms?

I'll post as soon as I know something.  My do-nothing friend is texting me about how great the sword/dagger setup is and so I'll be getting it fairly soon.

I'm getting some crazy texts and calls about this game.  "WHY AREN'T ENEMIES RESPAWNING?" was the latest.  The problem I have is that since I "tricked" him into playing Dark Souls and therefore forcing him to get 100% of the Achievements, he is never going to tell me I should buy the game.

I suppose I have to do it now, just to do something about the crazy phone calls.

Got that phone call as a text.  Reply: up up down down left right left right start back

Enemies slowly stop respawning if you keep farming the same area repeatedly. Also I finally fought a boss and it was the easiest boss fight I've seen in a Souls game. Finally got to a point thought where I feel like I really have a number of options of where to go next.

Will they all come back later?

I would imagine so, but I'm not sure. It takes a while to even get to the point where they stop respawning. I was running through one section repeatedly because I kept dying. It wasn't a particularly hard area but I was on half health and hadn't upgraded my estus flask yet either. Plus it was right near a bonfire so I wasn't particularly worried about losing progress. After around the 10th time (estimating, have no idea exactly how many times it was) the first few enemies that I had killed the most were surprisingly not there.

Also one other change from previous games, each time you die your max health goes down a bit until it gets to 50%. It doesn't immediately go down to 50% from one death like in previous games. Think you still need to be at full to summon other people though.

So I bought this game for 360.  Got a 3-month sub.  Did all that pre-planning for the ring/covenant, aaaaaand the servers dont work (havent all day).  So no soapstones, no hints, no ghosts, no coop, none of that.  Fail.  This is not a game that feels right w/o the servers up.

Servers seem to be working ok on the PS3 although I haven't tried to summon or invade anyone yet.

If it doesn't send you explicitly to Offline Mode, the servers are working.

I played this long enough to wonder why I am seeing somewhat-inaccurate info from various people.

From this thread: it is true that Jump defaults to L3, but it can be toggled to good ol' B just like Dark Souls.

One of the little signs told me to dash and then press B to jump.  I still fell to my death three times.  I've been doing too much gaming on the PC and my controller skills have suffered.  The servers were offline for me all of yesterday.  Hopefully, they'll be up today.

Apparently I skipped the tutorial areas. :awesome_for_real:

And hence missed about 5k souls.   :awesome_for_real:

More concerned about items than souls, but yes.

FYI:  Amazon has the guide up for $20.  More than worth it.  Should be a $75 book.

Book?  Where's the fun in that?

For real, we didn't have a book when a bunch of us imported Demon's Souls (before I shoved it down Atlus' neck for months until they looked at the fucking thing).

Im enjoying the hell out this. My wife is getting a little tired of me singing about it. (To the tune of the demons souls intro:)DARK SOULS. TWO-OOOO. DAAAAA AAARRRK. SOOOOOO OOOOULLLLS. TWO-OOOOOH-OOOOH-OOOOH---OOOHHHH-oooh. *drum solo*

I'll be doing the 1st playthrough largely w/o it.  I typically scribe my own maps; I just dont feel like doing it this time (time, which I do not have).  Regardless, seriously... this is a LOT of quality book for $20.
Also, given the new coop system it's tough to avoid spoilers from friends.  I could disable voip I guess, but then what's the point? 

Btw, early indicators are w/o coop (or minimally the guide) it's near impossible to get very far.

Playing with friends is a mix.  Today I heard "What cat?" from someone that was playing for several hours longer than me.  There is always the trick of hanging up or putting your fingers in your ears.

If not for friends playing this at the same time, I'd just wait for it to be free on PSPlus.

Three bosses downed so far.

I got the book but only because I am a fetishist. I did the same for Dark Souls. But I refuse to open it until I am done with the game.

6 week PC delay silver lining: by the time I get to play the wiki will be useful.  :drill:

Continuing to make decent progress. Went back and dropped a boss I had problems with earlier, and am close to beating another. Playing as a Bandit since I focused on DEX and Bows last game as well and found it fun, but part of me always regrets not going for magic. I'm tempted to start another thread for spoilers, at least for talking about the first few hours of the game in more detail but I feel like there's only three other people here who have the game right now.

Spoiler thread is fine.  The stats have changed enough that we can discuss that, at least, even if no one wants to complain about bosses.  Although I'm inclined to think they are easy* due to the progress being made here.

I started a sorceror and due to how things worked out I am using a offhand dagger.  This is actually neat and I'm going to go with it.

One odd thing.  I swear I created a female character, but it is now male.  I mean, it's possible that I accidentally the gender, but seems unlikely.

*YMMV

What? Seriously? Can it happen by mistake? And can you do it again, if you so wish?

I'm trying to decide whether to go console or wait for PC. Will decide this weekend.

If it had a ps4 version I might have bought it.

LOL

You can do it again to change back.

"I must have died and went to FABULOUS!"

(http://i.imgur.com/v62XGEl.jpg)

I am not proud to admit that it took me about 110 minutes to understand how to beat


To my defense, both my joypads seem to be broken. One randomly presses L1, and the other has a faulty R2.

About the game, first impression is: I like the setting less, much much much less, than both the other 'Souls game so far.

That picture may be one of the greatest things ever created.

I'm waiting for PC version.

I just beat Dark Souls 1 last night. Did everything in the game solo except the 2 gargoyle fight. (I summoned Solaire there because a friend was over and told me how to do that)

Unable to connect to server all day yesterday. Any other Euro with similar issues?

I just got the game and servers are working fine.

The game feels a lot different, old reflexes don't work too well.

Strafe roll isn't as easy, that's for sure.  Sometimes I spin in place and get a sword to the back of the head.  This may be due to a low agility but I don't really think so.

I started with the Explorer, who's a total weenie but lots of adaptability. Can't kill anything but rolling goes ok.

I wonder about deprived.

I wonder about the Victor's Stone covenant...

Stop wondering and start doing. :awesome_for_real:

I got distracted so I didn't play, and I'll be on a camping trip this weekend.  Spending time around the Tower seems like a terrible idea so it's back to the forest, after I get another sex change.

Stuck on the first boss  a bit. My dude has a giant hit box it seems.

Not just yours. Not just yours. *sigh*

Yah, there's a definite issue with perceived range on enemy weapons.  You can clearly be outside the arc, yet still get one-shotted.

Whoa, I quit the game by holding down on the PS button and choosing quit, and now when I start it up again it complains about being shut down improperly. Pretty scary, I hope I didn't lose anything.

edit: beat the first boss, finally. Kinda cockstabby that fight, choose the one viable tactic and reiterate until you luck out.

Listening to my friend bitch about deprived being actually deprived this time is pretty funny.

Had a really fun PVP fight last night due to one of the Covenants I've joined. Won't go into the details because it's a bit spoilery for stuff I've sure most of the people here playing haven't done yet, but there was just a really long back and forth between be and the guy I was fighting. There have also been a few other people I dispatched pretty easily although I generally have a sizable advantage due to the covenant. Also have 7 bosses down now.

Man this respawn change is ass. You can no longer just concentrate on honing your skill, you have to protect your souls as well or you could conceivably screw yourself into having to restart the game. Hate hate hate.

Regarding respawns, spoilering just in case:

You can always get souls from being summoned by other people for boss fights (you get a pretty good amount if you win and you also regain humanity). Also you need to do an area a lot of times to clear out respawns. There's not really a danger of running out of souls.

But I still think it sucks. Not only what Jakonovski said it's true, but on top of that it dumbs down the game. Basically what is happening here is that if a certain zone keeps killing you over and over, then the game decides you are never gonna learn and the only way for you to make it is if they gradually remove some of the mobs. It's the OPPOSITE of the Demon's Souls spirit, where you have to keep trying until you learn. This, coupled with the fact that you don't lose half your HP when you die, but only a portion, is my biggest complain about the game: regardless of how hard the actual fights are, this is a simplified version of both the previous Souls games, and that's not cool.

It doesn't remove mobs based on you dying over and over though, it removes them based on killing them over and over. I don't get the impression that they did it so bad players could eventually get through an area based on attrition, because you can't get through boss fights that way and if you did that often your max health is going to be halved or you're going to burn through your effigies rapidly.

It seems to me more like they did it to keep people from farming the same area over and over again and push them forward.  There are areas early on that I could farm with low risk and still get a decent amount of souls, but this prevents me from doing it for hours on end. If anything, I think that takes away the real crutch bad players would be able to lean on.

Yes, I would assume this is the reason.

In DS1 I didn't farm at all and I didn't segment my play into leveling vs exploring. I just kept trying to push forward. Which meant I died a lot and lost a lot of souls, but the game was still doable. You don't *need* to farm in these games, especially when a lot of the souls come from consumable items that you can choose when to use.

Like I said before, the game is very coop dependent; as evidenced by the HP loss, limited effigies, and mob de-spawns.  Eventually you'll get to the point, especially if you're playing a less than vanilla class... wherein you've GOT to use the soapstone.

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure some mobs weren't there anymore after a certain numbers of respawns and they were the mobs that just killed me so it couldn't be because of farming. I hope you are the ones in the right, but I suspect they get removed when you hang too long in an area, whether you kill the mobs or not. But * if * this is the case, areas do get progressively easier if you can't make it.

EDIT: Some online research seems to point out that you HAVE to kill them about 10-15 times for them to stop respawning, but no one agrees if it is to curb farming or to make it less tedious when you keep dying deep in an area and you have to kill all the first few mobs around a bonfire over and over. In both cases, I really really dislike this change and in the second case it IS a dumbing down of the game to me. Removing "easy" mobs is the just another step towards making it like any other game. But hey, I am sure they will sell more.

Yep, I pounded my head early on Heide's, and the big mace knight disappeared after I killed him twice, and died lots more (losing several levels worth of souls, which I can't get back now, only a few hours into the game!).

Also regarding potential grinding, that's how I learn in Souls games. Learn the ins and outs of mobs, even the hard ones, get some souls in the process. I don't like the devs being hostile to my favorite playstyle.

The big mace knight disappeared for me after the first kill. Pretty sure he's just a unique enemy because you don't see any more of them in the rest of that area.

I don't really care one way or the other about the respawns aside from thinking that it's trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist. I do find it funny though that one of you is suggesting that it potentially makes the game too easy and the other is suggesting that it might potentially make the game too hard. I disagree with both assessments but can't think of a way to express it in a way that doesn't turn into a condescending "well you really have to suck for it to cause problems either way in the long term".

I think you are right, there's definitely a contradiction there. This is why it sounds like a bad design deciaion to me. Farming wasn't an issue, ultimately you had to learn how to play the game. This change removes one of the staple aspects of the game in my opinion which was to teach you how to run a segment, from Bonfire A to Bonfire B perfectly at least one. Now you can fail enough times that you end up making it at, say, the 16th attempt just because you tackled less enemies. That feels awfu. It says "Ok fine you suck jiat do it with less mobs for fuck's sake!"l.

On top of that, as Jakonovski said, it can screw you over because if you keep dying on a portion and can't recover your souls, you are eventually gonna push forward as enemies stop respawning but with less souls in your pocket which means the gameplay isn't getting harder, it's just the design gimping you.
All in all I am sure we'll adapt and it's gonna be a great experience regardless, but this sounds like a totally unneeded change to me, which fucks with the way previous games challenged you to become a better player.

The bottom line is, when I die for the 15th time in an area (yeah it happens) and I have to do it again and some mobs are not there anymore, I feel like I am cheating. I also feel that the game is cheating on me.

Good thing I misunderstood the mace knight, was a bit bummed thinking they'd remove spawns that easily.

But yeah, the spawn change doesn't destroy the game by any means, just replaces elegant game mechanics with clunkers that can cause problems at extremes.

The bigger problem is the effigy issue.  It's a huge roadblock if you run out.  Once you get to Bastille you pretty much have to coop the boss unless you're way overleveled, aside from the usual  combat advantages of being human.  You cant gain humanity from helping others (as in other souls games), so you're pretty much SOL if you spam effigies (like I did on one boss... having been given bad strat. advice a few times and then had two DCs w/wipes back to back).

I'm literally down to two effigies on a boss I must coop with ideally 3 people total (the NPC is an ass).  Solution?  Grind to 60!!!   :oh_i_see:   I guess technically it's a 55-65 level so hrmph.

But you can't grind, cause mobs stop respawning. So, how?

The spawns dont stop for everything; it just gets piecemeal after a while.  Throw on a soul ring and farm trash and you're ok right there for a while.  Otherwise, you'd grind as a helpful hollow.  This is why they now allow hollows to be summoned/invade.

I've regained humanity from helping someone beat a boss, but I've been reading that it's inconsistent. Some people have claim that the developers have stated that regaining humanity is a bug and shouldn't happen at all, but I haven't actually seen that verified. Certainly it doesn't seem to be working entirely correctly one way or the other as some people say they've regained humanity after the host died when they were still alive.

Man, it's gonna be a culture shock doing all that coop. I'm used to playing offline since my gfwl account died and took ds1 mp with it

Time for a respec -- adaptability doesn't actually do anything: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693331-dark-souls-ii/68799675

it seems estus flask and item use is still affected.

So I guess you can indeed go human in certain instances helping in coop.  Not sure what the trigger is.  Feels like it may be when either you or the summoner die.

It is certainly not when you succeed, which is weird.
EDIT: It really seems to be when the summoner dies. Just happened to me. Weird.
EDIT 2: Nevermind. I got humanity back by dying too, and by succeeding. At this point I'd say it's a random chance every time you get summoned regardless of the outcome.

Looks like I'm kind of stuck. I can only go Heide's (suicidal) or try , who kills me. No other paths seem open. This game is stupid linear unless I'm missing something. Only beaten one boss too, so can't exactly do coop either. Urge to dismiss the whole game as shit.

 

Giant is your first boss, then 1st shot at pursuer (you will die).  There's then a lot of back and forth between FFG and Heide's (very non-linear) until you're comfortable.   Certain bosses like Pursuer or Dragonrider (in close quarters) are near impossible as an early-game caster unless you go melee and then plan to respec.  The only option otherwise is to coop. 

I always coop as a shade my first encounter with a boss; so I can learn the fight. 

Linear?  Feels like the least linear of the 3 titles (so far) imo.  But I tend to try and uncover every nook and cranny.  If you do the 'run 'n gun' routine, you will miss quite a lot.

I feel I've been pretty thorough, and all the exploring has given me is a few trinkets and future quest leads. After that everything is blocked except Pursuer and Heide's, which is really railroady. Demon's had five starter worlds, and in the first Dark you could fork off into a huge number of directions after killing the rampart demon. I know I spent like ten hours exploring at that point, and had access to several bosses and mini bosses. Here, one boss, one level that requires grinding the FFG mobs for souls to upgrade to whatever it is I need (I suspect a mace for armor piercing and some more STR, I only have 15 because I thought I could get somewhere with ADP).

I can't decide how it fares when it comes to railroading to Dark Souls. Demon's Souls had more options, but Dark Souls? Not sure. From the central hub in Dark Souls you could realistically only go one way (unless you were awesome or crazy), and from there there weren't that many real forks (in the first 10-15 hours). Here, it feels the same way. There's Giants and Heide but you pretty much have to do Giants first. In there, there are a few branches and a few places you can overlook but all in all it all points to the area boss, with Pursuer being only optional (since you don't want to go to Bastile that early anyway). So, after Giants you have to go to Heide, it seems obligated but by then you should be level 40+ and the area could be more than doable. Eventually, lots of the big dudes can be avoided and the distance from the bonfire is very short, and if you kill them 15 times they are gone forever, so you can get to the boss just through attrition. Dragonrider felt like a total pushover -if nothing else because the area is enclosed and he's alone-.

Yeah, after putting it all together it seems like the game shows you many different paths, but you can't really go wherever you want just because they are. Still, I'd claim it wasn't that different in Dark Souls, at least not in the first half of the game. After Heide I can actually choose between unlocking the contraption in the church (does it lead to the Rat King?), or go to Wharf's Something, or go to Bastile. It feels branched enough for me. I have other complains so far, not the railroading. But I am sure based on your build things can change a lot.

Also, yes, coop changes everything.

Might be the Explorer, I'm only SL35 and I had to spend a lot of points merely to equip weapons other than a dagger. Because the ADP stat doesn't do anything except make you drink estus faster.
 

One thing that feels pretty obvious compared to Dark Souls and Demon's Souls is that they nerfed the rolling very hard. Pretty much everyone hits you in the back when you try to roll away this time around. Or is it me? At any rate, I am tanking up. Big shield, poise, endurance. We'll see how it goes.

One question I have is, has anyone found a pickaxe, and if so, how amazing/different is it compared to Darksouls 1?

Advice for Heide's Tower of flame


Advice for Pursuer


Smooth and Silky


Coop/Being Human

Here's another non-linear example in the Bastille Area (big spoiler):

About the Ballistas and Pursuer...

13 bosses down. Helped a lot of people with bosses today as a mix of leveling up a covenant, getting souls, and for fun, but appear to no longer be regaining humanity. Had about 15 successful attempts against various bosses, and a few attempts where the host died, but no humanity. Maybe the covenant thing is causing additional problems though.

In regards to the game railroading you, things do eventually branch out more although it might not always be easy to notice. There's at least once instance where you might not notice another pathway is available because you'll typically teleport from bonfire to bonfire. I've also come across at least one small hidden zone that you need to use a Pharros Lockstone to get to which are in short supply especially early one. The only reason I've had enough to open everything I've come across was due to another covenant I was messing around with a bit. There's probably stuff I've missed also despite having a habit of going over areas meticulously (and then going back over them again later because I've seen an item somewhere that I can't figure out how to get to).

I think the big two handed knights at Heide are the best example so far of why this game sucks. They track me without animating and sometimes do one-frame 180s to hit me when I get behind them. They keep attacking with such small windows of opportunity that my character can't get a hit in without exploiting terrain. It also makes no difference what armour I wear or don't, because I cannot mitigate or dodge effectively either way. I got killed by a knight's elbow just now. I can block them with my shield, that's pretty much it. The only way out of this is to grind levels, one by one killing 15 of the knights to stop them from spawning. Not fun at all.




 

Do you have any ranged options on your character? Early on I was a lot more comfortable taking out those guys with a bow, or at least wearing them down a bit before they could get to me.

Edit: I feel like a lot of this frustration just goes back to you picking Explorer. You picked the one class (aside from Deprived) that isn't built around a "this is how you're going to kill things" template. It was clear from the list of options that this was one of the options for people that wanted a challenge. You should probably just cut your losses now and pick a new character.

I thought laterally and funnily enough solved my problem. The knights are so slow that I can run rings around them, so I just did that. Stumbled on Old Dragonslayer, killed him with my old bad weapon no problem. Found a bonfire, fuck the knights. I'm half convinced the two handed guys are bugged anyway.

edit: I kinda disagree on the explorer. Sure he had a soul level disadvantage, but pointless stats are just a failure of games design. Especially since the newfangled tooltips make it sound like the perfect stat for a jack of all trades kind of player like me.

Yes, the two handed knights suck because they are pretty much going to hit you no matter what if you melee them. It is theoretically possible to find that sweet spot right behind them where they won't hit you at all, but that's a mix of finesse and luck as the 350° swipe they do from every two attacks is really hard to avoid completely, especially with the nerfed rolling. I don't think that zone with the knights is particularly hard, more like boring as you have to lure them to a safer spot in order not to risk falling down like an idiot. And while I religiously don't use any ranged weapon or spell, I'd assume they are very easy once you can plink them from afar, considering how slow they are.

But seriously, to beat the two handed knights, don't roll, just stick to their body and walk behind them (moving to your right). If you roll you die, if you parry you die. Just walk towards them and right, and keep positioning yourself EXACTLY behind them. When you are there just hit them once (or twice, depending on your speed), but not more. You need to always be mobile on your feet to keep staying in that only spot where they can't hit you. That spot right there, as tiny as it is, is mostly safe cause I really believe their sweep is 350°, so you have a slice 10° wide to play with.

I'm not really sure how you would play a jack of all trades character here. What stats are you leveling and what are you planning on using for weapons or magic? I mean I can see doing a combination of weapons and magic but I feel like most people who do that successfully have a build planned out. You aren't going to be using both str and dex weapons as well as every kind of magic.

So then I ran into Dragonrider and he went down in one try. What is going on with this game?

As for jack of all trades. What I mean is just enough str/dex to wield a comfy weapon plus a bow/crossbow, then some faith for utility miracles whenever I get access. I've no idea what kind of utility magic there is, so I'm not planning on that. I was hoping adaptability would help with being a slippery bastard and also having poise.

Dragonrider is a mystery to me. I can only assume he was meant to kill ranged characters after a whole zone where being ranged was a huge advantage, but it still makes very little sense. He just can't hit you, he's way weaker than the first boss.

I seem to be beating all the bosses by rotating around them anticlockwise. Also, joined a covenant:

Anyone playing on the PS3 with a disk notice that load times are really long? I have found the average time to load in a bonfire is around 30 seconds. Ether from death or travel. People on the Xbox or with the download version of PS3 have been reporting 3 to 5 second loading times. This is starting to piss me off.

Yes, same here. I knew it would have been longer loading times on disc, but I wasn't expecting it to be this severe. If I had known I would have gone with the digital download. I consider it an additional death penalty, but in all honesty it is boring the hell out of me.

Load times seem to vary a bit on the PS3 digital download version from my experience. Sometimes it's only long enough to show one item on the loading screen and sometimes although not often it goes long enough to go through 3 items.

I have a question. No specifics needed, just a yes or no.

Is there any point to lighting all of the sconces you find in the world?

Lighting all of them? Not as far as I know but that would be so time consuming I'd be surprised if anyone has done it yet

I don't understand what the torch time counter (it's somewhere in your char sheet) is for and since I didn't use any torch afraid of gimping myself in case I needed them later, I am playing in the usual bleak, dark world. But I am curious, what's the timer for? And since you loot torches from time to time, are they one-use or what?

Fucking hell this game is hard!  I'm not entirely sure I can finish it!

1 torch = 5 minutes of burning time (I think.) Looting more torches just increases the burn time counter. As far as a use, Some things are scared of light. I also sometimes like to light the torch stand things because I don't love the bleak dark world. Im not sure if they have other uses.

You light the braziers with them, which in turn can be used to light torches.  They might have a use with tar barrels but I havent tried.

I was just wondering because they're clearly a vestige of a discarded mechanic, but there might be a payoff to lighting them anyway.

It's always interesting to see how other people are playing this game.  I've mostly given up blocking anything and roll out of danger.  Die fifteen times in an area?  Ridiculous!  Now, my sorceror was first and she died until she got to half health before I rolled up a deprived.  Before that, she was killing knights in Heide's realm, using a dagger when the soul arrows ran out.  Stupid 3 Strength.

My deprived is doing alright, cleaning house around the second bonfire in the forest with a mace until I found the fire sword.  He has a shield but that shit doesn't work and so I just two-hand my weapon and dodge everything.

Sometimes the firebombs get me, but that's always when I'm rolling in to whack the guy.

By the way, I'm in the "finite spawns make the game harder" camp.  Easy now, hard later.

For me the worst thing, by far, about this game is the load times (on PS3). 

Finite mob respawning is a nuisance but it really hasn't affected my play much.  Not being able to grind out mats to upgrade a variety of weapons is the main thing I'll miss.

Knowing there are respecs, I've taken just enough Int/Atn for a renewable ranged option, then stats to let me equip whatever weapons/shields I come across.   About 15 hours in and none of the weapons stand out yet.  Been using the fire sword with the occasional Ricard's rapier or halberd swap in.

They compensated the lack of respawns by giving out more souls for helping other players, actually pushing to coop. Problem is, helping gives too many souls in my opinion. It's addictive to get 4000+ souls for each boss fight, and that led me to overlevel and now there's a chance I kind of ruined the experience by making it a bit too easy. I am tempted to restart.

One tip that might be useless for you all, but it worked very well for me: buy the "club" from the old lady for 800 souls. If you put enough points in STR (if that is your thing) it becomes a very powerful weapon early on. Or at least it did for me. I am tempted to upgrade it, although I am sure better options will come. So far I am underwhelmed by the halberd. It was my weapon of choice in Dark Souls because it had a very long range in a straight line, actually making it impossible for enemies to get close to you. Here it has a different attack pattern and it is definitely underperfoming. It's OK as it really was too powerful in DS1, but I feel lost not knowing what to go with yet.

There are occasionally some one-off uses for torches that I have seen.

I'm currently using a mace, at first because some enemies were weak to it. Now I realize it true power, which is in long hit combos that hit in a quick succession and stagger the enemy. Even some bosses can be hit this way, and it's hella cool. It's even better with the stagger ring. It helps that I have relatively high strength in order to use the Old Knight Shield.

That's another thing that bothers me. I killed all the giants in Heide and only dropped their pants. My son killed them all too and got the whole set, pants, helm, chest, gloves, sword and shield. Now that the mobs are not gonna respawn anymore, there's probably no way for me to get those pieces. Not sure I am OK with this...

"I only got the giants to drop their pants".

------->Things that can be taken the wrong way outside of context +1.

It does appear that the game went through some pretty serious last-minute changes.

I suspect the torch stuff was a combination of performance problems and being too annoying. Personally I hated Tomb of the Giants (I had the skull lantern and not the helmet that lights up). I can't imagine a whole game like that. But from what I've read (waiting for PC version) it does feel like the torch stuff now is the vestigal remains of what was once a much more important system.

You're still compelled to use it for the simple reason of y'know... sight.  Tactically, there are places you'll want to illuminate for future exploration/grinds.  Minimally you should light the braziers so you dont have to carry the torch.

I haven't found the place where I need a torch to see.  I have lit a few, thinking there must be some use, but I can't say.

If you are not getting item drops, you can always wear the item hat that I assume you already know where to get.  It looks awful, but I could start my own store: Hollow Infantry and Soldier Gear.

I didn't buy the club or mace since I have the morning star (?) from outside Majula.  It works great, just not as great as the fire sword.  I've learned, however, that the Black Knight Sword has returned and so I'm preparing my stats for it.  I basically used that sword for the entirety of Dark Souls.

I've only downed five bosses so far, but damn is it me or they are ridiculous? Especially, but not just, compared to the previous two games. Only Pursuer gave me a hard time. This can't be right?

I think I've got about 15 bosses done now. The first several bosses are fairly easy. There are a few that are hard but become easy if you do particular things before you get to them. A few are difficult mostly because you have to deal with multiple enemies which I feel is a bit of a crutch the game leans on a bit. There is a small handful though of ones that are legitimately hard.

So, I am loving the game. Seriously, so happy in love and happy that 'Souls is back. Even with all the issues, I am in love with it. But can we safely agree that it's the weakest of the three 'Souls games? I personally consider Demon's Souls the best of them all, but even when compared to Dark Souls 1 it feels like this one does not add anything while tiny deisgn changes and major setting tweaks make it less powerful and intense than its predecessor.

I'm just going to ramble a bit here and throw out my thoughts as they come to me.

I'll reserve final judgement until I'm finished with my first playthrough. That I'm already contemplating a second though somehow puts it above the first Dark Souls for me. I played Demon's Souls through multiple times, but with Dark Souls I was done as soon as beat it. Part of the reason I want to do another playthrough is just that I've seen a few non-specific comments that they throw enough new stuff into NG+ and NG++ to make playthroughs worthwhile. The other part is that I'm enjoying the multiplayer aspect of this one more. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I played Demon's Souls and Dark Souls pretty almost entirely solo. Maybe it's some of the stuff they've done with Covenants or maybe it's just that three games in I'm just willing to take the path of least resistance more often now. Either way I'm actually enjoying playing with other people.

Also I think I've just come to realize that the previous games were never actually as hard as people liked to say. Plenty of people who would be the first to admit their not great at games have managed to beat them. Much like escaping from Shawshank Prison it just takes patience and time. If Dark Souls 2 is easier overall than the other games I don't see that as some horrible thing either. I mean partly it's just natural that we're so familiar with the gameplay at this point that it's going to feel easier regardless. I also feel like a lot of my time in the previous games was finding ways to break the system like farming Manta Rays in Demon's Souls with the Storm Ruler sword, or exploiting the fuck out of the Crystal Ring Shield in Dark Souls and demolishing bosses in a few hits (I understand it was later nerfed). In Dark Souls 2 I've been more inclined to stay within the normal boundaries of the game and not try to find ways to completely cheese boss fights and such. I guess maybe a more casual entry in the Souls series just feels like it's a nice change of pace.

Ideally, I'd like to see a return to more of a Demon's Souls style game as far as the basic world setup goes. I think From struggles a bit with making the open world's of the Dark Souls games feel cohesive. That's something they didn't have to worry about in Demon's, you just go through a portal and you're in a completely different environment. Also, the Tower of Latria still remains the greatest and most atmospheric area in any souls game. I miss the world tendency stuff too, although I might be in a minority on that.

I think the D*Souls difficulty is basically a different type of difficulty.  Most games are hard because they perpetrate bullshit against the player, while these games not only allow but encourage the player to improve and move forward.  That still exists in the latest game, but I've been to this rodeo a couple times already so it doesn't seem as hard or as scary as Demons' Souls.

I don't have any issue with cheese.  That's how I beat the flame spider, and that's how I'll beat anything that comes at me if I can.  Kick them off a cliff, put 150 wooden arrows in them, or use a ballista (latest cheese in FFG that I have worked out), it's all fine to me.

I never finished Dark Souls. The level design had not 1/10th the brilliance of Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls had something else going for it as well. It was almost arcadey in its structure. Reasonably small levels that looped through and around themselves. A very cohesive and understandable progression, as well as absolutely brilliant boss design, that while incremental in Dark Souls was simply not as earth-shattering to me as a gamer because I'd already seen it.

I'm on the fence about even buying Dark Souls 2.

Demon's Souls 2, if that ever happens, I will be all over like a fly on shit.

Anyway, souped-up Ultra Greatsword seems to do the usual gamebreaking massive damage, especially when used with the (new?) up+R2 jumping attack. Hilariously devastating, if that is your thing.

In general im enjoying the game. I'm not super far in, currently working on Lost Bastion. I think my biggest gripe is the stat inflation. I really don't think we need so many stats. Also, removing the obscurity from the stats to the extent they did makes the game feel more stat driven. Next you thing you know people will be posting DPS meters.

Hell, I'd be happy with a nice solid Demon's Souls Ultimate Edition for PS4 and/or PC -- just spiff up the graphics a little and resolve the few laggy bits, done, sold, where do I send my money?!

Finally beat the Iron Castle tonight, for anyone saying that DS2 isn't hard enough...just wait.  I think I burned through 9 humantiy to get thru the level and down the boss, and I'm overleveled for the zone (SL98 mage, +10 archduke staff, lions mage armor, +1 rings, etc)

Also, check out the Yearn spell.  Doesn't do much in castle, but in some of the zones where you get ambushed walking into a room, throwing in a decoy to group them up and AoEing the whole lot in 1 hit is hillaaaarious.

It should be noted that the really hard boss in Iron Keep is optional and the main boss there is one of the easiest in the game. There are some tricky parts in the area itself though to be sure. There are a couple other fairly annoying zones that I've been through also, that really overload on poison. Overall though I still think this game is much easier than the others. I managed to breeze through 3 more boss fights in a few hours of play today. Up to 19 bosses downed now I think.

Man, I put on the Belltower ring and got to invade, but you really have to be careful when you do that. Right now it's prime time in Asia, so my ping was so high I wasn't able to even hit people.

edit: is it just me or is the  fight entirely dependent on luck? They seem to choose their moves randomly.

I beat Dark Souls 2 a couple nights ago, (slight game length spoilers ahead) level 135, Sorcerer, clocking in at about 50 hours having having done most of the bosses. I was probably underlevelled, because Sorc can make the game pretty easy. Sorcs are versatile and can kite proficiently (like previous games).

I thought the game was good, and on par with Demon Souls and Dark Souls in both quality (combat enjoyability and level design) and difficulty, with some minor tweaks to the formula.

-Level design harkens back to Demon Souls in that it feels more linear and less focused on open world connectivity, this is probably due to how easy they made it to teleport between bonfires (great change for removing tedious travel)
-No bosses were harder than other DS games, but there is an explore section that is probably harder than any previous game
-Torch is good for a couple 'puzzly' things and for lighting danger spots in shallow water, never annoying, rarely used,so fairly well implemented I guess
-Weapon/Armor upgrades are well handled and less confusing, you can also buy almost unlimited materials as you progress through the game, so no need to farm low end enemies
-Stats when levelling up are well explained (you know when you are hitting your next soft cap), the separation of Str from carry load seems like a smart change, and the new agility stat that inproves your speed and rolls is a nice addition
-I got about 8 respecs throughout 1 playthrough, so if you hate or mess up your build you'll have no problem switching it up
-co-op is well implemented and dedicated servers is a big upgrade from Dark Souls (no more connection limbo)
-New Game plus offers harder enemies that do new moves, it's nice that they put the effort in

Overall a good game, I plan to sell my PS3 version and buy the PC version (which looks graphically way superior) for another playthrough as melee.

I did Dark Souls all solo and didn't cheese anything. It was pretty hard!

It was "hard" in that it demands patience and attention in ways few games these days do, but it was also hard in the more traditional "takes skillz to beat" way.

There's also a subtle hardness in understanding the effects the equipment and such -  I didn't really understand much about shields until most of the way through the game for example. And I struggled on Sif until I realized that I had heavy equipment and a slow roll. (I only used guides when super stuck, which was rare)

I expect DS2 to be easier just because I understand those systems or know what to look for even if they've changed.

Dark Souls is pretty good about letting you adjust your difficulty - you can farm, you can summon PCs or NPCs, you can exploit. I did none of those. I used the Gargoyle Tail Axe the entire game just because I thought it looked cool.

My current opinion is that the game relies way too much on exploiting large groups to create difficulty. It's really cheap considering how they haven't done anything to the game to accommodate group fights. It's feels super janky. The best fight so far has been , by a huge margin.

Jesus, an example of what byzantine level unlocks do to a player like me:

Finished it off today. Respecced from my DEX build to a Sorcerer for the last 20% of the game or so which really did end up being easy mode once I got used to the playstyle. Or at least most bosses ended up being easy mode. A decently upgraded short bow was still useful in getting through regular enemies in order to conserve spells. Maxed out sunbro covenant and Pilgrims of the Dark. Got 1/3 of the way through the Dragon covenant winning 8 out of 11 duels I think (plus already had 2 Dragon Scales). There's a fairly powerful optional boss I didn't beat either although I wouldn't really get anything out of it at this point. Enjoyable game overall. Want to do another playthrough at some point, but will take a break from it to play through Infamous or mess around with Hex a bit first.

I finally finished the game and I miss it already. Sure I could go with NG+ but that's not really my thing. I play for the exploration, for the surprise factor, and once I know what to expect I lose interest. I will try to take out the optional Great Old One From The Deep eventually even though I am annoyed that the attempts are limited by the number of human effigies you have, but that will be it. I've done (once) everything else.

This is a sad day though, cause I loved every single one of the 92 hours it took me to finish. That's right 92 hours, it's the longest it has ever taken me to finish a game and while it could have been due to the fact that I have a self-imposed veto on magic and ranged weapon, I think it's safe to say that the game is longer than its predecessors.

It's a great game. If it weren't for D'S and DS this would be the best game ever. Coming in 2014, it's just the third best game ever.

With all that said, I think the "memories" were really cool, and the amount of weaponry positively insane. The lenght of the journey was very satisfying, and many systems have been streamlined or improved and that's all good. But then, the bosses felt less unique than in the previous games, and so did the NPCs and the general setting of the game. It's still "Dark", but not as dark as before. I hope this won't be a continuing trend. Concepts like fog, dark, emptiness and lack of hope should be always reinforced in this series, never watered down. I also felt that even though it is longer, the game is generally easier, if anything due to the non-respawning mobs and the way less punishing death penalty.

As I said, a great dark journey. Now, three more years of emptiness and despair until the next chapter.



BONUS: A ridiculous article from someone who claims this game is harder than the others (http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/23/why-ive-given-up-on-dark-souls-ii-readers-feature-4672733/). Pffffttt.

I think it's harder.  I'm in Dranglec castle and pushing forward through sheer dumb force of will.  It's just not fun anymore.  My deaths have deaths.  I see YOU DIED in my dreams.  I will finish.. I will.

Seriously? And here I thought I was having it hard because I forbid myself to use any magic or ranged. Not sure what you are doing wrong, but I guess it has to do with some builds having an easier time in some sections and an harder time in some others. By the time I got to Drangleic Castle everything felt too easy, with the exception of the memories of the giants. And the only part that reeeeeeeeeealllly kicked my ass over and over and over has been Shrine of Amana, although it would have been obviously ten times easier if I allowed myself to use a bow. EDIT: Also, a good example of an area that I eventually got past because the mobs stopped respawning. I would have eventually made it, but I think it's fair to say I did it by attrition and not by skill. I still hate this change.

I think my most common death is being stunlocked because I'm a hair of a second too slow on the shield button.  I have 20 in adp but I block too slow all the time.  Also plenty of just ending up in the wrong place/being surrounded, randomly backing off ledges, backed into a corner and can't see shit because camera is retarded, randomly missing the guy I'm swinging at even when he's targeted, just stupid deaths from frustration and trying to run by everything..

But seeing the next bonfire finally sure is nice, even though I know it's just a gateway to more traps, death and attrition.

My guy has bandit armor from +6 - +9, dragonrider shield and either the halberd+10 or the craftsman hammer +3 depending on which hits harder.  Also I don't mind using my long bow +6 whenever possible.

It's possible I suck at this, but I'm still going to finish it.

Finished this last night, took me 65 hours. I don't know if it was any easier moment to moment, but it certainly was more forgiving with respecs and all.

I hoarded all my stuff and leveled specific weapons or scepticed miracles for the bosses that gave me trouble. Lightning Spear for the Old Iron King (and most things afterwards, lol), Smelter Sword for Duke's Dearest Freya (also worked great for the final battle!). Heide Lance took care of all the shitty armoured late game enemies, but was unable to hit certain enemy types due to some weird bug. Shield wise it was weird, the super early Old Knight's Shield turned out to be the best shield in the game.

edit: armor wise, I wore the Archdrake chest for the whole game. Great weight/stat ratio! Then it was just Jester's Cap once I got it, and Alonne for the rest. I tried the +crit gloves, whatever they're called, but it never procced for me.

That was weird to me too. Nothing topped the Tower Shield, if anything because nothing else in the game has 100% physical damage mitigation and 70 stability. And that sucked, cause there are so many beautiful shields in the game but I was stuck with that basic moving wall.

I had high hopes for the spell deflecting shields, but I never managed to get them to reflect stuff back to the enemy. Seemed it just went randomly wherever.

I'm using the Drangleic Shield, works fine for what I'm doing.  I stopped adding carry weight once I could wear the Drangleic set, which is the best mid-weight armor that I have found at my admittedly early stage.  I've tried a few other weapons but nothing beats the Drangleic Sword, either.  I figure at some point I'll stop putting points in STR/DEX/END/ADP and do VIT until I can wear something ridiculous, but not 100% on that.

Hmm, so where am I?  Two bosses down in FFG, the easier boss in Heide, those three skeleton dudes, and I'm almost ready to stab me a Hutt on Earth Mountain or whatever it is.  Yeah, I know, so don't listen to me. :awesome_for_real:

I'm curious to know if any of you has tackled the super high level optional

It's hard to say that the Souls game have an interesting story although it is not hard to say, in my opinion, that the lore is simply fantastic. Maybe it's because I am a fan of the untold as opposed to the excessivley manifest, but I think that even when the end result can be utterly disappointing (I was so unsatisfied at the end of Dark Souls 1), it's only by paying attention at all the details that one can reailize how rich and unique the setting really is.

Dark Souls 2's story is certainly more organic than Dark Souls 1's (and it made me think a lot about the other discussion we are having in a different thread about Blizzard's lore and how stories in recent games are often worse than what they were when games left a lot to imagination and speculation), but it is almost as hard to find and follow it as an easter egg. Dark Souls 2 has a very light-to-non-existent story at first look, while the actual point is to actually hide it from all the players who wouldn't care about it anyway, while providing an extra puzzle game inside the game for those interested in putting all the pieces together scattered around in items descriptions and cryptic dialogue's lines. While the original design this might have been based on a lack of resources, I think it gives a lot to think about on the matter of storytelling when we realize how much can still be achieved through written words (seriously, half ot it is in the item descriptions) and blanks for the players to fill instead of expensive cutscenes or obvious and pedantic NPC blabber.

I think this video sums the experience up very well: ** MASSIVE ULTRA SPOILERS IN THIS VIDEO - Don't watch it unless you have completed the game at least once. ** (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukdFydrYxZ8)

Coming out tomorrow on Steam and even though I was terrified of the porting, I checked things and seems like the game is 100% faithful to the console version with the added bonus of higher textures and framerate. So I caved and decided to re-buy it cause having it on Steam will make it easier for me to replay it in the future.

One thing that might not be public knowledge (we discussed it in the previous pages):

- The torches were supposed to play a huge part in the original concept of the game due to the advanced lighting system. There were going to be plenty of areas where not having a torch would have made you blind, actually forcing you to choose between having a shield in your left hand or... being able to see! What happened is that From Software literally downgraded the graphics of the game to make sure the framerate stayed consistent on the console versions, and as a result they had to completely drop their original light/dark design and make the game brighter (!) across the board. This is particularly visible in some comparative videos between the build shown more than a year ago and what we have now. Texture are much less refined, but most importantly light is a completely different story.

In this videos (Part 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbT03r_9Zo) and Part 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFQoLN89_j8)) it is clearly visible how some enemies just appear out of the dark, while things are never really hard to see in the launch version. Let's not forget the development codename for this game was Project Dark.

From Software had to publish some sort (http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/19/dark-souls-2-from-software-responds-to-graphics-downgrade-claims#) of  an aplogy for the downgrade (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/03/20/dark-souls-ii-was-unplayable-and-broken-on-consoles-before-graphics-downgrade/), mentioning how they had no choice.

Bottom line. The PC version looks better, but the lighting is the same as the console version.

I think that gameplay idea is a bit shit anyway because it ends up favoring certain builds over others.

Tomb of the Giants was one of my most disliked sections of DS1. I'm happy with torches being more optional. Having one hand constantly taken up by an item that serves very little gameplay purpose and restricts your available options sounds annoying.

A game where you have to constantly carry a torch in one hand sounds fine, but not in Dark Souls.

I am immensely terrible at this game. It's...pretty sad.

Coming from Dark Souls 1 the first few days in DS2 are devastating for your ego. You have to relearn a lot. It only lasts a few days though.

High Definition is glorious. It takes away some of the blurry gloomy magic of the consoles version, but it's crisp as hell and it really plays the same so far. I am playing it with the PS3 pad and seems like this is a very well done port for once.

I managed to get 20 mins in this morning, but was using mouse & keyboard and it felt awful. When I get time later I'll try with a controller.

What's considered an "easy" starting class? If I pick something like warrior will that leave me without ranged options?

Holy Hell, the mouse and keyboard are awful. I also love how the PC version just has all the controller icons - I have no idea which button is 'A' but thanks! Guess I will be playing this with a controller.

Can confirm, much better with controller.

Thread with known PC issues (so far): http://steamcommunity.com/app/236430/discussions/0/558754259718155271/

I found starting as a sorceror to be kinda brutal compared to melee.  On the other hand, the knights at Heide's are easy.  On the original hand, FFG is not so easy.

Good to know, thanks.

I think the key lessons in combat are as follows:

Really, I bought this for PC, so I didn't not FUCKING EXPECT that it would be "you needs controller". If PC = don't make it controller-or-you-die.

I'm amused that they managed to make keyboard/mouse controls even WORSE than DS1 in many ways... that's quite an achievement!  :awesome_for_real:

Dark Souls 1 on Steam had a big red box in the store page saying "WARNING! YOU NEED A CONTROLLER TO PLAY THIS!". Surprisingly enough they removed such warning from Dark Souls 2 and replaced it with "Improved Mouse+Keyboard controls!", which doesn't make any sense simply because this game HAS to be played with a controller. That's really unfair.

That said, if you didn't spend the last 5 years on the moon and you happened to be interested in the *Souls games you'd probably know that there's no way these can be played without a controller, no matter what the marketing baits say.

Playing a Souls game with a mouse and keyboard to me would be like trying to play a racing game with a mouse and keyboard. It's probably technically possibly but I have no idea why somebody would want to do it.

Hmm, if I can't play it with a M&K then I guess I won't be playing at all.  I tried playing Demon's Souls on the PS3 with a controller and quit a few hours in because I hated playing it with a controller.  I then tried Dark Souls on the PC with M&K and it was completely unplayable.  Oh well, more time for Hex I guess.

You are really, really missing out.

I played through DS1 with kb&m (see lack of controller below) because my friends kept telling me how awesome a game it is (and yeah, it is). The dsfix and dsmfix mods made it bearable, and I played a caster so I could just soul spear my way through half of the game anyway. It was still an inferior experience (camera turning speed was completely crap, for one, which made backstabbing unnecessarily difficult), but I completed it without an overly large number of deaths (probably because I played a sorcerer, not because I managed to git gud).

Now DS2? They've been saying in their PR releases that they designed it to be a proper kb&m experience this time... and then they went ahead and fucked some things up even worse than they were in (unmodded) DS1! If it was just about failing to take advantage of the kb/m features (there's a full keyboard available, why can't I use it to select individual items/spells instead of just scrolling through them? why can't I directly jump to the equipment or stats screen whenever I want? etc), I'd shrug and move on... but they really managed to screw things up on a basic level here. I won't post the laundry list, but the clownshoes are pretty big.

FWIW, It's still possible to play with kb&m (I just got past the forest of fallen giants), but with the exception of a few UI elements, it's even more frustrating to play than DS1 was. That is not a good thing when you're claiming that your game is kb&m compliant. As for why I don't want to use a controller -- there are a few reasons, the biggest one being that I don't have one. Even if I went out and bought a controller for a ridic amount of $, I'd then have to learn an entirely new control scheme from scratch (the last controller I used was the NES) and I doubt I'd be using the controller in any other PC games either. So yeah, kb&m or no sale.

e: to be fair, mouselook actually works OK, and it's way more responsive than it was in DS1 + dsfix + dsmfix. When it comes to using the mouse to do stuff, however... yea.

I am the fiercest defender of the mouse in pretty much all instances. It's just such a good gaming tool, in all possible situations. That said, Demon's Souls and its sequels have been thought and designed to work fantastically well with a PS3/XboX controller and I dare to say that the control scheme played a good part in the success of the series. After some adjusting, the controller begins to melt with your fingers and and starts to feel like the weapons you are wielding, and it creates a perfect symbiosis between the player and the game that is rarely achieved in anything else. Bottom line: if a game ever needed to be played with a controller, it's this one.

The problem is that they allow people without a controller to buy it, because they like money. They should not. It should just prevent you from buying it unless the system detects you have a controller plugged in. As I said, it's misleading and unfair that they let people think this can be enjoyed with keyboard and mouse. I don't know, can you play football with ballerina shoes or can you climb a mountain with hush puppies? Probably, but you really shouldn't and someone should let you know that before you buy (And we have been).

A controller is just a peripheral, why avoid ever using one unless you just hate yourself?

I listed plenty of reasons in my post. To me the question sounds more like: why would I want to spend money (to buy) and time (to familiarize myself / build muscle memory / etc) on a controller that I have never used, and will never use in the first place unless I just hate myself?

edit to be somewhat more constructive: seriously, over here it's quite common for people to not own any consoles, never mind console controllers for the PC. The PC master race cares not for your trinkets!  (or more likely, people in Eastern Europe are too poor to afford anything beyond a PC...)

Just to clarify: I understand and empathize with what you say up here. That's why I don't blame you for not having a controller, seriously. I blame them for selling a game that NEEDS a controller telling people it doesn't. That's a lie.

I wonder if I wait long enough will they get the game working with my xbox controller without having to unplug every other peripheral.   Given that I see that DS 1 had these same issues, I'm guessing 'no' is the answer.

 :heartbreak:

A really cool article, provocatively titled "Is Dark Souls 2 the Worst Game Ever Made?" (includes some spoilers)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/04/25/is-dark-souls-ii-the-worst-game-ever-made/

In that review he states "I hated the first dark souls" an that is all you need to know about it.  That reviewer is so full of shit he might be a boss in dark souls three called crapulous. The whole thing smacks of taking down the popular game a peg for no reason but it gives him cred.

I don't think the point of that article was to initiate an internet slapfight on what are the best gamezzz.

edit: I think his point was that he's the type to play DS games obsessively, and thanks to the gameplay, setting and cyclic nature of it all, he ends up feeling bummed out after those hundreds of hours. Which I can totally identify with, when it comes to certain multiplayer shooters. The article is written in a very hard to read manner, but I think that's an attempt to emulate what playing the game feels like. In any case I find it amusing.

There was no point in that article at all.  He is just defecating all over his keyboard

Jesus, take a chill pill dude. And read my edit for actual content.

I take that article as a clever provocation, which is working very well based on the angry comments. I suggest that the writer actually loved all three games to death, but as he says in one of the comments, he's trying to provide "an alternative framwork for evaluating games". We could easily dismiss this piece by saying he's trying too hard every time he mentions Baudrillard or Ovid and shows off his classical studies, but games don't exist in a vacuum anymore and all in all I think -some- of his points are interesting: if there's a game that can blow your mind to the point where you fall into a dark, depressing meditative loop asking yourself why the hell do you even play games, and how are they changing the way you interact with real life, it's this one.

The title is nothing but a clickbait, the writer is lying, and the article is not what it seems.

Edit, about wasted meta potential: "The Throne of Want"? I am surprised he didn't use that anywhere in the article. I'd love to hear the makers of the game's opinion about this article.

I feel sad that the gaming community at large always takes a literal view on everything and is very hostile towards analysis (good or bad, but you can't have one without the other). Also, criticizing darling games get people frothy in a manner I just cannot understand.

Also I'm gonna post the smartypants things I wanted to say here, because no one's gonna look back at the previous page.

He's kind of a shitty writer. By kind of, I mean, his editor is shitty. But you're still allowed to enjoy it.

He was trying too hard.  He is a terrible writer and I'm going to arbitrarily judge him a a pretentious ass.  That he spent so much time playing and re-playing DS1 and 2 only to feel unsatisfied at the end implies to me that he possibly has a compulsive disorder and/or that he needs to evaluate earlier and more often whether or not he's having fun.

Interestingly, I had the exact opposite reaction.

At first I was failing a lot at rolling so I almost abandoned it. Then I realized it actually helps and backward is better, then I realized sideways is even better. Then I realized that it isn't really the direction that matters. What matters is where you will be at the end of your i-frames (invincibility frames). It is ALL about the size and the vector of the hitbox of the attack you are trying to roll away from. Imagine that -regardless of what the mob and its weapon look like- their attack has a box that has a unique (but invisible) shape. In some cases it is huge, in some it is narrow, in some cases it is only the tip of the visible weapon/limb attacking you, in some other cases it is the whole part. The key here is to make sure that you become invincible when that hitbox is touching you, and leave i-mode when that hitbox is over you. In some cases rolling TOWARDS the attack helps because when you get out of i-mode the attack has passed over you, and that's why in many cases it helps to roll towards the attack, to literally slide under it (this was the case in the previous D*Souls too). The problem here is that the i-frames seem to be a little less than they were in the previous games so all our muscle memory about rolling is messed up. Rolling backward helps because in many cases it just rolls you out of range, while rolling sideways helps with direct, straight attack cause you move out of the way. But that's just you rolling in a way that prevents your hitbox to be touched by their hitbox.

So the bottom line is that regardless of your perception, if you want to really dodge the attacks you have to roll in different directions depending on the attack. If, instead, you are relying on the i-frames then you could be rolling anywhere as long as you are in a safe area when the invincibility is over (which is the tricky part).


About "block beats roll", it's a personal preference. I thought so too and I finished the game as full tank, but now I am replaying it as a duel wielder who can't block and it's getting pretty good. Both seem very viable, as long as you get good at it, and that as usual contributes to make this games so fucking good.

I believe one of the stats in DS2 actually increases your iframes. (fake edit-looked it up and it's AGI that increases your iframes.)

Yes! As Jakonovski pointed out a fes pages back, some tests that seem to show that the increase in iFrames is negligible even if you max out the stat, but I am pretty sure that in the Souls games even single frames matter.

The dude that co-wrote the official guide (epicnamebro) said in his youtube videos that as far as he can tell, the main effects of adaptability are faster estus use and its interaction with other stats. IIRC some aspects of endurance and dexterity are capped by adaptability, ie. whichever is lower determines your bonus.

edit: as far as block vs. roll goes, I think playing on pc versus ps3 has a lot to do with it. Shitty framerate makes rolling fail more often.

As a sword and board melee I find myself both rolling and blocking depending on the situation.  Having a mix of the two seems to work really well for me.

Rolling sideways can put you into a great attack position.

Maybe because they read this:

(http://i.imgur.com/YHo1kWB.png)

Yeah, that's the misleading and unfair part. Instead of that crap it should say: "Warning! You can use M+K but this is meant to be played with a controller!". Or at least have the decency of removing the word perfect from that stupid statement.

I gave it a fair spin with mouse and keyboard and I think that if a console version didn't exist I would have still loved the game and I would have learned to play it with the M+K. It sorta mimics the control scheme of Vindictus and it wouldn't be so incredibly bad if it weren't for the uniquely unforgiving nature of Dark Souls. A mouse with more than three buttons also helps a lot. A friend of mine refuses to buy a controller (like Zetor) and while he hated it at first, he now claims to be very comfortable with it. Weird.

Oh, it's definitely playable. DS1 was also playable.. but that doesn't mean the kb/m implementation 'good' in any sense of the word.

Like I said, I completed DS1 with kb/m. In DS2 I'm up to the ruin sentinels, and I can say it's not the kb/m deficiencies that are getting me killed over and over again, but rather my noobishness (and/or lack of knowledge about the fight, especially the tells). What's getting me is that the devs seem to treat the mouse as a 3-button controller (along with a screwed-up concept of what doubleclick means) and trying to do some things like plunging attacks and guard breaks with kb/m doesn't work like it should (if they work at all). Stuff like the complete mess that is the keyboard configuration screen combined with the inability to show the bound keys on the screens instead of the xbox controller buttons is just the cherry on top.

e: btw, you can NOT bind mouse side buttons at all, so having a gaming mouse doesn't help. This'll probably be fixed with a mod like dsmfix and I could probably do a workaround with some out-of-game macro software if I wanted to bother, but it's a good indication of the dev / porting team's cluelessness.

No, but if you have a gaming mouse you can tell the mouse to emulate keyboard keys with each of the side buttons, can't you?

Yeah, that's what I meant by out-of-game macro software. Thing is, you can only bind alphanum keys and some things like home/end/pgup/pgdn (you can't bind ` and [], f'rex), so you'd basically have to bind your side mouse buttons to a letter. Then, when you played other games and used the side mouse button (I use it in almost every game, single player or MMO), it'd spam that key... unless you built a custom mouse-keybind set just for DS2 (making sure to enable it before launching and disabling it after exiting), and that's also past my "want to bother" threshold.

Presumably that would work, although you'd need a mouse with software that handles multiple software profiles so you don't break the built-in mappings that most games let you do.

This seems a lot harder than using a controller.

There is also the very remote possibility that some games, whatever platform they are on are, by the very nature of the gameplay, better on controllers.  M+K is not some magical formula that everything is inherently better on so long as they are designed for it.

I actually thought that article had a reasonable point.

I like these games but they sometimes seem to me to be fantastically upgraded and elaborated versions of Dragon's Lair. The combat is not loose and improvisational. Neither is it the complicated choreography of MMO combat, where you learn to rotate powers, be in the right place at the right time, etc. It really often is a combination of intense optimization of character development + repetition of one of several repertoires of approaches to different kinds of enemies. There is a lot of memorization and repetition, which I end up enjoying in many ways, in part because of the excellence of its implementation (visually, mechanically, narratively).

But if I was making a spectrum with "open world games" at one end, these would very nearly be at the opposite end despite the fact that you can ostensibly go any number of places at most points in the game. You "can" but not really, as anyone who tried to wander around Dark Souls I found out. And yet they're not at the same opposite end from a real open world as narratively-driven on-rails games like Bioshock, which is part of what makes them so interesting--they're really their own kind of thing.

From Software bought by Kadokawa. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GQcIEKmFQg)

See, what you wrote was readable and reasonable and made me think about what you said.  I agree, in player-execution, this game IS more like an on-rails game - the world isn't living/breathing, it's a set piece where every mob is lovingly (hatefully?) placed.  The player CAN go where ever they want, but they will die horribly in all but a few of those places unless they have leveled up a bit.  Your two paragraphs were an interesting read, thanks.

On the other hand, that author's writing style made me want to stab him in the face because what he could have said in a sentence or two, he made three paragraphs and a dozen references to show how literate he is.  All I got from his article is that he failed to recognize that, especially with these games, it's the journey, not the end, that matters.  ... and even that is wrong, because he clearly did stop and smell the roses along the way.  Fuck, now I have to go back and read it again.  Goddamn you!

It's the journey not the destination should come on the box art for the souls games.  DS1 has a nothing ending by nearly any standard but it's one of my favorite games of all time, I don't even think the ending detracts from it.  By the end of the last one I didn't need fanfare, I didn't need some huge spectacle, all I needed was a nice little line saying "you did it, good job"  because I had met the ordeal and come through on the other side. 

This is what happens when Sony has absolutely zero internal capability to judge skill among developers.

Anyway, Kadokawa owns a number of great companies. This is a better fate than getting bought by, say, Sega.

Video put me to sleep.

"Project Beast" is the next From Software game for PS4? (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/461973/leaked-screenshots-show-from-softwares-rumored-project-beast/)

Leaked pictures seem to say so. Hoax or truth?


(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3196/image_319671_fit_940.jpg)


(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3196/image_319670_fit_940.jpg)


(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3196/image_319664_fit_940.jpg)


(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3196/image_319667_fit_940.jpg)

omg gimme

Dude has a shotgun.

I really, really hoping it's you hunting wild legendary beasts and not playing as a beast.

The shotgun worries me a lot.

Doesn't worry me. Demon's Souls with guns would feel like a more agile RE4.

Besides, what's the difference between a gun and a crossbow?

Anyway, since the rumors point to an exclusive, this is why I am happily going to save and buy a PS4.

Exclusive might just mean "no xbox" as is often the case lately.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85916/reggie.jpg)

That gif doesn't quite have the oomph that it did when people were buying Wiis for no discernible reason.

I challenge you to identify a discernible reason today.

CHALLENGE NOT ACCEPTED

I might guess that there are four, depending on taste (or lack of).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wii_U-only_games

SMT could easily make me stupid enough.

If you like me are obsessed, here's 11 minutes of informed speculations (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M2Y-R18Mo0) about why Project Beast is very likely going to be Demon's Souls 2 (and the differences between the Demon's Souls and Dark Souls IPs, for those who aren't Schild).

I never got into Dark Souls. I know why now. I'd never looked at the credits, but the lead game designer wasn't on dark souls 1 or 2? Huh. Didn't know that. Surprised the guy in the video didn't point that out (rather, he pointed out the head / planner).

I did a bit of research myself since I really wanted to know who came up with the lore for Demon's Souls, and then Dark Souls, and all the characters and item descriptions, but couldn't find anything. I probably would have had more luck if I knew Japanese, and for lack of any better information I guess we have to assume Director Hidetaka Miyazaki did. Regardless, as far as I know he's the director and designer of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1, but he didn't work on Dark Souls 2. It's not that I can't read credits sheets when they are translated, but I have to admit some of the roles (planner/director/designer/lead designer/producer) are confusing.

Lead Planner is generally The Man in Japanese studios. Sometimes it's the director. End of the day though, the majority of the work is being done by the other leads. The lack of crossover between Demon's and Dark is pretty telling.

Either way, Project Beast is stunning looking. From's fantasy art style is basically the best since Yoshitaka Amano's early concept art for Final Fantasy. I'm unsure as to why the guy who made that video didn't say the most telling thing about it is that its a PS4 exclusive. Chances are, internally at Sony, the guy from NeoGAF sees that it's called Project Beast, hence his hints. But he wouldn't know more than that unless it was already getting localized - which it may very well be.

Edit: The ONLY reason a From game would be a PS4 exclusive in 2014 is if it's Demon's Souls. Period. There's no other reason to do that at all.

Also this video should kill the controller V kbm debate once and for all.  :oh_i_see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl35QCbMi-c&feature=share

More like Camped You With A Wheel. :oh_i_see:

Not sure if it makes a difference for people who are on the fence, but there is a 25% off coupon on green man gaming that can be applied to this. Just got it for like 32 bucks.

Project Beast, it moves!
http://a.pomf.se/pfqpvs.webm
http://a.pomf.se/akfinw.webm
http://a.pomf.se/zoyrmx.webm
http://a.pomf.se/djsxfc.webm

All together: http://a.pomf.se/jvcape.webm

Freeze me now and wake me up when it launches. My life will be so empty until that day.



EDIT: One rumour/speculation says it could be a sequel to Shadow Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Tower), which I am sure Schld played and finished and can tell us more about.

EDIT 2: Insane frame by frame video analysis of the leaks. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxy-b0i7864)

I'm asking because I don't know the answer to this.

Once a developer goes multi platform, do they ever come back to exclusives?

Yes.

Insomniac made FUSE multi, now Sunset Overdrive is XB1 only. There are also plenty of companies with a healthy mix of mutli and exclusive titles - Platinum made Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 for Nintendo and is rumored to be working on an exclusive XB1 game, but they also make stuff like Metal Gear Rising for everything. Epic made Gears for 360 while releasing UT for both 360 and PS3.

Making something exclusive generally makes it more high-profile and desirable, but also limits the customer pool. For some massive thing like Call of Duty that doesn't make sense - COD doesn't need the bump in interest exclusivity provides and being exclusive would limit sales potential drastically. But for something less well-known the bump can be worth it. And in some cases a game is exclusive because the hardware manufacturer is paying for development or is putting their own money into marketing.

The same is true for cross-gen games vs only next-gen. For the biggest titles being cross-gen makes sense, but for the next tier of titles being next-gen only makes them much more appealing and can bump sales even with a much lower hardware install base.

Oh, that makes perfect sense.

What about a series or several franchises that are as close as Demon Souls, Dark Souls, and possibly Shadow Tower?

I'm not anti-PS4 or anti-Exclusives, I just would prefer to keep it to PC and one console in my home. All signs point to exclusive and it's harshing my mellow. Desperate for someone to tell me it will all be ok.

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Could be Shadow Tower, but if its a ps4 exclusive we have to assume its in the souls series.

Shadow Tower, much like Froms early stuff, was just another game that contributed DNA to what became Demons Souls. It was not a notable game.

Yeah that's a little weird. Bayonetta 2 is only for Wii U and Bayo 1 was for both 360 and PS3. The last couple Fatal Frame games are also Nintendo-only, even though previously there were for PS2 and XBbox. A series becoming exclusive is a little strange - in the Bayo case Nintendo is paying for development, I'm not sure about Fatal Frame but there is probably either direct money or some significant co-marketing.

It would be strange for a Souls spinoff to be only for PS4. (If the rumors are true) In that case I have to assume that either Sony is paying for it, Sony is going to heavily market and promote it, that there was an issue with getting XB1 development hardware and translated docs, or something to that effect.

There are some games that come to PC and one console but not the others (Titanfall being the most recent big example), so maybe it will end up being PS4/PC.

This game is very clearly being coproduced by SCEI. As such its either demons souls spinoff or a different ps1 exclusive game.

The Souls series is already sort of weird, with Dark Souls 2 being a direct sequel to Dark Souls and Dark Souls having the "Souls" part of Demon's Souls. Apparently Sony still owns the Demon's Souls IP. Curious how this will be positioned - as an entirely new title, a spinoff or what.

Personally I've always liked it when games aren't connected in a traditional way but share some elements, a sort of house style. Like how Soul Blazer has some of the sound effects from Act Raiser and a similar high-level plot, or how old Climax games (Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness, etc) had the same UI.

I don't own a PS4 or an XB1 and I wouldn't get both, so if this is a PS4 exclusive it makes that decision a lot easier. Worst case scenario for me is that this is a PS4 exclusive and that Platinum is making an XB1 exclusive that isn't a shooter.

Incoming DLCs.

The Crown of the Sunken King - July 22, 2014
The Crown of the Old Iron King - August 26, 2014
The Crown of the Ivory King - September 24, 2014

Trailer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioo0ukZ6P-4)

New IP… Bloodbourne

Check the E3 thread where no one talked about it because the trailer was worse than the gifs that have been going around.

Somehow I'm very MEH on this.  Probably because I'm very MEH on DS2.

I agree with you on DS2, but think of this game as the Dark Souls 1's true successor.


"Designed to be tackled with a summoned soul" as in; dump a shitload of strong enemies with infinite stamina into a tiny room and call it a day.

It's been a long day here, but are you saying this DLC for DS2 is a true successor to DS1?

There's nothing wrong with Dark Souls 2. It is 100% the "true successor" of Dark Souls 1.

You know what it's not though? Demon's Souls.

I don't know what's going on here.

Dark Souls has been and will always be From's B-Team trying to recapture the bottled lightning that Demon's Souls was.

Ain't happening. The design isn't tight enough and the open-esque world fails on every level in that system.

AND for some reason I thought you were talking about bloodborn. I had a longer day it looks like.

Bloodborne's first impressions (no pictures). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJtzLXg9AB0)

More attack, less shield. Mmmhnm.
Firearms short ranged, more crowd control than anything.

No shield always seemed to be the advanced way to play Souls games, so I'm intrigued.

I never beat Demon's Souls using a shield. :oh_i_see:

I always hide behind a shield as big as possible, like a little bitch. Then I poke with a stick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTBFUnm1hYU

I think this is a new leak?

I preordered this on Steam but hadn't really gotten around to playing it until this weekend and then it sucked up all the hours.

Started with a Knight as I am not great with these games - patience is not one of my virtues. First 5 bosses down (Last Giant, Dragonrider, Old Dragonslayer, Flexile Sentry and FINALLY Pursuer). I am always so paranoid about upgrading weapons, but finally started upgrading my flame sword. The Drangleic armor was a HUGE help which I combined with the Old Knight's Shield and I can take on a lot more now.

Got invaded a couple of times, both times killed the invader rather easily which was a big difference from the first Dark Souls. I don't think I ever got invaded by someone who I even had a chance of defeating.

So far Bosses seem much easier (except Pursuer - fuck that guy), but I have died a lot more to the "normal" mobs in the game.