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Dark Souls 2



  UR R26R.5, VW Golf R


Dark Souls is destroying my entire being at the moment, but I have to admit the sense of achievement at progressing is quite unparalleled in a gaming sense. I've died countless times, banged my head on the controller and came so close to punching the kettle, but perseverance is the key. Along with being a f*cking mental case.
 
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  Fiesta ST3
It makes me want to commit.

I've never played anything like it tbh. Its mega though, and makes other games feel stupidly easy.
 
  Nissan 350z
Oh god the Dark Souls 2 gameplay looks even more difficult with enemies breaking through walls f**k that! I like the lighting torches effect it remind me of Tomb of Giants but I guess they will incorporate that into more areas?
 
  Yaris Hybrid
I keep feeling tempted to buy the original when it has been on Steam sale but having watched plenty of play throughs on Youtube I am not convinced.

It always comes down to grind and repetition masquerading as "difficulty". Not sure that is my cup of tea.

Who knows, maybe DS2 will just focus on making mobs harder and remove the time-sink "fake difficulty" death penalties.

Shame as everything about the game world and enemies is attractive to me. The new one certainly looks awesome.
 
  Nissan 350z
What are fake difficulty death penalties?
There's no grinding really its just a matter of learning encounters through trail and error (repetition) so when you actually make progress it feels ever more rewarding. I guess people have just got lazy with modern games that don't really offer a challenge anymore.
 
  Yaris Hybrid
What are fake difficulty death penalties?
There's no grinding really its just a matter of learning encounters through trail and error (repetition) so when you actually make progress it feels ever more rewarding. I guess people have just got lazy with modern games that don't really offer a challenge anymore.

You make the classic mistakes of believing that a desire for less repetition is "lazy" or "easy".

As an example, long spacing between checkpoints and mobs that respawn when you save are a time sink. Asking you to repeatedly kill things you already killed is not a test of skill and therefore not difficult. It is just a test of how much spare time you have. It penalises those with less spare time rather than those players with less skill but loads of spare time.

I come from an MMORPG background where many MMORPG players have difficulty understanding the difference between something that is hard and something that takes a long time.

An enemy that kills you if you make one mistake is hard. Having to fight through 15 minutes of enemies you already killed to reach the enemy that killed you is a time sink and a time sink is "fake difficulty".

The work/repetition required in order to get your character back in the position it was just before it died is what is known as the "death penalty". The death penalty should be enough to make dying feel like a bad thing but not so excessive that it becomes a moronic time sink.

Usually the act of the enemy/boss you were fighting resetting (you had it down to 30% health and when you return it is back to 100%) is enough of a penalty. The repetition of the boss/enemy resetting and the trial and error of fighting that monster is absolutely fine. That is not what I am beefing about.

People that play World of Warcraft claim that the game is now easier because Blizzard put Graveyards near the dungeon entrance so that corpse running takes 10 seconds instead of the minute it used to take.

Because running as a ghost that cannot be harmed is "hard" apparently....

These people are the same people that believe certain elements of Dark Souls game design are also "hard". The bosses are hard for sure, as are many world mobs, but there is too much "fake difficulty time sink" padding it out for my tastes.
 
  Mito Sportiva 135
Well said Toypop - thinking about it I got bored at this game having to kill the same enemies to get to the boss to try and kill it a million times. After 10 or so goes I knew how to kill all the enemies on the way to the boss without thinking about it, but it just became repetitive. I don't have a lot of time to play games now and would rather a short and genuinely challenging game rather than a long, drawn out game which is repetitive and quite challenging.
 
  UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
I'm personally enjoying the repetitive nature.

It's easy to see why many seasoned gamers believe its the best RPG on the market too, but I can also understand others' frustrations. Having played it now for 70 hours plus, I can also appreciate the high scores and averages it received from the reviews. 89% from over 60 reviews is pretty incredible considering the nature of the "game".
 
  Evo 5 RS
Nice. They've promised this will be a lot better on the PC this time round. Seeing as DS1 was purely ported because so many people wanted it, with very little added.

Must admit I'm still only about 70% tops through the first game. Just lost interest at one point. May pick it up again
 
  UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
Nice. They've promised this will be a lot better on the PC this time round. Seeing as DS1 was purely ported because so many people wanted it, with very little added.

Must admit I'm still only about 70% tops through the first game. Just lost interest at one point. May pick it up again

Yup:

Long before the release of Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, we knew that the PC port would be troubled. The developers admitted that they wouldn't be upgrading the resolution, or fixing the frame rates, or preparing the necessary wards to keep Games for Windows Live from haunting the game. Now, in an interview with Edge, Dark Souls 2 producer Takeshi Miyazoe has explained the problems facing the first game, and reassured that they won't affect the sequel.

"This is going to sound bad but our main priority was to get the game onto the PC as fast as possible, because people wanted it on the PC," Miyazoe said. "The PC market in Japan is so minimal that originally there were no plans to make it on the PC, but with the strong petition from the North American and European fans, even with the lack of experience of working on a PC platform we still did our best to try to get it out as fast as possible. [The problems] were expected to a certain extent.

"We did know there were PC-specific features like key-mapping and use of the mouse and keyboard, high resolution and higher frame rate, stuff like that, but… It’s not that we ignored it, but it would have taken too much time for us to implement it, test it and get it up to the level people expected. It was more of a publisher (Namco Bandai) decision to say, ‘Guys, don’t worry about this – let’s just get it out and see how this works on PC.’"

It's hard not to bristle at such a frank admission, but in fairness to From Software, they were entirely up-front with why they were porting Dark Souls, and how much of a direct and unoptimised port it would be. And the annoyance of the time has faded somewhat, because ultimately, Dark Souls PC was spruced into a much more pleasing state thanks to the work of modders.

PC is much more in the minds of the development team this time around, with From Software hoping to release our version just a few weeks after the consoles. "For Dark Souls II we are developing on PC from the beginning," Miyazoe said. "We realise what PC games typically require, and I can assure you that the PC version of Dark Souls II will be a good PC experience for PC gamers.

"The current plan is [to allow] players to choose whether they want to use keyboard and mouse or a controller," he said. "Both options will be available. Me being a console gamer and not a PC gamer, I would recommend a controller, but if you’re a PC gamer I’m sure you’d have a different opinion."
 
Still on PS3 me, but can't wait for this!!! I've only just got around to buying the DLC from DS1, so my cup a runeth over for this. 14th March is far too long to wait.

DS2 wiki has been out months, i really want to look at it and get involved, but it'll ruin it for me :dead:
 
  Audi TT 225 Quattro
Yep pre ordered months ago when it 1st came available, got the Black Armour edition and can't wait either.... Probably the game I am looking forward to the most this year. I Wonder if I will match 500+ hours spent on Dark Souls:cool: Will very likely be the last big hit game I buy for PS3:dapprove:
 
  Fiesta ST-3
Yep, the only thing keeping me from next gen!! Can't justify buying one when it wouldn't get a look in for at least 200+ hours of gameplay.

Jay I've got the black armour one too! Anyone going to be playing on 360 add me: chriscreasy
 
  Mito Sportiva 135
Bit late maybe but Dark Souls (the original) was on sale for less than £5 all week, so I've bought it again...bit scared to start again though!
 
  UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
Bit late maybe but Dark Souls (the original) was on sale for less than £5 all week, so I've bought it again...bit scared to start again though!

Don't buy the PC version mate; it's heavily flawed. I bought it on Steam for around £2 in the January sale.
 
THIS is the game for me, 14th can't come quick enough ...and still only one review out! 90% I'm back playing DS, i've put in 700 and odd hours into one character - i'm on SL 329. The Reason that quite low for the hours i've put in was i never did PvP - i just did the campaign/PvE, but now i need to do PvP to earn the souls i need to level up.

On another note - i've never pre-ordered a game before, what time do they usually (roughly) arrive if i did? I mean i don't want to be hanging around all day, when i can walk into GAME or whereever and pick it up at 9am (all be it slightly more expensive)

on another another note.... is it sad that a normal ungeeky 42 year old man whnts a Dark Souls II T-shirt?!? :cool:
 
  Mito Sportiva 135
Don't buy the PC version mate; it's heavily flawed. I bought it on Steam for around £2 in the January sale.

cheers buddy, this was on Xbox. I used to own it but got frustrated and sold it...but now want to step back in. Only thing is there's not much time before the sequel - but for that price it was silly not to buy it!
 
Pre-orders are up 50% on the org game ..... i've pre-order from GAME to get the free T-Shirt (i know)

Theres been another review out - 37/40 (4 judges score out of ten)
 
  Audi TT 225 Quattro
Paid for mine from Shopto today and as above hope I get it by Thursday .... been looking forward to this for a long time!:hail:
 
Looks ace, will be watching some streams of it tonight for sure! Never played the first one though so i'm still 50/50 whether ill be buying it or not
 
  Fiesta ST-3
Just arrived, off for a few days and the girlfriend is away. That's me sorted!!!!

Get ready for the rage post in approximately 2 hours
 
Just arrived, off for a few days and the girlfriend is away. That's me sorted!!!!

Get ready for the rage post in approximately 2 hours

Gutted ... i'm gonna have to wait till midnight!!! I rang up Tesco, they told me they had loads in, i raced there..... when i got there they were all in the back and wouldn't/couldn't sell me one!!
 
  Audi TT 225 Quattro
^ I take it the game is far to easy going then and you've almost finished it:p

Mine arrived today as well, I've had to watch my American Friends play it since Tuesday so no doubt will be getting invaded s**t loads!

If you have this or are getting it on PS3 add me up as i am always willing to help out with bosses, exploring or slaughtering invading players ( I normally get some abusive messages after killing them) It is one of the best features of the game for me and the main reason I poured so many hours in the Dark souls and Demon Souls before it.

The Black Armour Edition case is very nice:clown::eek:
 
^ I take it the game is far to easy going then and you've almost finished it:p

Mine arrived today as well, I've had to watch my American Friends play it since Tuesday so no doubt will be getting invaded s**t loads!

If you have this or are getting it on PS3 add me up as i am always willing to help out with bosses, exploring or slaughtering invading players ( I normally get some abusive messages after killing them) It is one of the best features of the game for me and the main reason I poured so many hours in the Dark souls and Demon Souls before it.

The Black Armour Edition case is very nice:clown::eek:

Just send you a friend request pal - s3phantom

Same with abusive message, i didn't do PvP for a year or so.... i just can't for the life of me master the (snide) backstab in DS1 ... but i got so powerful it didn;t really mater - i hope the backstab isn't as hard (for me) to pull off in this game.

I'll be online at just gone midnight
 


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