Bloodborne - This will make me buy a PS4

By the people who made the souls games.... nuff said.

Sucked back into Dark Souls.....

So I've had this game since launch, played it a bunch at first but never got too far into it.  This was mostly because I was not too good at the parrying and riposte mechanic.  So I defaulted to the playstyle that got me through Demon's Souls, which was the poke strategy of a spear and shield.  During this time, I was still into Call of Duty, so it was easy for me to unhook myself from Dark Souls, and I figure it would be something I come back to at a later time.

Dark Souls - 10 hours, and lost count of the number of deaths

So 10 hours in, I pretty much own the Undead Burg and Undead Parish areas.  Feeling pretty good, I figure its time to move onto the next area.  As most guides suggest, I head to the darkroot garden area, and right on cue, the game kicks me in the nuts with enemies that I can't beat as easily with my winged spear anymore.  I did however make it to the soul farming area within the garden.  This area is far more efficient than me running through and killing everything in the Undead Burg and Parish to collect souls.  I really lucked out back at the Parish by having the dragon glitch off the map and thus commit suicide, rewarding me with 10k in souls.  Given that I had 6k already banked, it was the perfect time to save up 20k and purchase the seal to open up a door within the darkroot garden.  Within 90 minutes of baiting ghosts and humans, as well as falling off the map several times myself, I went from level 22 to level 32. 

Feeling good about my stats, I proceed revert myself back to human, and make a break for the boss in the area.  I read about summoning an NPC would make the boss fight a lot easier.  So I quickly try to make it to the summon spot, running past the stone giants, and as I summon the NPC in, I get hit from behind by the stone giant, and it casts the binding spell on me, making my character move significantly slower.. and thus vulnerable to the lastest death I experienced.  The game was turned off immediately and I needed to take a deep breathe.... *slight rage moment*.

Now I must go back, and get 5k in souls to buy humanity, so I can try again...

Dark Souls - First couple hours...

First thing I noticed when I started up the game, the graphics were not as good as Demon's Souls on PS3.  Perhaps its the limitation of the game engine on the Xbox360 platform.  So far, gameplay feels exactly the same.  I've died almost 10 times, and have played through the first section a few times.  Had to abandon my first character because I accidently used humanity away from the bon fire.  I was trying to use it at the first bon fire, but appearantly you have to wait to reach the next one.  Second time, the game didn't save properly before I switched to play another game.  So by the third time, I was able to make it past the Asylum Demon without dying.

I am slightly disapointed with the visuals though, seems like a step back from what I remember.  I'll pop Demon's souls in my PS3 tomorrow to compare.  Also, somewhat disapointed with the digital downloads I got with my collectors edition.  The site is probably bombarded right now, so I am unable to download the content properly.  I was only able to get the map.  I will keep trying later on, hopefully it will work in a day or two.

More on the game as I get further into it.

Mentally Preparing for Dark Souls - Remembering Demon's Souls

The day has finally come, the follow up to what I consider one of the hardest, most intense gaming experiences I have ever had. 

About two years ago, I was told about this game Demon's Souls, and how awesome it is.  I watched videos and read reviews on it, all stating that "you will die.. a lot".  This really peaked my interest (in a "challenge" accepted" sort of way).  So I went out and bought it.  This game was only available on the PS3, so it was a rare oppertunity for my PS3 to be used.

Most reviews, if not all, talks about how you'll end up playing the first area of the game over and over again to level up your character, which I did.  I must have played about 10 hours on the first level alone, just grinding away, collecting souls to trade in at the nexus to level up.  Once I was powerful enough, I was able to progress through the game and the rest of the world. 

There were a lot of parts of the game where I died, the frequency of my in-game deaths would slowly go down as the game progressed.  As I got used to the controls, and timing of my character, the only real danger was plain lapse in concentration, which would normally lead me to fall to my death.  There are so many paths and ridges to walk on, with nothing to stop you from falling to your death.  Narrow passages meant I had to be extra careful, a simple task of walking around required my full attention.  I had to be mindful of which direction I rolled away from an enemy attack, or how far I could lunge forward with my sword. 

But conquering each individual enemy, level and boss was a huge triumph in itself, thus driving me to push myself further.  On the surface, the game seems fairly straight forward, kill enemies, collect loot and souls, level up.  However, after reading up online for help in the later stages, I realized there was a whole different side to the game.  How you played the game would also change things in the level, opening up hidden areas with special enemies/bosses.  I unfortunately never got the time to fully explore that side of the game, but it was quite fascinating, especially given the amount of effort needed to activate these changes.

In the end, I was about 40-50 hours into the game, made it to the final boss of my first playthrough, but then Modern Warefare 2 came out and that was the end of that.  Hopefully with the new game, and the "off-season" time I have now between BlackOps and MW3, I can get deep into Dark Souls.