Dark Souls II

[360]

Gather 'round, my fellow champions. Let us discuss this gem. TBR 3/11/14(US) and 3/14/14(EU).

This is, unquestionably, my most anticipated game in latter half of the generation.

[360]

[Combo7]

This might be the first game I pay full price for at its release date in years. Been going out of the way to avoid trailers and previews as I want to be blown away by everything. Hope they don't slack on getting the PC release out in a timely fashion.

[Balzac]

i have it on pre-order for 360 and can not fucking wait.

i came late to the dark souls 1 party but became hooked about a year ago. Just completed my SL1 run a few months back, that was intense.

there were a few parts in DS1 where i looked up walkthroughs and shit but i'm going to play this one blind.

what do you guys think about the black armour set being available from the jump if you pre-ordered the game? at least its available within the normal game as well through regular discovery, but i was a bit disappointed they did that shit.

so far all the DS1 players who've played it are giving it a thumbs up.

[360]

I haven't preordered yet due to being undecided on which console I want it for. The preorder bonus doesnt really concern me as I usually only equip light gear.

In all honesty, I haven't looked at any of the videos with the exception of about 3 mins of the agility build vid. I did, however, read about a few tweaks in the combat mechanics which seem to have alleviated some of the cheap spam issues in pvp. That is a beast that can't really be tamed though. If one removes the cheapness of the backstab/lagstab, then spellcasting might reign supreme. Pure speculation on my part.

[Balzac]

april 25 release for pc

http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/6/5477630 ... lease-date

higher resolution textures than the 360/ps3....shit i might have to get it on PC as well if it looks significantly better. thats dope they are taking the PC port seriously this time around.

[Combo7]

Will it be easy to disable the online features on the PC? On the PS3 all you have to do is not sign in to PSN, but on the PC I'll need to be online to launch it via Steam. Fuck having assholes "invade" my game and spoiling shit with their stupid little post-it notes left around the environment.

[Sigma]

This leaked on 360 yesterday for those who are still running a flashed Xbox. I have it, but I'm gonna wait for the PC version later in the year.

[Combo7]

You can preorder the PC version on greenmangaming.com for $40 ($49.99 price + $10 cash back).

[Combo7]

So jelly of all you console players right now.

[Spartan]

Playing this game would probably lead to me rage quitting and throwing my controller against the wall. The UK trailer is fucking awesome, however:

[Hayzoos]

9.75/10 from Game Informer

[360]

I've been playing for most of the day. I need top let the hype die down before I can make an objective comment. I'm having a blast, though.

[Balzac]

i'm fucking stuck already...fml...

i must have missed a weapon somewhere because taking 20 hits with my shitty broken sword to kill a rat can't be right.

[360]

Na. Explore more areas. I have loads of swords, from scimitars to longswords. My right hand weapon is a fire longsword and my lefthand weapon is a scimitar. I chose the swordsman class, obviously.

I'm pretty sure your starting weapon is better than what you have. Did you choose Deprived? Even if you did, there are weapons everywhere in the game. You'll find something quickly

[Balzac]

yeah finally got my shit together.

this is so fun

[Spartan]

[360]

That was perfect. That boss is easy, too.

[Balzac]

i crumbled over the weekend and had to look up something.

I missed the NPC that levels you up... i kept thinking to myself that it must be eventually unlocked at the bonfires, so i just kept playing.

I was fighting the

ornstein miniboss

without ever getting an estus flask and after dying about 20 times i looked it up online and finally was able to level up and use estus.

Aside from that i'm still playing blind... but i'm slowly running out of paths

i can't figure out how to get on that pirate ship, i can't get past that giant bug that spews fog in the gutters, the blue cathedral has a dead end, the tower of hades has a dead end with a door that won't open, that area with the stone statue blocking the door switch is still closed. I do still have to kill that one boss that gets dropped in by that giant bird, maybe that will open some stuff

anyone else notice that on areas where you constantly die that the bad guys eventually disappear? Seems a bit contrary to dark souls to gradually make it easier if you fuck up too much....

[young nova]

its not if you constantly die if u kill the enemies 12x they dont respawn. if u use a lockstone on the ground in no mans wharf it makes those bug guys much easier and lights the place up. Although if u get the fire longsword u can just two hand it and use the power attack and roll back and they arent too bad.

[Balzac]

ahhhh, that makes sense. i was just sucking so bad i eventually killed them all 12 times and was able to leisurely walk to the boss lol.
thats interesting...i wonder if they did that to prevent excessive farming.

I did use that lockstone on the wharf. I make it all the way to the pier where you can see that giant pirate ship. i'm assuming thats where I need to go. but there is no way to get there that I could see.

also wtf is up with using the lockstone in the gutters. theres like 10 places to insert one. I bought the only one that a particular merchant had and wasted it because all it does is cause one of the rat statues to spew acid.

[360]

I'm confident you'll figure the Wharf out soon. A tip is to go all the way up the the flights of steps and follow that path. I can't remember if there are 2 or 3 flights.

If you think the gutter has a lot of lockstones...

[Combo7]

Pre-loading on Steam now. Hella cysed.

[Combo7]

One week in and I'm loving it. It's the first Souls game where I've played online. Last night I joined the Rat King covenant and spent some time killing fools for lockstones. Bout to tackle the Gutter.

The new stat arrangement is interesting, and seems to provide an incentive for melee builds to dump points into either Intelligence or Faith to boost the elemental damage certain weapons do. I've been completely ignoring Adaptability and hope that doesn't come back to haunt me later.

One criticism I had heard that I think I agree with concerns the bosses. So far, they've nearly all been some kind of humanoid knight/creature. Nothing as horrifying as the Gaping Dragon or imaginative as the Moonlight Butterfly. Kind of boring on the boss front so far.

Overall though, the game's pretty fantastic. This is by far the best franchise in gaming to debut within the last ten years.

[360]

Adaptability allows you to consume items more quickly but, more importantly, it adds i-frames to dodge maneuvers like roll and backstep.

[young nova]

I didnt find adp useful and hardly noticed a difference when respecing and got rid of my points there. They nerfed the mlgs which was really lame

[Combo7]

From Software leaked images of what they're calling "Project Beast," an alleged PS4 exclusive assumed to be the sequel to Demon's Souls:

http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/06/dark-soul ... s-4719214/

[360]

Interesting. I want to belay my excitement but it seems futile. Looks like I'll be getting a ps4.

[Combo7]

Yep. This is a system seller for me and I hate myself for it.

[Combo7]