Dark souls 2

I played the first and you're right about the difficulty. It was a cool game, but I didn't finish it. Seems I can't finish games anymore!

 

I'm excited, but I'm also slightly worried that the director of the two previous games has been moved to another project. It'll probably be a while before there are gameplay previews substantial enough to judge whether any changes they make are going in the right direction.

 

So, there was a two-hour closed beta for Dark Souls 2 this past weekend (Praise the Sun!). I actually got an invite through PSN, but did not respond quickly enough to be one of the lucky 5,000 people to play it. Still, there's now plenty of footage up around the web for people to check out. I'm posting one video below, but there's many more. There were six pre-built characters in the beta: Soldier (average all-around melee), Warrior (big-ass weapons), Sorcerer (magic, duh), Temple Knight (melee and miracles/healing spells), Dual Swordsman (apparently dual-wielding is a better option now than it was last game), and Hunter (bow-based).

By most accounts the game seems even harder overall than the last one, and there have been some interesting mechanics changes.

1. Much like Demon's Souls, being in hollow form means you have reduced life. However, this time you actually have less life for each consecutive time you die! The only way to restore it to max is to reverse hollow.

2. Being in hollow form will no longer prevent you from being invaded (although, if being invaded really annoys you, you can still always play offline).

3. While in another's game, you can now use Estus flasks and pick up items (perhaps facilitating and encouraging jolly cooperation?).

4. Spells now cost stamina to cast in addition to having limited charges. To me this seems like a good move, as I thought sorcery was rather overpowered in Dark Souls. One tradeoff the other way is that two-handing your sorcerer's staff will now increase spell damage in the same way that two-handing melee weapons increases melee damage.

5. There are now healing items other than Estus flasks, but it seems that they take a longer amount of time to use, and that enemies are more aggressive about attacking you when you're trying to heal.

6. Stamina seems to deplete more quickly.

7. The backstab window seems smaller.

8. You get three items slots in each hand instead of two.

9. Some of the stats govern more effects, or simply different effects. For instance, I've heard that attunement now increases casting speed in addition to granting more spell slots.

10. And lots more I'm sure I'm forgetting...

Anyway, for those interested, I'd suggest googling footage of the class you're most interested in and decide what you think of the game so far for yourself. Me, I'm starting to get excited, and the game is still six months out. Aieee.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2KVnqGejWGw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Good news: I am in on the next Dark Souls 2 closed beta network test (PS3 only). They had originally said 30,000 people would get in, now they're saying 90,000.

I'm not sure if all slots have been filled yet. People can try entering this code into their PS3 accounts, it's the same for everyone: 38QQ-8DNE-97AA. The code was first posted about 5 hours ago and is redeemable on a first-come, first-served basis.

I actually had a hell of a time getting it to work. I kept spamming the code as soon as it was posted, but apparently by doing that early on my account got flagged as some sort of spambot, so after I tried it five or ten times or so without success it kept just erroring out on me. After 30 minutes of trying to redeem the code on my account, I was able to create an entirely new PSN account just to get into this beta test, which thankfully worked. I imagine I'll delete the second account after the beta is done.

Anyway, this is primarily meant to be a network test, and with 90,000 people trying to log on at the same time, I may end up not being able to play at all, like in the launch of many MMOs. But hopefully I'll actually get to play it some.

In a somewhat irritating turn, the actual time of the test is scheduled in the wee hours of the morning. For CDT, it runs from 1:00am-4:00am on Sunday! Maybe that's a convenient time in Japan or something.

Anyway, if I actually manage to log on and play this thing over the weekend, I'll post some impressions here.

 

Thanks, downloading now.

 

FYI, I've confirmed that as of now there are still slots open for the beta test. For interested PS3 players, again the code is 38QQ-8DNE-97AA.

 

It won't let me play, it says I don't have the latest version when I've already updated it.

 

That's because the beta test isn't live yet. It will only work 1:00am-4:00am CDT on Sunday.

 

I get the same message... I assume it's because we are only allowed to play at a particular time:

...still, ya, I agree that message about "not having the latest version" seems unnecessarily confusing. Would make more sense if they just said "the time of the network test has not arrived yet" or something.

 

Argh, very frustrating. The beta test that was supposed to be tonight didn't end up working. I was supposed to be able to start playing at 1am, but no one could get on. I kept trying for two hours, until finally at 3am Namco announced that the test is cancelled for the Americas. Fun times... nothing like trying to log into a game continuously in the wee hours of the morning. Apparently people in Europe got in... for some reason their client was the correct version of 1.02, while no one in in North or South America could update beyond 1.01.

At least they've also said the test is being re-scheduled. Maybe it'll even be re-scheduled to take place at a reasonable hour, especially since it's the Americas specifically that got screwed over for this.

 

First, new trailer, for those who haven't seen it yet:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0SJqRpvebCY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Second, here's a fun retrospective: my favorite article about either Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, written way back in January 2010. It's a really fun read, has some very memorable lines, and really conveys how these games can be both hugely rewarding and hugely frustrating at the same time.

Demonic Difficulty: Are Most Games Today Too Easy or Is Demon's Souls Too Hard?

Dark Souls 2 is coming out on March 11th, less than two months away now.

 

Ha. I recently beat demons souls and am currently playing dark souls so this is very well timed.

 

A good article with some new information on Dark Souls 2 (or at least stuff I hadn't heard before now):

http://www.edge-online.com/features...reat-adventure-of-the-ps3-and-360-generation/

 

More Dark Souls 2 news. Apparently it was recently shown at an event in San Francisco, so there are some new tidbits.

1. Tweaks in invasion mechanics. It was announced months ago that in the new game, you can be invaded even while hollow/undead. But it looks like they're making some changes to mitigate this. Not only will your life meter drop by 5% every time you die down to 50%, but frequently invading other players will raise your "sin" level and reduce your life even further... eventually all the way down to 10%, if Keza MacDonald has it right. Additionally, other factors will now contribute to how often you're invaded besides just your level. The factors I've heard that will increase your chance of being invaded are: a) you're human (rather than hollow/undead), b) you're playing with blue phantoms helping you, c) you've logged more hours in the game.

2. At least some enemies can be killed permanently. From Gamespot: "certain enemies will only respawn near each bonfire a certain number of times, which the PR rep estimates to be about 15. However, you'll need to actually kill them rather than simply respawn at the bonfire for this counter to increase. The developers made this change to stop you from grinding; with no enemies to gather souls from to then spend on levelling up, you are eventually forced to venture into dangerous, unknown territory. This also makes repeated runs to a boss encounter less frustrating." I'm definitely a bit annoyed at this; I've always felt that if players want to grind, they should be allowed to grind. But they did say "certain enemies," so maybe this won't be a real problem. I already knew from the beta test that black phantom NPC invaders don't respawn.

3. The world is more open than before. By this I mean that there appear to be fewer "barriers" between low-level and high-level areas. Apparently you can head right to a high-level area from the very beginning if you want -- it's just not particularly recommended. Apparently the game is going to let you figure out for yourself which areas to tackle first and which ones to avoid until you can return at a higher level and with better equipment. Personally, I love this change.

4. Bonfires and levelling up. I think it had been confirmed previously, but you can teleport between bonfires from the very beginning of the game. But one unannounced thing is that you no longer level up at bonfires, but instead with one specific NPC back in the starting town. Considering the bonfire teleportation, this shouldn't really make much difference, more of a style thing (remember the Maiden in Black from Demon's Souls?). Also, there's apparently going to be a way to re-spec your character -- no idea yet how costly this will be.

5. There is now opt-in voice chat. That's right. By default voice chat is off, but apparently now if both players want to opt-in, it's available.

6. There's actually a tutorial. On the other hand, die-hard Souls fans need not be annoyed, as it is completely skippable. One player mentioned that he walked right by the tutorial without even realizing it was there, so it's not going to be obtrusive, just something to help out new players if they care to seek it out.

I think that's about it for new stuff that I discovered from the recent slew of preview articles. Dark Souls 2 is very close now -- March 11, or about a month and a half. I can't wait.

 

Oh my God, Yahtzee actually reviewed Dark Souls. I thought he never would after complaining that Demon's Souls was just too hard.

<div style='width:650px;font-size: 12px;'><embed src="http://cdn2.escapistmagazine.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.12.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/config/8802-7a6fffa5c6ed54dcff6f36c4d0a25f66.js%3Fplayer_version%3D2.5%26embed%3D1%26autoplay%3D0" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="650" height="391" wmode="opaque"></embed><div><a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com'>The Escapist</a> : <a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation'>Zero Punctuation</a> : <a href='/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8802-Dark-Souls'><i>Dark Souls</i></a></div></div>

Meanwhile, reminder that Dark Souls 2 is less than two weeks away. So much new info has come out recently that there's too much to link to. But here's a no-frills Q&A session with a dude who has been playing the full release. It will be of interest chiefly to people who have played the first game.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-X0-w8lJqNU?list=UUe0DNp0mKMqrYVaTundyr9w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here are time codes for the questions he's answering, so you can skip to answers you're most interested in:

0:27 - Did you experience any kind of disappointment while playing Dark Souls 2?
3:03 - How is the dual wielding?
4:05 - Is there a hard, normal and easy-mode setting?
5:35 - What build seems the most viable so far?
6:41 - Where is the answer video?
6:46 - How will weapon upgrades work?
7:30 - When is this coming out on DSlite?
7:35 - Will covenants allow you to submit your gifts all at once?
8:11 - Are there sunbros?
8:18 - Are strength weapons being buffed or nerfed?
9:14 - Are there starting gifts in Dark Souls 2?
10:26 - Prequel or Sequel?
10:38 - Is the resistance stat OP in the game?
11:41 - Do you know when Dark Souls 2 will release for PC?
12:26 - Are ragdoll physics gone?
12:50 - Are you part of the glorious PC master race?
13:33 - Is it true that you can parry and riposte with 2h weapons?
14:02 - Will NPC mouths move when they talk?
14:26 - Which has been the most interesting enemy, and which has been the most difficult enemy to defeat?
15:50 - Is the lore easily obtained?
16:36 - Will Dark Souls 2 be on next-gen consoles?
17:21 - Are you thinking of doing a let's play for Dark Souls 2?
18:04 - How different is the invading and summoning of other players?
18:38 - Does humanity work differently?
19:20 - Is PvP being balanced in any way?
20:48 - Will there be a hub area like in Demon's Souls, or will the areas be seamless like in Dark Souls?
22:10 - Are lifegems and estus overpowered?
23:23 - How is the framerate?
24:17 - How does upgrading estus work?
25:03 - Do enemies still have the same placements every time?
26:12 - Are crossbows finally functional weapons?
26:53 - How do you feel about them making Dark Souls 2 instead of a new Souls universe?



EDIT:

1. Apparently Yahtzee liked Dark Souls well enough that he actually wrote a quick-and-dirty game guide for the uninitiated. He must have really liked it.

2. An article by a guy who at first didn't like the series, then ever so slowly changed his mind. The Eurogamer review he discusses, BTW, is by Keza MacDonald, who may be the very best game critic working right now. She's certainly my own personal favorite, and won the inaugural Games Writer of the Year Award in 2012.

 

This game is going to kick my ass and I will love it.

 

some guy is streaming this a week early

http://www.twitch.tv/srslytellmehowtoplay

getting me hyped up