Dark Souls

[Jinsai]

so the US/EU closed beta will be launching in 40 minutes. Anyone else in?

so far, I like it... but the "fuck you, die until you figure it out" thing is almost institutionally implemented from the start. The very first thing you encounter is a small bridge with a fall-to-your-death scenario.

Graphics massively improved. The fighting seems deeper. There's combos I think? Summon signs everywhere... but they are snatched up as soon as they appear. You don't need a dedicated item to leave messages.

It feels the same, but in some way, so far, it feels strangely more "arcade" ish.

All first impressions. Not sure how I feel about the item management or the fact that the left stick is now used to jump. New lifegem item is interesting. The way your max health bar creeps down the more you die while undead is interesting... it feels like a compromise between the systems in Demon's and Dark 1.

EDIT AGAIN: beat the first boss, and I guess that's it for the beta.. time to invade I guess. Don't know if I can call it the best game ever yet, but it's a day-one purchase for sure.

EDIT AGAIN AGAIN: nevermind, new area... and, boss 2?

My final opinion is that it's obviously a day-one buy. Awesome... even if neither of the boss battles in the beta were on par with some of the classic ones from the previous games. At the end of the beta a message popped up saying they were "increasing difficulty," presumably to see if it was still manageable. It was. If anything, the only truly disappointing thing so far is that it's nowhere near as hard.