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 Daba wrote:
Way to turn around once he found out it's popular.

You clearly don't watch his stuff regularly, beating on popular things is exactly what made him popular, not agreeing with the crowds.

 Soladrin wrote:

 Daba wrote:
Way to turn around once he found out it's popular.

You clearly don't watch his stuff regularly, beating on popular things is exactly what made him popular, not agreeing with the crowds.

Oh, I know that.

Popular was the wrong word, but I think fashionable is better in this case. It's always fashionable to beat on really popular stuff, but this isn't quite there in terms of numbers (yet).

It's just a really big change of tone from the Demon's Souls review from some time ago.

 Daba wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:

 Daba wrote:
Way to turn around once he found out it's popular.

You clearly don't watch his stuff regularly, beating on popular things is exactly what made him popular, not agreeing with the crowds.

Oh, I know that.

Popular was the wrong word, but I think fashionable is better in this case. It's always fashionable to beat on really popular stuff, but this isn't quite there in terms of numbers (yet).

It's just a really big change of tone from the Demon's Souls review from some time ago.

To be fair, though I've never properly played demon souls (don't own a PS3) I've watched a lot of it and I can certainly say I prefer Dark Souls' world and story telling.

I do as well, though the game 'feels' about the same when I played it (but I played Dark Souls before myself, so probably could take more risks and play better than someone fresh into Demon's Souls).

 Soladrin wrote:
This seems relevant:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8802-Dark-Souls

haha, very good.

Like the bit about there being so few genuinely useful notes left on the ground, but hundreds of 'jump here' next to bottomless chasms

Good point about the atmosphere as well, it has been terribly well done in the last two games.

After seeing the video, it was an alright review after all. I used for follow Zero Punctuation but it really became hit and miss and less consistently funny IMO.

The director (at least of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls) from FROM Software is really good at atmosphere. I really got into Armoured Core FA which was directed by him; I love those corporate briefings.

A review of some of the new character classes in DS2

http://www.gamesradar.com/dark-souls-2-starting-classes-and-build-options-dark-souls-2-weekly/

Skip to about 2 minutes onwards for the video. I assume these are just characters transplanted into the Dark Souls one game, and this game isn't going to have exactly the same level layout and bosses as the first one!

German games magazine M! has made the first review and given it a very good ranking, so I assume review copies must have been sent out now?

The footage is a mix of beta, trailer, and DkS1 footage, so I wouldn't pay much attention to that.

As for your starting class, I imagine it will be about as important as it is in the previous games. As in, not really important outside of min-maxing, which would require a completely different mindset from what you'd expect from class selection anyway.

You can tell these guys don't know what they're talking about when they say Deprived will be used for min-maxing. Deprived has always been absolutely awful for that, thanks to wasted stat points all over the place.

EDIT: Turns out that the release date for the PC version has been confirmed for April 25. So much for being a lead platform. feth you, Namco Bandai.

Source

I saw something that said it was April 25 2015 but I suspect that was a hoax as I couldn't find the tweet that apparently showed that.

Beaten the first two games in the series and am absolutely ecstatic about this being released in 6 days. I pre-ordered the PS3 Collector's edition with knight statue months ago and plan to get in the store nice and early to ensure I have a copy. Best of all I have about four days off from work that week so I'll get to immerse myself in the game completely.

So scumbag Bamco hasn't even announced the PC release date, and we're now less than a week away from the console launch.
At this rate, I'm expecting the PC version to be out in May at the earliest, although August might be more realistic.

With that in mind, if a (good) release date isn't announced before the console launch, I'll probably end up buying the console version, and then wait until the PC version is available for $5 on Steam.

I'd like to say I'm disappointed in Bamco, but with their track record, that's pretty much impossible. Sad part is that this is exactly what they want. Such an awful company, it'd be nice if From managed to sign with a publisher that wasn't garbage.

 Fafnir wrote:
So scumbag Bamco hasn't even announced the PC release date, and we're now less than a week away from the console launch.
At this rate, I'm expecting the PC version to be out in May at the earliest, although August might be more realistic.

With that in mind, if a (good) release date isn't announced before the console launch, I'll probably end up buying the console version, and then wait until the PC version is available for $5 on Steam.

I'd like to say I'm disappointed in Bamco, but with their track record, that's pretty much impossible. Sad part is that this is exactly what they want. Such an awful company, it'd be nice if From managed to sign with a publisher that wasn't garbage.

Not sure why you would be expecting a PC/console launch at the same time - the other two games were released on the console first and then the PC afterward.

It's not that I was expecting a launch at the same time (although, for the record, the reason why this is the standard is because it is nothing more than a money grab, especially when it's been said multiple times that the PC was supposedly the lead platform this time around), but at the very least, a release date.

Bamco had kept saying that the launch for the PC version would be very close to the console launch, but with us approaching launch day, we've been given absolutely no information regarding that, not even system requirements. With that in mind, we're looking at a timeframe of months, not weeks. Which is very disappointing.

EDIT: Really, I'm annoyed that this whole 'PC comes last' attitude has even become so tolerated within the entire industry. Remember, games are initially developed first on PC before being ported over to consoles anyway. There is no practical reason for this to happen.

Here we go, system requirements have just been released

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/452946/dark-souls-2-pc-system-requirements-confirmed/

Not long to go now! Think the US gets this game a few days before the UK, so I full expect to be invaded by someone with an utterly ridiculous name and one-shotted on the first day's play

Gotta wait until Friday for this over here.

Looking forward to the equivalent of Mask of the Child / Giant's Armour and so on?

I would hope that From had the foresight not to put those in again.

 Fafnir wrote:
I would hope that From had the foresight not to put those in again.

Why not? It's not exactly a broken combination of gear.

A Mask of the Child / Giants armour Phantom turning up is one of the old stereotypes / running jokes.

Especially before the backflip ring was nerfed.

 Daba wrote:
A Mask of the Child / Giants armour Phantom turning up is one of the old stereotypes / running jokes.

Especially before the backflip ring was nerfed.

Oh I know. I just don't understand why Fafnir seemed to not like the idea.

I don't personally use that setup, but it works for some people. Plus is looks silly.

Because that's the only thing people will wear. Every build is Dark Wood Grain Ring with Mask of the Father/Child.

I like to see more variability in player builds.

The first launch trailer has been revealed

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/453234/dark-souls-2-launch-trailer-flaunts-its-brutality/

On one hand, that's a pretty cool trailer. On the other, I love the hell out of Jethro Tull.

The store I preordered from won't be having a midnight release, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning. Thankfully, they're opening early, and I've managed to reign in my insomnia enough to allow me to be there as they open. Past that point... well... I figure I should inform the roommates that they might not see me for a while.

OMG I am so jealous of you right now!

Please feel free to post your first impressions (but don't give too much away!)

Waiting on mine from Amazon... The good news is they are handling it better than they did my Y preorder. Its actually shipping today instead of almost three days after release. Hopefully have it by the end of the week

Game got a fantastic review on CVG

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/452420/dark-souls-2-review/

Couple of tit-bits I wasn't aware of until now
- You can be invaded in living and hollow form. Lucky I'm going to get to this game early, in a year or so though this could become a ganking masterpiece.
Although, from the sounds of it the 'covenant' style multiplayer (where you can bring in friendlies from your covenant when invaded by hostiles) will hopefully mitigate it.
- Efficacy of farming has now been reduced.. keep killing low level enemies and they disappear, or new harder NG+ enemies take their place.
- Fast travel is now used, although still feels like Metroid
- apparently 'novelty kills' of big bosses now mostly removed. Shame, I enjoyed the bit in the last game where you could leap on the back of the big rat

God, the whole reduced health when you die thing is nasty. A couple poorly thought out encounters with that white knight by the tree and now I'm in a rather precarious situation.

Beyond that I'm loving the game. Mujira is a lot nicer than the Firelink Shrine and early access to covenants is pretty nifty

EDIT: I'm in the Company of Champions covenant if it matters at all

Some things I'm loving, some things I'm not too happy with. Losing health when you die really isn't needed, considering bosses already hit far harder than they did in the previous two games. It gets worse when you consider that dodging and healing are much slower than they used to be, and shields are generally not nearly as effective.

There are some points where it feels like the developers were trying to live up to the hype the series has for being so difficult, and went way overboard. The fight against the Ruin Sentinals is probably one of the worst offenders, and I'll go out and say that it is a patently unfair encounter.

Also, I'm incredibly disappointed with the treatment heavy weapons (Great club, ultra greatswords, etc.) have received. Not only is the strength bonus for two-handing a weapon removed (you now count as having 2* strength for the purposes of reaching the equip requirement when wielding a weapon with two hands, but no bonus to actual damage), resulting in a noticeable loss in damage output, but the target tracking is absolutely awful, making it more difficult than ever to land a well timed hit. Rolling being slower makes it harder to cancel out of attacks, and since bosses hit way harder and faster than ever before, heavy weapons now require a level of precision that just isn't close to worth the return on investment. A real shame, since the big stuff tends to be what I really love in the Souls games.

One handed/dual wielding strength builds could end up being viable down the road (especially since most one handed str weapons suited for dual wielding are more efficient on soul levels than dex weapons), and I do enjoy my mace so far, but it looks like dex builds will reign king for 3-0.

Having no bonus for holding with two hands kind of defeats the point doesn't it?

I loved switching to two hands to go offensive, then switching back with the shield on my Claymore QUALITY character.

Are there any characters as memorable as in the previous game? (or even ACFA for that matter?)

*sigh* I feared that the whole Health-thing would get annoying.

 Fafnir wrote:

There are some points where it feels like the developers were trying to live up to the hype the series has for being so difficult, and went way overboard. The fight against the Ruin Sentinals is probably one of the worst offenders, and I'll go out and say that it is a patently unfair encounter.

That sounds very possible, I mean, the diffculty is almost the only thing they try to sell the game with. Its not like DS had a very deep story and cool looks to go around, nope its the "It will feth you up"-thing they go with all the time.

Reading what you say about Two-handed weapons is also pretty dissapointing. I loved runnign around with the Zweihander and Dragonslayer in DS 1.

Also, the Mask of the Father has essentially been replaced with a gimp mask. I'm okay with this.