Dark Souls

[S3M]

My PS3 copy arrived this morning and I downloaded the 1.03 patch straight of the bat, only 11MB however, not a 3GB monster I had with Eye of Judgement the other week.

Crashtasic start to Dark Souls as well as the game hung on the character creation screen, while I was selecting the bonus item.

Still after the first false start everything seemed to be working fine, I liked the start managed to get to and defeat the first boss in one life, plays well with some nice improvements. Graphics do look a bit better from what I’ve seen so far, concerned about the framerate however I was noticing a lot of dips during the boss battle.

Never had that with Demon’s Souls, only ever had the 2-2 memory leak issue with Demon’s Souls, mind you that did knock down the FR to about 10 fps!

Finishing off Demon’s Souls at the moment but I’m already looking forward to it. I fear the first boss battle will put off a lot of players however as it seems to be pitched at a level for Demon’s Souls veterans.

[rmoxon]

Yeah I actualy thought the first boss was suppose to kill you at when you first meet it and I was letting it do so, but then I noticed an exit so made a dash for it sharpish. I imagine alot of people will die as soon as they see it especially people new to the series, It has a life bar which will make many people think they are suppose to attack it with the broken sword handle they are carrying!

I'm playing the 360 version and the framerate is a bit of an issue, it is not quite game breaking but it dips a heck of alot in places, not just on bosses either.

[S3M]

Yeah I actualy thought the first boss was suppose to kill you at when you first meet it and I was letting it do so, but then I noticed an exit so made a dash for it sharpish. I imagine alot of people will die as soon as they see it especially people new to the series, It has a life bar which will make many people think they are suppose to attack it with the broken sword handle they are carrying!

I'm playing the 360 version and the framerate is a bit of an issue, it is not quite game breaking but it dips a heck of alot in places, not just on bosses either.

Me too I thought time to die, I did hit him with the broken sword a couple of time but I knew 2 damage per hit would take some time to kill him, that's when I spotted the exit.

Just wish this ****ing Pure Bladestone would drop from the skeletions so I can finish Demon's Souls.

[Synthesthesia]

Me too I thought time to die, I did hit him with the broken sword a couple of time but I knew 2 damage per hit would take some time to kill him, that's when I spotted the exit.

Just wish this ****ing Pure Bladestone would drop from the skeletions so I can finish Demon's Souls.

I was doing that the other day. I quit.

I managed not to die until the taurus demon... where I managed to get the

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drop attack

on him once, but then he killed me. I've beat him now, in the same way rmoxon describes.

I'm having difficulty with the next bit though. When you get to the

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armoured boar

and go behind him, past the gate, those guys are just trolling me HARD. I

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Open the gate, and I'm sure when I die, they walk over and pull it to close it again

Loving it.

[saturn-gamer]

Kindling fires stay forever. But don't kindle everything you see, save some humanity items instead. Some fires are useless as others are placed in better position later on. With a bit of exploring and improving you can reach quite some places from the initial Firelink shrine bonfire.

If flasks temporarily improve to 10, some other player near you kindled the fire.

In human form you can summon offline NPC's you talked to or saved, and online helpers. Typically in front of fog gates.

[SUMIRE]

lol, think i've died 100's of times now. I can't kill that damn big monster boss on the battlements with the club, I go up the ladders behind me first to clear out the two skeleton archers and all I get now is some crab thing that kills me everytime.. Any ideas?

[englishbob]

Things I am liking so far. - Seems to be a bit more accessable than the prior game. The atmosphere and music.

Things I don't like - Seems a bit of a boss fight overkill so far. Bosses that take up just about every pixel width of area you have available, making avoidance just about impossible (an orge on a bridge/battlement area I'm talking to you).

I don't think the difficulty will put me off this time around, but the boss element will.

[briareos_kerensky]

Things I don't like - Seems a bit of a boss fight overkill so far. Bosses that take up just about every pixel width of area you have available, making avoidance just about impossible (an orge on a bridge/battlement area I'm talking to you).

It's all about timing and rolls. A well timed roll will avoid all attacks, even if it doesn't look like it. It's not a full-on invicibility window but it's wonderful how rolling in the right direction at the right time can make a difference. If close combat with the Taurus demon (the ogre on the battlement) is tough, try with Fire Bombs. 10 are enough and are cheap from the merchant you find before the bonfire. I think it's way easier to repoeat two-three times the jump-down attack.

[rmoxon]

lol, think i've died 100's of times now. I can't kill that damn big monster boss on the battlements with the club, I go up the ladders behind me first to clear out the two skeleton archers and all I get now is some crab thing that kills me everytime.. Any ideas?

I already mentioned this but I will say again, the easiest way is,

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as soon as he appears turn around and run up the ladders and then drop off and impale him by attacking as you fall, then run to the opposite end of the bridge, dodge his attack and run back, up the ladder and repeat

.

It's really easy that way.

[saturn-gamer]

Most bosses are surprisingly easy to beat, and there are some fun ones among them. In Demon's Souls bosses were much harder but they could be cheesed. In Dark souls you actually have to fight, but they aren't hard and the bonfires are generally closer to them than the full level restart of DS1. Watch their patterns, and you'll kill them soon enough.

They come in 3 catagories. There are the strong enemies with normal energy bars above their heads, those are minibosses that don't ever respawn once being done in. In this regard Dark Souls is easier, because we're talking Red Eye Knight and Giant Depraved kind of enemies here. Then there are the bosses that are introduced without a cutscene, such as the Taurus Demon. They act as mid-bosses of some sort. Every area also has a major boss with a cutscene.

There aren't really more than in Demon's Souls, its just that the level design is seamless this time and more akin to Super Metroid in that regard.

Another thing in this game is that Armor matters more. Put on a knights armor and your slash animation won't even be canceled by a weaksauce enemy attack.

[crocky-chocky]

Heh. The twisting stairway up to the 'Undead Burg' somehow passed me by for the first three hours...I must've died a cack load of times, barely getting out of the safe-zone on each doomed journey. Thing is, I managed to level up a fair bit and that made my initial trawl through the Burg well satisfying - I was trouncing those undead like a pro.

It's awesome, this. I was worried it wouldn't get under my skin in the same way, but if anything it's clicked quicker this time. It definetly seems tricksier than D'sS, though the traps/jumpy moments come at a quicker rate without spoiling the plodding pace of the exploration.

The voice acting is a delight, with the undead merchant being a runaway favourite so far.

[PaTaito]

Well just cleared the tutorial stage/boss, and have just got rid of the dreaded undead "look"...

Is it advisable to grind my level up a few numbers before cracking on with the story proper?

[Garny]

Loving this to bits so far. Killed the

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bull boss on my 2nd try. Done the jump down on his head tactic with my axe, then just ran around him in through his legs to finish him off

Had a few probs with

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the big shield guy, but finished him off with a well placed fire bomb when he tried to heal

Now back at the shrine with a handy short cut and a couple of keys to try out.

Cant wait to get back from work tomorrow and carry on

[rmoxon]

Wow.

Once you get further into this it goes absolubtley insane.

I'm currently situated at a bonfire where I have three potential routes infront of me. One way takes me to

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a 7 headed hydra type thing that destroys me before i get close to it

another one takes me to

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a valley full of big blue dragons that kill me in one hit

and the other way takes me to a

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gaint butterfly boss that I nearly killed but ran out of arrows and died

. I love the meroid type world structure, discovering things like new routes and hidden bonfires really adds to what was already an amazing formula.

This game is just incredible.

[MisterBubbles]

GOTY candidate?? , just done 3 hours to get me back in the groove, loving it so far.