I'm hyped as fuck! All those graphix certainly look amazing and the atmosphere is incredible. Only thing I'm kinda slightly worried about is the amount of damage some of the enemies seem to be doing. But then again, this is very early footage. When Dark Souls gameplay footage was first revealed it had the chosen undead walking around in Black Knight gear. So I'll take everything with a grain of salt.
Also you missed half of the feature: http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/04/10/everything-you-want-to-know-about-dark-souls-2

>>172316
>Only thing I'm kinda slightly worried about is the amount of damage some of the enemies seem to be doing. But then again, this is very early footage. When Dark Souls gameplay footage was first revealed it had the chosen undead walking around in Black Knight gear. So I'll take everything with a grain of salt.

The most likely case is they gave the character really high stats for that level so they wouldn't waste their limited time getting back to where they died. Hence the player character was level 1, yet had really fancy armor and like six huge weapons.

>the first thing we wanted to work on was the graphics and making everything look better
>not focusing on the frame rate which dropped in more areas than the first game

Fucking. WHY.

I'm not liking the return of healing items.

Is it weird for me to say I kinda prefer it will lesser graphics?

>>172338
Watch the interview in >>172316
Estus are back. They probably gave him a bunch of the equivalent of Divine Blessings.

>>172344
I thought it looked kind of bad, but I'm not sure why. Hopefully those zones were just unfinished.
It also looked like the attacks didn't really have any weight behind them like in Dark Souls, but maybe it's the kind of thing where you need to play it to feel it.

>>172347
It's mostly because none of the weapons really had any impacting moves. He swings the greatsword upwards instead of slamming it into the ground for that satisfying THUNK. And the little weapons have just as much impact as they did in Dark Souls. I thought the one-handed axe he used looked actually pretty visceral.

Dark Souls x Evangelion MAD �…
Ahahahaha!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538551
>If the first Dark Souls was adapted from consoles to PC, this time, it's the opposite. The PC version serves as a base
>All that showed on a PC running at 60 frames per second

>>172370
As you can imagine, that wasn't the most accurate translation:

http://www.shacknews.com/article/78672/dark-souls-pc-was-half-assed-but-dark-souls-2

They didn't specify the PC version as the base, but that was the PC version that they were showing us.

>>172403
With all of those bloated numbers and business expectations I honestly can't tell anymore if 300k units sold is good or not....

http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1883766/dark_souls_2_10_things_the_gameplay_demo_didnt_show_you.html
>Dark Souls 2 Won’t Be Easier Than Dark Souls
Good. I'm still curious as to what exactly they did to "streamline away all of the tediousness" to make the game more accessible, though.

>>172458
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/1e5x9d/dark-souls-ii-what-to-expect-from-dark-souls-ii
Apparently one of the things they are considering is giving you the bonfire warp from the start. Dunno how I feel about this. Getting it after defeating O&S made it have so much emotional impact.

>>172458
>“Because this game is going to be server-based now, we hope to implement new aspects into the game that can be done only because it’s server-based. We want to utilise that as much as possible to deliver some new experiences to fans.”
This, to me, is more interesting than all of the other news combined.

So the game is going up on the PS3/Xbox 360. I don't think I'm going to get it if that's the case.

>>172759
Huh?
All the Soul series are.

>>172761
Yeah, but the difference is that it's coming out next year and rather than using the next gen systems it's going to use the PS3. It feels like an odd choice. For me it depends on how well the PS4 does but if the system is solid I probably will be getting it and shelving the PS3. I don't know. It just feels like a bad move on their part and I don't feel like supporting it (Unless the PS4 is a POS then it was in the right direction but for now this is my opinion on the situation)

>>172763
I don't really see how that would make it as a game worse. If it can work on the PS3 why not let it.

>>172763
Did you also refuse to play Persona 4 because it came out late in the PS2's life?

Anyone taking part in the shield design contest?

>>172766
Actually, it will almost certainly make it better. "First Wave" games on any system are almost never as good as last wave games on the previous system. The devs already know the ins and outs of programming on the old system, they know what resources they have available and they know the tricks to make the most of what they've got. First Wave stuff might have more resources to call upon, but the devs don't know how to exploit those resources yet.

Welcome to Dark Souls
Words can't express how much I love this.

>>172904
What devs need to eventually learn to do is make last-wave quality stuff when it's only the first wave of a console's lifespan. So the last-wave stuff doesn't get overlooked by people who have moved on, and the first-wave isn't "I guess I'll buy the game that looks the least shit so I at least have something to play".

>>172953
to do that hardware specs and demos would have to hit a lot earlier than they are right now. Right now Witcher 3 seems to be one of the leads on that by making it for PC first and then porting it so no matter what the consoles will have it will look good. That is one of the few ways I could see that working out since PCs will always be cutting edge no matter what consoles come out.

Pffffffffffffffttt.

>>173601
interesting that /v/ mind is a universal concept.

>>173601

Wait how did the west fuck with Final Fantasy?

I thought that was just bad producers driving it into the ground.

>>173610
Yeah seriously.

>>173609
Very funny to think about, if the image is legit.

>>173610
well the current excuse is they tried to westernize it and that is why it failed IIRC.

>>173611
Honestly, considering how 2ch is, I do believe that's legit.

>>173601
You know they kind of have a point with the difficulty in that when PC users got the game they wanted a lower difficulty.

>>173610
12 was explicitly made to be more western, and 13 was another step in that direction. It's still not that western or anything, but in recent years Final Fantasy has gotten a lot more western-esque than, say, the Dragon Quest or Tales series.

That said, 12 is one of the best games in the series, so I hope they're not complaining about that.

>>173633
wat? You're talking out of your ass.

>>173633
I remember keyboard users wanting better controls.

>>173644
and decent frame rate and resolution

>>173647
I never had a problem with the framerate but I did manage to find a fix for the resolution.

Dark Souls: Gotta Go Relatively Quickly

http://www.polygon.com/forums/dark-souls/2013/5/17/4339566/as-far-as-i-know-these-may-well-be-leaked-dark-souls-2-concept-arts
This looks neat to say the least. Loving the maritime setting.

Dark Souls II - PS3/X360/PC - …
Awww, yeah. Get hype!

And a preview:

http://www.gamrreview.com/preview/90160/dark-souls-ii-hands-on-prepare-to-die-again/

I don't quite understand what he means when describing what starting class has been replaced by. Is it that the physical traits in character creation (like height and broadness) affect your starting stats and gear?

>>175878
They just might have replaced the character selection screen with something that doesn't make players over-analyze and ponder their choices for the E3 demo, so players won't spend ages on the character creation, get to playing and don't take up the booth space forever.

Spellcasting confirmed for having stamina cost. That's really great. No more spamming that shit.

Also, we laser swords now!

>>175918
The lack of numbers (that I can see anyway) seems to indicate that stamina cost has replaced MP and fixed casts.

That seems.... worse.

>>175929
The gifs are just very small. There are casting amounts indicated above the spell icon. You can clearly see it in the magic sword gif.
I love how fucking D&D the sorceror looks.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/413936/previews/dark-souls-2-hands-on-more-beautiful-more-difficult/
>In the southern alcove several candles are lit, and according to Tanimura each of these candles represents a death. Whenever any player online dies at the hands of the boss in this area, a new candle will be lit, and you will see it.

Dark Souls 2 - E3 Hands-on Gam…
Hands-on gameplay impressions from an actual Souls veteran and not some casual from the press. Looks like DaS 2 will be significantly harder.
Mostly because the enemy AI has received a massive upgrade. They will combo you, rush you when you try to heal/go for a backstab and will actively go for backstabs themselves.
Backstabs are harder to pull off and ripostes are way harder to pull off. Rolls also have less invincibility frames and overall movement is even weightier than in DaS. Dual-wielding is still kinda wonky.
PS3 version looks like a passable current-gen game. PC version looks amazing and runs buttery smooth.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a496115/dark-souls-2-to-offer-more-freedom-exploration-unique-for-all-users.html
Everything we've heard about his game so far has been amazing! I hate getting hyped, because it always ends in tears. But I just can't help it!!

>Playing Demon's Souls as a mage
Good times, I'm just surprised how well I am doing at it.

>>178007
Magic is completely OP in Demon's Souls. If there's an easy mode, magic is it.

>>178008
I hade a feeling that was the case.
And that is as it should be.
Magic is the best.

Dark Souls 2 Gameplay: How Much Has Changed?

>>178008
No, easy mode is Meat Cleaver.

>>178008
Eh, to an extent magic is op but other than wrath of god it was terrible in pvp like it's always been terrible in pvp. The tradition continued till abyssal magic which will probably never get nerfed.

Also, easy mode a Dex build with the blind. Nothing can block you ever.

Feels good dudes, feels good.

>>180837
In the beta? I'm jealous.

How common are those human effigies things that are the new way to restore human form?

>>180839
That's Demon's Souls.....

>>180839
Um what?
I just beat that first vanguard and had to brag before I delet DS for something else to play.

>>180841
>>180843
Gah, sorry I need to pay closer attention. They're doing a closed beta for Dark Souls II on PS3.

YOU I HEARD YOU GUYS LIKED LEAKED BETA FOOTAGE

DARK SOULS2 来年発売予定…

SO HERE'S 19 MINUTES OF IT

>>181096
Not touching that with a ten foot pole. I've put this entirely unreasonable task upon myself, that I would avoid any and all possible spoilers from here on out until the game's release.

Here's a Spoiler You're going to die, a lot.

>>181096
They actually included wheel skeletons in a boss fight. Goddamn.

I liking that they're improving the animations, like how using a soapstone will actually have the object in the character's hand and put it to the ground.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/04/hands-on-with-dark-souls-ii/
>Covenants getting more attention
>Parrying being reworked to not be such a shit-fest
>Backstab hitboxes reduced to not be utter bullshit
All good things yes good work From

>"roll speed is no longer tied to armour weight"
This is a horrible detail to not elaborate on. What is affected by weight if not roll speed? Is anything affected by weight? Is their even weight now?

>>181307
Probably there to prevent ninja-flipping Havel's Armor shenanigans. What I take from it is that roll speed is linked to armor type rather than just the weight.

VaatiVidya Plays Dark Souls 2! (TGS Demo)

So Resistance might actually be good for something now: instead of just decreasing damage a negligible amount, it also decreases stamina consumption from blocking.

After leaving it be for quite a while, I'm replaying the game right now to ease the pain while waiting on DaS2. Gonna take it slow and leisurely. Not just bumrush through the game with the Master Key and get a PvP build going as fast as possible.
DSfix really does a number on this game at this point, though. Holy shit. I'm kinda shocked how much fidelity it adds. And it runs buttery smooth while doing so.

>Play the PC version for like half an hour a year ago
>Decide to give it another go
>Game crashes every time you go past character creation
>Fuck
>Remember this happened last time you played the game
>Can't remember how you fixed it
>Fuck

>>181833
Are you using the updated version of DSfix? The game got patched to make it harder to cheat and DSfix had to be completely rehauled for it.
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=350

You know, they really tried something beautiful with Blighttown. Being able to see almost the entire level from every spot within it is some goddamn amazing spacial level design. And you can only really appreciate it, once you're somewhat used to the place, so you're not busy getting your soul crushed, and only on PC, where that same amazing feature doesn't utterly destroy the framerate.

>>181848
Eh. You trade framerate and graphics for people who can't just hack the game. (The community is still terrible either way.)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=706543
>retailer exclusive preorder DLC weapons
FUCK EVERYTHING
[b]FOREVER[/spoiler]

>>182147
>weapons and shields with gunk and shit thrown on them
They will probably be garbage weapons that get thrown away after an hour. Or some of reskins of regular weapons with added effects that you can get normally? Actually, the longer I look at them, the more likely that seems to be the case.
Hopefully.

>Yellow Crystal long sword and shield
>Found in the depths of the melted iron fortress. Though corroded and easy to break, it is light with no loss in power.
>Lighter but easier to break

>Bound Hand Ax and Wood Shield
>The chain and thorns increase bleeding but decrease slash damage.
>Special ability: Bleed

>Pygmy's Mace and Wood Shield
>It is much heavier than normal but the hard spheres increase blunt damage.
>shield is heavier but stronge

>Criminal Staff and Leather Shield
>Found in an old dark hole. Used for magic and dark magic.
>Special Ability: Darkness

>These seem like they just took the in game item and increase one parameter slightly while decreasing another. Likely useless overall.

Hopefully

Knight Solaire Costume

http://darksouls2wiki.wikispaces.com/Stats

I can't tell from this description if evasion is supposed to affect roll speed or something else.

This series greatly intrigues me and also terrifies me at being controller shatteringly frustrating/ difficult.
Sell me on Dark Souls I guess?

>>182542
It's not that hard, just play it slowly, learn to pull aggro so you can fight as few enemies at one time as possible, and if you get stuck don't be afraid to look up some hints.

Skip Demon Souls.

>>182543
>Skip Demon Souls.
By which he means play it after, if you can. Demon's Souls is just as amazing, even if a lot rougher around the edges. But it also has a lot more bullshit. Dark Souls is a bit easier on beginners.
And yeah Dark Souls is not that hard. It's just that many players keep running with their head against the wall in some places because they think "Oh boy, people say this game is the hardest ever, so I guess this is supposed to be this hard", instead of thinking to go somewhere else where opposition might not be as fierce.

Oh and another thing that is INCREDIBLY important in Dark Souls is to pay attention. To every little thing. Not only in the environment, but also in the menus and even item descriptions. This is something a lot of people under 30 are simply no longer capable of doing, since our society at large seems to have gotten a massive case of ADHD as a consequence of permanently being blasted with audio-visual noise and information at every waking second of our lifes. That's why many simply get completely lost in the game and never figure out its systems.

>>182542
"Hard" to me is Super Meat Boy, or oldschool games, or I Wanna Be The Guy. That's what I define as controller-snapping frustration, and the Souls games are not that... EXCEPT when you choose to tackle a harder direction before an easier one. And as long as you're doing that by choice, it's actually awesome.

Look, I'll give tips along with everyone else: Keep your shield up, walk slowly when treading new ground, and pay attention. When the going gets tough, exploring in other directions is often what yields the tools you need. Don't go out of your way to deliberately farm. In Dark Souls, don't do the fucking Drake Sword thing and avoid the Master Key first time through because the shortcuts all have nasty monsters as speedbumps.

But those aren't reasons to play the game, they're just pointers to help you "get it" once you've picked up the controller. You want to know why you should play the Souls Games?

Because they're these fucking amazing dark fantasy environments with this top-notch level design that's got tons of vertical traversal as well as horizontal (as gametrailers put it, "the world is a wormy apple and you are the worm"). And there's danger around every corner, this whole constantly unveiling menagerie of tricks and traps and awful scary things for you to beat with your cunning and skill because this is a fucking ADVENTURE. I don't mean the genre, I'm saying that each of the Souls games is one of the best fucking adventures I have ever been on in my life.

>>182547
Each (especially Dark Souls) had dozens of times where I stepped around a corner and went "waaaaaah", this reaction that was half "wahoo" and half girly squeal of excitement, because I was seeing some new crazy-awesome thing up ahead.

Let me tell you about the worlds in Demon's Souls.
-There is the crazy fusion between a massive castle and the great wall of china, battlements filled with soldiers and knights and siege weaponry, all of it being ravaged by hungry dragons.
-There are the mines, with fire-breathing salamanders and goblin-esque miners bearing pickaxes and red-hot pokers, with elevators and winding mazelike tunnels and chasms leading down to red-hot magma flows.
-There is the world of crazy gothic architecture, where you break out of a medieval prison and there's a cathedral and crazy networks of massive towers with mind flayers and gargoyles and a giant beating heart in the center wrapped in chains the size of your character.
-There is the Valley of Defilement, full of filth and poison, rats and twisted plague victims with wicked rusty knives, and ramshackle layers off narrow cliffside scaffolding constructed out of rotting wood such that every step must me taken carefully, and the miasma fills the very air...
-And then the windswept mountaintop with the crumbling ruins of holy celtic-style shrines where you duel falchion-wielding skeletons that charge in like total badasses and there are massive storm manta rays flying through the sky which fire MASSIVE CRYSTAL SPEARS for you to dodge when they pass overhead and the entire experience is the most metal thing since Brutal Legend...

And Dark Souls? Dark Souls has even more crazy dark fantasy variety and weaves it all together in this glorious interconnected web for you to explore. And it's got this crazy slowly-piece-it-together emerging narrative hidden away inside it (read the item descriptions (ESPECIALLY the keys)), with a process of steadily dawning comprehension that just... THEY'RE REALLY GOOD GAMES, MAN.

If you're gonna play one play Dark Souls, but if you're gonna play two (and are up for a wee bit more genuinely hard bits) try Demon's Souls first IMO? But seriously, don't miss out.

THE WALL

So a question remains: Console or PC?
I hear people pissing on the PC version quite often.

>>182872
The PC version has GFWL and multiplayer is overrun with hackers, a few of which can even permanently fuck up your save. However, it's the go-to version if you just want to play solo. It's a terrible port but mods make it far superior to the console version. You can play it at 1080p with HD textures at 60 FPS and a lot more graphical options to choose from. Just... do yourself a favor and play it with a controller.
Here are some of the mods:
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?tag=dsfix (the most important one!!)
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/446/?
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/21//?
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/56/?

>>182874
That works for me. I'm not super big into multiplayer; mostly because I don't like getting my shit slapped as hard as it tends to when I do seek it out. Not to mention MODs. Shit yes MODs.
Thanks for the protips and council guys; I'll try and pick this up during the holiday along with my new rig.

>>182950
Well, multiplayer also involves co-op. So you also might want to take that into consideration.

>>182961
"No friends" so no worries
And all the ones I do have don't have steam or wouldn't be into the game anyway so it's a wash really.

Guys, Dark Souls PC is on sale for $6 at Amazon right now. If you haven't checked it out, STRONGLY recommend doing so.

>>183211
Eh; 2 comes out in 4 months anyway

http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/dark_souls_2/news/stock_warning_over_dark_souls_2_black_armour_and_collectors_editions.html
Not saying you should scamper to preorder this shit as soon as possible, because preordering games is fucking stupid. But if you're feeling particularly stupid, here's a fair warning.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/22/dark-souls-lead-developers-resistant-to-mobile-version-due-to-co/
Bamco confirmed for worse than EA or Capcom. Please stay strong, Fromsoft.

>>184545
That's taking it a little far. Yeah, they're doing the "Clueless Executives" thing of trying to exploit a property that they don't really understand. But the fact that From Software's resistance means anything at all reflects reasonably well on Namco Bandai, honestly.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/23/dlc-for-dark-souls-ii-not-in-this-brief-lifetime/#more-182269
>“For Dark Souls II, we don’t even expect any additional downloadable content because we want to deliver a full game, the full experience, to fans who purchase the package from day one. We did do additional content for Dark Souls, but generally downloadable content for Dark Souls II is not really being considered. Buy the package and you’ll get the full experience, and you’ll have as much fun as anybody else. Spending a couple dollars on certain items does not help the experience. So no free-to-play yet!”

So that's pretty cool, no frivolous DLC aside from the preorder stuff, I guess. Also, From Software went out of it's way to apologize for Dark Souls' shitty PC port and assure everyone that the second one will be better for the thousandth time. You know, in case you somehow managed to forget that.

>>184994
Huh, so polar inverse of the Dead Space school of thought.

>>184994
From Software truly is the heroes we need.

>>185003
Eh, gross and disgusting has its place. But it's not needed for the Souls games, at all. So yeah, great that he tried to give Dark Souls a sense of decorum. The end product turned out amazing that way.

http://www.totalxbox.com/70379/there-is-definitely-potential-for-dark-souls-2-dlc-says-namco/
Somebody seems to have had an urgent meeting with some angry higher-ups.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8802-Dark-Souls
OH that demon's souls call back!

http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/02/24/making-dark-souls-2-part-1-back-through-the-fog

New areas, mobs, stuff etc.

Also someone ripped the soundtrack that came with the demo files. It's probably incomplete, but it sounds really good.
https://mega.co.nz/#!col0XaBJ!XCNUUm4B4BlXWBY62_OigTe-yhEdMRO1AoeFFNjB8qs

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/11045-A-Beginners-Guide-to-Dark-Souls-7-Steps-to-Sucking-Less
How help full of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9oIi8a07Ac

Dark Souls: in Summary
Based PlageofGripes.

Confirmed for PC on April 25th.

In better news, here's a voucher for 9.99 off on Green Man Gaming:
OQE4LG-WEQPSE-SMCME1

>>185962
Also that expires Friday 3/7 at 11AM Eastern.

Maybe he's friendly!

>>185969
Sort of, its also a repost >>185944
But there are some great lore vids out there.
5 Things You DEFINITELY Didn't…

And I may just have gotten Dark Souls twice...
How you may ask?
Well I saw an aution for Vanilla DSs on Tradera for a good price somedays ago.
But then to night I saw a buy it on for the Prepere to Die edition for about the same price and cheeper then getting the DLC for the other one.
SO FUCK IT I SAID!
I can give the other one away as a julklapp or something.
Hmm, my sister boyfriends birthday is coming up too...
Eh, I will probably get sniped at the last moment anyway.
GG

>>185999
I wouldn't mind taking it off your hands if you win it.

Prepare to prog folk!

Dark Souls 2 Locomotive Breath Trailer

Beat the first boss!

It's so weird playing one of these right out of the gate after playing DeS years later with all the documentation and DaS having actually SEEN most of the game.

>>186002
But I didn't, but dont worry, the p&p from sweden would probably have made it not worth it.
Am sure you can find it cheaper somewhere else.
And if all goes well I will have my copy today or tomorrow.

>People joining Covenant of Champions trying to figure out what it does and playing through large portions of the game that way

This is actually one of the saddest things I've ever heard.

>>186116
>Look up what you are talking about
*pfffth* AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Also I got Dark Souls the same day as I said, I just dont have anything to say about it...
Yet.
Still great game though.

It's a damn shame the lighting system was gutted, and more of a shame they didn't advertise the retail version at all, showing footage from preview builds that still had lighting intact (as in >>185977). The game looks washed out with a gray filter or something in most areas to compensate for the lack of needing the torch, with the exception of maybe two areas.
Area designs and cohesiveness from one to the next also don't seem to be as good as Dark Souls 1, which admittedly could be because the game world is more sprawling rather than interconnected like the first. There are some visually interesting areas like Drangleic Castle, Iron Keep, Heide's Tower of Flame, but a lot of areas like Harvest Valley, Shaded Woods, Lost Bastille, The Gutter seem subpar.
PS3 also has framerate issues, and because of the increased brightness you can sometimes see enemies spawn from midair. There's input lag as well for both systems.
It's still fun despite the flaws, but I wish From had bothered to mention the changes they made and not used old footage for the ads. Maybe PC version will have the original lighting system, but I'm doubting it at this point.
As for actual gameplay it's pretty much the same as Dark Souls, but enemies seem to hit harder as a way to make up for letting you carry around more healing items.
TL;DR game is good, worth the price but could have been better

Aaaaand DONE. Didn't do all the side stuff but did do a fair bit of shitting around in the Grave of Saints/summoning myself off to help with various bosses, pulled in 45ish hours. Last boss is a joke, she didn't even hit me as I piled magic arrows into her face. Her weird fog things cursed me a couple times when I strafed near them but at that point who gives a fuck? Ending was uh... something. Game feels like there's a lot less of a story than in Dark Souls 1, but that could just be because the internet hasn't had time to pull the game apart and figure out the real story yet. Also its not like I actually did any character sidequests unless I happened to run into them, which I guess was enough to get the scotsman and that dude whose headless body I found after the spider as coop buddies against the Throne guards, not that I used them because NPCs are dumb.

So what is your favorite armor thus far? lotsa cool and fun, dorky ones in this.

>>186144
The problem with the lightning is that it fucks people who are going strength and dual wielding. It makes it impossible to go though the game like that while blinded and needing a torch. I am mad about how magic was changed from the beta.

>>186350
Didn't Dragon's Dogma have a lantern you attached to your belt?

>>186351
Yes, it did.

So I've been playing through Dark Souls for the first time (I'm about to head into Blighttown - wish me luck) and I just finished killing Havel, after like a dozen failed attempts to take him on head-on, by kiting him with poisoned throwing knives and letting the poison wear him down. And while I was thinking about that, I had a minor revelation.

When you start up the game, you expect that eventually, you'll become Guts. Unstoppable killing machine, mighty of arm and mighty of weapon, mowing down all cannonfodder in his path and killing seemingly unkillable demons. And there's a little bit of truth to that. But that's not really who the game teaches you to be.

Serpico's not usually the strongest, fastest, or toughest guy around. He'd be outmatched in a direct fight against many of his enemies. But Serpico never starts a fight he can't win, and he'll use any and all elements of his environment to give himself an advantage. Other men might call him cowardly, but he doesn't care, because if he was courageous, he'd be dead.

Dark Souls doesn't want you to be Guts. It wants you to be Serpico.

>>186422
The best boss in the game totally IS Armor Guts though. He's in the DLC/Extra PC Content, which I guarantee you will not find on your own.

I sure did just finish writing a 20-page paper on Dark Souls for a graduate-level literature class.

>>186744
What's your thesis?

>>186768

That Dark Souls, because of the way both its gameplay and narrative are structured, serves as a perfect example of the opacity of digital texts as compared with traditional media.

Really, the paper is about that opacity and its implications for scholars trying to study games as if they were books or film, but Dark Souls is the way I approached the issue.

>>186771
So basically that Dark Souls makes strong use of its medium to tell a story rather than relying on the structure of mediums before it?
I'd like to read that paper.

>>186775
Seconded.

I've been looking up game mechanics while waiting for the PC release of II, and it seems they changed the way spell damage works. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Dark Souls: You have a magic adjustment stat based on your int and catalyst, faith and talisman, or Pyromancy Flame and its level. The attack strength when you cast a spell is the magic adjustment times the spell's base damage.

Dark Souls II: Attack strength for a spell is base damage + Dark/Fire/Magic/Lightning BNS*Parameter BNS for the flame/chime/staff you're using (the same way weapon damage works).

If this is true, then are all damaging spells covered by one of those categories? How do the BNS stats affect healing spells, buffs, or damaging spells that don't have a clear element, like Wrath of the Gods?

>>186775
>>186783

I don't want to post it publically because I think I might be able to turn it into something publishable later, but if you email me I'd be glad to send you a copy.

>>186796
Will do.

>tfw getting greedy in a Souls game

So goddamn happy they added beards. You get to look like incredibly badass now.

>Brightstone Cove Tseldora
>Spiders
>Spiders everywhere
>They deal a TON of damage and always seem to manage to sneak in a hit as you kill them
>And then there's spider-fied hollows, who have everything terrible about the spiders plus enough health to tank a couple hits
>AND THEN THERE'S THE ASSHOLES WHO SHOOT HOMING MAGIC AT YOU NONSTOP
>AND THEN THE BOSS FUCKING SPAWNS SPIDERS FOREVER

Fuck Brightstone Cove Tseldora. This place is about a thousand times worse than Blighttown ever was.

>>187081
The game has way more complete bullshit bits than both Demon's and Dark 1 combined. Let me save you some headaches, if you wanna get spoiled on how to progress more easily: Poison arrows are your best friend.

>>187090
You're only going to get 40 of those before a really late-game area.

>>187091
He's in Brightstone Cove, that means he can buy them by now. Gavlan sells them.

>>187092
Oh, wasn't aware he was talking specifically about someone that far along.

Was the multiplayer name censorship as ridiculous on the console version as it is on the PC version? It seriously blocks out even two or three letter sequences, resulting in common words/name like "Thomas" or "night" being almost incomprehensible.

>>187151
Yeah I went full neckbeard on my character's name, giving him some kinda cryptic and mysterious name. Only to later realize that the censorship made me look like a complete buttmuncher every time I invaded/co-op'd.

>>187151
Is there a list somewhere of what gets blocked? I'd hate to spend all that time gearing up only to look like I named my character Mad Cunt, Destroyer of Worlds.

Reminds me, a few of my pokes got renamed through the transporter. I don't even remember what I named them other than I name the guys I intend to use after food.

>>187159
It's just a google search away, son. Also, don't even try. Your name will have censorship in it. It's the most ridiculous list I've ever seen. What the fuck kind of swear word is "ead" even?

>>187162
> It's the most ridiculous list I've ever seen.
Holy crap, he's not kidding.

http://mod.gib.me/darksouls2/ngword/

>bag
>bang
>block
>brothel
>bush
>but (no, I didn't forget the second t)
>cleveland
>dog
>domination
>donkey
>dook
>dumb
>ead
>fart
>fetish
>flog
>finger
>forked
>gay
>hand
>hell
>heroin (note this will make "heroine" into "******e")
>hick
>ho
>hot
>jap (but because it blocks partial words, this means "japan" is also screwed up)
>jack
>jis
>job
>lap
>lesbian
>lez
>lelo
>mack
>masochism
>master
>muff
>nig
>nude
>nudity (but not nudist, mysteriously)
>nuts
>oral
>perve
>phat
>phile
>pie
>poon
>poop
>poot
>pud
>qq more
>rump
>satan
>screw
>scrog
>sex
>sko
>slave
>spank
>suck
>teez
>throat
>tit
>transexual
>transvestite
>urine
>waffle
>wang
>whip
>whiz
>whoe
>woof
>xx

The amount of things that are obscene, but ridiculously obscure (ufia? Never heard of that before) is also impressive.

>What the fuck kind of swear word is "ead" even?
>(Old English) "ead": n. (poetic) happiness, prosperity

For extra points, see how many people give their name obscene meanings regardless of the words contained: I remember someone using the name PhallusEnlarge.

>>187163
This is the game with all the blood and death right?
Seems silly to block bad words.

>>187164
Not to mention that even NPCs swear in the game. It's utterly perplexing.

>>187163
>cleveland

>>187164
There's actually extremely little blood--that and the ragdolls no longer being dragged around by your feet let the game get away with a Teen rating. Most of the more horrifying stuff (like the Rotten or the spider people) are more weird than graphically violent, which is the same reason most Castlevania games are only rated Teen.

Still, quite a few of these are words that wouldn't even prevent a E10 rating (For fuck's sakes, "poot" is literally the [i]baby[i] version for people who didn't want their children saying "poop"), and are far less harsh than some things said by NPCs.

>>187167
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cleveland%20steamer

>>187172
"Cleveland" is on the list, yet "steamer" isn't. Strange.

>>187163
Saw someone named C*U*N*T too the other day.

>>187178
Yeah, and some harmless RPers get shafted.

>>187180
At least that's better than this one guy on reddit who just found out why he shouldn't have used the name "DeadMeat".

Oh, and "ead" is there for being short for "eat a dick"; it just happens to be an actual word (and a part of a large number of other words, like "dead" and "head"). Yes, it even bans a large number of anagrams, like stfu, rtfm, snafu, bfe and the aforementioned ufia.

>>187187
It's not M-rated, it's T.

>>187188
Deleted my post when I double-checked and realized my mistake on that. Somehow the fact that they'd tone shit down is worse to me than an M rated game with idiotic multiplayer censorship.

>>187190
They didn't tone down anything really, the game is the same in just about every way sans that weird walking on bodies physics.

These weird multiplayer censorship things are the only thing the T-rating changed, plus it allowed for greater sales.

It's more just something weird and embarrassing than something to get steamed about.

Holy crap, NG+ does NOT fuck around! The true Dark Souls 2 starts here. They've added so much new stuff. You'll never feel safe, even though you already know the area.
Gif related. It's my face when I got to Flexile Sentry.

>>187235
Most of it is "Hey, you like black phantoms? Have a billion everywhere with no real thought put into it."

>tfw soul memory starts to really become a thing for me.
>also phantom range, santier's spear, havel's armor, dark magic, avelyn etc. etc.
This is it. I'm actually getting mad at video games now. I am for real mad at video games as of this moment.