I want online mode! But I liked the option to choose by going hollow and having no support or advantages from humanity but avoiding the griefers and hackers, esp. in the beginning. Now I have to engage in PVP even if I am not skilled or geared for it yet, furthermore there is an actual penalty for dying with the reduced life. If I am invaded by a hacker I cannot simply disconnect as there is a penalty for rage quitting now as well. Just imagine Firelink with enforced invasions. Oh the horror! --- We should agree on a deity for the engraved ring so we can get some bit-tech jolly co-operation going.
Dont think there will be hackers in the beginning as there has been no PC beta or even media release version of the game for PC. Also i think its getting VAC which is good. So if you get court hacking, say goodbye to your steam account! There is a match making system where you only get invaded by people in your level area. So if your level 20, you could get invaded by someone from 15-25 level for example. You not get stomped by some MLG pro giant armour using college kid unless your close to his level. If you would like to give me an add in preparation for the PC version, my steam is Reaper1337
I played about two hours this morning on PS3 and it was quite fun. The beginning drags on a bit longer than the previous two souls game. There's a lot of dialogue there to teach new players the game mechanics unlike the past games where you just sorta figured most of it out. However once you break out of the starting area you are thrown much quicker into the hub and from there you are free to do as you please. I'm digging it! The art style is different without feeling like a whole new game. Getting a big demon's souls vibe from a lot of the characters yet there's still a few that are closer to their dark souls counterparts. If anyone wants to add me on PS3 look me up under Eiffie393. I'm USA and I know a good deal of you guys on bit-tech are UK based so we might not get to play together if you have your network set to local (you can toggle worldwide servers vs local servers it looks like) but if you want a friend on there, I'm willing to accept.
The human vs. hollow system is changed. It's more a mix between Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1. Each time you die, you lose a small amount of your max HP, down a minimum of 50% iirc. If you're even one death short of full then you can't be invaded, but this will cost you some max HP. EDIT: Oh, you just mentioned that in the above post. It honestly doesn't seem that bad, though. There are still plenty of hand-holding measures to keep it from getting too unpleasant. I'm USA as well and on PS3, I'll try to remember to add you. Elsewise, I'm Fuzzysloth! Multiplayer will be the big selling point for me. Watching as the world evolved and metas were born was one of the best parts of Dark Souls 1 on launch and I'm excited to do it again.
HUGE souls fan here....I've logged well over 1000 hours between Demons Souls and Dark Souls. This game is definitely follows the souls blueprint: loose story, very challenging, innovative multiplayer options, excellent combat system, and great level design. HOWEVER, I have to admit that I don't think this one will hold me for as long simply because there really aren't any new elements that make me say "WOW". I imagine I'll log 100 hours give or take to get a few playthroughs and invasions/pvp and then call it day.
Sounds good Sloth, either I'll get you or you get me. Even if we don't get to play together right away or much at all (due to the nature of the co-op) it'll be nice to have a home base to talk about the souls games on here and bounce some ideas around! Looking forward to good times.
That sounds awesome! So I can have my PVP fun, but if I fail I loose a bit of health and can carry on without interruptions.
Is it just me or does the hollow form look kinda dopey now? Demon's had the spirit form which wasn't terribly different from your "human" form and I liked it. Dark 1 had hollow form where you looked like a true husk, a dried out corpse of your former self, all twisted and gnarled all over your skin, like a body that had been baking under the sun (praise it) for months on end. The form in DS2 sorta makes me look like the wicked witch from the wizard of oz or an orc/goblin version of my former self. Not really digging it. It's just too green and my skin doesn't change really, just the color. Maybe there's a reason for this I missed or will found out about? I had a blast playing last night, got in 3 good co-op partners during the opening section of the game and made it to the boss only to be stepped on just before I was able to take out his last bit of HP. I'm impressed by the amount of distance I had to travel from the Hub-like area to even hit the first boss. In DS1 there was the firelink bonfire, then the one in the burg, then you hit the boss but now there's quite a few spaced out fairly well to even reach the first boss. If the game keeps up like this, we could be in for a lot more content. I do wish my weapons last longer before breaking. I was doing fine, saving my healing gems for as long as possible and I was well off for quite some time but I find that I have to keep resting at the bonfires to repair them because of how quickly they degrade. Hopefully later game weapons and items will last much longer or perhaps as I upgrade them they also gain more hits. It really makes you think about where you want to use your attacks and which weapons you want to use on specific enemies. A good system but still, things seem to break way too fast for my liking.
Learned last night, there's also a new feature. The "Human Effigy" aka the new Humanity can be burned in a bonfire to temporarily disable invasions. The green bugs me a bit as well. You do steadily look worse as you die more. It just comes on too strong after the first death imo. Quick question: did you notice the durability bar under your weapon icons in the bottom left? I noticed it within ~5 minutes, but a friend already beat the entire game with 30+ hours played and didn't noticed it in that entire time. We were arguing over whether other people had the same experience. Had pretty much the same thoughts about the system, though. It's great that it's automatic and they break faster, it falls more in line with the estus flask. But it breaks so quickly an average run will risk breaking just between bonfires. In No-Man's Wharf I almost broke my weapon by the time I reached the boss. Wondering if maybe they're trying to push keeping more weapons on hand. Also... Spoiler Ornstein is a boss again! And he's a joke. He could comfortably be the 4th boss, I did it 5th.
I did notice that durability bar fairly quickly and I certainly think the game devs want to encourage players to use more weapons and complex builds instead of just picking a weapon and rolling with it all the time. It fits with having more item slots for your character, giving players a lot more wiggle room to spec out builds later on. I started as a warrior with the pre-broken sword, picked up another as well as a dagger in the tutorial area and later on a short sword. I felt like I needed the three weapons on hand at all times as I was trying to play like DS1 and light the bonfires but not rest at them as I went along. The way the early level circles around on itself quite a bit made me not want to rest and respawn the enemies but for me I felt like the weapons were breaking way too fast. The shields however don't seem to have the same problem. I had 3 on hand but the starting one on the warrior was taking plenty of hits and was only around half it's durability by the time I'd broken a weapon and was well into my second. I like how we can two hand our off hand weapon/shield now. That's kinda interesting to me, for a tanky build it might be possible to two hand a large shield and block stronger attacks that would normally break my guard. I hope it proves useful because it might let players spend less points on certain stats but still use a shield to block key attacks during a fight without really gimping their other stats/abilities/damage.
From what I've heard, there's also a lot more difference between weapons to give them more situational use too. Mail Breaker, the notoriously terrible Souls item, pierces shields on heavy attack now. Some melee weapons can cast spells. And then the new dual wield and two-handing off hand weapons really adds more. With so many slots we could see some crazy combos. My only concern is that it will really stress weight, and how players will react to that. Pump more into Vit? Carry weight ring required? Wear lighter armor? I'm excited. That said, I've just been rolling with the Heide Knight Sword and Twin Dragon Greatshield, and the bandit starting bow just in case.
Do you have a source that the lighting on the right is from actual PC gameplay footage that we will actually see? Because I think those are screenshots from the announcement videos shown last summer. No doubt it's how they intended the game to be, but the consoles couldn't pull it off, so the dynamic lighting wwas replaced with the brown POS in the left. It might very well be that we will get the same sh*tty last-gen lighting the console players see right now. This is From after all. Unless they release a "next-gen" title later on.
Just a lot of what im hearing on the net. The DaS2 engine was never meant to be for last gen, and from the beginning PC was lead platform. And is also built to have PS4/XB1 in mind for the future. This is probably why close towards release they just could not get it at a playable FPS on 8 year old console hardware, so heavily scaled it down at the last minute. Lots of lazy copy past flat texturing and reduced geometry. The key bindings that came on screen early on when the game looks a lot nicer would lead you to believe it was running on PC. If the PC version does end up been the same as consoles but with just higher rez textures ill be pissed. So out of all the platforms DaS2 came out for, PC is the only one that was originally meant for the engine, so still have a good chance of looking as good as the early trailers.
Those are some sick images. I'll probably end up owning multiple copies of this game like I did the first one. Can never support From Software too much.
Three old ones down ( Spoiler Sinner, Freja, and The Rotten ) and looking at how the bonfire travel menu lists areas, I've basically gone in the exact opposite order of what From "intended". I was a bit over-eager and just ran off exploring, came back to go through everyone's dialogue in Majula and sure enough... the dialogue almost flat out says where to go. Exhausting NPC dialogue seems more important than in previous games. Same, I'm certainly buying the PC version anyway. Got plenty of PS3 owning friends to give/loan my old copy to when the PC version launches.
Dam Sloth! I've barely gotten started. Works been killer this week and most of my friends don't play so when we hang out it's pretty much me watching them play titanfall (and listening to them rave about it) while I'm just thinking about souls. This weekend though, going to have plenty of time to finally get the ball rolling. Congrats on getting so far!!!
No plans for this weekend either. Going for the ending! Supposedly NG+ isn't automatic so there's time to go back and find things after. I'm keen on seeing what the NPCs have to "give" . I'm really hoping there's a new Mephistopheles.
Game complete! Without rambling about likes and dislikes, it was overall worth it. I'm happy with the game and am excited to get more into the PvP world once I've gone back and solved all the remaining PvE mysteries. Something that really interests me is where people go and choose to do things, so I'm listing the bosses I did in order, with thoughts on each: Spoiler -The Last Giant. Intended first boss, not much to say about it. Good choice of enemy, story wise. -The Pursuer. Made to promote co-op, similar to Gargoyles, but it felt too forced. The fight is brutal alone. -Dragonrider. Awkwardly easy boss, considering how relatively challenging the enemies on the way are. -Flexile Sentry. Again extremely easy, only challenge is you might be low on health and/or durability after a very long zone. -Old Dragonslayer. Ornstein! But without Smough. And most of his attacks. Easy. -Ruin Sentinels. If you do Pursuer second, this seems like the third boss as you'll go straight to the Lost Bastille. While it's totally possible, I had a rough time and put it off until sixth. -The Lost Sinner. The first Old One, really bland and easy fight. Reduced lighting effects might have also hampered it. -Royal Rat Vanguard. I used my Branch of Yore on Straid, and therefore couldn't go straight to the Shaded Woods. So, into the pit I went! I thought this was an interesting enough boss, though Ring of the Evil Eye makes it much easier. -Scorpioness Najka. Quelaag Mk.II. Again, interesting enough fight. I liked that you can cut off her tail. -Prowling Magus and Congregation. This was a boss? Honestly though it was just a room of basic enemies until I saw the health bar. Easiest boss in the game. -Belfry Gargoyles. Brightstone Cove seemed like bad news, so I bailed to check out things I'd passed earlier. Ended up here, in what was a very tough fight for me. There are six gargoyles now. Optional boss. -The Duke's Dear Freja. Took me a try to figure out what to do. Nothing special, nothing terrible. The lead up to it is the worst part. Second Old One for me. I didn't find Vengarl's head in the forest, so his body really confused me. -The Rotten. After bailing on Black Gulch (got my Yore for Shaded Woods and left!) I came back to this. Cool you can break off his arms, but why not let players lock onto them? Was really let down by this. Third Old One. -Royal Rat Authority. Worst boss in the game imo. Think Capra Demon meets Sif, except the minions at the start toxin. Oh, and there's only one lock-on point again making it obnoxious to hit. Thankfully, optional boss. -Skeleton Lords. Finally figured out how to get to Huntsman's Copse. Did the boss in the network test, no surprise. I like the idea, just way too easy when you do it this late. -Executioner's Chariot. Again, knew what to do from the network test. And again, easy if you don't do it early. I believe optional, not 100%. -Covetous Demon. Forgettable and easy. No special gimmicks or anything. -Mytha, the Baneful Queen. USE A TORCH ON THE WINDMILL. For some reason, this stops her room from being filled with poison. Really not happy with this. It's a metal windmill, and hitting it with a weapon does nothing. Unless there's a message hinting at it, good luck figuring that out on your own. -Smelter Demon. Rough McGruff for melee as he has an immolate type effect. One of the more difficult fights imo. Again optional, but due to his location I forsee many players thinking it's required. -Iron King. Ceaseless Discharge Mk.II. Dodge the attacks, hit his arms, gg. -Dragonrider round 2. Now there's two. Except they don't seem to have more HP. Easy. -Looking Glass Knight. Maybe it's because of consoles, but this was not as pretty as they were hyping. Also pretty easy but fairly fun imo. -Demon of Song. Odd boss. Really easy, except that when you do get hit it can possibly one shot you. Not that exciting. -Velstadt, The Royal Aegis. Pretty cool dude. Not really difficult, but fun dodge practice. -Vendrick... For me, this was extremely easy. I did it immediately after Velstadt. Turns out, you must have a Soul of a Giant in your inventory to fight him. I already had one from a secret area in the Black Gulch. Supposedly, this is an extremely difficult fight. Maybe it is if you have to come back later. -Throne Watcher and Defender. Kinda cool, more 2v1. Just another melee boss fight. -Guardian Dragon. Awesome looking arena, fight was fairly fun but seems pretty dependent on how the AI chooses to fight. EDIT: Initially thought was optional, doesn't seem like it. -Giant Lord. Pretty easy fight, basically just a tougher Last Giant. -Nashandra. Stupid curse orb things are wonky, supposeddly you can hit and break them. I summoned a buddy who was able to. Bring friends and it's not so bad. Bosses I haven't killed: -Ancient Dragon. Supposed to be pretty easy. Nightmare getting to the boss door, I've only tried twice and was insta-killed by fire you're supposed to run from. Optional boss, must attack it to initiate fight. You must defeat the Guardian Dragon to access. EDIT: Talking to him gives you the Ashen Mist Heart which seems required to fight the required Giant Lord boss. Side note, if you run up and hit him before getting it... you might have to kill him for it. -Darklurker. Final boss from Pilgrims of the Dark challenges. Haven't done them.
