Recently It was recommended to me by 2 fellow N4G users to try out Dark Souls. As an Xbox man myself I hadn't heard much of Demon Souls and what I knew of Dark Souls was that it was frustrating and difficult to complete, a real marmite game, so as you can understand I was sceptical about the idea
Looking at the price of only £20 for a GOTY edition I thought to myself why not and took the leap of faith. And boy am I glad I did! The intro alone showing badass bossess like Nito and Seath the Scaleless had me very intrigued, However when the game actually begun and I was in control of my Warrior class swordsman I found the movement very slow and tired, I was starting to wonder if I'd made a mistake in buying this game without any real knowledge of what I was getting myself in for, But I had heard how difficult the bossess are and how rewarding the feeling can be when you defeat them so I made a deal that if I could get to the first boss and I still didn't like it I would turn it off, but no sooner.
Little did I know that around the next 2 corners the Asylum Demon was waiting for me in ambush and as he came crashing down toward me I quickly bolted through and door over to my left just narrowly avoiding certain death from his giant wooden club. By now I was starting to understand what people meant by the difficulty of the game I was 5 minutes in and already encountering a boss that was too big a match for me.
I persevered and eventually found myself in a position of great advantage, I was on a ledge standing above the same Asylum Demon and could use a droping attack that had extra power to really hurt him and make the battle easier than taking him head on.
And that is when the beauty of the game revealed itself to me, sure it's a challenging and difficult game but it's ultimately only as hard as you make it for yourself. A seemingly impossible battle such as taking on the Asylum Demon for example can be suicide to some players but by finding another approach can give you a massive advantage. It's all about tactics for nearly every enemy wether it be a normal pawn or the biggest baddest boss in the game, every situation unfolds based on how you approach it and that being said if you die it's fair to say it's your fault for not using the correct tactic, and that for me was definitely a brilliant part of the game, the entire playthrough was about good challenging trial and error and not the frustrating nightmare I'd been led to believe.
The world which you traverse is also a pure delight with tons of variety in terms of scenery ranging from a dark dank sewer to a hidden forrest, or a fortress with defensive traps to a magical world inside a painting. The more you play the more skilled your player will become and the slow, tired feeling soon dissapears once you master the combat, it's fantastic, so simple and engaging I can't believe it's not been done before. The amount of lore the game has is incredible and the amount you can actually miss is even more so. Unless you explore every nook and cranny you will miss a lot the game has to offer like valuable information or hidden weapons and items that offer a huge advantage when needed.
It's a game that's hard to put down and hard to stop thinking about once you do, if you're looking for a truly unique experience that challenges you to think about how you will approach combat rather than diving head first then this is a must buy. I'm even now waiting for a ps3 I recently purchased to arrive with Demon Souls so I can feed my addiction to more of this incredible game style.
Anyone that has shared the same experience feel free to comment and to anyone that's thinking of buying it please do, it will captivate you for a long, long time if you give it a chance.
Shaz from Pixel Swish: "The ROG Xbox Ally is another step towards Team Xbox’s 'Play Anywhere' strategy, and perfectly embodies the company’s future and how we’re all going to be playing an 'Xbox' in the future."
The funny thing about Xbox going more PC-like is that I’ve been saying this for over a decade and finally seeing it come to fruition. People use to hate the idea, but now are embracing it, and all I want is to be put on the payroll lol.
On a serious note, I think this is the best route going forward for MS. They don’t have to get out of the hardware game altogether. They can make their home console $300 entry & $600 premium home consoles and from there partner with other hardware makers for anything beyond that. Focus on being a publisher and creating a strong OS / Cloud option for other devices like desktop, handheld PCs, streaming devices, etc…
I honestly think they should also look into NVIDIA as well, with NVIDIA starting to make their own CPUs. Their CPU is already on par with AMDs best laptop CPUs of the previous/current generation which is more than enough, and a RTX 5000 / 6000 laptop GPU hybrid (DLSS 4 / DLSS5) could do wonders for them, and bring some much needed diversity back to console hardware.
https://n4g.com/user/blogpo...
I don't know why you'd expect them to still develop new consoles at this point. Ditching all exclusives and putting the Xbox logo on a ROG Windows device is a pretty clear message.
This isn't a good thing for Xbox. It's a long winded goodbye.
For the same reason they still have a laptop hardware lineup even though they have Windows.
Having some kind of retail presence for visibility and marketing won’t really affect them in any way.
I still expect them to have 1 or 2 SKUs that they won’t sell at a loss but will continue the trend of selling way less than the competition (though its still selling millions), just like they have their Surface laptops even though they could happily coast knowing practically every third party out there (or the end consumer) will pay them for the Windows license
You realise thos indicates that their next xbox will be an xbox branded pc right? And will cost pc prices as a result. So look forwards to a 600 dollar and 1000 dollar version with vast performance differences, with the upper range having similar performance to the ps6 that will be like half its price. The 800 dollar rog ally x makes this abundantly clear.
I saw this years ago. I don't see how it took this long for people actually close to the industry.
I said this years ago, mind you I know nothing about computers, but I always thought Xbox would go more PC-like.
As I said, and always said, I know squat about PCs, so I thought Xbox would become modular. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but I thought they would build a basic frame/shell and gamers would be able to configure their Xbox how they wish, similar to PC and buy motherboards, sound cards and graphic cards. I don’t know if that’s practical or even possible though.
This was when they first entered the gaming space.
I think consoles are so cheap and punch above their weight is because everything is so tightly designed around each component. Opening up to multiple permutations with modules would probably make it more expensive to build, develop for, and manage. It's not impossible, but probably gets in that gray area where it's not much different than a garden variety PC.
Well to clear up my thought process on the matter, I figured they would every so often within a gen like a pro model system, give gamers the proprietary parts.
Let’s say the original Xbox they built it modular in mind, so certain parts they would manufacture newer slightly more powerful components. That way you can either stay with the original configuration, or swap out the parts you choose, building your own pro. Then when the next gen comes around a new even more powerful components that would put the system in the Xbox360 range. Then another half step to tweak your system to a pro of that gen.
I guess similar to how I see people here talking about new 4080 cards, I’m just making up an example, and every so often people mention nother with a number larger than the last indicating it’s more powerful.
I understand what you’re saying about how it’s much easier to just have a closed system, and much cheaper. It was just something I thought might happen when Microsoft introduced the first Xbox.
"First-person roguelikes like Gunfire Reborn and Roboquest can be quite fun when done well. Another such game is MythForce, which comes from Beamdog, the developer that brought Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 to modern platforms (while mostly ditching the co-op). MythForce features cartoon-like visuals and a fantasy theme, making it quite different from most of its peers. It will soon reach its "final form" via the upcoming Version 1.2 update," says Co-Optimus.
Today, SCS Software officially announced Project Coaches, the next evolution for Euro Truck Simulator 2, adding buses to the game.
I like the point you made about different approaches, although there aren't many alternate routes like that within the game, just about every boss requires different tactics for you to defeat them.
I agree, DaS is incredible! If anybody has this on PS3 head over to the PS Store and the DLC is currently included in the "January Sale".
Great summary of your experience and you described all the feelings us fans have for this game, the addictive & immersive nature, the fact that you're always thinking about it, the sense of adventure ect... Its a completely captivating game, my favorite this gen and im glad you liked it.
I also like how you understood the difficult reputation it has which you perfectly summed up with "it's ultimately only as hard as you make it for yourself".
I played Demon Souls 1st and although i feel Dark Souls is the better game, nothing really comes close to the experience i had when i first played Demon Souls, the way it pulled you in, the constant sense of eeriness and dread, whether you got it while exploring a terrifying prison or from a simple creepy laugh the characters did now and then. The even better sense of satisfaction from finishing a difficult level/boss, because for me it was a lot more difficult than Dark Souls.
It was complete immersion and i loved every bit of it.
Two of the greatest games this generation if you ask me. Im eager to play Dark Souls 3 but also slightly worried with the approach they appear to be taking and also because the guy behind the 1st two isn't working on them. But heres hoping.
Nice read, thanks for sharing.
I've put an insane amount of time into this game. Like over 300 hours maybe. So much fun, everybody should try this game.
I'm taking a break from Dark Souls and have gone back to Demon's Souls for a bit, haven't played in a while. It's still as awesome as I remember, just a shame they're aren't too many people online.
Probably gonna pre-order Dark souls 2 at some point. Bit worried about a few of the quotes from the develepors but I reckon it'll be good
All bosses are easily beaten if you know their patterns. But until you do understand their patterns, you're gonna have a bad time.
demons souls, dark souls and MGS4 are my fav games this gen by far
demons souls has the better story, better atmosphere, and better characters IMO
dark souls has open world, more enemies, harder bosses, and is tough just because you dont have the nexus IMO
cant wait for dark souls 2