amazing

Those of you that are over 30 years of age might remember those games, back in the 90's where it took a lot of patience and an extra stack of coins to pay for the extra lives at the arcade.

Few games leave me as torn as Dark Souls . The game is incredibly hard - almost to the point where it is soul crushing. At the same time, there's a fun sense of achievement weaving throughout the entire game. Every death is a painful chance to learn something new about the game's mechanics.

When I played this through the first time I ignored the online aspects, as I had done with Demon Souls. I didn't want something that would make it any harder than it already was. I leveled up to over 100 before finishing, and some of it required a huge amount of repetition.

It's simply amazing. From the very first steps it had me hooked. I've now played around 30 hours, and I feel like I'm just getting started. The gameplay and the controls are fantastic, and the atmosphere is intense.

I've gotten back into gaming at a great time. I picked up a PS3 about 6 months ago, after last owning an Xbox 360 about 2 years ago. Now, back then some great titles were out, but after 2 years away I've been catching up on some of the most highly recommended games (most recommendations come from a...

Engrossing and a real challange

Not for everyone

Starting off dark souls you will be given the choice to build your character's class and structure. While it may lead you to believe that this will turn into a unique adventure the slight variation in character customization can't pull this game away from what hurts it the most.

The transition from consoles to PC has been a mixture of ups and downs for Dark Souls . After the initial console release, PC fans wanted to experience the game as well, setting up a petition to Namco Bandai that actually pushed the company into porting the game to PC.

Last year, Dark Souls was released on consoles. A towering achievement, its treacherous, interconnected realms offered some of the most absorbing exploration a game has ever conjured, and its intense and grueling combat made victory against even the most common enemies a source of gratification and...

A captivating world that's thrilling to explore; Challenging and exhilarating combat; Incredible enemies and bosses; Fleeting interactions with other players make for memorable and meaningful multiplayer; Some great new content for this release

New player-vs.-player arena is disappointing; Some PC-specific technical issues

Demon's Souls was an anomaly, a thoroughly modern 3D game whose mechanics and philosophy were plucked wholesale from the 8-bit era: unforgivingly brutal difficulty, a focus on repetitive attack patterns, and absolutely no hand-holding whatsoever.

Enormous level of content; Unparalleled sense of accomplishment; Bizarre character and level design

"Gotcha!" ambushes; Unreliable target lock-on/camera; Framerate issues