Yep. The multiplayer implementation in Demon's/Dark Souls is awesome, creative, and fits with the game's vision perfectly. Wish more developers did things like this instead of catering the lowest common denominator.
I haven't finished my first playthrough yet, and I probably won't for at least another week or so. But so far, this game is brilliant and better than the original IMO. The main downside is the poor multiplayer implementation, but I was never big on PvP in Demon's Souls so that doesn't bother me as much.
When you release an open beta a month before the game launches, it's mainly for marketing purposes, not for bug-hunting. It's amazing that more people don't realize that -- game developers certainly do.
Edit: I was obviously thinking of BF3 when I wrote this, but it applies even more strongly to KZ3. That "beta" sucked ass, and sure enough the retail release sucked too. It's not possible to completely re-tool a game a few weeks before it launches...
Agreed on the triggers. This is one area where the 360 got it right and Sony got it wrong.
Great article. Nice read.
I'm all for different people having different opinions, and if somebody tells me that they don't like this franchise, hey that's fine. It's not for everybody.
But 4/10? That's just stupid.
No, that would suck. I love how From says "This is our vision, and if you don't like it, maybe you should play some other game on the market instead." Not every game needs to cater to casuals. They have plenty of games already.
Yep, "more of the same" is 100% fine with me. Dark Souls is great so far.
It wouldn't matter to me if this game didn't even have a SP campaign. I buy games like this for multiplayer, not single player.
Of course the beta also turned me off on the multiplayer, but that's a different topic.
"But in a landscape where regenerative health and multiple save points are the norm, can Dark Souls find a place amongst the mainstream?"
Who cares? This game isn't trying to be a "mainstream" title. I'm happy that it's gotten lots of press and is apparently selling well, but hats off to From for not selling out and staying true to their niche.
Probably because the practice of releasing "betas" three weeks before launch and using them as marketing tools (i.e. treating them like demos) only started fairly recently.
It won't be delayed, but it should be. The beta is a mess, and the game clearly could have used more development time, but they want to get it out for the holidays so ready or not here it comes.
I put over 200 hours into BC2, and I also decided not to preorder BF3 based on the crappiness of the beta. So they're not just losing sales from COD noobs. They also cost themselves sales from people who were planning on buying their game all along, but got un-sold when they saw the mess that the developer was serving up.
Maybe they should spend more time fixing their game. There wouldn't be as many glitchers if there weren't so many glitches.
Agreed, but I think it's pretty cool. I never played multiplayer in Uncharted 2 (besides getting the trophies), but this honestly makes me more likely to give it a try in U3 if it makes the game mroe team-oriented.
I'm only a few hours into this game, but as a vet of the original, Dark Souls is exactly what I was hoping it would be -- more of the same. Great game so far.
I downloaded the beta expecting that I would be getting this game on day 1 just like BC2. Instead, the beta un-sold me after a couple of hours of (broken) play.
"I'm ashamed to be a gamer right know. That people can treat a game studio who brings out a BETA to test their upcoming game to handle servers etc. and people demand, demand and demand some more. "
The people who should be ashamed are the folks at DICE who spent the last six months talking a big game about how awesome this was going to be, and then released what looks like an alpha three weeks before launch. Sorry, but anybody who is a not a fanboy has to admit...
I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that its a shooter that doesn't have traditional FPS-based multiplayer. That's just weird IMO.
"I don't understand how anyone could be against that, especially in a game that you have a party anyway. "
Managing my squadmates is a lot of what made ME2 fun, especially on Insanity. Coop essentially ruins that aspect of the game by turning it over to other players.