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Oh man, the art direction here is absolutely fantastic too. Four years ago I was so blown away by the grim beauty of the world that it made my disappointment with the experience that much harder to bear.

These games are so immersive in large part because the world design and art direction is so fantastic. Dark Souls II is definitely even better in that regard, so I'm very stoked for that one. Like Chris has mentioned, the lighting effects at play there are phenomenal and totally improve the game in a very tangible way.

Awesome! I know you've been making your way through Dark Souls, so I'm sure you'll come to love this game too, Rodney.

Repeating areas is definitely a brutal part of the game, but I now consider each death a lesson learned. If you can analyze why exactly you failed, it's usually the key to success in your next go-round. Despite the fact that most of the areas in these games seem huge, they're actually not that big, especially when you know the proper passageway. Of course the shortcuts you eventually unlock speed things up, so you've always got that.

Very cool that you got to play it before release!

Since Chessa is a gamer too (and I suspect my sons will be as well), my stance is that as long as someone in the house plays the game, it's a worthy investment. We've got a bunch of games that either only me or only Chessa have played and I'm cool with that. Like you, I figure that one day maybe I'll get to them all. Maybe.

Demon's Souls was a rough customer for me the first time through. I really struggled, despite really trying my hardest to succeed. I don't think I've ever been defeated by a game in quite that way before and I grew up in the NES era!

Like I said in this blog, I attribute some of my failure to the poor start of the game, but also because I think games have conditioned us to play differently as of late. Demon's Souls took the training wheels off and I wasn't ready.

If you've got Dark Souls at your disposal, I really think you should play that one first. The best part is that the two, while somewhat connected, really are distinct experiences. You can always go back to Demon's Souls later and it won't feel like a step back, nor will any amount of the story or lore be ruined for you.

Thanks, Matt! I can understand your sentiment for Demon's Souls. Now that I've really had an opportunity to crack its shell, I love the world of Boletaria and its unique environments. It also has a pretty distinct identity from Dark Souls. They're certainly similar, but it's got a different feel that I really appreciate.

From what I played of Dark Souls II in the beta, that too has its own identity and feel and I'm very excited to dive back into that world. Now to decide if it's worth staying up all night to play it on Saturday/Sunday...

Cool to see that get some coverage down there! Though the author of that article needs an editor badly...

I love this game so much. Still totally hooked. Just finished the first area of Gladsheim and I'm nearly down to the 7th floor. Don't have much time to play, so it's been a bit slow going, but man, I can't believe how hard I've fallen for this one.

I think it's so there's a color difference between every character. Maybe some playtesting with 4 players revealed that it was easy to confuse Toad and Mario on screen with Toad's proper color palette, so they swapped him to blue. Can't say that's definitely it, but I think it makes enough sense.

It totally is! Also (not in repsonse to your specific comment, but the blog itself), it's a totally new game, not a port of the arcade game. It's a really fun arcade-style racing game that I sunk entirely too much time into. Review plug time:

Hydro Thunder Hurricane Review

Tempest Pack DLC Review