Come see the preview trailer for the upcoming DLC packs releasing on July 22, August 26, and September 24.
5 Comments
Leave Your Comment »
Dark Souls II
The curse is real; now prepare to die over and over
Masochistic is a word often associated with the Souls games. Though they’re known to be incredibly difficult for anyone who may be new to the series, they’ve become only mildly challenging for veterans. However, Dark Souls II is no pushover, proving to be difficult as soon as the journey begins. Even in the most basic tutorial area, players will find death waiting for them. Whether you fall into a hole you overlooked or walk past an enemy who is able to catch up to you for an easy backstab, Dark Souls II isn’t afraid to kill you mercilessly. Although the game never feels cheap, it always finds a way to lure me into a well sprung trap in which I am ill-prepared for. Difficulty isn’t the only thing in which the Souls franchise is known for though, and Dark Souls II gives us another beautifully crafted world that’s perfectly ripe for exploration with rippling lore waiting to be uncovered and dissected.
Spoilers to be expected (he does run the whole critical path), but a great treat seeing the game conquered in under 2 hours if you've already made it through.
Well jeez, I wasn't prepared to die this much.
Like many other small gaming outlets, PixlBit didn't receive their copy of Dark Souls II until the Friday before the game's March 11 release. This didn't afford much time to play the game to meet embargo; however, that's no big deal, because it's affording other opportunities, like this article! Until resident Souls master Chris Yarger has time to crank out his review, I figured that I'd provide some initial impressions for those waiting with bated breath for PixlBit's review of From Software's latest masterpiece.
Let's try not to die (too often).
If you plan to venture through the lands of Dark Souls II, you’d best be prepared with the reflexes of a tiger and the survival skills of a Cub Scout troop leader. The adventure won’t be easy, but it can be made bearable with a few tips and tricks from the grandmaster himself (which is me, if you didn’t know). Throughout this gratuitously grandiose guide, I’ll be giving a few tips based on the environment and exploration, combat, items and item management, and online portions of the game, so grab a nice blanket and get comfortable, because this is going to be one hell of a ride!
Winners in our hearts.
Voting is a funny thing. It’s hard to argue with addition, but there are plenty of instances where some of the staff thought a title or two got overlooked. Even though our GOTY 2013 article used some inarguable mathematics to come to the PixlBit staff’s consensus opinion, some of us thought there were games that should have gotten a few more votes. To highlight some of the games that each of us took a particular shine to in 2013, we present our staff’s personal picks that didn’t make the cut.
Am I truly prepared to Go Beyond Death?
My experience with the Souls series is deep-rooted and extremely memorable. The first time I laid eyes on Demon’s Souls, I was kicking back at a friend’s house between class just passing time and he just had to show me this new game he picked up on a whim. From that moment, I knew that I needed to embark on a quest to obtain this wonderful masterpiece that was so gratuitously shown to me - it was at this point that my love for the series truly began to bloom. Flash-forward two years to when Dark Souls was released and that's when my love for the saga truly came to fruition. I spent countless hours playing the game, days were spent perfecting my skills, and dissecting the lore consumed weeks of my habitual gaming life. All of that said, I suppose no one needs to know how excited I was to be invited into the Dark Souls II Network Beta.
After 3 hours with the Dark Souls II beta, Nick and Chris offer up their thoughts and observations.
Though we all know the next holiday approaching is Halloween, for Nick and Chris, Saturday night was more like Christmas Eve. Starting at midnight Sunday morning, Namco Bandai opened up the first play session for the Dark Souls II beta and the duo got a chance to check out a portion of the game for 3 full hours. While there's quite a bit of coverage from the event forthcoming, this first tidbit is a discussion between the two about their time in the game and the things that they observed and experienced.
