Rndm

New myth in Dark Souls haha. Evidently you're supposed to be able to find the Furtive Pygmy from the openening sequence (from what I hear the Director recommended the pendant because it's supposed to change/unlock certain story elements, have heard that he actually said it was used to talk to the pygmy), however so far it seems no one has found him/knows how to use the pendant. So, many are searching for the pygmy/a way to use the pendant, while many believe the pendant is bugged (it does have the wrong item description) and the pygmy doesn't exist. Possibly something to investigate while playing DS.

From what I understand they're also doing away with Major/Minor skills, all skills will now contribute to leveling up when raised, and instead of specific bonuses set along a skill path (heavy armor: 25=normal, 50=heavy armor burdens you less, 75=even less armor weight, 100=your heavy armor doesn't weigh you down at all) you will have a bunch of perks, each tied to a specific skill/playstyle (don't remember too many specifics for this, though I believe it was things like: (for blocking/shields) getting a shield bash or having better damage reduction etc.) that you will be able to choose each time you level up (think this should feel familiar to Fallout players), so it seems like actual Builds will be more prominent in this game vs. Oblivion where you just raised whatever skills you felt like. Might actually be a mage before trying melee in this one, as dual wielding spells sounds pretty awesome.

Same here, don't know why it's left out of rpgs now (dragon age games didn't have it ), as unless it is a game with a large amount of sidequests to do (elderscrolls) you wind up leveling up/getting good equipment just to play the final level or run through the secret post-game dungeon repeatedly. I put it down mostly because after finding there was no new game+. I didn't feel like playing through with the things that nagged me the first time (capped experience in each area so you can't grind to higher level early, no respec system [though I guess they added one in the dlc?] and some skills [clock trap for reinhardt] that took so long to activate that they lost their 'tactical/trap' value, as enemies were already smacking me around by the time I could see them and then cast the spell). Until they get new game+ and maybe fix a few things (and add more than 3 sets of armor that were endlessly recolored) I'll delete the game data to make space for other things (skyrim).

lol, well I think the fallout wiki is better about spoiler than the dark souls wiki (you have to click show X to see the story info), whereas they just say "you find this after you kill X and run through Y". Though there really isn't a whole lot of story to be ruined in Dark souls (kind of like demon's souls, you're told what's going on in the beginning and then get tidbits here and there til the end). There is one specific covenant that is easy to miss though (if you don't do the correct story choices it's gone til next playthrough ).

Yeah, probably a good choice, there are a few spoiler there haha. Though some of them can be hard to find/join if you don't already know where they are/what the requirements for joining are.

Another new feature in Dark Souls (and one of the best things they added imo) is the Covenant system. There are a total of 9 Covenants (groups in game that have their own code/goals/special items) that you can join, some are easy to find and join while others require finding it through luck or taking a specific story route to get. Some are good, some are evil, and some are neutral. The different groups are based around different types of gameplay, be it co-op, PvE or PvP with most having awesome rewards for sticking with the covenant until a higher rank. Here's a link to the wiki page explaining them all: http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Covenants

Would be awesome if they did, have only seen maces/morning stars so far though (so far they don't seem to have added new weapon types, just changed some attack animations slightly). One piece of advice I'd give is to not be a wanderer starting out (evidently my armor is not as good as a thief's starting armor) and say that it seems the Master Key Gift (in character creation you choose a special item to start with from a set list of stuff, like healing items, binoculars, ring that improves health, etc.) , an item which is reusable and opens any basic lock, is one of the more useful Gifts to start with as in the first area there are many doors that cannot be opened until you obtain the keys from certain foes (unless of course you have the Master Key). I've also had to do a lot more luring out in this game as opposed to dark souls, as a group of even the most basic enemies can do massive damage if they surround you (whereas you could pretty much barrel right through the basic enemies in boletaria's first area). Have not yet tried using dual shields, though from my experience with dual scimitars dual wielding just looks cool without offering any real combat advantage. It also appears that some special enemies can backstab players in this game (whereas I think only the Old Monk boss in demon's souls was able to do that).

picked it up tuesday, and gotta say they delivered on the "harder than demon's souls" part, died a bunch and I'm not sure how far into the first area (Undead Burg/Parish) I am. definitely more open than demon's souls, as there are no archstones that teleport you to self contained levels, so far it's all one big area with different paths through. Bonfires act much the same as the nexus from the demon's souls, as it restores your health, you can level up your stats at them, repair your armor, etc. However, every time you rest at a bonfire it respawns all of the normal enemies (bosses/dark knights do not respawn). Also, instead of becoming a spirit when you die you are "hollowed", when in Hollowed status you look undead (which actually looks cooler than your living/human form imo lol). You can still only summon other players while in "human" status, however you can be summoned even while "human" (though from what I hear the servers need work as players can only see people summon points if that person's ping is close to theirs, rather than in demon's souls where a summon point was visible to everyone who was playing online). Another addition is that of Estus Flasks, these are your healing items, the lowest number in a stack you can have is 5, and these are your -only- hp restoration items (at least so far as I've seen), though they are recharged every time you rest at a bonfire. You can increase the number you have in a stack by offering Humanity at a bonfire, though this can only be done while you're in a Human state. You can still invade other players' worlds, though now it seems that invasion is limited to consumable items rather than an infinitely useable item. I've also heard that dropping items in a level and waiting til they disappear/resting at a bonfire will create "Vagrants", some kind of enemy, in your own server or possibly other peoples' servers. Sadly, no extra functionality for dual wielding seems to have been added. Almost forgot, appears you can join different groups (Covenants) in Dark Souls, it also appears that this is the only way to learn spells/miracles, as one npc was only willing to teach me miracles after I'd joined his group, and it appears that you have a rank within each covenant, as he wouldn't divulge details about his group's working unless I offered a certain amount of souls. All in all I'd say it's better than demon's souls in nearly every way so far.

Hope it's how it looks then lol, think the first one suffered a little from linear and claustrophobic environments. They were good atmoshpherically, but I prefer more open environments (tall towers of latria [still linear, but looked very vast and open], and the most open environment was [imo] the swamp, where you don't really want to explore lol). Yeah, I thought sneaking felt a bit cooler, but took way too long waiting for the right gap in guard patrols, and then the reloading when you get spotted...think I'd be doing an aggressive/slightly sneaky playthrough next, though I also don't feel like playing it again for a while haha. Seems like that'd take a lot longer than using storm ruler (especially on subsequent playthroughs). Though the storm ruler also makes that the best spot to grind for souls imo (aside from exploiting glitches/duping legendary souls, though I don't believe the latter is possible any more).

was that one of the earlier skills? never really played as the vanquisher.

Hoping they change up their spell damage growth in this game lol; I think in the first one the Alchemist's first spell (poison bolt) would up being the most damaging/best spell, simply because it used %of x stat rather than a flat +x damage modifier, which disappointed me, as I loved ember strike . Still, customizable characters, open world environment w/dungeons and multiple towns, and a modding tool=Could quite easily become my favorite game, always been fond of this style of game (isometric rpg yeah?).

I enjoy the TG, continuous area damage spells, shield, crazy attack power buff (combat alert I believe?), aaaaan spikes, have to love the spikes. And the mobiculum, normally don't use Prop Lev much, but love the mobiculum's animation for that CA :trans: .

My first character will be an embermage, followed by outlander and possibly Berserker. Engineer comes last.

I believe Skyrim is single player only (though multiplayer would be awesome).

Actually, I still think skyrim is my most anticipated, with Torchlight II as a close second. And Goldeneye seems interesting, remember playing that when I was a kid.

Skyrim for 2011, Mass Effect 3 for 2012.

looks like the scale of the enemies is getting bigger in this one too (think it'd be cool to have a real fight with something the size of the storm king [without something the the storm ruler sword, though I think you can fight him without it? never tried though]) and is it just me or does it look like there might be some more exploration/more openly traversible environments in this one? Also, guess demon's souls players will never know what was beyond that broken 6th archstone, lol. Was hoping it'd get fixed at some point.

yeah, fun dual wielding a sword & catalyst, or shield and catalyst lol. Think my all time favorite thing to do though, was use blind/large sword of moonlight (completely ignore shields) on black phantoms, watch them freak out when their tower shields don't work . Hoping they might at new moves for dual wield (maybe moves utilizing both weapons like those dual wielding skeletons). If you could do punches/effective attacks with shields I think it'd be fun to do a dual shields run .

lol, yeah, later playthroughs get crazy, dragon god on 4th playthrough kills me in 1 hit w/his fire breath, even with complete suit of fire resist equipment and warding (tower knight spell) active. Guess the difficulty also depends on play style (based on my experience making a pure magic character and then a pure melee character I believe it is easier to use magic/ranged[?] than melee). Wondering how they'll handle dual wielding in dark souls (in demon's souls it seemed that dual wielding didn't have any particular advantages over shield & sword, other than maybe a passive effect on your off hand weapon, like morion blade/parrying dagger and I think I'd rather have a viable block than a passive buff).

Shouldn't be too hard to do, can finish one playthrough in as little as 20 hours (I'm guessing)if you don't bother with hacking/sneaking. Also, you can (I believe) see all the endings in one playthrough by saving right before the end of the game. I'd say it mostly depends on your playstyle, might take a while if you want to sneak through the whole thing lol, got impatient and started being aggressive with some hacking in the last 3rd or 4th of the game.

already reserved for ps3, and this video makes it look even better than the ones I've seen .

could get celestial magic focus (think that's it), for the healing ca, and/or technology focus for shielding (forgot the name). know you said you wouldn't be using CAs much, but having a shield buff and emergency invinco-heal sounds like it could be quite useful.

Think I'll be going for Guild Wars 2 and Torchlight 2 before Diablo.

No problem stubbie, and gogo, it's all free, though they have an in game real cash store where you can buy better potions, increased inventory, armor, wings, etc. (imo most/all of the stuff is overpriced). More info: current level cap is 24, there are 4 classes: archer, warrior, cleric, and sorceress (with each class being able to choose from 2 specializations, with another choice available when they raise the level cap to 40), they just added the Edge of Darkness area, with a new mission- Jealous Atrium (defend a stationary statue from waves of attackers), more items to the Dragon Vault (real cash store), and the 1 vs 1 pvp ladder (grants unique equipment. Only playable once you've hit the level cap). Also, it's playable with a gamepad/xbox 360 controller (though I haven't tried it so I don't know how it is compared to mouse & keyboard gameplay). Also, anyone that makes a character on the Elena (west) server can add me, character is Berdys, and I'll try to help you out.

At first I was turned off by the visual style they use but now I'm having a blast with it. Fun gameplay (gets Very fun after level 15, when you get a class specialization), has varying mission difficulties, has guilds, pvp, and pve group dungeons. Only things I can see putting people out are the aforementioned art style (cartoon), npc voices (some are pretty annoying) and the fact that aside from the main story (and often that as well) the dialogue is rarely (if ever) serious, though these were all minor problems for me as I've found the rest to be quite fun. That and it's still in open beta stages in NA, so depending on how fast you level you might be waiting for new content for some time. Link: http://dragonnest.nexon.net/