And the unemployed - I did Viewtiful Joe at 100% like that. 

I think it's more that as I age, I tolerate frustrating games less and less. I find a lot more fun in romping through Tomb Raider than banging my head against a wall in Dark Souls.

Nothing against that game, it's not my thing anymore.

I'd rather tour content than retry the same encounter over and over. 

The game is tough, it does not pander to modern gaming conventions and is clearly not designed for everyone. It is extremely easy to forget playing many modern games because they are too busy rushing (on rail shooter) you to the end instead of being a challenge.

Is the game for masochists? Games with high learning curves are rewarding in different ways. There are no safety nets, no easy skill levels, it is designed for players who understand risk and reward strategies. The game unlocks as you learn, what you learn actually matters and Dark Souls is similar but toned down instead. 

I know what you mean. I don't have the patience for losing anymore - I think modern games design has spoiled me.

Not a bad thing necessarily, and there are many casual games which are predicated on constantly losing - temple run + clones, trails, angry birds etc etc.

The problem happens when designers try and avoid killing the player at all. I see this a lot and it always mystifies me. If there's no lose condition then victory is meaningless, and you just made a bowl of porridge, not a game worth playing.

Many games also took advantage of the Game Over to do cool stuff;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnA_6I4y0_0 

I can enjoy an insanely tough game if the design is so good that I want to keep playing it. For something as tough as Demon's Souls, I would say the game would have to be like crack cocaine in order for me to not just get frustrated with it.

To be honest, I can't remember the last game I played like that, but I know I have been in situations where I'm so into a game that the ludicrous difficulty doesn't bother me.

In general, I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. I tend to hate the modern "knife-through-butter" school of game design, where giving the player "an experience" seems to take priority over giving the player any sort of meaningful challenge.

On the other hand, I am so bloody busy in general that I don't get more than a few hours a week of actual "playing games for fun" time, so any game I do pick up probably shouldn't batter me with too many brick wall situtions... 

Dark Souls 2 will be "more straightforward and more understandable" than its predecessor, as a pair of new directors take over the series. 

If Dark Souls 2 is going to be more straightforward and more understandable then it will be the death of the franchise for me. If I want to play generic stuff I can easily find endless Marine/Soldier games for that. Dark Souls is good because it is a memorable game experience, painful at times but rewarding. 

sock

I'll give you that modern games are generally too easy. They are films in disguise, really, with the barest amount of player interaction and thinking they can get away with and still be called a game.

Gears is as guilty of this as any other franchise. I think we hold the players hand way too much... 

In other words: QTE. 

Why did those even became a trend? It boggles my mind. 

Because some devlopers want to make cinematic games, and they don't want to be constrained by their own game systems. QTE allows you to make any old "epic moment" you want, and not worry that there is no system for players doing the activity depicted in the cinematic. Just throw a button prompt halfway through your scripted movie so players think they are still playing a game. 

Right, and most are completely pointless. If you don't hit the button, the game doesn't adapt or change to reflect that result. No, you just get to start watching the cut scene again and try to do it right this time. It's busy work. 

i'm happy with easier games and the way games are now. games that are too hard just piss me off, i don't have time to replay shit over and over because it's too hard.

dark souls sounds off-putting so maybe i'll just put cheats on when i do eventually play it. 

Like Dragon's Lair started the trend.

Justification of technology, reducing the interactivity of the game as a side effect.

Things like Heavy Rain are sort of justifying the genre I suppose, but I don't have the patience to play it for more than 30 seconds. 

I'm with the rest of you old-timers RE: having no time for games, and pining for my lost childhood.

For me, difficulty isn't a problem though. I like the idea of rock-hard roguelikes. A massive 30 hour campaign is daunting, but 90 minutes and then either winning or starting a new game isn't. I haven't played Dark/Demon's Souls, but if it's possible to sabotage a playthrough of a full-length game by angering an NPC, then it's not my cup of tea. 

I bet Demon's/Dark Souls also has a "permadeath" option, right? 

Dark Souls currently 50% off on Steam, btw.

Praise the Sun.
Amazing chest ahead. 

 

bit expensive for me to get right now but screenies seem to support what czg said above re design. Will definitely put it on the list to get. 

Hmm wondering if I should play Dark Souls on Xbox360 or PC...

PC : graphics better ok. Xbox360 : couch, large screen.

As the game is recommended to be played with gamepad...which I dont really like...

Anyone played it through with mouse keyboard ?

Besides graphics PC has no other extra features right ? 

Nitin, Dark Souls is half price on Steam right now. 

Doh, didnt read up, sorry. Can delete that 

Mouse and Keyboard is very possible, i finished the game with it ( not started NewGame+ yet ).

You do need a mod to improve the mouse movement and some other things though : http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~petska/

The PC Version has the Artorias of the Abyss DLC ( new areas, enemies, bosses etc ) already included which i believe you have to buy separately on consoles. 

Ever since I discovered this shared virtual world I've been into it like Dracula into a throat.

Sure, it hoovers up memory and the graphics are relatively pants compared with modern games, but the people and building tools are quite nice. Sometimes they're sane.

Mind you, I spend more time as a DJ on there than a builder. I've got a project on but the scripting is making me bonkers.

(Here's a pic demonstrating some old building I did a few months ago, as well as referencing the DJ business.)

Yours from the unfashionable end of the Interwebs,
Martien Pontecorvo, Precipitate Flood & Maku Ibn-Selat