Currently Playing: Dark Souls (PS3)

I just recently made full use of my employee discount at Target in tandem with one of the post-Christmas sales to purchase myself a Playstation 3 with my Christmas money.  Admittedly, probably not the most responsible use of my money considering I have payments to make and other monetary things to worry about; but nuts to all of that it was my Christmas money and I was going to spend it how I damn well pleased.  And besides, when you have the opportunity to get the 320GB PS3 with the Playstation Move WITH a free $75 giftcard for roughly $286, you don't really pass that up.

So right, Dark Souls.  This game so far has proved to be nothing but frustrating in the best kind of way.  The general premise of the game entails something to the effect of the world dying out and the undead being on the rise.  At least that's what I've gathered from the opening movie thus far.  As such, you play as one of said undead in an attempt to reclaim your humanity by vanquishing other undead monstrosities and demons, thus consuming their souls.

I'm still fairly early on into the game, despite having ground my way up to level 30 and still yet to face the third boss; but so far this game is all sorts of fun.  In the early portion of the game, you select your character's base class (ranging from warrior to sorcerer and even the "I'm broke as balls so I literally get no armor or weapons PERIOD" classes), starting item and then customize the ever-loving crap out of their appearance...only to start off the game in some sort of undead asylum all shriveled up and looking like a walking humanoid pile of beef jerky.  You then proceed to break out of the asylum, killing undead along the way and ultimately coming face to face with the draconic jailer before a giant raven wisks you away to the forgotten realm of kings and lords so you can...do...stuff...

Yeah...they were kind of vague on the "why" of it.  Something about a chosen undead or something?

You then proceed to explore this ancient land by first making your way through an undead city, which apparently was all nice and peaceful until you showed up to murder every unliving thing in sight.

The game itself gets fairly repetitive in that you can rest at a bonfire and all the enemies (save for bosses or other dumb-hard foes) will reset, allowing you to go back and kill them all again, gaining more and more souls.  While that particular level of grinding can be fun for a while it super blows when you're fighting a boss after having cleared out a whole dungeon area and die, forcing you to go back and re-clear the dungeon.  Oh.  And when you die your body becomes a bloodstain that contains all the souls you had prior so you have to go and reclaim them lest you lose out on all of them.

"Please great lords...give me the patience to re-murder everything I layeth mine eyes upon."

The game does let you go off and adventure around, explore the lands as you go which gives you a bit more a freehand playing experience.  Well pretty much after clearing out the first boss that is.  The enemies in these areas are pretty stacked against you though, so it does kind of attempt to reign you into following a pattern of play.  However, if you're willing to take the risk and plunge into these areas before you're ready the souls the enemies bestow upon you can prove to be incredibly helpful.

Overall I really enjoy this game.  The graphics are awesome, the gameplay itself is challenging and I like that it's a fantasy RPG that isn't at all puzzle heavy and focuses almost entirely on combat.  I also really enjoy that you're not married to whatever class you chose at the beginning; by spending enough souls you can basically build your character into whatever you want it to be.  I started off as a Sorcerer so I could start the game with magic at my disposal, but have since branched out into dexterity and weapon capabilities to be a kick-ass archer/backstabber to supplement my magical prowess.  I'd highly recommend this game to all you seasoned gamers out there: definitely not a game for beginners.