Do you get any in-game bonuses from pre-ordering Dark Souls 2? I'm thinking of pre-ordering it for all the cool feelies, but I don't want anything that makes the actual game easier.

God I hope not.

Last time there was a very short part of the official guide and a map that had like 1/4th of the world on it (the "ground level" more or less); nothing in game though.

Coin doubler.

I'm really tempted to say "don't ever pre-order, anything, ever", but Dark Souls is probably a game that's as close to a known quantity at this point. Then again, weirder things have happened before.

I think you get the Dark Souls II Original Soundtrack for pre-ordering.

You get shot with an arrow by a Gamestop employee.

Brolaire comes into your game at random, shouts "PRAISE THE SUN!!" at inanimate objects and you indulge in jolly cooperation.

In Japan there are. Retailer specific pre-order bonuses no less. I know, it's pretty awesome.

Though from what I've read these are probably just cosmetic changes to weapons. Still, pre-order incentives in my Dark Souls? You knew it was going to happen eventually.

@timing: Cosmetic changes that are also ugly as sin. I will live with this.

@timing: I don't think I would use any of those. Maybe the chain shield.

@cybertification Yea. I'm with you on that. I just think the level of fandom about the Souls series at this point I feel has reached the point where a critical consensus of negative reviews, short of saying the game is so mechanically broken it's unplayable, would probably not dissuade a lot of the fan base on wanting to play it anyway. I feel the passion is so deep at this point; so to those I feel they would buy it regardless of reviews and so holding off on pre-ordering doesn't even compute. But yes, any game in a great franchise can turn out bad. Who knows, maybe their attempt to make the game more understandable will completely ruin it. I know I'm waiting for feedback, and conveniently for the PC port and review of its quality.

@cybertification: Pre ordered.

@timing: After seeing this I'll definitely be picking mine up from GAME TSUTAYA!

US bonus is a nice metal case. It will protect the game when you put it away and start punching it

Its dark souls. KNowing that the preorder bonus is probably the dick wolves pack where when you start the game you get this new enemy called the dick wolves. All they do is rape you constantly, they give no exp, gold or item drops.

Ah so fucking hype for this. The Epicnamebro guy has been working on the official guide for this game and said it was better than the first. Take it with a huge boulder of salt but I am still hype as fuck!

Dark Souls is the type of game were reviews are mostly useless. It's a bit like the FGC determining the quality of fighting game instead of reviewers, because the reviewers usually lack the knowledge to understand whether the mechanics in a fighting game are up to snuff.

The previews for the Dark Souls 2 Beta that came from established websites essentially said nothing compared to the community of players that explored the way the new stats are set up. Most of the stats have been rebalanced with added effects while others have been nerfed with removed effects. PVP is going to play a huge roll in the game now that invasions are open to everyone and only people that are intimately familiar with how it works in Dark Souls will be able to comment on how the systems are getting tweaked.

This may be the first game in a long, long time that I pay full price for.

@golguin said:

Yea. Actually it's a good distinction or point to bear in mind. Reviewers are far from the only worthwhile source of information about the quality of a game on, let's say, games with a fairly high skill ceiling. The downside though is that communities are very heterogeneous and often time polarized, so getting a weighted opinion can be difficult. Fans don't always have the skill to properly articulate their point, which is why people without the patience will go to professional reviewers as they make sure their products (their review) is easy to digest and gets to the point. But yea, I'm totally gonna wait on the community to hear about the quaility of the port. Having put up with Dark Souls on PC though, I wonder how bad it would have to be for me to say "fuck it".

@noizy: Normally I would wait a bit to buy it as well, but I want to play Dark Souls 2 before people discover all its secrets. Hence the pre-order. I figure its worth the risk of it being a bad game.

@mikelemmer said:

I'll probably buy it too soon after launch when I hear that it's all up and up, the port isn't total garbage, and it's as we all expect; an awesome game. There's always a chance they decided to "make it more approachable" and completely messed it up. Anything's possible. ME1 was good. ME2 was great.

But about "discovering all the secrets", if you don't go and read all about it online, I still don't get how it matters. Full disclosure, I didn't finish Dark Souls yet, and the fact that there's wiki's out there doesn't mean I use them. If you want to have it unspoiled, just don't look up the answers, no? Anyway, its up to you.

It may matter if you want the feeling of belonging to a group of people that likes a specific thing and you want to be among the first ones finding things in the game.
Some may think that feeling is spoiled if the game is fully explored.
Plus you may meet new people to talk to that feel the same way :).

To get back on the topic tho, just because you pre-order doesn't mean you have to buy it.

Most reviews/previews/leaks happen before the release of the game.
It IS tedious but if you watch over the net for that specific game you will find out if the game flopped or not,
because there are people eager to tell other people about it.

Dark Souls 2 is one of the game that will need to establish itself before real reviews can be done. I think when the original Dark Souls came out they weren't many reviews to hit since not everything had been discovered yet and the covenants weren't fully understood at the time and how to even activate them.

I can see a lot of previews coming out but not full conclusions right away and this will affect more games as well in the future such as the latest mmo's & other games that have a multiplayer bleed in effect such as Destiny & the Grid.

I'm going to be buying this day one anyway, I enjoyed the last two very much and want to experience it the same time as everyone else, even if it is good or bad.

@fantus1984: Word, that's why I wrote my review a few months after launch; same thing for Dark Souls 2 I suppose (though I might have a job this time, curses).

I might just pick up the digital version of the game and not open my collectors edition.

I was thinking of getting a Swedish exclusive, but I think I'll just get the Black Armour edition.

The figures that is included in Col. Ed's almost always disappoints me.
But at the same time I want to throw extra money at them.

Very few publishers have really awesome collector editions.


Here is the 250$ Webhallen Edition (in Sweden we pay 80-90$ for games).

Preorder dlc is an item that corrupts your save when used, then a black bar on the screen pops up and says "this is where the real dark souls 2 begins", then it cuts to a video of the games director saying "hello, you have accessed the games special preorder dlc. Thank you for the moneys. I hope you enjoy it, you subhuman piece of trash".

Hmm, with the release date nearing I really gotta check in with my local shitty game shop when/if they will have what kinds of editions etcetera, otherwise gonna have to try and get it digitally I guess. Too bad about the delayed PC version anyway.