Fuck, I thought the March 24 was everywhere. I didn't know it was April 11 for non-Japan. I will not spoil myself, but I will spend thursday night sulking.

This is the furthest I've gone with a Dark Souls game without having seen much content from it. All I've seen is the Network test and the first 10mins of Oroboro's preview footage before turning it off and deciding to stay unspoiled.

Impressions I'm all good with but I've already got my impressions from people that have opinions that matter in that sphere. Also it's weird being so excited for a game but once or twice a week something has to remind me it's coming out. Usually when I'm excited about a games release I'm anticipating it nearly every day but with Souls 3 it hasn't come into my mind much. This isn't to say I'm less excited for it, in fact this is probably the one I'm looking forward to most because from the network test footage I've seen it seems to be a holy merger of Souls 1, 2 and Bloodborne. It's probably thanks to SFV being in such a shitty state that I'm looking for them to patch their shit each day instead of waiting for Souls 3.

I've waited for all of these months so I'm pretty sure I can wait out 3 weeks...

I'm going to try...like...really really hard. It is just several weeks away at this point, but I'm a Souls fiend so we'll see how that goes.

I'm only human.


Okay, fine, I'm going to break. Alright?!

Blackout. I might peek at the Metacritic aggregate but no reviews. I stopped following Bloodborne coverage 6 months before release, and it ended up being my favourite game in a long, long time, so I'm doing the same thing for Dark Souls III.

haven't seen anything apart from the announcement trailer from E3, not even sure I'll pick it up right away but I won't seek out any video or screens. I'll just check what the reviews say and try to drown out the noise till I have a chance to play it.

I'll be practically bathing in it

tbh i wouldn't have minded waiting another year. gotta catch up anyway (if i actually feel so inclined).

we're kinda reaching saturation points here.

people who spoil things are bad people

@ripelivejam: thats kind of how I feel, I love these games and hope this one is good but I could do with some time off. I still haven't finished all the DLC for the scholars of the first sin...

I thought about just downloading the Japanese PS4 version, but I'm gonna wait for the US PC version. Gonna try and not look at spoilers. Did a good job with it for Bloodborne. Finally played BB roughly 2 weeks ago for the first time and most of it was a surprise.

I'll avoid it fine. At some point I still need to order a copy.

I imported it. Hopefully I should receive it by the end of the week.

I won't avoid coverage, spoilers are the least of my worries, but I won't seek out streams

I think I'll try to get a general impression of reviews coming out of Japan to see if its getting positive reactions or not, but I'll probably try to stay away from actual details about the world and things like that

Hell no. I haven't even been watching many of the trailers and gameplay videos that have been coming out as of late. I know what this game is, generally speaking, and as such I want to jump in upon release as oblivious as is possible. I likely won't be reading much forum chatter until I've at least completed the game once as well.

This is the first game that is coming out day and date on all platforms. Not having to wait for the PC version means this is the first Souls I'll be going in cold for real. I can not wait.

I'll likely watch the first couple of hours. I watched all the footage out of the recent event from a bunch of channels, so I'm fine seeing playthroughs that go at least that deep. Probably not too much further in, though. Honestly my personal view has always been that if I'm watching the game in order anyway then it isn't really a spoiler to me, because I'm seeing it as intended. I only want to avoid seeing stuff completely out of order. The only reason I'll limit my viewing is because there's a lot of satisfaction to be garnered from learning how to beat bosses and from discovering hidden secrets - likely a lot of the latter won't even appear in initial playthroughs anyway, but the former certainly will.

I managed to avoid most of the footage that came out recently, so I think I'll continue to do that... unless Brad decides to do an early quick look. I'll probably watch that. I also wouldn't mind reading general spoiler-free impressions.

I'm not sure what there is to spoil yourself on other than level layouts. At this point if you've played a Souls game or 3, you know what you're in for. There is very little mystery about the franchise, which is why Bloodborne was so refreshing.

I think I'll probably have a look at some really early game footage, mainly just to see what the classes are like. I'm not going to watch any boss fights or anything big like that.

Sounds like I'm in the small minority here who will actually go out and look up whatever spoilers I can. I actually don't give a shit about spoilers for anything really and don't get any more satisfaction from going into something blind vs not. Never thought the whole community working together to figure out the secrets was the fun part of the Souls series for me.

Going in completely blind, I want this game to surprise and fuck with me as much as possible.

I'm not 100% sold on the souls games at the moment. I'd sooner return to Bloodborne than buy Dark Souls III, so I'm not particularly concerned with spoilers. Yet, I'm still intrigued by the series and I'll watch any video Giant Bomb puts out.

I'm going in blind, for the most part. I have seen a bit of Dark Souls 3 but not enough to consider myself spoiled. It's going to be pretty hard to ignore the media frenzy in the final couple of weeks, but I will stay strong.

I'm going to import it.

If I didn't have deadlines to worry about I'd already of bought the Japanese version on PSN. In my current situation I'll likely not get my hands on it until the 19th of April at the earliest. I intend on avoiding spoilers until then but it's going to be very hard to avoid the temptation.

Nope. A lot of the game has been spoilerable already, though I haven't paid much attention.

Launch Trailer.

It's glorious. I was just kind of looking forward to this. There's been a lot of souls the last few years, but this was enough to spark my excitement again. The bosses look great. Gwyn on a dragon, yo.

@aegon: My hype meter just broke. Holy crap that was a fantastic trailer. That really got me in the mood for this game.

@aegon: It's late at night here so I cupped my hands around my mouth to stop the excited screaming.

@aegon: Seeing that trailer made me go "Aw yeah, DARK SOULS!" which I guess is all I want. Big-ass bosses who look like they came out of metal album covers or nightmares.

@aegon: Holy shit, they're finally making a sequel to Dark Souls.

Yeah...it's a bit mean to DSII, but that's kind of what this trailer felt like.

@theht: Sometimes I feel like the only person that actually thoroughly enjoyed Dark Souls II. I even thought it was an improvement.

I don't look stuff up with these games. I'll dive in when I dive in and I'll probably get it on sale.

PSA: The English version is streamable from today. Be advised.

@bam_boozilled: I speed run Dark Souls I, it's one of my favorite games of all time. But there's a lot in Dark Souls II that's been drastically improved to the point where replaying Dark Souls I is hard. The amount of ways to spec your character is massive and faith builds are actually fun. Movement is more fluid, tons of armor and weapon options, backstabbing your way through every enemy isn't as much of a thing.

I played through SotFS just recently as a tanky faith build with a lightning Defender Greatsword that hit Nashandra for 850-900 damage per hit and I was launching Great Lightning Spears hitting for 600-700. I felt like a damn lightning god and it was some of the most fun I've had in a souls game full stop.

TL;DR I agree Dark Souls II is hella fun.

@bam_boozilled: Really? I always got the sense I was in the minority for disliking it. The whole thing felt like a stiff and soulless immitation. Worse in practically every regard.

That trailer is too much hype. HELP OH GOD MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT

they've done it. they've reached peak souls... those freakin bosses hhhhnnnnnnnggggg

Watched GBeast's show of today but that will be my sole dip to this before release. I can wait for three or so weeks for this.

Have gone relatively blind into both previous souls games and Bloodborne - I think I saw about as much of the first one. Of which is better from the first two I can't decide. First one had that fantastic feeling of being lost in a game which I thought was lost in this age of in-your-face-tutorials and hand holding. Second honed the formula (and I just could spend years just sitting at Majula). Bloodborne was something that I played through once and it just did not get a attached at all.

Watching @austin_walker play did raise my hopes a lot. The most annoying thing going from game to game has been the hit tracking that has evolved more and more extreme, the way most enemies in Bloodborne seem to turn always to follow you in mid action almost every time drove me crazy at some points. And Souls the third didn't seem to suffer from this so much judging from the video - hooray!

I've gone completely blind into every Soul's game, and this one will be no different. Because of the release date difference I'm having to basically avoid the internet from today forward, it'll be worth it though. I'm a huge lore nerd, and having even the smallest thing detailed would probably send my brain into a conspiracy tailspin.

Typing this I've realized that I'm a bit of a nutter, but the things we do for Souls! See you all in a couple of weeks!

Need to finish 2 first.

It's so ridiculous they would push back the non-JP release 2 weeks when the English version is done and sent out to many streamers. I can't help but watch some streams, but I'd rather be playing it. :(((

No need. Various YouTubers and Press have already played substantial parts of the game. As of right now, many of them have already gotten the FULL ENGLISH RETAIL RELEASE - so they're already finishing the game now, if not by the end of the week. Anyway, all impressions of it are great!

He's staying away because he doesn't want to get spoiled, not because he doesn't want to know if the game is good or not.

I really really hate that its coming out so much earlier in Japan.

I will not look at a thing for it. A game like this is all about exploration and finding things out yourself.

LobosJr is streaming it on the 8th. Weeks after his other half's already done the same. What odd scheduling. At least that means the wikis and stuff will be populated by release. Trying to garner some direction with Salt & Sanctuary was a little slow.

@theht: In my experience from the souls community (from youtube to the wiki to giantbomb) there is almost overwhelming dislike (or maybe disappointment is a better word) of the game. Maybe it is an effect of the dissenters being the loudest and the most sure of themselves, but I rarely notice people defending the game.

The other thing is that I rarely see specific undeniable complaints when people talk about it being a bad game. When I do, the two main issues cited tend to be boss design (which I don't completely agree with) and that the world isn't as interconnected (which I really do not care about). I have to say, your dislike appears to be in the extreme end. And I find the statement that the game is "a stiff and soulless immitation. Worse in practically every regard" completely unreasonable. But to each their own. I would ask why you think that, but I don't want to get into the weeds about it here.

Dark Souls II is weird to me. On the one hand you have a bundle more options with builds but the world lacks the cohesion of its predecessor. It feels like a game that could've been curated better and given a bit more focus.