What makes Darks souls better, how about upgrading the regular edition to the Collector edition when you pre-order. So go now before it is too late!
 
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This is what you get for the collector edition 

Dark Souls Collector's Edition

• limited edition art book containing premium illustrations of characters and environments from the game
• mini-strategy guidebook
• behind-the-scenes videos from the development studio
• game's soundtrack for digital download
• All of this will come packaged with the standard edition game in a custom-designed metal case

*Details from Gamestop Dark Souls page*

Custom cases are the reason why I almost never get collectors editions. I like all the games on my shelf to look the same.

This is my favorite form of pre-order incentive. I have one question regarding the game though: How is death handled? I never picked up Demon's Souls because the death system sounded like a deal breaker by being so punishing. I'm willing to die a lot, but not lose all of what equates to experience points for upgrading.

This is old and there have been some CE modifications. One of them is that there will be no physical guidebook and it will be digital instead, I believe.

@Origina1Penguin said:

This is my favorite form of pre-order incentive. I have one question regarding the game though: How is death handled? I never picked up Demon's Souls because the death system sounded like a deal breaker by being so punishing. I'm willing to die a lot, but not lose all of what equates to experience points for upgrading.

You don't just lose all your souls. You have a chance (ONE chance) to go back and collect them. If you die again on the way to collecting those souls, then you will lose all of what you had dropped at the point of initial death (and then the souls you'd collected on the way will be at your most recent bloodstain). I don't really expect this to change in Dark Souls. It's kind of a key component to the game experience. It makes you take things more slowly and carefully.

Honestly, I thought it sounded super messed up too, but by the time you're losing 100,000 souls that's maybe 2-3 skill points, and it's really not that hard to farm them if that's what you want.

The bigger turn off of the game to me was that it felt like you needed a guide (not helped by the fact that they included said guide with the initial print run of the game). There were just things in the game that never get explained. Crystal lizards for example. You aren't going to know what the fuck the deal is with those without looking up a wiki. My main hope for Dark Souls is that they make some things like that a bit clearer. Though even if they don't I suspect I will still love it just for being new Demon's Souls.

@FluxWaveZ said:

This is old and there have been some CE modifications. One of them is that there will be no physical guidebook and it will be digital instead, I believe.

I hadn't heard about that change. That's really unfortunate. The guide that came with Demon's Souls was really nice.

Excellent way to get my to buy the game new.

@Origina1Penguin said:

This is my favorite form of pre-order incentive. I have one question regarding the game though: How is death handled? I never picked up Demon's Souls because the death system sounded like a deal breaker by being so punishing. I'm willing to die a lot, but not lose all of what equates to experience points for upgrading.

It's the same as Demon's Souls. It's not a big deal to die, because you expect to, and you'l pick up your souls np, and you won't lose that much because most of the souls come from bosses. If you die in Ratchet & Clank, you're furious because it's not supposed to happen, so it's all good, well and enough.

Yeah, I made a thread about this three months ago, and @FluxWaveZ is right, the guidebook is digital now. The US and EU versions will also be different:

The US Collectors Edition consists of a metal case, with digital collectables, possibly a physical soundtrack and/or artbook. Because of the size of the metal case, the strategy guide has to be digital too.

The EU Collectors Edition is a folding cardboard-ey thing, you know what I mean. However, it comes with a physical making-of/behind the scenes thing, a physical art book, a physical soundtrack and a code for a digital strategy guide, because it made no sense to make two different guides for two different regions (looking at you, Atlus).

Custom cases are the reason why I almost never get collectors editions. I like all the games on my shelf to look the same.

Ugh, this may be what it takes to get me to finally dive into the Demon's Souls universe as sad as that might sound.