Watch Jeff Green's let's play. He is a newcomer who at first thought that it's a terrible hard game that's not for him, thus a joke to livestream, but eventually he learned to love it.

Here's his channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Greenspeakachu/videos

Or watch the welcome back Tricaster video where Ryan managed to play from start till defeating Taurus demon.

@mb: woops. Didnt notice that the thread was necroed. Doesnt change the fact that the LPer I was talking about recently started playing DS and therefore turning a ton of new players on to the game. Undead Burg was full of shieldless, single-handing Drakesword users. It was insanely fun to invade

@nekroskop: It was also just on sale for 5 bucks on steam.

I just saw the video where he beat Capra and I think it's a testament to the amazing game design in Dark Souls that everyone basically has the same kind of reaction. After hours of fighting a boss like Capra and winning you are literally left shaking and drained.

Fuck Dark Souls I don't have time for your bullshit.

@mb: you just blew my mind.

Reading thread without looking at the dates, then seeing your post. So real giving a ghost a ride home stuff.

Well I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

I killed him with two tries on my very first play through. I couldn't figure out why people thought he was so hard.

Then I tried other builds. Oh lord. I got the Demon's Greataxe off the Taurus demon and rushed strength to use it so I went to the Capra Demon with like 40 strength and base everything else. That weapon is also super heavy so I couldn't wear much armor. It was a hoot.

Haha, that's the same way I felt the first time I played Dark Souls too.

Did none of you grow up with NES-era video games?

I think about this every time I see a topic about the difficulty of modern games. I don't know how much correlation there is between age and finding games like Dark Souls too difficult, but when I was a kid and struggling through games like Double Dragon 3 or Battletoads, there wasn't even a BBS to go and check for a FAQ or walkthrough, let alone the internet where one could go and watch YouTube strategies or go to a message board like this and get help.

OP here. You'll just have to trust me. My old account "Ovenall" was registered during one of my rage-quits and I can't even remember what email address I used to sign up. So I have created a new account.

With all the talk of DS2, I started thinking about DS again. I have a PC. I have an Xbox USB controller. I "borrowed" the game for PC (figuring I had already thrown $60 at it anyway). And for some reason, playing on the 17" laptop screen just seemed… easier. Not easy, but I wasn't getting my butt handed to me by the Taurus demon. I killed him fairly easily on maybe my second try… even having put the game down for a couple years.

I bought it again for Xbox, $20. I have since made a few characters. My current one started as a Wanderer, which I then upped INT on until I could cast Soul Arrow. Wanted some kind of ranged attack. Yeah, I cheated some by reading walkthroughs to get me going. But now I have a +5 Uchigatana — and last night?

I killed the Capra demon. Used charcoal resin. Took me about 5 tries. I couldn't do the recommended "run to the right, circle to the stairs", so I rolled to the left and managed to get on the stairs with only minor damage from a dog and one (blocked) hit from Mr. C. I killed one dog on the stairs, but the other remained below and the demon came up after me. Jumped down, got attacked by the dog (thanks, crappy camera), then killed it with a tiny sliver of health left. Almost gave up. Powered to the other end of the room, downed 2 estus before getting hit, HARD, again by the demon, but I got him a couple times. Up the steps, one more estus, jumped down and killed him with three more hits.

Pretty sure I hit him once or twice first time on the stairs while swinging for the dogs. Was able to hit him once as he looked up at me and I was halfway up the stairs, too.

What a rush.

Anyway, I've also killed the gimpy lightning demon and am now killing stuff in the forest. Made it to the butterfly (surreal-creepy) but got killed pretty quickly there. Now I'm killing those statue things and stupid bush creatures and having fun.

………..

However- I am not a rabid fan-boy for it, still. Now that I've made some progress, it has only finally become interesting. The beginning is way too obtuse, and difficult. It's off putting unless you get into the forums and guides, because it's kind of ugly, repetitive and not very fun. Really should have been a LITTLE more easing into things past Firelink, if only to make it a TINY bit more fun and motivating. Some more interesting drops from time to time? Something?

Also, enemies should be damaged by friendly fire. Period. They burn in permanent ground-fires, but fire bombs don't touch them. Not fair for a game that is constantly being hyped as FAIR by you l33t gamerz420dudez. Also, I've been killed through walls a few times. Not FAIR. Certain low-level enemies can sort up "zoom" up stairs, and some can track your roll even with heavy axes. Camera sucks in tight spots. Yeah, you've heard it before but I'm venting.

I disconnected from the net. The invasions are ridiculous. The aforementioned l33t gamerz420dudez come in and kill me immediately. HAHAHAHAH you are having fun, but it's just the opposite for someone with a full time job and a life and no Summer Vacation three months a year. HAHAHAHA you are level 7 and you have l33t armor and weapons +75 lightning. HAHAHAHAHA you are laughing at me, HAHAHAHA, don't care, it's lame and you are all disappointments to your families and ancestors. So f**uck you, I'm disconnecting, you sorry sh**itheads, go stick your giant c**cks into the CD slot and electrocute yourselves.

Before disconnecting, I tried about 15-20 times to summon other players. I was successful once. Not worth the time and effort. And yes I have a very good internet connection.

…………

Looking forward to DS2. Will TRY to not peek at any spoilers.

Thanks for your time.

@mister_ovenall: Glad you're enjoying it now. But please buy DS2 instead of "borrowing" it. Also, you could've bought DS on PC for like 5$. Every copy counts to convince From/Namco that PC is a viable platform for this game.

edit: don't play offline. You're missing out if you do. Just stay hollow if you don't want to get invaded. Yeah, sometimes you have be human in order to kindle bonfires and such. However, getting invaded once in a while is not bad at all. You die a lot in this game anyway. Death in this game doesn't really matter. But I found invasions always really tense and fun.

Ha.

I "un-borrowed" the PC game (deleted it), and repurchased the Xbox version for $20. I only played on the PC for a short while to see if I liked it or not.

Also, I kept getting invaded when summoning the knights to help with the Gargoyles. By the time I got to the summon sign, I'd get invaded. Several times. Just stops being fun, IMO. Gargoyles are hard enough without ludicrously skilled and overpowered players griefing me.