Last year I played Demon Souls on the PS3 and although extremely challenging, after about a third -way through I just didn't find much entertainment in it to balance the challenge . This year I will NOT buy Dark Souls for the same reason. They ARE different games to Skyrim. However . . .

I play Skyrim on what I call: "semi hard-core", as I have described in a previous post. What are your opinions re. playing Skyrim as hard-core as possible in an effort to get to some degree the kind of nail-biting tension those other games give but at least also have a decent story, some good side quests etc., and great scenery as nice perks ?

Well, honestly that depends on what you mean as hard-core. I mean, I play Skyrim to have fun. I play on easy mode for that reason. I don't want to have to work my way through a fight, I like to stomp through a city and destroy legions of guards. But, that's just me. I don't mess around too much with the crafting mechanics, even though what I have done, I thoroughly enjoyed. I guess what I'm trying to say is, what the hell is the question you are asking?

I like one-shotting things with my arrows before they even spot me and I have way more fun that way than, say, spending 30 arrows and half my potions trying to take down a single health-regenerating frost troll. Fuck that.

Playing on the easiest difficulty and loving it. I come to Skyrim for the joy of discovery and storytelling, not for a challenge.

I suppose that's a habit born from me not having as much time that I'd like to play games, and I want to have fun during the time that I have.

I'm playing on the second hardest difficulty in Skyrim and I might bump it up. Sometimes I get instakilled by mages, but other than that it's been a joke in terms of difficulty. The problem with trying to play Skyrim "hard-core" is that because it's so non-linear it's really easy to abuse the AI. The hard parts for me are only when you are locked into a room with a boss character.

@Masin said:

Well, honestly that depends on what you mean as hard-core. I mean, I play Skyrim to have fun. I play on easy mode for that reason. I don't want to have to work my way through a fight, I like to stomp through a city and destroy legions of guards. But, that's just me. I don't mess around too much with the crafting mechanics, even though what I have done, I thoroughly enjoyed. I guess what I'm trying to say is, what the hell is the question you are asking?

lol. . . then I guess I can assume you didn't play Demon Souls or Dark Souls and don't like the kind of challenge they present? I like to fall in somewhere between the two play styles of Skyrim and those games. I really want to hear from guys who liked those two games. My "semi Hard-core" style is to keep saves as much as possible to a minimum, and play in Expert or Master mode, so as to make the player proceed more cautiously in the knowledge that he or she has more to lose than just crashing thru' the game with the realization that you can always flip back to your most recent save.

Tht kind of playing doesn't appeal to me. I try to combine challenge with entertainment, to my own personal liking.

I'm loving the hell out of Skyrim with all of its content (think I'm somewhere at 70 hours), but to be honest I think the fighting mechanics aren't good enough to be considered as hardcore as Demon/Dark Souls. In fairness I should point out that I have not played those games, but I've read and listened to a lot of discussion and from what I gathered is that the battle mechanics in those games are very well balanced, which Skyrim just does not have.

First of all, the crafting turns out to be just way too overpowered in my opinion. I liked the smithing so I maxed it out and my armor/weapons are just three times as strong as normal And that's even without abusing it, because if you combine alchemy, enchanting and smithing you can actually make stuff that's way way more powerful.

Also, I liked playing sneak and turns out that THAT seems to be overpowered too. Seriously, dual daggers doing THIRTY times damage? And with my newly acquired Shadow Warrior perk I can basically do this on ANYONE, even after being discovered?? Two days ago I tried this on an Elder Dragon, and I killed him in a single attack..

Final point is that you are basically invincible if you just carry around enough health potions, since the game pauses for you to drink them anyways..

Love the game, but wouldn't play it for the hard core battle mechanics, since it's just too unbalanced.

I played Dark Souls. Managed to get halfway through it before destroying my PS3 controller in a fit of unprecedented rage. Yeah, I enjoy challenges, but not in games like Skyrim. And Dark Souls. Well, you played it. You obviously know what I'm talking about. I enjoy being able to just explore and pillage at my leisure like the all powerful god that I believe my character is rather then runaway from a mud-crab because it has 10x my health.

@Galiant said:

I have way more fun that way than, say, spending 30 arrows and half my potions trying to take down a single health-regenerating frost troll.

I solved that issue by upping my Conjuration enough to bring on a bad-ass to take care of any mob way above my level. Works fine. Just hide, wait for the bad-ass to wear him down. Bring the B-A on again when he disappears, or step in and deliver the finishing blow, etc. etc. Many ways of dealing with situations. :)

They are completely different games, that I like for completely different reasons. (and both have their fare share of issues)

Sorry :(

That said I enjoyed Dark Souls much more then Demon's Souls. And Skyrim much more then Oblivion.

I def. acknowledge that Skyrim has too many easy-peasy ways of overpowering your char. I just wonder who can get a balance by not succumbing to those ways and by trying to create their own game of challenge plus fun. I think it's a bit like making your own "gameplay mod". So far I am very happy with how it's going for me.

@Galiant said:

I like one-shotting things with my arrows before they even spot me and I have way more fun that way than, say, spending 30 arrows and half my potions trying to take down a single health-regenerating frost troll. Fuck that.

Playing on the easiest difficulty and loving it. I come to Skyrim for the joy of discovery and storytelling, not for a challenge.

I suppose that's a habit born from me not having as much time that I'd like to play games, and I want to have fun during the time that I have.

Pretty much this.

Honestly I don't think there is a fair comparison to be made between these two games. They are only superficially similar. Skyrim Ultimately rewards exploration with great storytelling. Dark Souls rewards cautious skilled combat with a sense of accomplishment. No matter how difficult Skyrim's settings are put up too the combat will not reflect the timing skill and memorization based combat of Dark Souls.

Skyrim and Dark Souls deal with difficulty in entirely different ways. Dark Souls is all about constantly being aware of what you're capable of and methodically, carefully chopping down enemies who might outclass you in terms of power and speed but not skill. Skyrim is about leveling up your stats and getting better equipment to deal with enemies who have inflated health and damage levels.

Leveling up is way more boring than learning how to fight effectively and skillfully, so I leave Skyrim at the default setting when I play it. Exploring and making a cool looking lizard guy is why I play that game, so difficulty isn't that important.

@Make_Me_Mad said:

Skyrim and Dark Souls deal with difficulty in entirely different ways. Dark Souls is all about constantly being aware of what you're capable of and methodically, carefully chopping down enemies who might outclass you in terms of power and speed but not skill. Skyrim is about leveling up your stats and getting better equipment to deal with enemies who have inflated health and damage levels.

Leveling up is way more boring than learning how to fight effectively and skillfully, so I leave Skyrim at the default setting when I play it. Exploring and making a cool looking lizard guy is why I play that game, so difficulty isn't that important.

I agree totally. What I have been experimenting with is to try to create a kind of hybrid from the two different gameplay styles, in order to have a greater degree of tension in situations in Skyrim along with the enjoyment of a good story etc. I look on what Bethesda has offered the player as a massive sandbox. For example, we don't have to major fast in Smithing in order to create overpowered gear asap and powerplay thru' the game. It's our choice to do so if we wish.

We can actually create the game whichever way we wish. If we make it more difficult we have to develop better strategies in situations we would normally blast through. We may have to think our way more and it may take us more time but there's where the vulnerability we create for ourselves brings "enjoyable tension".

Some time ago I posted a way to make one's own specialized char. at the game's beginning, choosing whichever race and skills points we wanted it to have etc., rather than the already pre-planned characters offered.

I am not comparing Skyrim with the Souls games but seeing if we can merge different elements from them to satisfy one's own personal gameplay style.

At the end of the day, of course: "Different strokes for different folk".

Having played and loved both games (currently debated which will be my GOTY, although I still have a lot of gameplay left in Skyrim) I have to say the two games are going for completely different experiences.
 
Play each game for its strengths, don't try to make one game more like the other. You'll just end up exposing the weaker elements of each game.

First off, Dark Souls has a far superior combat feature set obviously. It really stands out to me as I'm playing Skyrim. I knew that would be the case though, and Skyrim offers so much more anyway. Exploration especially in a far more open, diverse world, as well as many story threads and lore to discover if that's your bag.

But the main thing is you can literally play Skyrim any way you want with all the options, and choices, like you've decided on tc. Dark Souls dictates almost everything though with it's gameplay challenge and far more linear set-up. Both game's are awesome in their own ways. Skyrim's prolly more fun overall, and far less punishing, but both are incredible and among my fav games this year, despite all the problems Skyrim was shipped with.

I dont play for difficulty or to test my skills.

I play for the story. I like to look awesome and kill stuff :) I do like a bit of challenge (Dragon Age originas Ending where you suddenly one shot mobs was a bit jarring and boring) but I dont go for high difficulty levels most of the time. Replying on a high difficulty does not make it enjoyable for me.

@wambam said: I beat both Demon Souls and Dark Souls multiple times, and still enjoy ohkoing guys with a bow more than anything in Skyrim. *Shrug*

i liked just exploring..i just walked and walked alot. not a fan of horses and discovered places and thought i will go back there..now i am cleaning out my quests after the main story and can just fast travel to most of the places..only grip i have is the map has to many white icons nice to have black ones..but to much white on white at times

I wouldn't even call Skyrim and Demon's/Dark Souls comparable as far as "challenge" goes. Both Souls games require you to learn about your enemies, which act in very specific ways, in order to perfect your playstyle and overcome them.

Skyrim involves dudes walking toward you (some of them shoot stuff at you instead) and hitting you increasingly harder depending on difficulty. Now if you could make a game with the large scale of skyrim and the combat quality of Souls? We might have one of the greatest games of all time on our hands.

Also, I don't think either Souls game is lacking in interesting story, side stuff, or nice scenery(Anor Londo, Tower of Latria, Boletarian Palace). It's not like skyrim is a paragon of quality writing, regardless.