Dark Souls coming to PC

[R-e-n-n-a-t]

First, my sources.
http://gamingbolt.com/dark-souls-prepare...-in-august
http://www.examiner.com/video-game-news-...ie-edition
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/...ed-for-pc/

Now that I've taken care of the citations...
IT'S DARK SOULS!

Dark Souls, one of the top-rated RPGs of last year, indeed, one of the top rated RPGs of the last decade, was formerly a console exclusive. Following a massive online petition, (which you can see here: http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC ) the developer, FROM Software, has unofficially confirmed that Dark Souls will indeed be getting a PC port, set to release this August.

This will be one of the first successful petitions in the history of gaming, and a better game could not have been chosen. I am excited, nay, honored to live in such a time.

For those of you who played the original, you know what an unforgiving masterpiece the game was. Or you were a noob and died every five minutes and hated it. That's a possibility as well. For others though, I will now attempt to point out some of the key features of Dark Souls.

Firstly, the online play is very innovative. The entire game is essentially online, and you can summon other players into your world by interacting with glowing markers which they leave on the ground. However, it's not all sunshine and daisies. Other players can forcibly invade your world at will, and hunt you down.

Secondly, the game has some truly awe-inspiring boss battles, all of which can be played online, and many of which will leave you slack-jawed for a moment.

Thirdly, the game is open-world with superb design and a myriad of secrets and hidden things. Notice I say hidden "things". There's far more hidden than simply a couple alternate paths or extra loot. I, for example, allied myself with a half-spider-half-witch and acquired a nest of pet maggots in my head which would burst out and attack my foes.

In short, the game is awesome and I can't wait for August.

[Jaysyn]

Sounds interesting.

[houseofcantor]

[Aegrus]

You didn't mention the mimics- the treasure chests that eat you and thus spray gore everywhere if you open them.

Also not mentioned- FROM software's tradition of subtley attacking faith. In Demon's Souls, the game before Dark Souls, there were self-righteous, violent, hypocritical, cowardly holy men who wanted to kill the far more powerful, far kinder and more intelligent witches. The preists claimed the moral high ground by saying that their magic came from god, and witch magic came from demons.

But partway through the game, you find a Talisman that supposedly looks like god. You don't realize until the end, when you finally see the main demon antagonist, that the talisman was actually shaped like the demon. Also in the end, after you kill all the demons, both witches and preists lose their magic. You see my point. The preists were just more deluded, not holier. It wasn't overt- you had to look for it- but FROM software is notorious for puting in secret easter eggs and hidden messages.

In Dark Souls, that trend continues with arrogant, treacherous holy men who try to extort you out of cash, betray you, and have serious delusions of grandeur. Meanwhile, in Dark Souls, the "evil" witches continue to be both more powerful and more noble. I haven't finished Dark Souls, though, and it looks like I'll be waiting for the pc version to do that- so the end game character events haven't happened to me. Thus, I don't know what wonderful finales of incompetence the clergy characters will have.

[R-e-n-n-a-t]

It's "priest" Aegrus. Not "preist".

I liked that one guy in Demon's Souls (prequel to Dark Souls), who was an acolyte of Saint Urbain. He ran away when his hero got captured, and then spent the next half of the game praying for "God" to punish him, since he admitted to being too weak to punish himself. He got so annoying I just stabbed him. (you can attack anyone at any time, even the most crucial NPCs)

And don't forget that there's a direct relation from the Snake Soldiers in Dark Souls to the "Widda" or "Snake-Headed Soldiers" in King's Field 4, the spiritual precursor to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. The games could easily all be set in the same world, even if they're not direct sequels.

SPOILERS!!

As for what you were saying about witches being more noble, think of Quelaag's sister. Quelaag is a chaos witch, and both she and one of her sisters were mutated into half spider things. The traveling priests in Dark Souls pretty much just talk about how important they are and get a very 'holier than thou" attitude, while refusing to give basic aid to the suffering. Quelaag's sister, on the other hand, took some kind of blight into herself to ease the suffering of the wretched. She's sickly and dying as a result, and she did more good than all the priests in the game.

[Aegrus]

Plus, the iron golems in Dark Souls very closely resemble those from King's Field 4. And grass (an herb) restores health in both games, if I'm not mistaken. Plus, there is a well in each game near the start point that is a shortcut. Demon's souls is the spiritual successor to King's Field 4, and Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls.

But on a different note- the gameplay in Dark Souls is very reflex based. It's not a typical rpg in that stats aren't the most crucial thing to success. Your level ups and equipment can drastically alter your survivability, but you need combat skill as well as tactical skill to succeed. You need experience with both rpgs and action games to complete Dark Souls.

Edit- Tutorial video removed.

Edit- Placed opening cinematic video.

[R-e-n-n-a-t]

Why leave of video of the tutorial? That's by far the dryest part of any game.