Dark Sous 2: I Love the Pain

It seems like the new trend here at MSXL is to make new threads for each new game we start playing, so who am I to break the combo? A week ago I went to the midnight release of TitanFall at Gamestop, which is not something I normally do (I try not to support Gamestop because... they kinda suck lol). After the TitanFall beta, I got really excited for the game, so why not do the right thing and take a couple days off work to play it? As you saw by the earlier "TitanFall is Pretty Damn Good" post I made last week, the game is really good, and I had a lot of fun playing it on launch day. That's the last time I've played TitanFall since launch. Dark Souls 2 has now consumed around 60 hours of my life in less than a week. I'm now level 140+, and still haven't beaten the game. I'm currently at the [spoiler]Dragon Aerie[/spoiler] area slaying [spoiler]dragons[/spoiler] like a badass. Also dying a lot like a badass. In fact, it only took me about 30 seconds to die after the game first gave me control of my character. The "Welcome to Dark Souls" achievement that promptly popped up was perfect. It's rare that a game has driven me so hard to complete it. Why? Because it's [b]actually challenging[/b]. The only thing this game is really missing is adequate explanation of how various mechanics work. I don't need my hand held as far as where to go, who to talk to, etc, but there are quite a few aspects of the game that are pretty much not explained at all. The biggest of these is PvP. Being able to invade other players' worlds, or being summoned into someone else's world is really confusing. For instance, I'm part of the Blue Sentinels covenant (covenants are pretty much not explained at all, but they basically have an effect on how you PvP or PvE in the game), which gives me a ring. If I wear this ring, someone who is part of a sister covenant will automatically summon me to defend them if they are invaded. I wore this ring for 6 hours without being summoned, only to realize that I wasn't being summoned because I was undead (whenever you die you stay undead until you use an item to make you "human" again). I'm someone who hates looking up info online about games, as it kind of feels like "cheating" in some respects, but Dark Souls 2 is a game that practically requires it if you want to know what the hell is going on. That said, so far I've found the DS2 reddit to be a great source of help, as people are extremely sensitive to black-out potential spoilers while helping. Some will even offer hints instead of outright answers, which is cool. So yes, this game needs better explanation of certain aspects, but that wouldn't stop it from being brutally difficult, and in turn, incredibly rewarding when you progress. Fighting with summoned heroes (co-op) is a lot of fun, and the amount of treasure to be found is GLORIOUS. If you love exploring in games, this is absolutely the game for you. It's a blast. Go get it. Just don't come crying to me the first time you lose 75,000 souls because you got killed on the way to retrieving them. Cry by yourself, like I did.