Last game you finished, tell us about it

Bar Oasis 1, 1.5 & 2 (iPhone)
Bar Oasis combines a heartful story with detailed drink-mixing simulation using authentic recipies.

Story in Bar Oasis 1
When Vic signed up as the new bartender at Bar Oasis he didn't knew what he was walking into. Despite his lack of training and experience he is quickly put in charge with greater and greater responsibility since his boss is a real slacker. But the regulars know enough and help him out.

If you played Phoenix Wright you will recognize this side of the game as the story in Bar Oasis is all about it's characters. The plot moves very slow forward, giving bits and pieces about their complexities and flaws. Some of them are just troublemakers, some are wildcards that helps you one time then make a mess in another and there are those who are always glad you came along.

The story in Bar Oasis 1 was really strong, towards the end I felt I was in a bar with friends and the game often made me smile or feel sad.

Engine: Graphics & Sound
Bar Oasis is beautifully painted in a way similar to Phoenix Wright. You often see who you talk to right in front of you and the game uses still-images and text. The soundtrack is superb and they even produced one for the 2nd that you can buy on Amazon and in iTunes.

Gameplay
Beyond clicking through dialogue Bar Oasis is actually an educational game. If you consider learning how to make real drinks like a pro that is. Bar Oasis is a bar, 7 seats with customers to serve and shelves full of liquor. To engage a customer you slide forward a coaster and listen to what they would like. You can then either look at the recipe or for extra money try to go without. You need to pick the right bottles from the shelves, perhaps a shaker or stirring glass and the right glass. The game actually uses real brands complete with photos and all and have like 50-100 true recipies of famous and standardized drinks. It will also sometimes tell a story about the drinks (and you can read about it in the game). I will probably not forget how to make a martini, a manhattan, a singapore sling etc because I learned both the amount of liquor and preparation. One note though; Bar Oasis 1 do not get you to pour the non-alcoholic content, only the liquor. Bar Oasis 2 is better in this regard.

To make the drink you need to pour the right amount out of each bottle tipping your telephone over. You can also use your thumb on the screen to stop the flow. Sometimes you have to also squeeze a slice of lime, lemon or orange on screen, tip over a spoon of sugar, stir the drink up and down or left or right or shake the phone when you shake the drink.

If your ingredients are right, the amount are right and timing is good you make a good drink (excellent if you didn't look at the recipe) and get extra money. If your ingredients are wrong or you have too much or too little of ingredients you may end up with decent, poor and at worst "sewage". A poor or sewage drink may end up costing you money rather than earning so you might wish to pour such drinks out.

If you too little money you can actually end up with a game over. If you earn too much you use it to invest in new brands on the shelf.

Verdict
Depending on what kind of player you are you either love or hate the story. If you are a sucker for a heartwarming story you should try out at least Bar Oasis 1. I loved the first and 1.5 but I did found the one in 2nd a bit let down. Not that it was poorly written, but it was quite sad.

Making drinks is a really interesting idea and very educational. I actually bought new bottles in real life and tried some of the drinks out. It's too bad you do not get to pour the sodas. But if you are in for the story the drinkmixing may become a bit tedious, especially when BO2 is a really long game compared to the first. The 2nd game actually allow you to skip mixing if you pay an extra dollar for the game (which I did just to support the studio). You can also pay to fill the shelves automatically and adjust the amount of customers.

I have saved the story for 1.5 and 2 to last and I will do so in a spoiler tag.

Story and verdict of Bar Oasis 1.5
Vic is off in China to find his girlfriend and now it's up to Carla to take his place. Carla isn't as skilled as Vic at being a bartender, but she is better at listening to customers. While she get to know the regulars Vic did, she also hears a lot of rumours about this mysterious Vic. Who is he? Is he like the rumours? And when he comes back, will she get to keep her job?

Since Bar Oasis 1.5 is free it's a nobrainer to download. The story was longer than I expected for a free game but you will not be making advanced coctails in this one as the shelves are empty and Carla do not really know how to make them.

Story and verdict of Bar Oasis 2
Vic broke up with his girlfriend and is now back at the bar, working together with the new bartender Carla. Unlike one, the second game isn't focused on a romance. Vic have to teach Carla (and solve the mess when she makes one) as the Boss is up to no good. A mysterious musician have started to appear in the bar, who is she? The old gang who owns the bar becomes more significant in the 2nd game, finally there might be a wedding coming up.

I found the story in Bar Oasis 2 to be a bit sad. It's almost like Empire Strikes Back, the sequel in which verything falls down and it's gets really dark. I hope that Bar Oasis 3 or the promised DLC story addons will fix this. If you were a fan of the first two though you should probably check it out.

Remember the DLC's. If you prefer the story you can use them to shorten the bartending moments. I did not see +3 dollars as a ripoff, I actually bought two of them just to support the developers.

-edit- I just found out that there are three endings for BO2, there are happier endings. I am back to play the game
 
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I think this is exactly the kind of games which will never be published on the shooter-& action-games dominated PC platform.
 
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Just finished Deus Ex - Human Revolution.
Overall I'd say I was well worth my time despite the gameplay becoming a bit stale towards the end and the story losing all my respect as soon as the word Illuminati was uttered (and never recovering considerably). The early parts of the game where you are exploring and learning the gameplay in relatively big and busy city areas played much like VtM: Bloodlines which was a definite plus. As a whole however (having more fresh in memory the 2nd 1/2 of the game) I'd say a comparison to the Hitmans, the Thiefs or even the Splinter Cells would be more fitting. I stuck to a stealthy non-lethal approach throughout all game on medium difficulty which presented enough challenge to keep the game interesting. The boss fights were both few and easy enough not to bother or annoy me although they obviously didn't fit in the game. Much like with Witcher 2 I feel the critique should have been focused on more general design ideas.
I'll probably try to find a good deal on Alpha Protocol now as the time and determination to start a proper RPG just isn't there yet.
 
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Finally finished Alan Wake along with both DLCs, and it was amazing. The story was something unique and inspired. A bit convoluted but I like it when a story isn't clear and leaves some unanswered questions. Another thing I loved were the levels which, especially in The Signal and The Writer were unbelievably creative and imaginative. Just beautiful.

Some minus-points are the fights, which are cool and always keep you on your toes, but some of them are just really hard and you always get your teeth kicked in. But after multiple tries to manage to do it. But there was not one moment during the game where I felt powerful and I could take everyone on. I always ran if I could, and when possible I would dash to lightposts to escape from those taken. But this made the whole thing feel like a survival horror game. Which I would imagine it is. Not so much horror, since I was only once in a while scared, but the survival aspect I found to be very nicely done.

But yeah, major props for the story. I loved it all. And I liked the ending (the one before the 2 DLCs). I remember hearing from someone that they were disappointed in the ending. Next up I'll probably start American Nightmare because I like the idea of tackling Mr. Scratch. :D

Anyone else have any opinions on the game?

EDIT: Oh I just realized that the story feels very similar to Twin Peaks in some regards, in the weirdness of it and the fact that it's set in a secluded town. I liked that a lot. Weird tales I mean.
 
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Anyone else have any opinions on the game?

I was extremely disappointed by Alan Wake. I usually like those kinds of games, but I couldn't even make it to the end of the first chapter. I agree the scenery was beautiful, but that was about the only thing I liked about it.

I'm sure it's a good game for those who knew what to expect, but I thought it was going to be more like a Silent Hill type of experience.
 
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Yeah nice scenery in A.W, too bad they didn't make it like they intended from the begining (completely open world). Deadly Premonition is a much better game, though the graphics are very bad, but a superb game compared to A.W in every other aspect.
 
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I was extremely disappointed by Alan Wake. I usually like those kinds of games, but I couldn't even make it to the end of the first chapter. I agree the scenery was beautiful, but that was about the only thing I liked about it.

I'm sure it's a good game for those who knew what to expect, but I thought it was going to be more like a Silent Hill type of experience.

I haven't played Silent Hill, but do know a bit about the games. I'm guessing SH has less shooting/actiony parts and more around scaring the beejesus out of you? Yeah, I think I can see why you would be disappointed. But not being able to finish the first chapter, isn't that a bit extreme? Anyway, you should give it another try for the story alone. It's quite good imo. But you have to get through the difficult fights first. And some fights had me tearing hairs out. But that made them all the more satisfying when you got through them.

I'm planning on replaying the game on Nightmare in order to get all the manuscript entries and to watch the ingame developer commentary which should be interesting. But probably after American Nightmare.

@Vurt: Yeah, you can tell it was initially designed to be quite open-world since there's a lot of roaming around the country-side. But that turned out for the best imo. I loved the scenery and it really gave you a sense of scale seeing the whole town and the areas around. I especially love the sensation of seeing some high-point in the distance, getting there, and then looking back to where you initially came from.
 
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Alan Wake's American Nightmare was also pretty cool. A lot easier in terms of the fights, and had a very Twilight Zone feel to it. But it was still very nicely integrated and linked to the main Alan Wake story. I initially thought this would just be a spin-off and not necessarily tied in, but they actually did a good job at that. And it seems that the ending to The Writer DLC which strongly hinted at a sequel (which I immediately assumed would be Alan Wake 2) was actually referring to American Nightmare.

Apparently if you watch the credits roll all the way to the end you see that the manuscript that American Nightmare is based on, is called 'Return', which is the same name we saw at the end of The Writer DLC.

So while the developers are most likely working on Alan Wake 2 right now, American Nightmare actually tied up a loose end from the main story. And that is the fate of Mr. Scratch, Alan's doppelganger.

Anyway, it's safe to say I enjoyed the Alan Wake setting a lot. Sam Lake really is a very creative guy. I really liked all the philosophical themes he tried to touch on during the games. And I'm highly excited for Alan Wake 2.
 
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Definitely. Even though I didn't get into Alan Wake, I'm still a fan of Lake's writing in Max Payne 1&2.

Yeah, too bad he couldn't continue with it in the 3rd iteration, which was amazing gameplay-wise, it just didn't live up to the first 2 games. Rockstar pretty much just used the same stereotypical GTA characters in MP3. And while those work nicely for GTA, the result is just meh in MP3.
 
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Arcania: Gothic 4

Unfaithful sequels are no news. Generally speaking, sometimes, they alienate the fans, but attract the attention of mainstream, sometimes they alienate the both crowd. Although Arcania falls to the latter category, but that's not because it's a bad game. That's because it just flew way too close to the sun.

What made Gothic games special was the fact that they had both high quality in terms of their whole design and traits of a true cult title. Arcania basically takes both things and makes them inferior without compensating. Basically throws everything that made Gothic games special in to trash can and replaces them with real trash. Elements that avoiding them made Gothic, Gothic in the first place. Although ignoring the fact that this is a Gothic sequel, ( as hard as it might be ), there's an addictive and sometimes, delightful experience to be had with Arcania. Especially if it's judged by the standards set by single-player RPGs these days.

Arcania's story is a bit neutral. It hardly becomes interesting, but it's not something you can totally ignore too.

It's the story of a simple shepard in the island of Feshyr ready to get married to a girl he really likes, but for an unknown reason (yet ), his island gets attacked and all of his friends and his future wife die. Angry by the incident, he decides to kill Rhobar III ( Nameless hero from previous Gothics who has gone mad by a cursed amulet ) who he thinks is behind the attack. His first step ( given to him by Diego, helpful NPC of the series ) is to find a powerful magical anvil and preventing the king's forces getting their hands on it.

Overall, two things that I really liked about the story were:

1. Faithful character development for the characters from previous games.

2. The fact that everything, big or small, major or minor, is well explained in the game.

Except for the cliff hanger ending, every story detail is well placed and all the questions and obscurities are answered. If a character gives you a task, you can ask why he/she doesn't do it him/herself and he/she always gives a fairly convenient answer. Although main story goes downhill when Xesha ( main villain which is very lame for a Gothic game ) and her minions are introduced, but other than that, everything else is standard.

Arcania's biggest mistake is throwing away Learning Points and tutors in Gothic 1-3 and replacing it with the overused and unexciting skill points. Every time you level-up, you get three skill points and you can spend them right away on 8 different sets of skills. ( 3 melee, 1 ranged weapon, 1 sneaking, 3 magic )

Increasing every skill increases basic abilities dedicated to it. Melee/ranged/magic power, health/mana regeneration ( Yes, there is health regeneration ) but each one has a point where you get a new ability for your skill. Fortunately, new abilities make a difference and they usually refresh your motivation for continuing the game and fighting enemies. But your real power is determined by your equipment, levelling up only determines which path you choose. ( warrior, rogue or mage ).

Combat in Gothic 4 leaves a very bad impression at first. It seems tasteless and uninvolving. But after you get the right abilities and get to the right enemies, it will be a blast. Throwing a fireball between a group of badass skeletons or snappers who'll kill you with three hits if they get the chance and seeing them burn while you're charging another one never gets old.

Unfortunately, faction choosing and freedom of choice with actual consequences are gone in Arcania. ( like many things ) There are a couple of quests which give you two or three options for completing them, ( like which of the brothers you're gonna help to be the baron of Stewark ) and a bit of dialogue and a one or two rewards are changed, but other than that, these choices are just there to fill the void and have no notable significance.

Gothic games are usually famous for their brutal world. Hard and slow starts. Gothic 4 ( if played on the highest difficulty ) never pushes you beyond your
limits like those games did, but it always give you certain amount of challenge from start to finish and if you don't use potions and elixirs which make you ridiculously strong, you can always except to die every now and then. ( which is an essential thing for a Gothic game. ) Overall, Arcania would have been more challenging if it wasn't for the rolling thing which makes it a piece of cake to dodge hits,

Definitely the best part about Arcania is its visuals. It offers easily some of the most beautiful scenery , draw distance and shadow effects I have ever seen in any game. Unfortunately, even the best part of the game is shadowed by a mistake. Rain. Every time it rains in the game's world, all of the beauty is replaced by a foggy, ugly world and unfortunately, raining happens a lot. Arcania would have been a more pleasant experience if the weather was always sunny. ( As weird as that might sound.)

In terms of audio department, Arcania is a disappointment. There's nothing special about the game's music and it's just something you hear in the background. ( As oppose to the epic and beautiful score in the previous Gothic which added to the experience. ) Voice acting, as expected, is average except for the main character, Diego, Zyra and Gorn.

Overall, Arcania offers around 30 hours of game-play and at least half of that time is great entertainment judging by today's standards. It might not be comparable to its predecessors, but Arcania is far from being bad. It's not a hit or miss title. Obviously, it has been made with the hope of success and there are signs that show effort and passion has been put into making it. But trying to be great is not enough for a Gothic sequel.
 
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Dungeon Siege III (with DLC)
Let's have a history lesson. Gas Powered Games is a company who always made strategy games and they might be most famous for Supreme Commander. About ten years ago they did two RPG's, with sequels, known as Dungeon Siege. These games were like a mix between Diablo and the Real Time Strategy genré, allowing you to control up to 8 characters at the same time in a game with almost continous combat, randomized loot and tactical gameplay. I were never a fan of the first one as I believed it couldn't compare wih games such as Baldur's Gate in story/characters/dialogue, but I had a soft spot for the sequel that did a better job. It expansion Broken World was poor though, almost destroying the joy I had with the main game. After it's release the series went into obscurity.

It must be said then that Dungeon Siege III is a very very different game. It's built by one of the RPG overlords, Obsidian Software, as their first action RPG. The gameplay that can be compared with hack & slash titles such as Gods of War or action RPG's such as Gothic, Risen or Two Worlds. It inherits companions similar to KOTOR, graphics similar to Neverwinter Nights 2 and dialogue wheel similar to Mass Effect. It's also published by Square Software who previously published Final Fantasy.

Cool history bro, but is it any good?

Story
150 years have passed since earlier titles. 10th Legion, a grand army that used to defend the Kingdom of Ehb have almost been whiped out by Jeyne Kassynder, a cleansing that begun 30 years ago. At the beginning of the game, the player picks one out of four remaining members who are summoned by the Legion scout Odo to rebuild the Legion. As the player reach the meetingplace it's burning, attacked by an unknown force. The player meets up with another survivor Marten and escape to eventually meet up with Odo himself. There are now only a handful of legionnaries left and it's from this darkest of times the player have to build up the Legion from scratch, starting by defending the nearby village.

True to Obsidians other titles the story is quite well written. Do not expect black & white characters. Every character you meet have their flaws and motivations for what they do, their fate is often up to you and moral options are usually between two bad or two good. Whatever you chose have effect on the games ending and may also influence (improve) your companion, each of which have very different perspectives on the proper action given the situation.

The four characters are deeply connected with the story, unfortunatelly you are just likely to experience two of them in my playthrough, your main character and your favorite companion. In time you will learn secrets of their background and connection to the story which might not be evident when you begin to play. The four characters include Katarina, a gunslinger with the Rogue persona, Lucas the paladin/knight, Anjeli who is a kind of a battlemage and Reinhart the mage/scientist. All of these are decendants from protagonists and npc's from earlier titles now hunted for being tied to the legion by blood.

One thing I fondly remember in Dungeon Siege 2 is the insane amount of lore. At the end of the game you would have half a library that told you about the monsters you encountered, every map you visited, numerous factions and historic trivia. DS3 still have a lot of lore by todays standards but only a fraction compared to DS2, everything now presented in a long list rather than in subcategories.

Engine: Graphics & Sound
The sound and music is what to expect from a developer who care. Voice acting is great, especially the narrator who also make the voice of Odo. The music from the main menu was actually stuck in my head after playing the game.

Graphically this is one of those games that have great graphics limited by making a console version for 7 year old hardware. Expect many shortcuts and simple geometry and with missing post-processing and pixel shading but still with beautiful in-game models and an often unique artistic style over it. You may note that all the ladies look like pornstars with a huge bust and lots of makeup which did bother me a bit. Katarina is modelled after an american actress Rebecca Grant.

This is a game that definitely took benefit from using three monitors. Since I played Katarina who is a ranged fighter, I could actually use the extra monitors as a shooting range to kill foes far away while keeping myself out of harm. It's as if the game allowed me to "see" in three directions, left, right and front, instead of just front.

Gameplay
Now this is a mixed bag. Let me begin by saying that there's very little connection between Dungeon Siege 1-2 and 3. What I remember from DS2 was controlling a large party in strategical gameplay, DS3 limit you to max 1 companion which I found to be a really uneccessary decision. I would definitely have preferred to build strategies involving all four and made sure all four were present in dialogues. Even though three of them are computer-controlled this was the case with DS1/2 as the AI in those games were quite good and required some thought on how to optimize the AI to give your companions efficient abilities that you wouldn't control yourself. I wish they had used something like the Gambit system from Final Fantasy XII actually.

The pure gameplay could be compared to action RPG's such as Gothic, Risen or Two Worlds. You get full access to buying skills and talents for your character and equip them with proper gear that you then use in an action-game that requires quick controls. Mouse control in DS3 is rather bad so it's actually best to have a real 360 gamepad when playing the game. Now the amount of customization is for an actiongame way above average. You truly have to think when setting up your character to develop a strategy that fits you, especially on harder settings. The game have more than twenty different attributes that benefits different strategies such as dots, buffs, debuffs, increased criticals, improved criticals, mana regeneration, talent optimizations etc. Most of these comes from your choice of gear and knowing what you do really helps to make your character into an efficient killing-machine while not so makes you into a crippled goblin.

When playing a mage in Gothic or Two Worlds I often hurled the fireball for fifty hours or so. In DS3 you have instant access to up to eleven (quick count) different actions in combat, each of which can be leveled up in various ways and empowered for improved effect. You have your basic attack, two stances with three custom actions each, three defensive moves and finally an ultimate ability unlocked through the DLC. In the beginning this may actually be overwhelming and I have read many reviews saying that it's not really intuitive that you also level these up by using them, something I found myself near the end of the game (also missed that you can empower your regular attack which I discovered in the last map of the game).

Now to my criticism. My main complaint is with the games maps and quests. DS3 is a very slimmed down title with very few quests in very cramped areas. I compared gameplay with Gothic/Risen/Two Worlds but the areas in DS3 are often ultralinear and very small. I am often driven by the quests and tend to get bored when all there is is non-stop fighting in a generic landscape. I couldn't help feeling that the amount of foes you encounter are very few compared with earlier titles, prepare to meet a lot of spiders. Towards the end there are long stretches where you run through caves and fight a non-stop horde of people and it felt more like doing work than having fun since you spent a long time only fighting without any story to put meaning to what you do. You also have no subquests for companions which is something I liked with Dungeon Siege 2.

I also hate the dialogue wheel that the game borrows from Mass Effect. I hate it because it removes both context and control over dialogue and in the end is like selecting prerecorded voice acting. The decisions you make often effects nothing more than your influence to the one companion you have with you and they are usually black & white removing all subtleness from speech. You can't lie here. You can't say something fitting for the situation, everything you say is the product of your black & white persona, no manipulation, no motivative speech, no chance to explain your comments to your companions once you are alone with your companion.

DLC1: Treasures of the Sun
DLC's can be everything from horse armor to full-fledged expansions. Some provide nothing more than a couple of new items, some use rehashed content galore (kinda what to expect from a modder who only make custom maps with the gametools), others offers a whole sidestory with new content through-and-through as well as expanding gameplay. Treasure of the Sun belongs to the last category and I will in the future remember it as a good example that a DLC can definitely be both good and worth it. Sceptics will probably say it's probably content that was cut from the main game just to be able to demand money out of the player in order to get the whole thing, because the DLC is really something you wan't from the beginning of the game rather than add it after finishing it.

TotS offers two things, a new area with it's own story and item customization. It's the latter that feels like something that should have been in the game in the first place and it's what benefits a player that have it installed all along. Enhancements comes in looted bottles that are put into an item you got to give you a numerical benefit. I found this a bit broken though since I found a neat trick. Depending on what items you enhance your price will increase and it's possible to put every enhancement you find on a single item as long as the base item only have 1 attribute to begin with. So what I did was to take a cheaper amulet with a single attribute on it (like 9 agility) and then put every enhancement I found in the entire game on that amulet. At the end of the game I had all the custom attributes up to around +200!

The new area is really well done and it's actually better than the main game. It's filled with alot of subquests and several distinct areas tied to a hub. It uses an entirely new landscape (desert) so it gives a very distinct feel compared to the rest of the game. All in all it took me about 4-5 hours to do everything in it which is good for a DLC.

Verdict
I do not believe there will be a Dungeon Siege 4. Dungeon Siege 1 didn't impress me much. I liked Dungeon Siege 2 but it didn't sell well and Broken World destroyed it. Dungeon Siege 3 got rather poor reviews. At this time there's little that I can say what makes a Dungeon Siege game as the games are too different from one another. That said, Dungeon Siege 3 isn't a bad game. If someone played everything else from Obsidian, Black Isle, Bioware and Troika software there's nothing that should keep someone away from this one. The story is well written, the action gameplay puts Gothic and Mass Effect to shame and should be how action-rpg's are made, both well polished and intelligent. What Dungeon Siege III lacks is content. With more sidequests and larger maps DS3 could have been right up there with the top. Finally, please do not limit your party to 2-3 characters. Please stop doing that.
 
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Played the Walking Dead episodes 1 thru 3 on Friday night. I have never read the books/comic or watched the show though have always wanted to. It seemed interesting and having enjoyed many telltale games over the past couple years, though never finished jurassic park, i picked it up in the steam summer sale. with episode 3 just being released i finally took the plunge in playing it.

Possibly the best most unexpected game i've played this year. The story is gripping and the action is probably the best in any adventure game that really pushed towards an action/adventure game while still being an adventure game with all that entails except one. This game has the choices and consequences that give the witcher a run for the money and even alpha protocol. really you need to play this game if you like those things and zombies. and thank god for a game/movie that doesn't revolve around super zombies. can't wait for the next 2 parts. Can't say i remember a game in recent history with such memorable characters that carry so much emotion. episode 2 seemed much longer than 1 or 3 but for all three it took me around 6-7 hours.
 
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Dark Souls PC, played with m+k :).

Modern hardcore oldschool game full of danger, mystery, rewarding exploration and memorable combat encounters.

With the graphics fix installed, the other porting issues became quickly just minor nuisances for me and what I was left with was a really enjoyable, at times exhausting (positively speaking) experience.

Among negatives I´d count a bit too much reliance on narrow ledges gameplay, console inventory, few a bit too chaotic boss fights (some of the superbig dudes), some of the stuff is perhaps a bit too obscure for its own good for people who want to play the game "blind" (funnily enough, I had to look up the way to access the DLC content).

Other than the above, it´s all cool :).
Good art direction and itemization, great general level design and combat system, unique ideas and atmosphere, a rather uncompromising difficulty.

I´m definitely looking forward to a potential next From Software game for PC, though hopefully next time they´ll put more effort into porting.
 
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Dark Souls PC, played with m+k :).

Modern hardcore oldschool game full of danger, mystery, rewarding exploration and memorable combat encounters.

With the graphics fix installed, the other porting issues became quickly just minor nuisances for me and what I was left with was a really enjoyable, at times exhausting (positively speaking) experience.

Among negatives I´d count a bit too much reliance on narrow ledges gameplay, console inventory, few a bit too chaotic boss fights (some of the superbig dudes), some of the stuff is perhaps a bit too obscure for its own good for people who want to play the game "blind" (funnily enough, I had to look up the way to access the DLC content).

Other than the above, it´s all cool :).
Good art direction and itemization, great general level design and combat system, unique ideas and atmosphere, a rather uncompromising difficulty.

I´m definitely looking forward to potential next From Software game for PC, though hopefully next time they´ll put more effort into porting.

I started playing not long ago(last time I played was killed buy giant moth/butterfly like boss).My question: is whole game this narrow corridors or does it get more open later?
 
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I went back and replayed Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire when GOG gave them away for free recently. Just finished it a few nights ago. While it was fun, the nostalgia was definitely better! I now understand all the complaints about it not being very Ultima. Playing U7 now. I was going to go straight to Martian Dreams, but I figured if it is as light as SE, I should take a break between.
 
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I started playing not long ago(last time I played was killed buy giant moth/butterfly like boss).My question: is whole game this narrow corridors or does it get more open later?
The game is more open in a sense that you can visit variety of areas right from the start, if you hit the brick wall you can go somewhere else, etc. Unless played with a guide, the question of "where to go next?" is likely to come up often.
Some areas have fairly complicated layout and there are some wider open places, but in general the minute to minute running around indeed takes place in corridors.

The reason why I think the level design is great has more to do with how interconnected the areas are, shortcuts, branching, secrets, and how it plays hand in hand with combat encounters.

The forest area leading to the butterfly (assuming you got there via Undead Parish) may initially seem like one long corridor, but even before you reach the butterfly, you can possibly find three other forest-y areas on the way, (one of these is somewhat wider open and another one at least feels that way), for example.
 
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By "open" I meant simply more space(like in Witcher 2) which I prefer over narrow passages.I agree that level design is very good with hidden and not so hidden optional areas,shortcuts and bosses.Also possibly best combat system I seen in action RPG too bad it's probably worst console port I seen(I heard there are some issues like FPS drops on consoles too) this game deserves better.
 
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