[Bennett]

Well, you've finally broken me - I'm getting a PS3. :(

Maybe now I can finally stop playing through Tower of Doom.

[Bennett]

So to those of you who have this - is it worth buying a PS3 for? Or should I wait for the inevitable price drop at e3?

[Bennett]

Have you Demon's Souls owners played 'Severance: Blade of Darkness'? This looks quite similar in style. God I loved that game.

[Bennett]

Ok I bought a PS3 and a copy of this game, and I have to agree it's as froth-worthy as everyone is making out. First current-generation game that I've felt is worth the effort.

To answer my earlier question, it really is a spiritual successor to Blade of Darkness. It has almost everything that made that game great (except dismemberment and nice light) and a whole lot of other things are done better - especially the inventive level designs.

It also fills the niche in my life previously filled by Tower of Doom, which is a relief because if I play that game any more times some counting-monster is going to descend from heaven and give me a blue ribbon to signify that I played it more than anyone else in history.

[Bennett]

You know the best thing about this game? It lets me know that no, I'm not just getting old - you really can make modern commercial games that I would be excited to play. It really is that they 'don't make them like they used to', and not just that I'm a crabby old man who is wearing nostalgia glasses. This game is evidence that they can still make games which are for me. Playing it has inspired me to go looking for other gems which will all certainly have been critically panned for being too hard.

So... can anyone recommend other underrated games which I will like, for the PS3, PSP, DS, Wii or PC?

[Bennett]

[Bennett]

After completing this, I've decided that the only real way to play Demon's Souls is to go melee-only. So rather than New Game+, I'm trying it again without the cheese. I think it's quite a bit deeper (and harder) this way!

[Bennett]

My first character was a rounded Royal. Part of the reason I'm not doing Game+ with him is that I think quite a few of the bosses are boring if you have missiles as a serious option. (I.e. the final boss - wtf?) Also some levels like 2-1 are much more interesting if you are melee-only. But the other part is that I had some really annoying permanent misses:

- I spent my dragon god soul on fireball (which was awful)
- I killed Ostrava for Mephistopheles but didn't get the talisman reward for some reason.
- Then I killed Yuria before getting the assassination quest, so I didn't get a reward for that.
- Several unique items I couldn't take because of load limits.
- My main weapon was a +4 Crescent Secret Dagger, but I permanently scared off the only geckos with pure darkmoonstone, meaning I couldn't advance it any more.
- I took the insanity catalyst instead of moving soul arrow (major mistake).

This time I know I'm using all my major souls for weapon upgrades.

[Bennett]

[Bennett]

If you get a dagger that does magic damage, you can ditch all your armor and still have a chance of beating these heavily armored dudes. Just go behind them and backstab them six times.

[Bennett]

[Bennett]

People don't realise that the main differences (technically) between Morrowind and Oblivion are down to their use of middleware. Specifically, Gamebryo, SpeedTree, FaceGen and Havok (and possibly others). If you ever wondered how the graphics dunces who made Daggerfall could have made Oblivion, that's how.

[Bennett]

I wish I could go back to before I had played this, so I could do it again without knowing how it works.