About "Dark Souls"...

[Stein Inge]

I was thinking about picking myself up a copy of Dark Souls until I remembered reading somewhere that there are these "visions" of other players last seconds on this earth. Now the internet connection on my 360 is busted som any sort of connection with the interwebs is sadly impossible, and I was wondering if missing out on these "visions" will lessen my gaming experience to such an extent that I should give DS a pass?

Any thoughts?

 

[Souplex]

Most of the visions are people dying to enemies or falling of cliffs stupidly.
They only really help in avoiding traps.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

If you don't have an internet connection available, you won't be left in the dark and feeling like you're missing out. Offline players have the option to summon NPCs to provide a similar sort of assistance, though it will cost you either souls or Humanity, can't remember which. I think it's Humanity.

Online play is where they're trying to point you, though. And is probably the 'better' gaming experience fi we're getting technical about it. But I don't think playing offline is going to ruin it.

 

[QueenOliver]

Playing online isn't of much benefit at this point. Player hint messages are 90% useless so far, and people are having all sorts of trouble with co-op. From what I've read, the ideas From Software has put into the game through the covenant system are absolutely amazing, but until they're working properly you're not missing out on much in single-player.

 

[Murmur95]

I find the notes are worse because they make you pay to post them now.

Before you had a lot more posts but most of the good ones had a lot of votes on them...now you can't vote at all until you pay.

 

[go-10]

notes are useless they all can be summed up to: "Here" "Right" "I did it" "Try stabbing from behind" "Sniper spot", and 9 out of 10 times they don't mean anything as there's nothing there

 

[DustyDrB]

I find the notes are worse because they make you pay to post them now.

Seriously? That's a bit of an overkill.

 

[Lucane]

I find the notes are worse because they make you pay to post them now.

Before you had a lot more posts but most of the good ones had a lot of votes on them...now you can't vote at all until you pay.

Only once for 100 souls then it's yours for good.

 

[Tahmoh]

they probably added the cost as a way to stop people adding pointless messages and stuff...think im going to disconnect my xbox anyway since my internet connection is abit spotty at the moment and ive heard the game doesnt like it when you lose connection mid way through a session and may even punish you somehow once you reconnect(no doubt a well meaning but flawed way to prevent idiots from disconnecting during raids).

 

[Demonic Gama]

It wont destroy your experience, the one instance they have been helpful is when dealing with a new enemy, even then messages places on the ground are infinitely more helpful.
It's not a game breaker, but the game will make you very cautious. Messages just save you time looking up guides.

 

[Senaro]

100 souls is extremely cheap, but it should prevent some people from flooding the areas with useless information. The notes can be useful, but they can also mislead you.

I had this happen in Demon's Souls last night. I was going down a strangely lonesome corridor, and saw a note or two warning me of Black Phantoms lying in wait at the end. I put on my best enchantments and carefully inched my way to the end. There was no black phantom, only a note at the end by a key that said "Beware the liars." I'd never been so relieved, amused, and annoyed at the same time.

 

[Pipotchi]

Did it not occur to the devs that people would abuse this system?

it's a great idea, but one that even a cretin with a second's experience of XBL would realise is just going to get abused to shit and back. If they want to provide some means of helping other players there have to be better ways than 'leave obscure meaningless possibly deliberately unhelpful message'.

And charging people to use this facility? The very definition of /facepalm!

True but dark Souls doesnt tend to attract the annoying griefer type of player to the same extent as COD etc. The decent messages tend to rise to the top and the stupid ones fall by the wayside.

 

[varulfic]

Did it not occur to the devs that people would abuse this system?

it's a great idea, but one that even a cretin with a second's experience of XBL would realise is just going to get abused to shit and back. If they want to provide some means of helping other players there have to be better ways than 'leave obscure meaningless possibly deliberately unhelpful message'.

And charging people to use this facility? The very definition of /facepalm!

If it's anything like Demon's Souls, useful messages can be recommended. You can see how many times a message has been recommended, and a higher rating means the message will stay put longer. Also, whenever someone recommends your message you are healed, encouraging players to be helpful.

 

[Kordie]

The message cost is a 1 time fee of 100 souls, very cheap. The greater risk is people not noticing the vender, and not actually picking it up. As far as troll messages goes, thats where the rating system comes in. Rate a good message up, it sticks around longer, rate a bad message down, it disapears faster.

 

[Thaius]

While the online stuff is awesome and helpful, it's not required. It would just help to avoid some traps and anticipate some attacks and such, that's all. The co-op and Black Phantom stuff is awesome too, but hardly required. It is really cool from an atmospheric perspective as well.

But in the end, it would still be enjoyable without it. Don't let that deter you.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I was thinking about picking myself up a copy of Dark Souls until I remembered reading somewhere that there are these "visions" of other players last seconds on this earth. Now the internet connection on my 360 is busted som any sort of connection with the interwebs is sadly impossible, and I was wondering if missing out on these "visions" will lessen my gaming experience to such an extent that I should give DS a pass?

Any thoughts?

I have a disability and am playing offline. So I suck and I don't get the extra help. And I'm still having a blast. The game plays just fine offline. Think of it as a little bit of an extra challenge. I'd get it.