Find yourself a spare hour for this packed IncGamers Podcast (or Vidcast), because it’s overflowing with news analysis and discussion of no less than five recent titles.
We start off by expressing our delights and potential fears for Dark Souls II, move on to the matter of Gamespy/Glu’s server shutdowns (and what it means for archiving videogaming’s history), before finishing up with word of two major Games Workshop-related items (Space Hulk and the Creative Assembly licensing deal).
Those five titles we’ve been playing include Ace of Spades, Book of Unwritten Tales: Critter Chronicles, Strike Suit Zero, Natural Selection 2 and Drox Operative. You can expect exhaustive detail on all of them, or (at the very least) some surface commentary with weak jokes.
Dark Souls 2 remains a divisive entry in the landmark RPG franchise, but Hidetaka Miyazaki believes it led to the success of Elden Ring.
DS2 was fine. While there was a bit of recycling assets or ideas for bosses, it was a bigger more open Dark Souls. The Fume knight boss is one of the hardest bosses in the series until Sekiro and Elden Ring were released.
The problem with Dark Souls 2 was the same problem when a different director takes over for a sequel to an outstanding movie. It typically (there are exceptions) doesn’t have the feel and vision of the previous movie.
I wouldn’t say Dark Souls 2 is terrible. Had Dark Souls 1 never been a thing and we got this, I think it would have been praised more. The problem is it didn’t have the Miyazaki touch to it and felt pretty derivative. The soundtrack is a banger though.
I like DS 2, might even be my favorite of the 3. But it's a hard sell, there's so many obscure things you need to do to make it an enjoyable experience. So always find it hard to recommend, but it is worth the trouble.
TheGamer writes, "Some weapons resist the test of time."
The Nerd Stash: “Whether you’re here to gloat about your victories or to see what the fuss is about, we present to you the hardest bosses in the Souls series.”