Chalgyr's Game Room writes:
We all like lists - top five or top ten on a variety of topics. Well, we have a new one to share. Selling this list is going to be a difficult job. Compiling it wasn't exactly a cinch, either. One should never give a graphic designer the job of compiling a top 10, or 50, of movie posters, game covers, or album sleeves, because they get easily offended by the thousands of tropes and clichés they have to sort through. I know this to be true because I got offended pretty fast, and also because I like to go around claiming to be a competent graphic designer. Great covers are a-plenty; bad ones even more so. Tackling either would've been laughably easy - in fact, PY and I even cracked our knuckles with the latter - but we like a good challenge once a-while; as such, PY and I decided to go with drop-dead beautiful covers that seem to exist in a league of their own. Imagine my surprise when more just an expected couple of strikingly gorgeous covers propped up left and right... and before I knew it I had quickly finished my top 10, with nearly 50 honorable mentions eating away at my conscious. What followed next was hours and hours of staring at covers and endless comparisons late into the night. My tea-stained shirt serves as proof - image upon request.
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."
Hey Poor Player's James Davie Takes Us On A Bio-Shocking Deep Dive Into Irrational Games' Nautical Nightmare.