Are there really 40 second load times after dying? That's basically the only negative thing I've read so far.

Yep. Plenty of time to reflect, I guess.

40 second load times and no re-spawning enemies are significant issues, IMO. Also, the Lanterns (bonfires) don't restore health so enemies are apparently the only reasonable source for replenishing health (the escapist mentioned purchasing blood vials is crazy expensive). Since I already bought the game I don't give a ****. I'm positive I'll enjoy the **** out of it, but I'm still looking forward to Yahtzee's inevitable review.

This point, though, sounds as cool as it surely will be infuriating:



EDIT:

you gotta love the relentless updates demanded by the internet age:

http://www.justpushstart.com/2015/03...he-next-patch/

Enemies respawn.

That's good to know. The Escapist said you can't respawn them with lanterns, so I assumed that meant they don't respawn. If the load time gets fixed I don't have a single problem with any of the negatives listed so far in the reviews. Already told the GF to prepare for an absentee boyfriend on Friday. This is gonna be a long 4 days.

Sorry. I would have typed more, but I was riding home and on my phone. The enemies respawn if you use the lanterns to go back to the hunter's dream, like the nexus in Demon's Souls. They're back to infinite respawn instead of the DS2 nonsense, as well.

I died against the first enemy. LOL

edit:

Maybe if it let you equip weapons...

Spectres not working for anyone else? I hit "view spectre" and the gravestone goes away and nothing happens.

Same here.

This load time is insane. No amount of visual fidelity is worth this.

I'm confused. I just died in the first area (central Yharnam, I think) and all the enemies I had killed before dying were back. I did not go back to the hunter's dream.

Been playing an hour. Does not disappoint.

Am I an idiot for not having any idea how to level up or does that come later?

Sorry. They respawn if you die as well. What I meant is that they don't respawn if you just touch a new lantern without going back to the hunter's dream. Not going back to the hunter's dream is like lighting a bonfire instead of resting at one.

I just lost 5k echoes to a man-beast thing and went back and killed every single one in the area where I died. Didn't get the echoes back. I am tilted.

I never played Demon Souls or a similar game.
I'm not really into hack & slash type games.

Should I still get this?

Get Dark Souls first, it'll be super cheap and it's an amazing game very similar to this one. If you like DS you can jump right into this. I definitely don't think you have to be "into hack & slash games" (I'm not, in general) to enjoy them.

Progress tonight: beat 2 bosses, both took several tries, difficulty is feeling pretty good so far. The next area beyond the first one appears interesting but I haven't ventured far into it yet.

If you don't like challenging games then don't even think about it. There is a decently high % of people that quit playing these types of games after only a few hours due to it being too difficult for them.

Yeah maybe try Dark Souls first. You don't have to of course, but if you want to know where the hype comes from in this game playing that and even Demon Souls (even though I liked Dark Souls better) will tell you everything you need to know about it.

I'm shooting myself for pre purchasing disc from Amazon that isn't going to arrive until Thursday. I will be 2 days behind everyone else lol! Definitely keep up with the spoiler tags please as I know I will be unable to not avoid checking this thread.

Where is everyone? I expected more volume on day 1.

Polygon had an article explaining some mechanics stuff without spoiling. If you're the type who absolutely doesn't want the internet to tell you what X item does until you figure it out yourself, don't click, but otherwise there are some decent tips in here, especially with respect to combat/upgrades: http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/23/828...-from-software

It took me an hour to figure out how to equip weapons last night and I ran out of bullets before getting to the big dude by the gate... Will try some more tonight.

Through 3 bosses. Have unlocked a chalice dungeon boss I have no chance against atm while trying to bring down the 4th boss who is slightly easier but still destroying me.

I got super tilted at the loading times and quit playing last night. I might come back to it, but I think I'm too spoiled to deal with it unpatched right now Also, it looked.. not bad, but certainly not as good as I was expecting. Also looked to be no anti-aliasing, which really makes you wonder what's going on with the choppy FPS.

EDIT: not to be too debby downer, I really liked what I saw with the atmosphere, animations and attacks. Also that first area looks to have a lot more strategy involved in how you approach groups of enemies and forces you to be aware of patrols, which is a nice improvement over the previous souls static placement of enemies.

This runs at 1080 30fps right?