On that note, if you're like me and started playing Dark Souls again because hype. Vaati recently posted a video about a new 'aggressive enemies mod.' Enemies will surprise you again.

It looked interesting so I thought I might point it out.

 

Relevant

 

SotK showed me a leaked video today. It's 19 minutes of gameplay, so if you don't want to spoil a small section of the game I wouldn't watch it.

I'm going to analyze it further, but from one watch this is what I gathered:

Bonewheel skeletons are back and hate everything that breathes.

White phantoms can drink their own estus, and have a small penalty to their max health. It also appears items may drop for white phantoms, or white phantoms can pick up consumable drops.

The world seems more open.

New animations include breathing and leaving a sign.

Using a healing stone is really slow but restores a lot of health.

New emotes are available.

There might be mid bosses, or multi stage bosses, or bosses who are groups of enemies. In short they go through a really large fog gate and are met with multiple opponents on the other side.

It is possible to move while firing the crossbow. Holding the button seems to delay firing the bolt, and the player enters a walking stance while pointing the crossbow forward.

The dark sign is back. (that item that returns you to a bonfire in exchange for all your souls and humanity, no one ever used this)

EDIT:
There may also be a test check when summoning phantoms. This means that, if the summon would fail, you get immediate feedback instead of waiting several minutes to find out you failed.

 

Noob. It has a use. If use that item, you lose but don't drop anything. That means if you are trying to recover a bloodsign from before and know you will die, you can use it to make sure the bloodsign will not be replaced.

 

Bran Cakes: no one uses it
Bran Cakes:
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: I might have used it
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: if like
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: anyone that invaded me was a threat
Bran Cakes: or ring of sacrifice
Bran Cakes: you know
Bran Cakes: whatever
Bran Cakes: wait
Bran Cakes: can you even
Bran Cakes: use the dark sign in an invasion?
Bran Cakes: I doubt it
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: uh
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: should be able
Bran Cakes: since peopel quit out
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: well
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: yeah
Bran Cakes: to avoid them
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: that is better/easier
Ｃｙｂｅｒ－Ｋｕｎ!: but you could dark sign
Bran Cakes: no
Bran Cakes: it's
Bran Cakes: not
Bran Cakes: O-o
Bran Cakes: well ok fine
Bran Cakes: >.>


D:<

 

Stat breakdown.

I've watched other leaked videos and this is waht I remember;

Items drop from enemies for phantoms and the host. You won't be stealing the hosts items if you pick something up.

Equip load does seem to effect roll speed. A character in full knights rolled slower than a character in the knights top half without pants, gloves, or a helmet.

Red phantom enemies. Gravelords?

 

I love when game devs act like weapon durability matters in PvP... or hell even in PvE unless you just forget. Same with activating traps as a stat... wut?

If the stats are anything like the last game, with weapons tending to peak at around 40 of the stat, PvP is going to be durpy...

BLEH! I shouldn't try to analyze it too much as it is still a WiP but it does seem silly.

 

Update on Beta in the North and South America for PS3 owners.

-There is no registration process!
-Select users will receive a PSN message on Tuesday Oct 8th with a code to redeem the download for the Oct 12th testing round.
-Only 5,000 players will be allowed in this round on a first-come, first-served basis.
-Many more players will have an opportunity to get into the second round of testing.
-We will share a universal download code on Oct 22nd that can be redeemed to download the client for the Oct 26th testing round.
-30,000 testers will be allowed in for the Oct 26th round, but on a first-come, first-served basis.

Dark Souls Facebook Page.

 

Will there be any cheat prevention in the online game? Personally, when I was reading up on the game and looking around, the chance that someone can cheat and invade with an invincible character made me try to avoid invasions.

 

Hackers are massively overstated in this game. I would say hackers only hit around one out of 300-400 for me.

Mind, tweakers... those are massively understated.

 

Hackers also don't tend to invade. They're usually players who are terribad and don't want to be killed by invaders.

I was invaded by a hacker once. He wasn't invincible or anything, he just summoned Hawkeye Gough on top of me...because reasons.

Tweakers though, you'll meet those. But the truth of the matter is most invaders aren't that good. There are some, like Smile, who will wreck your shit. But a lot of them are just kinda meh at low levels. Best advice is just try fighting them. Being ready can take some by surprise.* If you lose you lose, but you'll learn and be better next time.

EDIT: *I really should say attacking can take some by surprise.

 

The latest patch also made hackers massively weaker. They removed the ability to drain stats and teleport people to random bonfires, so there isn't a real reason to fear hackers.

Tweakers will exist, but most are terrible and one can simply outsmart them. Overall, the online play is worth it, as online play includes summoning people as well.

 

Thanks for the information, I have not played in the last couple of months since I was busy with other things. Have to check and update the game then.

 

Residents of Northern and Southern America. A code to the beta is being sent to random ps3 owners in the next hour.

 

I will find a way to fly to your house if you get the beta.

 

There was a universal code. It seems the copies have run out now. The code was leaked, so some not-chosen folks got the client. I'm not sure if they'll do anything about that, but probably not.

I did get to play a few minutes. But I'm going to consider things because NDA.

 

Beta is live.

 

The reason Fishy Justice hasn't been posting about the beta is because his PS3 was a scrub and overheated then died. I for one am disappointed.

 

And the pillar of my salt breached the very heavens! But have no fear, there is another beta the 27th. And I have a heat gun. HAHAHAHAHA!

The only thing I was able to get from my 60 seconds of playing was the stance changes with holding the two hand button down. I noticed four. I don't know how these stances differ, just that they exist.
The animation for the stances work like this:

Both weapons are held in the default pose.
Either the left OR right hand will change position.
Both hands will change position.

The mode stays active for however long you want, so it's like a toggle between them.

Other small updates from numerous videos I've seen from Reddit.

Helping another player awards an Fidelity Token item. This item will heal the host player when used.

Lagstabs are present in the beta footage I've seen. There are no roll stabs.

The magic that rains arrows down on a foe attacks from a very large blind spot. It's easy enough to dodge if you've got the timing, but it is a bit unnerving for an attack you can't see to come at you. The dagger the mage start with also blows, as evidenced by someone's flask out healing the damage. (lol)

Shields can riposte. They don't appear to have a backstab. Overall they're kind of bad as weapons.

No invincibility frames when going through fog gates, opening doors, or turning levers. Phantoms can't turn levers. The animation to enter fog gates is lengthy, so trying to pass through one when surrounded by enemies is a bad idea. This suggests that running through a level will be significantly harder than it was in dark souls.

Several people have suggested that agility increases invincibility frames on roll and parry speed. One person suggested it changed the rolling animation.

Firing bows consumes stamina, you can move while firing, and the arrows move faster than 2 miles per hour.

Left handing might be a totally viable and completely realistic thing to do, as it seems the weapon move-set may be the same despite the hand.

 

Yes, yes, necrophilia and all that, but I figure this might well be worth one bump to the thread:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/236430/

So there it is, the PC version of the game comes out on the 25th of April, more than a whole month after the console version.

Which is a really fucking sad thing since they touted about how PC was the lead platform for the development, yet it comes out later.