"I don't know whether or not it's justifiable as I haven't touched the games, but it's a reasonable complaint if the game is a huge investment and you feel like the pay-off of the experience just doesn't justify it."

On the point of the level design, I think a big reason people overlook the change in level design is due to how much more diverse the level design is even though it may not be as elaborate as the first game. I mean think about it, in DS1 you spend the first 1/2 of the game in dull grey and brown areas that practically…

"My only issue with WoW direction is how freaking long the time is between 5.4 and WoD. Blizz has way too many resources to continue the old way of "when it's done" and releasing content this slow."

Regarding the return of games, there's not real justified reasoning for them to offer this feature. Even with hard-copy games you can't get your full purchase price back on a game, especially due to simply not liking the game. So why should Valve or any other digital provider offer a return policy?

That's the entire point though I think, that it's great for it's time. It came a good 5-7 years before any comparable game came out and a lot of people overlook that. Sure at this point in time it's not all that impressive, but think about what gaming was like 10-15 years ago and you'll understand why HL and HL2 are…

That's just not true. I can think of several games that are well worth the time of anyone interested in the genre. Rift, Aion, SWtOR, Planetside 2, all are F2P with micro-transactions that take nothing away from the experience for the most part. You can easily sink a good 40-50 hours into these games just leveling up…

I can understand firebombs, but the rest I'd chalk up to more you being used to the typical action RPG style of gaming and not being able to adapt well to the Souls series. You can't spam buttons safely, you have to take into account weapon swings and the time it takes to raise your shield, you can't not dodge or…

It's primarily different in that most gaming sites that have reviews often have game updates (pre-release and post-release) as their main source of news. All the major sites do this yet Metacritic obviously doesn't because it's only an aggregate of those reviews. Diablo 3 is an excellent example, as the 2.0 patch…

Just to reiterate what you said, it exactly is about the right tool for the job, especially in DS2. One thing I think the majority of players and reviewers of the game overlook is the implementation of weapon durability while using the weapon between bonfires. I think this is purposely implemented to "force" the…

Not sure how you can criticize the controls as awkward as I find them to be some of the best in any action RPG. Maybe awkward in the sense that they're slower than the typical action RPG, but that's not awkward, just slower. But I wouldn't define them as awkward in any way except maybe with jumping.

I'd agree with you if most other games presented difficulty in the same way, but they don't. What other 3rd person action game has the same tactile combat as the Souls series? The only ones I've played that come close are the Ninja Gaiden Sigma series. Meanwhile, the majority of them are simple hack and slash with…

Obviously new IPs are harder to profit off of as name branding is a huge part of marketing in all forms of media. However, that's no valid reason to write off peoples' criticism of rebooting a franchise they hold dear. Especially when that franchise is stripped down of its story and characters to something that hardly…

If you're only using Windows machines I'd suggest the software Input Director over Synergy. I find it to be much more reliable and it has additional features (disabling screen transition with a push of a button for instance) that can be extremely useful.

If $60 was really such a hard sell then we'd see the prices go down due to demand being low, while that hasn't been the case for a while in the video game market. Your perspective isn't the average gamer perspective, otherwise we'd see a severe dip in $60 game sales with the recent influx of indie games available over…

Games may be developed on PCs but that doesn't mean they're developed FOR them. The previous Dark Souls is an example of that, in that the PC version came well after the console releases and that's part of why it was such a poor port. Current games also show a significant difference in the console versions compared to…

It's pretty obvious the differences you'll get graphically on PC versions compared to the old consoles, just look at recent releases. Lightning especially taxes the older generation of consoles but has near limitless potential on PC for instance. It's not about doing extra work for PC, it's about doing the development…

You mean when games weren't developed for 8 year old technology?

Except they've actually stated that the game was developed for PC and platformed to consoles.

I think I take issue with the whole notion that we should succumb to basically what amounts to peer pressure in appeasing others. Especially when it comes to people explaining how or why it should be done.

Again I'll say, most of your reasoning of dislikes for the game just sounds petty and irrelevant. Windows not making sound when they close behind you (which are possible to exit from, you simply have to open it again btw)? Disliking the UI (Skyrim is a similar game that comes to mind where the UI doesn't fit…