E3: Tara and I played Dark Souls, died to tell the tale

During E3, Tara Long and I spent a little time over at the Namco Bandai booth to play Dark Souls. Tara had not played Demon’s Souls and only had hearsay to prepare her for the utter drubbing we received. I walked around a corner, saw a dragon and died. That was the first minute and I hadn’t even drawn a weapon. It never got much better though, to her credit, Tara fared a bit better than I did.

One thing I liked was the bonfires. I like them because, ultimately, I don’t think they’re going to be all that helpful for the player. As far as the game goes, they’re just a necessary artifice to support the game’s more open-world design. But they offer some measure of hope on a psychological level and that’s worth a hell of a lot.

I hear that only three people in the whole of E3 successfully managed to survive that demo and I’m willing to believe that’s possible. I would also have accepted “zero” as a reasonable answer.