online experience may vary

So my PS3 is online now!

Spent the whole of Sunday and bits of last night playing Killzone 3 online, which was a lot of fun. I've never really had a chance to play too many online shooters, aside from Team Fortress 2 my online run and gun experience has been very limited. But killzone 3 turned out to be very easy to get into, because of the whole objective based gameplay that emphasis on team play rather than just deathmatching.

I didn't hook up the PS3 to simply shoot shizz online though, there were darker intentions at play.

I downloaded an episode of "5 inch floppy" which is this aussie gaming show, and the episode I got was a special on DARK SOULS!


Aside from talking about more or less the same things that I've read, it had a section dedicated to the online side of the game, which is some of the coolest shizz I've seen in a game.

The multiplayer in Dark Souls is mostly pvp, but implemented in a way that really integrates with the story. For example; there's this one boss that actually summons online players to fight along side it if those players are aligned to a certain faction or Covenants as they call em in Dark Souls. Then there's a covenant that's dedicated to protecting this one forest in the game, so whenever a non faction player enters that forest, faction members get a summon to defend it.

You can also join a faction that allows you to invade other peoples games and fight them, appearing in their world as a phantom and then there's a faction that's solely dedicated to hunting down such players and keeping them in check. There's even a covenant that hunts down covenant deserters :O

Souls is the main currency in Dark Souls, and you need them to gain 'humanity' that allows you to level up and stuff. If you go up against another player and manage to kill them, you gain their souls which in turn makes it easier for you to level. So when that boss fight is happening and players get summoned in to take you down, you know they're hard out to get their hands on some quick souls by killing you.

As long as you're here...

But not all of Dark Souls multiplayer is pvp. There are covenants dedicated to helping players finish missions and do boss fights as well. There's also a cool system where players can leave each other notes and tips on up coming dangers. Leave a note that gets recommended by another player and the game rewards you.

Even story events are linked to online play, you could be sitting at a bonfire gathering your thoughts and planning your next move when you hear a bell ring of in the distance. .. that's some other play that's just completed a quest some where. So though Dark Souls is single player game, the developers have designed it such a way that you never feel alone in the world. It feels like there are bigger things at play all around you and that other people are up against the same dangers you are.

Totally looking forward to getting my hands on Dark Souls. Check out this cool covenant guide video that explains a lot more about the multiplayer stuff. Do note though that the video has some spoilers.