The images themselves are rather ethereal in quality and match well with the overall tone of the actual game, which I’m beginning to believe is more of a torturous work of art than simple electronic entertainment.

I have yet to listen to accompanying music CD but as soon as I do you can be sure of a post on it.

Till next time.

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Here’s part 3 of my Demon’s Souls video Diary. I’ll let the video speak for me on this occasion as I don’t really have much to add to what I talk about there. I was pretty tired and frazzled after playing but enthusiastic to move forward. In the next part I’ll deal with the game play and controls before I do another “impressions” video like this after I’ve spent long enough with the game to formulate some more thoughts on it. Check back soon for the next part and as promised in the video here is my “Death Log” for last nights session:

Welcome back to my regular Demon’s Souls video diary post. In part two we take an in depth look at the character creation and customisation facility that you are presented with at the beginning of the game.

Let me first just say that on reflection, Demon’s Souls allows you to create some of the ugliest bastards I’ve ever come across in gaming, and don’t get me wrong, I’ve created with the best of them. Fallout 3, Oblivion, World of Warcraft, Morrowind and even the bloody Sim’s allow you to create more aesthetically pleasing virtual avatars that Demon’s Souls. My guess as to the reasoning behind this is that questing over the mythical, incredibly hardcore realm of “Boletaria” requires more from a man than being a beautified, poncing, posing, nancy-boy but my suspicions are yet to be confirmed. Suffice to say that the characters give the impression of already having lived a life of extreme hardship up until this point and considering that they are about to embark on a mission of slaying Demon’s and rending their souls from their flesh I think it’s safe to say that things are not going to get any easier for the poor saps of Demon’s Souls character creation.

After selecting a name (I went with that classic fantasy story world hero’s name “phonicx”), in a departure from the norm the first option you are given is to decide which corner of the realm your character hails from. Apparently  ”West” means you’re a bog standard white guy, “East” means you are as oriental as they come, “South” makes you look like an African tribesman and “North” I couldn’t quite figure out, North seemed to me to be a cross between west and South. They may have been trying to go for a “nordic” viking look but I can’t be certain. Comment if you have anything to add on that one.

After this you are given the option to alter your characters age, the effects of which can be seen in the video (suffice to say that older is definitely NOT better in the looks department). You can then move on to the real meat of the creation tool, the sliders! Yes many, many …. many of you will be familiar with the old convention of the sliders. Slide the slider one way and something gets smaller, or darker, or moves around the place. Slide the slider the other way and body parts can be increased in size and grown out to grotesque misshapen proportions, the like of which circus freak shows would be champing at the bit to include in their acts. Whatever hideous monster you choose to lovingly craft with the help of the sliders, one thing is certain; there are a LOT of them. As is becoming more and more common with these tools nowadays you can adjust and manipulate seemingly every minute detail of the facial proportions with a relatively fine degree of accuracy. Whether this allows you to create a nice looking guy or gal to go questing the land with, or allows the roots of your darkest nightmares to take hold in physical form is up to you.

Many of you may have heard of Demon’s Souls. This break away PS3 hit from ATLUS in Japan has captured the hearts and minds of gamers with its old school difficulty level and approach to game play, along with its unique and ingenious on-line functionality. The main gripe many gamers in Europe have, is that the game is not available in the whole of the European territory due to publishing issues. This has resulted in the dilemma over whether or not to import the game from overseas. In this series of loadscreen TV videos I aim to de-mystify the game and provide a helpful resource to anyone who is considering importing and playing this interesting title.

How I got the game:

I spent many weeks considering different options because I was, for the most part, worried about ordering from abroad and the game not arriving. In the end I used Videogamesplus.ca to order the game. They were based in Canada so the conversion  rate was favourable for me. In the end it cost around 50 UK pounds to import and the delivery took a week and a half, although this was over the Christmas season so it may be shorter at other times. Videogamesplus treated me professionally and I had no trouble from them and as such recommend it as a place to pick up the game.

Please remember to check back regularly for updates to to video diary which will be posted on loadscreen.net and loadscreen TV over the coming days and weeks.

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