A friend of mine has a sibling who works at a videogame store, sometimes if it won't get him in trouble I can score a game a day or two early. I usually toss him a few bucks to say thanks.
Cutter, Dark Souls is essentially a sequel to Demons Souls in terms of gameplay. It's gameplay is heavily inspired by old western RPGs and games like King's Field. It's probably best described as action adventure with moderate RPG elements and it features tremendously difficult gameplay with unforgiving design principles. It all takes place in massive gothic environments versus huge bosses and loads of varied foes. It also has a very unique multiplayer system that's difficult to describe but works well involving hints, modified co-op modes and even forced PvP. There really isn't another game like it other than Demons Souls.
They're unique in their design, they don't do difficulty by repetition or unfairness like most games (for example, not like Ninja Gaiden or something). The gameplay is just inherently hard and you have to think your way through situations, sometimes very quickly and other times quite slowly. I love them because they reward the thinker and punish the typical gamer of modern times who wants to be led through things by the hand. They're certainly not games for everyone though, they can be frustrating and quite tense.
This comment was edited on Oct 3, 2011, 13:41.