DarkPrince said ...

- General improvements in difficulty balance
- Text and voiceover fixes and improvements
- Incorrect despawn behavior fixed
- An issue with missing music in the credits is fixed
- Judge boss fight balance updated
- Challenge arena tweaks
- Camera clipping fixes
- New game plus intro behavior fixed
- The blacksmith is now accessible after the infiltrator encounter
- Save point problems fixed
- The run jump and jump attack tutorials now start again if the player
approaches the first save point in old monastery
- Visual effects improvements
- Animation improvements
- General lighting improvements
- Improved LOS
- Various glitches fixed
- Improved collision meshes
- Performance optimization
- Camera behavior improvements
- General texture improvements
- Fixed disappearing environment particle effects
- Incorrect playback of boss battle music fixed
- Music and sfx volumes adjusted
- Improved sfx timing.

Was there anything that didn't need tweaking/fixing/updating ....

Game looks great, trying to get use to character movement

Dark Souls called..they want their everything back

Seriously though, game looks cool...just a shame you can't make your own character. The protagonist reminds be too much of Kratos...

First Warden down

My first impressions for anyone who cares

Firstly I only played after installing the patch, patch was almost 5gb but took about an hour to download which was quite good.

The game looks great, really really good lighting and the environments look great. When you start up the game you can play as either a Warrior, Rogue or Cleric. It doesn't seem like this has much impact outside of your starting stats and equipment. About 30 minutes into the game the character can come pretty much what you want from what I have seen. After selecting a class you has a set of 3 different magic type classes with 4 magic abilities that range from defensive to offensive abilities.

Character movement took me a bit of time to get use too, coming from something like Bayonetta 2 the movement speed of the game was a bit jarring at first. The character felt clunky and unresponsive. In my first boss fight I had quite a few frustrating moments as no matter what I did I just was not fast enough to land decent hits on the bosses. Whether I blocked the attacks or dodged I never had a proper opportunity to get in any damage. I am a very offensive player so any game that makes me play defensively annoys me to no end

Anyway I eventually had to resort to removing all of my armor and that allowed me to be much more nimble and do actual damage. The fights themselves look more impressive than they are to actually fight which is a shame but I am hoping this changes further into the game. Combat is quite satisfying and works well. You can shield bash enemies, counter and backstab as well. The stamina gauge depletes as you attack however the game improves a bit on this system, if you just mash attack buttons your stamina will just drain as normal however if you time your attacks properly your attacks will use less stamina and end up doing a cool little combo that can't be done without the perfect timing of the attacks. This is a great incentive for players to get better. The biggest issue I've found though is most enemies can out poise your attacks so they rarely get stunned and just tank the hits. The combat is calculating and unlike the IGN review has nothing in common with a game like Darksiders, this is not arcadey type combat, you can't rush in and just pummel enemies as you won't get anyway except most likely a quick death.

Speaking of death the game isn't easy either, I've died about 6 times in the 3 or so hours I've played, Bosses are easy however the enemies themselves can be quite tricky and sometimes the game will throw you into a situation where you have to just take damage. Having 2 archers shooting at you while you are being circled by a big sword wielding enemy is always fun

Experience points can be used at crystal like portals, each time you use a portal your game will be saved. Here you can cash in your XP to upgrade your character, XP can be used for 2 stats, to either increase your standard XP to get XP points which can be used to upgrade stuff like Vitality, Endurance, Strength etc or the XP can be used for attribute points which allow you to increase your magic ability or activate new abilities. Using these crystals will also respawn all enemies you have killed. Additionally the more you continue the game without resting the higher your XP will go, it's a sort of XP combo meter, every time you kill an enemy this increases, the longer you go the higher your XP and the harder the game will become as the only way to replenish health is to rest at the crystals. So this is a big high risk high reward system. When you die you lose all your experience and spawn at the last crystal you rested at. Your XP can be collected again at the spot you died however it continually decreases the longer you take to get back to that spot, if you die before getting there you lose the XP. This can also be used as a strategy however as your XP drop point also heals you if you stand around it which could be a good healing point for boss fights and such.

Lastly the most fun thing about the game, loot, the game has a really great loot system, there are chest hidden all around the place and enemies also drop loot. The loot works quite similarly to stuff like Diablo, you get weapon drops, armor drops etc. Each type can also come with sockets that allow you to insert runes to make the equipment more powerful or give it certain abilities. It's a great system and I got excited when I found a chest to see what I might get. There are also realm portals hidden through the world, these open up when you defeat a certain enemy, usually a boss, you can then teleport into a dark realm which has some great treasure there. It's a fun system that makes you want to keep going to see what you find next.

Eurogamer have a walkthrough guide ...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-29-lords-of-the-fallen-walkthrough-and-game-guide

so how's the game dying to hear of some user feedback

Apart from boss fights which are really really awful and monotonous, easily the worst aspect of the game, the overall experience is great. If people wasted their money on Bound by Flame then this game will easily redeem that and give them a decent challenge and fun game to play. Pity about not being able to customize your own character. Loot is still the best thing about the game, really great and fun loot system.

Visually this game is SO GOOD to look at, they really did an amazing job with the graphics! The game play and world to me is "copy and paste" from Dark Souls 1, even some of the heavy weapon attacks are identical to Darks Souls 1, the controls are exactly the same and the blocking and dodging makes no effort to even try and be different - I would just like to add that I have NO issues with this, why fix something that's not broken -

Even the environment is remarkably identical to Dark Souls 1, you can run to high edges and see where you have just come from and where you can still go, sure it looks different, but it feels almost like Dark Souls 1.5 - once again, I have NO issues with this - I really like the design and the look of the world.

The game stayed away from creating your own character, I've seen a lot of ppl complain about this, I for one had no issues with this either. When I look back at Dark Souls 1 & 2, I only spent time creating my "Main" char, after that I just went for basic changes like size and gender, it was a waste of time to me to sit and go through all the character creation options after creating my main. One thing I do like more in this game than Dark Souls, is the fact that there's an actual story behind the character you play, and that the game itself (although it seems very predictable at times) has a "decent" story to follow. I'm not just trying to beat an area like in DS, but rather beating an area as well as trying to see where the story goes.

But, there's also some things I don't like. If you are going to make a game THIS similar to Dark Souls, then at least add the Co-Op side of things as well as the PvP aspect. Then there's the unresponsiveness of the character, I've died more because I've somehow missed an attack whilst I'm locked on and the enemy is DIRECTLY in front of me, WTF? Even my weapon goes right through and still no hit Then there was 3 times so far, where I died and my soul was NOWHERE to be found! Experience lost, I know exactly where I died, I've even looked down ledges to see if my Souls somehow fell of the side, but nothing, it's just not there

I felt in Dark Souls sometimes that there's just too many areas where nothing goes on, now I understand why, it gives you chance to breath and enjoy the scenery the Devs designed for you, in this game you hardly take a corner and BANG! another enemy to fight

And as DP mentioned, the Boss fights are SO easy to figure out, I just can't seem to figure out why the Devs didn't mix up their attacks a bit more, they do the EXACT same thing from start to finish, with maybe a slight change in movement. There's also just too many of the same enemies one after the other, they should have mixed it up a little, have one of these and one of those together, not Shield Enemies 10 times in a row! !sick

But even after all that, I'm LOVING the game! I've wanted to play a "Dark Souls" game now for a while, I've unfortunately finished Dark Souls 1 & 2 WAY too many times to even want to look at the covers of those games, never mind playing them again. This game is like my "Fix" I needed, and it delivers so well! I was also fortunate enough to have bought it for R400 off a friend who did not like it, so for R400 it's hard to find ANYTHING on the PS4 (even 2nd hand) that has this much value behind it! And truthfully (apart from DC and Destiny)it's the only game on the PS4 thus far that I can say I enjoy and would pay full price for it

so I finally got this game today and was wondering which class would you guys recommend to go for 1st.

I'd recommend the FINISH BAYONETTA 1 AND 2 first class

CRAVINHO said ...

so I finally got this game today and was wondering which class would you guys recommend to go for 1st.

Brawling/Warrior imo! Rage Magic is so cool, overpowered, but ccol

played around with all 3 classes last night and the warrior suits me best I didn't try all the magic stuff as I think brawler is the most offensive one of the 3 so that will also suit me best

Lords of the Fallen's Enter the Ancient Labyrinth DLC

Trailer in article

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-24-lords-of-the-fallens-dlc-is-due-next-week

finally killed the 3rd boss and met the blacksmith but I
encountered some enemy now that can't die once it has no
health it starts pounding the ground and regains health WTF
is up with that.

you're a bit late to the party Crav

I really enjoyed Lords of the Fallen, coming straight off Dark Souls 2, but I don't remember the pre-order content being that interesting and the DLC was only meant to be an hour long with one boss. If it's priced well, I might consider another playthrough or two.