I'll hopefully be playing it at the Eurogamer Expo, so with luck I can report back a bit of substantive information in a month or so. I must say, this recent flurry of talk about Dark and Demon's has got me feeling like playing again. I think the Artorias content is only $7 on PSN, and I much prefer playing from the couch. Perhaps I'll make it happen.

When I say I'm worried that I'll know too much, it's less exploitable flaws I'm referring to and more flavor. The best way to clarify that is this: compare how long it took you to get to, then defeat, the Bell Gargoyles on your first playthrough (about 40 hours for me) to how long it took on your second (for me, about 1.5 hours). The first go-round it wasn't just because I sucked (though I did), and wasn't just because I didn't know the area (though I didn't), and the second go round it wasn't just for the opposite reasons.

Sure, much of the delta can be explained simply by knowing where stuff is, but you learn to play the Souls games in a way that's sort of irrevocable and unforgettable. You learn to be aggressive, that over-caution is actually worse than recklessness; you learn that progress is an objective rather than a thing to fear; these weren't skills I had when I started playing Dark Souls, and I think when I start playing Dark Souls 2 I'll naturally cleave to them. Which is fine, I'll still enjoy the game, but some of that... that raw terror might be gone. Until you really grok the proper way to play a Souls game, every step is taken, every corner turned, in fear - because every step could be your last.

Eventually you learn the secret of Souls: you don't fear the games because they're difficult; they're difficult because you fear them.

I saw this very profoundly at one point in Dark Souls which I didn't go into much in the Diaries - I quit playing for maybe 2 months after my first foray into the Depths. I wasn't dissatisfied or unhappy, it's just that I felt like I'd seen my limit and it was the Depths. I got my money's worth and moved on. For reasons I can't even remember, I decided to fire up the game again and I took a poll among friends of "where I should go." None of them had played the game, so they just tossed out thoughts based on my descriptions, but one guy said "do what you're supposed to do and go back to the Depths." It was the last thing I wanted to hear, but for some reason it was the advice I took, and suddenly something changed. It was one of a handful of Dark Souls Epiphanies I had. I wouldn't say the Depths suddenly got easy, but there was more Game beyond them, rather than just a black wall of you'll-never-get-there-so-the-game-may-as-well-not-have-any-more.

That sense of empowerment actually stayed with me in concentrated form all the way through Gaping Dragon and Blighttown, to the point that I almost breezed through it because I was suddenly confident. Over time the confidence dwindled a little, but it never left. I wonder if I'll feel different, playing Dark Souls 2, because it won't be this horrid vortex of ruin.

I mean, you gotta understand, I bought Dark Souls with completion not even in the farthest realms of my equation. I assumed I'd play to Point X, where Point X is "you can't get further." It happened in Demon's Souls. Never crossed my mind that I'd fiinish. My only question was when would it beat me. Actually when I went at Asylum Demon with a broken sword hilt, I was more than a little worried that I'd spend $60 for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, with Dark Souls 2, unless I'm not enjoying the game because it's bad, I sort of assume I'll finish. Why wouldn't I?

For some reason, the feeling that I'd be defeated by those games was almost desirable, and the feeling that I can defeat them worries me a bit.

But just a bit. If the worst I can come up with is "I might be better than I expect at the game," that's not really much of a leg to stand on, doubts-wise.

*EDIT: and now you see why the Dark Souls Diaries consumed 51,000 words. Anyone who isn't me could have managed all the above in about three sentences.

The Artorias expansion was $14.99, but you're talking to a person who actually bought one of those Nest thermostats so 'responsibility' really isn't in my vocabulary (nor, I guess, is 'you own that on PC'). It's weird, it's just a little 100K file. If I recall, the Artorias content was loaded for everyone with one patch or another, right? So I guess this just unlocks it. Nothing's different, but hey. It says it's installed.

So I played for a couple hours just now. A lot of the muscle memory comes back after a while, though you guys would've been howling if you saw me fumbling with the inventory while I was knee-deep in New Londo water, trying to remember where was safe to stand from Xtal's videos so I could find the Fire Keeper soul right off like he suggested. GET OUT YOUR HOMEWARD BONE BEFORE YOU GO IN STEERPIKE.

But I was trying to look at myself as Today Steerpike and Never Won A Souls Game Steerpike, and though I don't clearly remember how the latter played, I know he didn't fling himself at enemies the way I do now. The caution kills you, because I know I'm not actually that much better in combat. How on earth did I need forty hours to get to the first Bell? But at the time I didn't feel like I was slogging, didn't feel like it was too slow, it felt pretty much right on. When you think about the amount of physical territory you visit during that period it's ridiculous. It's practically nothing. I remember that about Demon's, every now and then I'd stop and look back and realize that I'd been struggling and clawing forward for an hour and made it maybe twenty feet. Look, there's the Archstone! Right... right there. I can poke it with my spear. I spent an hour getting my ass handed to me to make it three quarters of a spear length.

Still though, as I've said, Gregg and I often say the same thing about STALKER, and while it's true you can never do it for the first time again, that didn't really diminish the sequels for me, or any replays.

March 2014 is a lot nearer now than it was when they first announced this game!

I still don’t really remember what compelled me to try out Demon’s Souls.

It was me! You do as you're told and you like it!