Yeah, to clarify, half of my characters are in the Chaos Covenant, the other half Forest Hunters. It's cool beans, and totally worth it if you're a pyromancer with at least 3-5 attunement slots.

The effigies are an idea I like. I believe ENB said this, but it is reminiscent of Purging Stones; using a surrogate "host" to accept a curse; the effigy seems it would work in a similar way. Brilliant. (I'd like to add - since I was already talking about item descriptions in the comments of one of the Diaries a few days ago - the description of the Purging Stone is so deliciously sinister, and just one of the 170,248,936 things that makes Dark Souls wretchedly wonderful.)

Quelana's gift pyromancy received after defeating Bed of Chaos is exceedingly useful as a crowd control device for hairy situations in the forest. I was cycling between using Black Flame and Power Within with my 1 attune slot on my high level Forest Hunter (Tarkus!) but neither of those helped as I'd hoped they would in necessary situations. Fire Tempest, however, is surprisingly handy for a next-to-no-magic heavy fighter.

Just watched that Jimquisition; I'm fully in line with his concerns. I hadn't heard that particular PR message, but yeah, it's awful. I mean, really, you want to be Skyrim? The fifth game in a two-decade-old franchise, the pinnacle of games that can be considered both AAA and hardcore at once, and Bamco thinks Dark Souls II can match this? Even if it can, that's not the point: it shouldn't try, and shouldn't have to.

Hopefully Bamco's marketing team are just a bunch of asses and haven't twisted their tendrils too firmly into Fromsoft.

Ah, I've read that one - it was good.

I've heard several people make note of this feature as well, Botch, and I agree with you, I like the old way (i.e. ya kill em you're fucked) ... but for all we know this could have been 1) a beta test thing 2) just one NPC in particular. I'd be fine with it if it were a truly 100% essential character to game completion - remember, the Maiden in Black couldn't be killed, though the explanation worked perfectly within the game's laws. If it just blanket applies to all NPCs however, I would be sad.

Not only would I not change this, like you, but I believe it's an essential learning tool: yes, you can kill Andre of Astora, but nothing happens. There is no game over screen, there is no acknowledgement. Just another corpse, the Crest of Artorias Key (this too is another rub and a key to certain shortcuts, should you desire them - making a fire weapon build and want early forest access? Kill Andre for the Crest of Artorias; want the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring immediately and don't plan to use sorcery? Murder Griggs - it's all so fucking brilliant!) and the ever encroaching reality that in Lordran (and Souls in general) everyone is going to die. The lack of kid gloves is vital here: yes, now your Longsword can never (excluding NG+) ascend to +15 or what ever may be in your sights, but that the game didn't end tells you it can be done.

You will beat Dark Souls with your fists if you must. Stealing from another game, "everything is permitted." If only ol' Cresty told us at Firelink! "Oh, don't piss off the living!"

Somewhat related, if you have some time to kill ENB has put up three hour-long videos over the past few days, just chatting about a variety of topics, but most deliciously of course his experience with the Dks2 "network stress test" (not beta, as he insists). It's not his most riveting stuff, he just rolls a new character using the Zweihander and mucks about, rambling about various things. As usual, if you like his videos (and him in general) then you'll probably enjoy his thoughtful commentary.

And not a single invite for me. Unjust!

Well, I'm playing Demon's Souls to kill time before the beta. I'm going to need a lot of coffee.