Hi, Codex!
I haven't really had much time for gaming last year, with all the work, new girlfriend* and stuff. After turning 30 I decided it's no longer a shame to buy a console. I visited a friend in Bristol who had an Xbox and a friend in Utrecht who had a PS3 (oddly, none of my Polish friends have consoles) and was convinced by PS3. I bought it and, uh, it turned out I couldn't really find great games for it. (The best one I found, Red Dead Redemption, was fun until it started to demand killing hundreds of Mexicans... ) I finished Dungeon Siege 3 to become acquainted with the gamepad, but eh, the game wasn't exactly stellar. I knew Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition was coming out, but it was really expensive....
... and my new girlfriend* bought it for me as a present. Boy, did I get hooked! (We both did -- she enjoys watching me play.) I started with a wanderer, not really knowing anything about the game and being a newbie to console gaming. Even finishing the tutorial was a feat, and when I beat the Taurus Demon I felt like a king. (The game of course put me back in my place after 30 seconds, after I got to the bridge
) I played the wanderer for about 40 hours and only got to Queelag, invested in Resistance, but explored a lot of the available areas and found many goodies. I traversed Blighttown to get to the swamps; boy, was that a nightmare! I lost ALL my humanity trying to kill Queelag, then came back up only to see you-know-what at the Firelink Shrine. (As for bosses, I tried quite a few times to tackle the Gargoyles before I managed, and more than 10 to finally beat the Capra Demon) That's when I decided to try again with a different character, a bulky knight.
With this character (and his Master Key which I chose as a gift) I did all my previous char did (save for exploring the Blighttown) at least 4 times faster: I reached the Gargoyles in, like, 3 hours or sth, and when it comes to bosses, I killed most of them on the first try (even the Capra Demon, the Hydra, and Sif, without reading about the last two). I'm now about 20-something hours in, I put the Lordvessel where it belongs and I just killed Sif. The knowledge of the game (how it works in general and the knowledge of areas) can make some segments if not a breeze, then just cheerfully manageable. (I have amassed about 20 points of humanity in items.) The most important lesson for me, and a tip I would like someone to have given me at the start of the game, is:
* don't always stay hollow, as summoning other players can be of GREAT help, not only against bosses, but just for helping you explore the area;
* to safely explore an area, get summoned and help someone!
* do not overlevel because you will be destroyed in PvP when in human form by people who leveled up more efficiently; spend souls on upgrading your equipment first;
* using a homeward bone does not make you gay.
The challenges of the game are weird. I KILLED S & O ON MY FIRST TRY with help of a single phantom (well, technically, I killed them once as a phantom, helping another player, so I knew what they looked like and how they behaved), and now when I wanted to farm the slugs at the swamps I got killed by the fucking mosquitoes because I was careless and forgot to switch my armor to Black Leather. (Even the poisonbite ring and spider shield didn't help.) Eh, always be careful...
(My toughest moment so far was in Anor Londo, when I got sucked into another world before I even got to the main building with S&O. I spent quite a few hours figuring out that wintery world.)
The game is fantastic in how it offers you varied challenges -- I cannot rely on a single set of armor or 'the best' weapon, you have to think what to use in different areas / when facing different opponents. And the area design is simply amazing. The atmosphere and the idea of parallel worlds with other players manifesting as phantoms works brilliantly.
A great game overall!
* Yes, for those who'd like to update their elwro.txt, after my previous gf left me (9 years of relationship), I now have a new girlfriend, and boy, is she the love of my life!