[strange loup]

Dark Souls is one of the best games I’ve played this year, and a strong candidate for one of the best all-time RPGs too — even with tremendously strong contenders being released this year like the exceptional Xenoblade Chronicles and the forthcoming The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which I suspect I will play for about a bazillion hours like its predecessors.

However, there’s nothing to quite match the feeling of accomplishment in Dark Souls. The harder a challenge, the better you feel for surmounting it, and this has the hardest challenges I’ve encountered in 15+ years of gaming. Plus, the game never feels cheap; if you die, you know why you died, and you know how to not die next time. The only time this game will hold your hand is if it wants a better angle to chop your arm off.