Which gaming franchises has Dark Souls permanently put to the sword for you?

So i used to rate the God of War series. I used to rate Uncharted. I used to rate Fallout. But now - having experienced the deep, deep immersion of Dark Souls i know i will find it extremely difficult to get any sense of satisfaction from playing those games again.

This is not universally true of all games though. I reckon the Bioshock series and Half Life will still stack up well for me - and probably Dragon Quest RPGs - as well.

Anyone else had this experience where Dark Souls renders some games (but not others) irrelevant?

The Castlevania series has been on thin ice for me for a while now.

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are a much better follow-up to games like Castlevania 3 and Symphony of the Night than anything else with the Castlevania name on it. It's the transition to 3D that they failed to make. Even their recent 2D games on the DS, while boasting some very fun boss fights that easily surpass SotN quality (in terms of mechanics and challenge), have taken a nose-dive aesthetically. Lots of dumb, trite dialog. Inspiration taken from anime in the worst way possible...

As someone who used to call himself a big Castlevania fan, I'll just accept that a handful of CV games are some of my all time favorite games, but I don't really care about the series anymore overall. From picked up where they dropped the ball.

The Lords of Shadow reboot wasn't terrible, but the button combo / fog-gate hordes / QTEs zapped any potential replay value out of it entirely.

Oh, absolutely.

Whenever I try to play Skyrim I start sighing heavily within ten minutes.

The Dead Space games, Ninja Gaiden games, and Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, however, will always have a place in my library.

Starcraft. Both One and Two.

Dead Space is there, but it is more so an Arcade than others, and I play them as such. Third favourite, Dark Souls Second.

I was a Legend of Zelda nut! I played Demon's Souls and I haven't touched a Zelda game since. =P

There is one strange feeling... With other games ( not all of them, but plenty) I get the feeling of having wasting my time. With Dark Souls or Demon Souls the feeling that I don't have enough time to play them...
Do you get the idea?

Doelker wrote:There is one strange feeling... With other games ( not all of them, but plenty) I get the feeling of having wasting my time. With Dark Souls or Demon Souls the feeling that I don't have enough time to play them...
Do you get the idea?

Yes. I don;t feel like wasting time; I feel like my time is spent and used just fine, and I take my time to go there.

Doelker wrote:There is one strange feeling... With other games ( not all of them, but plenty) I get the feeling of having wasting my time. With Dark Souls or Demon Souls the feeling that I don't have enough time to play them...
Do you get the idea?

I can relate to this 100%! The sense of accomplishment that comes from Dark Souls is akin to nirvana. The first time I felled Ornstein and Smough I went out and celebrated, even my wife, who had been spectating my playthrough up to then was overjoyed. There is something to be said about that!

I had quit playing video games almost entirely. The last ones I was working on were Skyrim, dues ex, and rage. I found them hard to play after awhile. They felt shallow, like a mindless tv show you only watch because it's on and you have nothing else to do. It seems all the games are becoming empty cookie-cutter type junk food. They all have mediocre plots, with too much extra salt and fat sprinkled on top to try and give depth.

So one day I gave dark souls one more shot, and now I'm hooked. Dark souls is what video games are supposed to be! To be honest, I really don't care about the lore or getting hyper technical about builds and stats and content. I just love the thrill of challenging serious enemies, learning how to defeat them on my own. I love when the game pushes the limits of fun and becomes a personal challenge. For every ten times I yell and flail my arms and hold myself back from hurling the Xbox, there's a moment of complete triumph, pure stupid joy, and yet just like when climbing a mountain, the summit is only half the journey. Serious gameplay, no fluff.

^^ that is what I mean!!! I have beaten the stray demon a lot of times, but everytime I do it I feel really excited about.
Yesterday I was playing Demon's Souls and I was storming the stonefang tunnel. When I arrived to the fog gate I left my sign down hoping to help somebody to fight the flamelurker.
I got summoned right away.
We defeated the flamelurker but it wasn't easy and it was an Epic battle, oh man I was so excited and felt so good after the battle.
THAT my friends ... is hard to find in other games

all of them! i havent played another game since i started playing.
Thoroughly addicted!

Everything except Dark Souls.

Not even 1.

It's changed my opinions on some games, but none are gone totally because of it lol

Life, yes Dark souls has taken it. I am hollowed.

Dark Souls killed almost every single RPG out there for me, with some notable exceptions like Nier. I had never thought that the minimalist story-telling style would actually be so good; now I'm officially the enemy of plot dumps.

Even then, I've still got a spot in my heart for Deus Ex, Fire Emblem, Company of Heroes and Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Games is vastly different genres are still hanging in there for me, e.g. Max Payne 3 is still fun, but even the games I still enjoy don't have me thinking about the next thing i'm gonna do when i'm at work.

Now other Rpgs are really dead to me. I have downloaded the Extended Cut for Mass Effect 3 and I just can't bring myself to take my DkS disk out. From my Smough & Ornstein Cosplay coop, to making new characters for forum events and trying to find time to play my Gravelord I just can't be bothered to play something else. It really is quite sad lol

Elder Scrolls.

Skyrim and Dark Souls have battled each other for my soul since last fall. For me, the biggest advantage Dark Souls has is the combat controls, which I think are absolutely the benchmark. I would never dis Skyrim, because I do enjoy the game, but every time I try to wield a sword or dagger in that game, I just cringe.

A lot of people have critized Skyrim because of repetitive environments, but I don't think that's a fair judgement, since Dark Souls has a limited number of environments that we play repeatedly. If I play Skyrim, I usually like to use magic (which I must admit, has huge tactical variety over Dark Souls, especially if you get into playing as a controller mage), or Archery, which was well done this time around. But let's face it, Dark Souls is mostly about wielding a blade, and in that area, it is the grand champion.

DS brings such a unique freshness because of the way it blends single player, coop and versus all into the same recipe. In that way, it's always going to have an advantage even over its closest rival, Skyrim. But each time I try to play another IP, something about it feels clunky. The Witcher 2 is the only recent game that came close to replicating DS, but it's still a bit more awkward than I'd like.

Anyway, it's certainly become a new benchmark for RPG's, and I hope that more developers take a look at what makes it work, and start incorporating those elements into their games.

None whatsoever.

the only game that made me give a time from dark souls was dragon's dogma

As stated earlier, the Zelda games. Dark Souls took what Miyamoto and co. laid down in terms of control (i.e. lock on) and perfected it.

Any other RPG or action/RPG just doesn't stack up any longer: I put in 10 hours in SKYRIM, then traded it in for The Witcher 2. Same thing, 10 hours in and I'm bored of watching endless exposition and fighting the lame combat controls. I hear Witcher 2 gets better as you level up your combat skills, but why should I have to do that?

Other genres, such as fighting games and stuff like "LA: Noire" still get a play, though. I'm a sucker for old-school adventure games as well, so anything by Tell-Tale Games will force a Dark Souls break once and a while.