Maybe it's the oldschool dungeon-crawl fan in me, but I am still rabid about Demon's Souls.

Last night I pushed through the first level again, saving up souls and recovering some very valuable items I couldn't get the first time. I have a good excuse. There was a damn dragon sitting right there watching over the items! If I had tried to take them, I would have been a goner. After I went back to the level with the boss defeated, however, the dragon was gone so I raided the treasure. There were tons of "people died here" bloodstains on the ground, indicating to me that some people had been impatient and tried to grab the items with the dragon watching.

I upgraded my character several times (which requires large numbers of souls) and my equipment. I tried the second part of the first level (the game has five levels, each of which is divided into four parts. You can play any of the five levels, but within each level you must play through the four parts in order) and the first part of the second level, both of which were tougher than the first.

In other news, we've got a big Superbowl party coming up. It will be awesome!