@TacticaI: no I couldn't

@destinhpark: a series that Edge Magazine named as THE title of the last generation.......any objective evaluation of Dark Souls would point to its status as a classic in terms of level design, story telling and innovative cooperative play......

@Tylermaxx: Its not arbitrary. That does a disservice to the reviewer who spent significant time on this. The issue is the justification for the score not that it is arbitrary, and that is where the reviewer did a disservice to himself and the community.

@neowarrior793: I disagree. I am more than happy if the score was a 1 as long as the review justifies the rating. Another site gave it a 7 which was properly justified. In this particular case I cannot see the justification for the score in the review and that's the problem. I, and many others, rely on reviews to make purchase decisions (although not personally in this case I'd buy DS anyway) and therefore it is incumbent upon the reviewer to justify their score.

In the video on this site the reviewer says he nearly gave it a 9, but due to a host of reasons which were not properly articulated in the review he settled on an 8 - I just wish that had been better articulated in the review.......Edge Magazine interestingly brought up the same issues with DS3, but landed on a 9.......Polygon landed on a 7 and I respect both of those reviews for their depth and clarity.....that's the difference

@kayemeep: np...all good :-)

@doccobb: Id start with Ds1 at least and the lore does link between DS1 and DS3 (bit like silent hill 1 and 3)

@chris120379: yes - all of them. I'd play DS1 first if I were you though........

@Buck_Swaggler: I love DS2....but I cannot fathom from the review why DS3 would get such a downgrade.....makes no logical sense

@kayemeep: I agree with you that 8 is not a low score. However in the context of previous souls-like games it is a shockingly low score. In a video interview on this site the reviewer did mention it was close to a 9 but in the end he settled on an 8. My problem is that there is little justification for the score in he review (unlike in the video I just mentioned) and in the cons list. Now another site gave DS3 a 7, which is fine, but the difference was that the score was completely argued and justified - that's the difference.....