I'm sure I'm not the only one whose jaw slackened a bit when I checked to see which game nabbed the top honors here at GameSpot. While I was aware of Demon's Souls and was pretty sure it was a great game without ever playing it, I was still shocked at the choice. Yesterday I sat down and started playing it, though...

I am kicking myself for not buying the collector's edition the day it came out. Apparently it sold out like instantly and is worth $40+ more already. The standard edition is fine for now, I guess...

The game itself is quite unique, which actually surprised me when I started playing it. I was expecting something familiar and simple, and it's not unfamiliar it's a good mix of old and new school dungeon crawlers. I'm not very far in the game, so I can't speak too much about it, but from the hour or so I played I was simply in awe most of the time.

The little online interactions are a fabulous touch, I hope more games use something similar in the future. Basically, you can leave notes for other players in the world, you occassionally see the "ghost" of another player that is in the same area as you, and you also occasionally see a pool of blood where you can watch the final moments of a fallen player. There might be more stuff that I just haven't seen yet, but those alone are subtle but striking.

It's hard to find time for RPGs, especially since I have so much other stuff to play...But this game is something special. If you own a PS3 at least rent it and see what all the fuss is about.