So what's the verdict on the PC version at this point in time?

I've read a lot of complaints about input lag, controller buttons in the tutorial instead of keyboard, and the keybinding is very lacking.

How about the rest? Who's finished it?

I'm really enjoying it and haven't noticed an input lag but I'm playing with a dual shock 2 gamepad*. The combat is very similar to Dark Souls but feels different enough that I had to do a lot of adjusting to get the new timing right and know the animation cool downs. There was much death in the process. XD

On medium settings the game performs better for me than Dark Souls 1 and looks at least as good. I never felt the need to use the dsfix mod in the first game however.

Unlike DS1, there are so many people playing right now that you'll constantly be seeing ghosts and pools of blood litter the landscape. :D

* Buttons prompts in the tutorial must have been useless for me with my Sony style gamepad button labeling but I didn't notice. The tutorial doesn't really tell you anything you don't already know if you've played DS1.

Thanks for the input. You don't have those ghosts in single player, do you?

You *are* aware that it's a last gen game, right? I'm not gonna argue with you, Dark Souls 2 is not a particularly pretty game, not even for last gen, but a sarcastic "next gen" comment doesn't make sense. :P

There are ghosts in online mode. :)

Dark Souls 1 &2 are kind of unusual games. There is no clear division between single and multiplayer. You are the master of your own world/ dimension. You see ghost/ phantoms of other players in other parallel world/ dimensions blink in out of view periodically as they go about their business (there's no interaction, they're not in your world). Vague messages may be left on the ground to help or mislead others in other worlds (examples: "imminent sadness." "trying jumping off cliff." "Praise the sun!"). Fallen players leave pools of blood that you can touch to get insight into the victim's final moments. You can summon friendly ghosts into your world for some coop to help in difficult areas or make yourself available for the same (good way to get souls). Occasionally you can be invaded by an unfriendly ghost who will try to kill you in PvP*. Alternatively, you can invade someone else's world and kill them for a prize. ;) There's an item you can use to make invasions very rare but it's a double edged sword; it severs the links between worlds, you won't be able to summon friendly ghosts for coop.

I would recommend playing Souls games in online mode if at all possible. I think it adds a lot of flavor. The mix of helpful hints and lies written everywhere and never feeling safe are unique. Coop can get you past that one boss who's halted the progress in your game without cheats and yet not be a gimme either.

*Invasions don't seem very common in DS2 PC currently. Rare consumable items are required and invasions are spread out over lots of players. Invaders now also run the risk of facing friendly ghosts and having the local enemies turn on them.

How does invasion works? I don't own either games actually but I was merely curious as the jump-in-and-out multiplayer sounds quite interesting but I would likely lose interest fast in case someone joined then destroyed whatever progress I had tried to acquire for several hours.

Technically, isn`t it a current gen game? Yes it works on old consoles, but also current pcs.
That was the whole point of my putting next gen though, purely sarcastic ;)
Made only worse by now that they`ve sneaked in VAC, you risk a ban if you use the downsampling mod by Durante or any ENBs.

Oddly, they`ve started work on a new game, some saying it looks good.
PS4 only though :$

the souls games constantly autosaves and you don't lose anything you picked up if you're killed, besides souls which are used both as currency and leveling up.

If you die, all your souls drop on your bloodstain where you died, but you can get them all back if you can get back there before you die again.

You'd also get kicked back to the bonfire, hollow out an increment (altering your appearance and temporarily reducing your max hp until you use an item to restore your humanity) and enemies would respawn. Though, I should point out that in DS2 enemies only have a limited number of spawns so you can depopulate an area (unless things have changed since the patches) and if you're worried about losing your humanity or are carrying a large number of souls you can just equip the Ring of Life Protection since it's repairable this time around.

it's pretty rare in ds2, though. You mainly just have to worry about it in the bell tower covenant and rat covenant areas.

It is a PC game.
And it is so much better on pc than it is on the consoles.

Of course it did. You played it with a controller. *żółwik*