Another 'holy fucking hell I love this game' post. So listen to my story, GAF. I started this when it came out last October, with the intention of getting as far as humanly possible before Arkham City/Uncharted 3/Sonic Gens/AC Revelations/other stuff came out. I got all the way up to the Darkroot Forest and had defeated the Gaping Dragon in the sewers but avoided Blighttown. Barely scratched the surface really.
This year, in between doing bits of Mass Effect 3 I've been playing this game a little more, and holy hell, I thought I loved it BEFORE. I grinded massively in the forest and let myself be summoned constantly by other players, amassing Humanity and helping them take down their bosses. In time I defeated the Hydra and the Butterfly. Ventured into the Covenant territory, joined, had a bit of PVP action, got the ring from the ninja (betraying them), grinded massively in this area, eventually defeating Sif and having tons of awesome PVP experiences en route. Also discovered Valley of the Drakes route, defeated the cliff dragon, discovered the back way into Blighttown and tried braving Londo Ruins (but got raped by ghosts).
I then levelled like a mofo to 50+, ventured back into Blighttown built like a tank with heavy resistence, got invaded by some motherfucker who I defeated WHILST taking on the boulder-throwing fatties. Went into Quelaag, kicked her ass, had a look in the Demon Ruins and got owned by Ceaseless Discharge. Went through Sen's Fortress, did it all, got the lightning spear, had an embarrassing moment where I was parried, and then almost immediately backstabbed by an undead knight, defeated the Golem on first try, got carted off to Anor Londo, and now doing that. Yesterday I tried opening a chest in there and it morphed into a beast which bit my face off, it was awesome. It's been a relentless experience and I'm loving every second of it.
This was maybe one of the better games I've played this gen, but recently it's just rocketed right up there with Uncharted 2, Bioshock and ME. I highly, highly recommend to anyone on the fence to give it a go. It demands patience and committment, but goddammit is it rewarding. And anyone else who was as intimidated by Blighttown as I was: Fuck it. Go around it, grind, upgrade your shit and just do other stuff until you're confident enough to go in and really ruin their day.