That is true, yes. I really loved Dark Souls, and it didn't feel lacking at all in terms of content. I suppose I have gotten a bit "too used" to the TES way of doing things.
However, content/mechanics/stuff to do, as I described, would also includes a combat system such as Dark Souls; it's very deep, there are many different animations, and it feels very large, structured and extremely responsive -- you feel like you are in control. This is quite rare in most games though.
Dark Souls has a ton of content; areas, items, bosses, mobs, combat of course, but it does it differently. It's deep as opposed to large, I suppose? It's just a very satisfying game - the more time you invest, the better you get, and there's something very satisfying about that.
But despite having followed this game for awhile, I still don't know what to think of it. It uses the MT Framework engine, and they said it was very hard to make an open world game in it, and look at the other games from this engine:
"Version 2.0
Lost Planet 2 v2.0
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds v2.1
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3 and Xbox 360) v2.?
Dragon's Dogma v2.?
Resident Evil 6"
From wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MT_Framework
Sort of a weird choice for an open world game.
Still, it's an engine, and who knows what they have altered in it.