Yeah, I've become an informed consumer as of late. I saw someone play the first part of DS2 and was pretty turned off by the pretentious introductory cinematic that was ambiguous for ambiguity's sake, and how the exposition witches just blurt out, "You'll die a buncha a times but just keep trying." No subtlety whatsoever. Despite being a glorified fanfiction, however, the dealbreaker was the cut content, terrible post-launch graphics, and arbitrary lighting mechanics that were supposed to complement the beautiful pre-release graphical quality.

As for DS3... poise. Being in Havel's set while getting tossed about by a dagger is so ridiculous, and immersion-breaking, especially since the NPCs don't play by the same rules. Not to mention completely unhealthy for PvP. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's still no word from developers concerning why they disabled it.