I still prefer Dark Souls to Bloodborne, but yeah, parrying in this game is much better and the Lovercraftian atmosphere is indeed amazing.

I also prefer it over DS, even though I adore it.
The combat is so much more dynamic and satisfying. And the story/lore/atmosphere... Masterpiece. I really feel like it was kinda overlooked as a GOTY because of The Witcher 3, but well, TW3 is fantastic as well.

I just bought the GOTY edition yesterday for £24. I can't wait for it to download. Just more 2 hours! I've never played any of the souls games, so I don't know what to expect. Any advice for a complete beginner?

Dodge towards ant to the side of enemies when they're attacking, dodging backwards rarely works well, and dodging sideways often gives less oportinity to attack.

Good to hear that. Bloodborne is my 2nd favorite of the series so far and the fact that DSIII's combat heavily relies on it is making me a happy guy.

May you find your worth in the waking world!

Glad you've seen the light.

I own it. I got to... I forget the name. It's the part where you first go into the woods. Anyway, I think it's a brilliant game in most ways. My only issue, and the reason why it sits collecting dust, has to do with two design choices. First off, I am not a pussy. I'd say right now, 90% of my gaming is on actual NES/SNES and Genesis carts. I can beat Ninja Gaiden without a struggle (don't know why that game is always listed as hard) and I 100% Super Meat Boy. I beat Earthworm Jim without cheating... even Contra.

I have never met a game that I haven't been able to beat. If I wanted to beat Bloodborne, I could. But I don't want to and here's why. First off, this idea of forcing the player to grind, whilst not actually being reward for said grinding unless he/she makes it to a save point was horrible imo. When I skillfully work my ass off, killing every damn thing in sight, only to have an over powered enemy jump out of no where to take it all away, that's bad design. This wasn't an issue with Contra, or Super Meat Boy. In those games, you don't lose 45 min of work when you die. If you die on those games, you KEEP WHAT YOU EARNED which is the level you last passed. To have that taken away from a player is fucking stupid. The second thing plays into the first and that is lack of save points. If they were going to take away 50 min of grinding upon death, fine. But you needed to place more save points to balance it out. There simply isn't enough imo. Hell, one of them, located on the edge of the wooded area, doesn't even work both ways... making back tracking so monotonous that it's not even worth it.

I'm pretty sure I'll never finish the game. It's going to sit there for all time, on a shelf. Not because it's too difficult but because it's fatally flawed in the most crucial area. At least for me. Some of you sadists out there may actually like playing for 3 hours and leveling up once. Not me.

I've never tried a Souls game before, I'd wanted to buy Bloodborne for a while, but was skint for ages and any little money I got I wasn't going to spend on something that I may very well hate (I don't do trading in, because I think it's a rip-off and I like to collect my games too).

Anyway, I'd left off buying it because I was waiting for a good deal on it. The other Friday Amazon were giving £10 off when you spend over £50 and PSN has had their sale, so I got a £35 PSN top-up for £27, along with Mad Max for £16.99. I decided to get Bloodborne GOTY as it only worked out to be £16.99 too, which I think is an absolute bargain, especially considering I absolute love this game to pieces.
IMO it's one of the best games I've played this generation, have tried Battlefront, The Witcher 3, Batman and a fair few others.

Personally I was never one for these really frustrating games, where you can die and lose your progress, but really in Bloodborne it's only your Blood Echoes (the game's currency) that are taken away from you temporarily, when you die. Things like blood vials, silver bullets and your gear don't get taken from you.

Yeah if an enemy kills you for a second time then your echoes are lost forever, but I think this makes you cautious. The whole point of the game is for you to learn from your mistakes and for the game to train you as you go. Personally I'm pretty silly in how I die. I still haven't really learned about parrying and being more mobile or my timing, but where I would normally get frustrated this game just makes me feel like getting stuck back in again after I die and it's like I'm being egged on to keep going with it.

I don't think it's about leveling up, but more about you learning and improving your tactics and skills, to improve as a player. Actually improving your own timing, reflexes and physically becoming better is way more important than upping stats.

If you wanted to add me on PSN, I'd be happy to let you Shareplay it to try it out. 

Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind next time I play.