I am going to need myself a major timesink this holiday season because I won't be able to buy many games and this looks to be the answer, but some questions still remain.

1.) Is this game like playing Oblivion, only in 3rd person? (Minus the giant bosses of course) If not, which game is it best compared to gameplay wise?

2.) How many armor/weapon combinations would you estimate there are? Do these items have a wide variety of appearances?

3.) I heard this game is hard. I haven't even been able to beat Ninja Gaiden on the NES. Is this worse? I did beat TMNT though.

4.) Will this game cause me to neglect my kid?

I know I could probably find some of these answers in the official thread for Demon's Souls, sorry, but I always liked getting questions answered this way, especially when it comes to a serious potential purchase.

hm.. I haven't played the game, but judging by the videos it seems to be similar to Monster Hunter (although even more unforgiving) as it's essential to learn the enemies attack patterns and which weapon does the best damage or is the best used against the different enemy types etc.

1.  It doesn't play like Oblivion, it is quite different.  It's a closed world really, but you get to do plenty of backtracking.  You actually play the same levels over and over... but it doesn't get boring as you go to newer parts of that level.  The whole game just repeats like a mmo... getting harder and harder.  I'm not sure what game it is like. as It is a combination of a lot of games.

2. Heaps and you can create weapons with rare items etc.  They look awesome :D

3. 1st play through is not so bad. Is hard, but you need to coop alot.  2nd play thru kicks your ass.  That is hard. 3rd play thru... hmmm I have nightmares about playing at that level ;_;

4.  Not really.  you can do levels under 30 mins.  But forget the pause button... there is none.  Just like a MMo you need to be in a safe spot.

It's an awesome game.  It's not like many games out there.  It's diffinately worth the try and it's  the hardcore dream game set in a fantasy world.

Sounds awesome!

About no pause button, if I internet connection is on isn't there really no such place you can consider "safe"?

The game isn't that bad an an offline single player if you follow a walkthrough and read up a bit in advance. Many bosses are very easy if you find the right strategy. If you go in blindly, you'll have a hard time, but then if you play online, you can always request for help. Oh and yes you will neglect your kids :P

Would you say it is much more fun if I play it co-op? When I hear "isn't that bad" it gives me the impression that it "isn't so good" that way.

While I would play it online, I would most likely play it offline much more.

I don't want to neglect my little one.