I briefly played Demon Souls at a friends house and it was extremely challenging i agree. Looking at Dark Souls i am glad to see that they are sticking to the insane difficulty, too many games these days seem to "Dumb down" the experience a bit to cater for the more casual players. I just hope that the difficulty does not ruin the experience and cause one to want to turn off the game and play something else. Screen shots look awesome too, and free exploration can only be a good thing in my opinion.