u/Ghost_Mech

HP: Wet Napkin

Strength: Overcooked Spaghetti

BUT they are an Olympic gymnast possessed by sewer demons. The little bastards move like they drank six energy drinks and saw God.

Have a great day and Praise the Sun!

I finally opened my factory sealed PEGI copy of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition… and the Steam key still worked in 2026.

I only had the game sitting sealed for a few hours before I started second guessing myself. Part of me thought it was really cool owning a sealed copy, especially with how rare PTDE has become, but I kept reading comments from people saying things like:
“Games are meant to be played.” And honestly… I agreed with them.

The more I looked at it sitting there sealed, the more it felt wrong for me personally to just let it become shelf decoration forever. So I opened it. The crazy part is the copy was completely legitimate and untouched. Inside was the original manual with the Steam key printed on the back, sitting there unused for something like 13–14 years. I genuinely expected Steam to reject it. I was ready for: Invalid key, already used, expired, or some weird Games for Windows Live issue. Instead Steam accepted it instantly without a problem.

A few minutes later I was launching the original PTDE version from my library and honestly just sitting shocked and the nostalgia hit me.

There’s something weirdly wholesome about an old physical PC game still working exactly the way it was supposed to all these years later. No cracks, no workarounds, no nonsense. Just: open the box, redeem the key, install the game and play. And after trying mouse and keyboard for a bit, I plugged in an old wired Xbox 360 controller and immediately understood why people always said this was the “real” PC Dark Souls experience.

I will save the physical game and put it with my other copies of dark souls.

I’m sure some collectors will give me a hard time and will say I should have kept it sealed or had it graded but at the end of the day…

No regrets. Praise the Sun.