I said this in the BB thread, but it is (for me at least) the weakest of the series. The twitch gameplay, the linear progression, the limited enemy types, the erratic hit boxes, and the silly difficulty progression curve all put me off. The complete lack of replay value hurts, too. I mean, pick any souls game and you can replay it with different gear and have a completely different experience. Having said that, even though BB is From's weakest game (again my opinion) its still better than 90% of the shit out there and I do not regret making a day one purchase of it in any way. I just hope that DS3 does not adopt the twitch play and gutted gear of BB. Keep the two franchises separate.
Unlike some, I actually really enjoyed the different sprawling environments of DS2 (esp with the DLC) and the difficulty curve seemed exactly spot on, without any need to farm for health/levels periodically like other entries in the series had. I think if there is some customization in move sets, they will solve the weapon balance problems. Really, the biggest flaw in DS2 was having a lot of weapons be useless due to the DUR bug or gimped move sets. And for the love of god don't adopt the horrid online play of BB. DS2 had the best online co-op and pvp model of the entire franchise.