sclpls

Yeah, even normal isn't too bad once you understand how all the systems work. There are a couple of difficulty spikes, but if you can get through those without too many casualties (and prep correctly for final mission) you should more or less breeze through.

It's certainly a valid way to play the game, but one should definitely have the option to engage with the online components, they are such a staple of the game.

My favorite is Demon's Souls for the PS3, but the original Dark Souls is a close 2nd. That being said, if you're looking to play the game right at this moment you're probably better off with Dark Souls 3 because Dark Souls 1 doesn't appear to work at the moment. http://kotaku.com/nobody-knows-why-dark-souls-1-for-pc-has-been-offline-f-1771610424

I've never had an issue with the difficulty of the Dark Souls series. I tend to find the rituals of progressing from the starting point to the boss area as a meditative exercise rather than an exercise in frustration. That being said I am feeling uncharitable towards Dark Souls 3. It is starting to feel overly familiar, and I'm definitely feeling what is the point of all this? Still playing for now in the hopes that the game gets better as I progress, but so far this is my least favorite game in the series. Even for people that crave difficulty, I feel like the Souls series is starting to hit the limits of what it has to offer.

So I managed to get the game to run by running it on the lowest possible graphics settings. I wonder how much longer I'll stick with the game though. I think I might just be fatigued with this series. While there are some things that are slight improvements to the game, I'm not feeling like this one really offers anything exciting to the formula. I'm getting a little tired of bosses where you just roll behind them to defeat them.

Guess I spoke too early. Even with the lighting settings changing the game is still freezing on me. Guess I am not playing this game until it gets patched.

I dropped the lighting setting to low and that seemed to fix it. Even though it is a bummer to have to do that, the game still looks great. Still, what a bummer, I hope this gets fixed soon, it was a really bad way to get introduced to the game.

How's the PC version at this point? It sounded like there were some game breaking bugs initially. Has that been sorted out?

Interesting thought about how indie games have conditioned us to think about games with a retro appearance. I can't speak for anyone else, but the deal breaker for me in Dark Souls 2 was the way enemies would disappear after you killed them enough time. Knowing that there was a potentially upper limit to the economy gave me enough anxiety about playing the game that it made me stop playing even if realistically I never would have hit that limit. I think most people didn't like the design of the levels & bosses though or something. Also, yeah, the menus for that series are pretty bad. I was thinking recently how I really dislike how many RPGs handle upgrading your character by improving a stat that affects some other trait. I wish you were just upgrading the relevant trait, it would result in a much less opaque experience. RPGs do this just because it is a holdover from D&D (which in turn is borrowing mechanics from old wargames). And it makes sense in the context of a tabletop experience where it makes things manageable if you just have a couple of things to track on a character sheet, and then you can consult a chart. But a computer game doesn't have that kind of UI constraint so it seems like a poor choice to carry that system over.

This Starladder tournament has been interesting to watch to see how teams play after the big shuffles. LGD apparently were doing horribly prior to this tournament, but they've played convincingly so far, and made drafts work really well that I didn't expect to work. Na'Vi also looking incredibly strong, which is not a statement I expected to make in 2016. Disappointed MVP flamed out of this tournament, I was ready to join that hype train. OG and Alliance looking pretty uninspired to me.

If for some reason you are looking for a tearjerker of a movie I saw Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies last night in a theater, and I think over half the audience was audibly crying by the end. It has been a long time since I've seen anything that devastatingly bleak. I put the film right up there with A Woman in Berlin as a powerful portrayal of the consequences of war. Roger Ebert's review: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-grave-of-the-fireflies-1988

I hit some pretty crippling analysis paralysis during an ironman run. Still been mulling it over, but also there have been a lot of games to distract me lately. I'm sure I'll get back into it soon enough though since everyone in the world but me is playing Dark Souls 3 right now.

Okay, so I picked up a burger recipe back when I lived in Chicago from a friend that worked as a chef. Burger purists turn their nose up at this because it adds a bunch of stuff to a burger that isn't strictly necessary, but whatever, in my experience it has always been a hit. Mix together: -Your ground meat or fake meat as it were -Worchestire sauce -Your favorite BBQ sauce -Something like 6 cloves of minced garlic -Honey -Chile powder (or any sort of hot powder) -Diced onions -Italian seasoning My friend didn't give a lot of details about how much stuff to use except for the 6 cloves of garlic, but even that is totally negotiable as far as I'm concerned. The important thing is to make sure no one particular element takes over. Once the patties have been formed add salt & pepper. Cook, enjoy.

Hmm... I tried reading this like 8 years ago, but only got through about a third of the book I think. I'll give this one another shot. I haven't had the opportunity to read much fiction lately so it would be nice to correct that.

I went to a neighborhood bookstore this weekend where there was a poetry reading going on. I was a little apprehensive just because I think we all are familiar with stereotypes of these types of events being kind of self-indulgent and ridiculous, but in this case it was worth keeping an open mind! I went specifically because one of the people was Dan Higgs, who has been the vocalist of a number of bands and musical projects that I am a fan of, and I already knew I was really into his weird metaphysical lyricism. Well, it turns out he was a pretty great performer as a poet too! I picked up a copy of his book, The Fool's Sermon, and also snagged a copy of a book about French New Wave that included a bunch of essays and articles from the Cahiers du Cinema, a magazine I've read a lot about without ever having actually read anything in it, so I'm looking forward to finally getting to see what it was all about.

Bruce's critique of strategic level WW2 games definitely echoed a lot of the discussion about how the Hearts of Iron series is such a weird fit for the Paradox game engine because it is so much more deterministic and fixed compared to Crusader Kings of Europa Universalis. There's definitely something odd about playing games where deviating from how history actually played out gets punished or isn't allowed.

Panang curry is delicious.

Classic announcement for an announcement game dev move.

I really need to get my mic situation sorted out. For whatever reason my streaming software doesn't pick up my microphone.

I infrequently stream at: twitch.tv/sclpls

Epic "nazi mods" rant/meltdown.

This was a really down to earth talk. Teddy, since you asked about it, I didn't think it was too dark. Just felt real, you know?

Objectively speaking, no one complemented the fancy new chinos I scored in the Division, the loot system clearly is not working as intended. I agree, 3/10.

I finally checked it out a few weeks ago after not really touching it since it first came out on early access. Very impressed with how everything has shaped up! All the polish that went into the game was really worth it in my opinion!

Trying not to get excited when we know so little, but who am I kidding? It is a new Julian Gollop tactics game. Of course I'll be getting this.