Trip Hazard

Now that the warm weather has finally arrived (I'm in the UK and it's a rarity) it can be hard to get to sleep when it's too damn hot! And that's where audiobooks are a godsend, because next to Boards of Canada, they are the best thing for sending me off to the land of nod. My favourite kind is scary stories though, and I don't have any that I haven't already heard a billion times. So, does anyone know of anything genuinely chilling to call out the cold beads of terror-sweat, and banish the regular sweaty-sweat? I'll get the ball rolling with this very classy McCallum reading of some middling Lovecraft: Here's another one which never gets old. Very purrkewleeaaaarrrr pronunciation, Burroughs:

I drifted off to The Temple last night, so it fitted the brief perfectly I'll definitely be listening to the others when I get a chance; I was very impressed with the reading and the subtle, eerie sound effects. Best of all, I found his accent very pleasant, which is something I think I'm unreasonably picky about. I think I'll try and seek out an Edgar Allan Poe podcast.

No video unfortunately, but today was my highest scoring run up to now, with over a million being banked! I'm fucking off to enjoy a lavish retirement in the south of France, but before I go I have a pun to share. When I killed myself and revived with the Ankh, my girlfriend remarked that I'd "Ankh'd myself off". Amazing.

Cheers for that. I'll defo be calling upon Lucatiel for help when I hit NG+, and will try out powerstancing soon too. I've got some sweet maces that aren't yet glutted with brainmatter

I haven't summoned her at all yet, probably just because I'm usually hollow. I did know she was there 'cos I'd seen other players summon her, but didn't notice that sign myself. Do you have to do certain things in a certain order to make her appear? I've probably completely missed out on an important questline by now... Can anyone explain what power stancing is? I've not done any dual wielding yet, but I think I might as I think I'm getting better at dodging now. Also, made it to Drangleic castle, yay.

Finally beat the Smelter demon today, woohoo! I'm with Sno in thinking that he's a great boss. I couldn't pull out any tricks against him, just keep my cool, dodge precisely and attack when I can. I actually turned human so I could summon someone to help, but then no signs appeared (I was right by his fog door, and I think they're all back at the first bridge), so I decided to solo him. Kinda wished somebody had dropped a message telling me to try lightning, though, because that did help. I then went on to completely trounce the Old Iron King. What a pussycat that guy turned out to be.

Yeah, I didn't mind that area but for those accursed pots! Hang on lion-o, I just gotta roll over here real quick. Okay, now we can fight. My least favourite area so far is The Black Gulch, where you have to oh so carefully dispose of all of the poison spitting fetishes before you can make any headway. Yawn.

When equipment scales with a certain stat, it improves when you pump points into that stat. If it's 'E' scaling, then the difference is there but not as potent as if it was, say, C scaling. S scaling is the best kind. Bit of a crappy/vague description, but accurate, I think.

That's crazy! Well done! I'm stuck on him currently, at like SL98. The hitbox does seem a little off to me, but that's not the reason I'm failing

What I did was kill the first one, then linger on the platform with my shield up. The other two will be making their way over and they'll both jump up, but one will always come first. Use that time to do a bit of damage, then go down into the arena proper. I sidestepped a lot, didn't roll very much at all and kept my shield up. Take your time and don't overdo it when you attack - always ensure you have enough stamina to block. There is also a ring sold in Mujula which will negate the fall damage from dropping down, which could help. Edit: And good luck! They are tough.

Made some really good progress this morning, having been able to sit down and just play for about 4 straight hours. I was at a bit of a loose end, having thoroughly explored (so I thought) the lost bastille, Heide's tower, and the Huntsman's Copse. After killing the undead charioteer, I felt like I'd probably opened a big new area, but an imperious dwarf told me to go away, so I did. I explored the belfry a bit more, even managing to solo those bastard gargoyles, and found a key for a door in the bastille. Using it gave me access to a neat item, but nowhere new to go. I then dropped, ever so carefully, into the ominous looking pit back in Majula. I was immediately summoned into someone's world, and gave them what for, receiving a lockstone for my troubles. So now I had three of those, but there were fucking loads of faces all over the place, and I quickly ran out. I slew a bunch of rats in the boss arena, but I must've missed something on the way because the health bar didn't shrink and they just kept coming. "You Died". Eventually, I went back to the Huntsman's Copse, and found a massive bridge which somehow I'd missed first time around. I crossed that and carefully followed some narrow paths, making good use of my greatshield to knock enemies into the abyss. I came at last to a huge fog wall, with loads of signs outside saying "Try Phantom", so naturally I ignored them and went through by myself. My craftsman's hammer cracked many a hollow skull, as brains (and rolling!) triumphed over sheer weight of numbers. And now I stand in the shadow of Harvest Valley, my sights set on the summit. A few slightly naff bosses aside, this game seems to be going from strength to strength.

On degradation, I fall right in the middle. I'd prefer it if, as Terri says, it was purely tactical as to which weapon you'd use, but then some weapons are so versatile that you could use them pretty much anywhere. Is DS1, I'd carry one weapon through almost all of the game and never experiment that much of go out of my comfort zone, and that was bad. The old system of just sitting at a bonfire and clicking down a list to fix things was boring and stupid, and the new one is better, cutting down on the busywork and actually making degradation into a proper mechanic. There have been a couple of occasions where my main weapon has been breaking after seeing some good use, and I feel I've progressed far enough that I want to push on to the next bonfire so I'll switch and vary things up. I adapt my tactics and I feel more scared and vulnerable, and that's a good feeling, and I do agree that in a souls game it makes perfect thematic sense to have these scavenged weapons crumbling in your hands. Then there have been other times when my weapons have worn down so quickly that I'm barely away from the bonfire, so I go back to repair and have to redo what I've done and ughhhhhhh. This has been happening less the further I go, though, as I now have more secondary weapons to fall back on. I think I'd really like a system where weapons degrade more or less depending on what you're actually striking. A few undead soldiers wearing rotting doublets? No problem, carve 'em up. A turtle guy with metal scales? Bust out that high durability hammer. It would also help to provide a good mixture of opponents in an area, which is always more fun. Oh, and your weapons should degrade slower when you're a phantom. We're helping someone out, give us a break!

That's just bizarre. Why on earth...? I hope From are issuing a fix for this soon, because I'm already getting sick and tired of having my preferred weapons breaking down on me between bonfires.

My first recorded daily since January, and my highest score so far. Got today off to a good start, heh

Just spent about an hour farming chunks as a Bellbro, and now I feel really dirty. Honestly, the amount of posturing those guys do when they gank some poor sod who was just looking around the place. I feel slightly better about myself because I didn't do that, but only very slightly.

I was beginning to think they could be an intentional roadblock, and was thinking of maybe checking out Heide's Tower. Good idea/bad idea? Also, I was just reading on the RPS forum that certain cheaters are giving themselves a very high number of souls, then invading worlds to intentionally die and bestow those souls on the other player, which fucks with their soul memory and seemingly can make it very hard for them to do co-op. It defo seems like - as has already been mentioned in this thread - From dropped the ball not having a system which took into account both soul level and soul memory.

I've done a lot of swearing tonight, but it has all been worthwhile. After helping others take on the as a phantom (all of us dying every time, I should point out) I decided to throw caution to the wind and have a go at soloing them. The first 4 or 5 times I embarrassed myself utterly, and was glad there was nobody there to see it. Then I got my eye in, and started to formulate a rudimentary strategy: hang out on the platform, smack them with a hammer, and try not to get flattened. I tried for about another hour, managing to consistently kill the first one, then getting ganked by the two that join in later. As unpleasant memories of the Four Kings started to cloud my thoughts, I told myself "one more time, then I'll give up for now". And wouldn't you know, "I did it!". It all came down to some awfully tight timing and a LOT of luck, but by god it felt good. After this I tried to explore the nearby Belfry, and got ganked some more. Ahhhh, Dark Souls, you know just how to toy with my emotions

Ugh, made it to hell, where I paid a high price to find out that an intact lava cauldron will react quite violently with a bomb. Boom.

Haha, I've never seen that before. JC Denton is indeed a dick, and (probably not coincidentally) one of my all-time favourite protagonists. Ooh, that reminded me of when Old Man Murray did a walkthrough for the demo of Deus Ex. Just...read this http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/84.html

I've had two upgrades so far, but I don't want to look anything up just yet, as I actually made significant strides this evening. After using an effigy, I blew up a turtle with firebombs - cheers for the tip anonymous message - and then fought my way through a few hollow soldiers into a fort with some familiar pressure activated elevators. Here, I decided to summon a phantom, pretty much solely to see how improved it is over DaS. The phantom very confidently led me down a dark passage to a fog gate, and before I knew it we were fighting a boss. Also before I knew it, the boss was dead, and I hadn't taken a scratch. I imagine greenpeace will be wanting a word with me, but I hadn't time to fret over that as the boss had dropped a key, which opened several doors in the fort. Now I'm happily exploring. Feels so good to have this whole new world to roam around in. This area seems big, and has plenty of nooks and crannies. Give me a nook and a crannie, and I'm happy.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll get back into the game soon, pop an effigy and try again. I've pumped a few points into Adaptability (think it's at 10 now, from 6) and I'm already starting to feel some improvement, although that could just be my imagination I'm also going to have a look at how encumbered I am. I have very few options now in terms of shields and armour, so I might just plump for my strongest shield and take things slowly. My girlfriend was watching me play earlier, and told me that she thinks I'm being cocky, basically. 200h spent with DaS will do that, but this is a different beast...

Lara Croft. How many endangered animals have to die to slake such a powerful bloodlust?

Having a very hard time in the Forest of Fallen Giants this morning. I'm still trying to play as if this is DaS, expecting to roll quicker and have more i-frames, so I'm getting cut down a lot by weedy enemies. My health is now capped at 50%, and I haven't made any progress for an hour or more. I know I can get it back by using (not burning!) a Human Effigy, but I've heard there aren't many of these in the game. What's the true story there? Am I likely to run out if I just use them when I feel I really need them, and is there a finite amount? Any help appreciated

I'm not sure who to join, or who to talk to if I want to leave a covenant, or if there is a penalty for leaving. Way of the Blue sounded great, the way the crestfallen guy was going on about it, but I actually don't want to be helped out with invasions, at least not initially. Anyway, I played for 2h tonight, and would play for longer but for tiredness. It looks great and handles beautifully, although the new menus will probably take some getting used to, and I'm still irked that there's no way to see what something is before picking it up. (Another shit helm to throw away? Gee, thanks). I do not like having to travel back to Mujula to level-up, and I also don't like that weapons degrade very rapidly. Broke two swords already! Also, if I can't buy a repair box at some point, I'll be irritated. One thing I've noticed is that I don't seem to be able to roll immediately after blocking. Might just be my imagination, but is this something that adaptability will help with? I don't dislike the change, actually; I think I overused roll in DaS as my go-to move for getting out of a tight spot. Will be good to change my tactics up a bit.

The scepter doesn't melt? That's quite a few runs I needn't have abandoned, then.