Griddlelol

Yeah that doesn't interest me in the slightest. DS isn't a power fantasy, it's the complete opposite. I might try a SL1 run and see how far I get until I'm too frustrated. I have no interest in becoming a magic user, and the str build feels a bit too close to what I was already using, just slower and more tanky. I think I might just play resident evil 4 instead.

Me too! Although I doubt I'll ever go play them. I know what a Pokemon game is. I know I'll like it, and I know I'll create a fantastic team on paper, only to get sick of breeding pokemon with shitty IVs (terrible mechanic) and quit.

Dark Souls!

So firstly. I didn't bother going to the ash lake last night. I spent a good 2 hours in the great hollow dying cheap deaths until I flipped the table and said fuck this place! I must have fallen 4 or 5 times. I got stuck in the level geometry twice (!) and punched to death. The game some times bugs out and won't let me lock on to enemies which led to more deaths until I closed and restarted the game. That place just sucked! On the other hand I killed Gwyn. Parry, parry, parry (fuck up until I have one tiny slither of HP left), parry, he's dead! I actually liked that fight despite it being easy. He's a giant badass and my character just knocks his sword aside to kill him. Seems fitting after the long journey. I now have some spoilery questions about the end and NG+... Anyway, I loved the ending. Loved the game. Kicking myself that I didn't play it sooner. I doubt I'll be playing NG+ though. I know enemies get harder, but with all the equipment and souls I have they don't seem like they'll be interesting for a while. I might start again and try a STR build, or try a SL1 run, although I'm not much of a dodger. Or i might pick up DS2. I did have a taste of disappointment when I finished. I didn't really want the journey through that world to be over. Still, DS is officially in my favourite games of all time now. Thanks everyone for pushing me to try again, and thanks for the help!

Once you get a loadout you enjoy you can just go score chase! There's no need to focus on the tasks! Also on the steam version you can just unlock everything and forget about the tasks.

I've never understood that part if Zelda games. Are the sages dead? Where are they? Can they ever leave?

That's what I love about it! The achievements make me try out new things and discover different variants that I might actually be good with! Also I'm not great at score chasing. I get bored with that quickly. I am struggling with some of the achievements or "tasks" if you will. Still a really fun game.

Why is omega before alpha? Are they trying to piss off everyone with even the slightest OCD? This doesn't interest me as much as SS and HG did. I'll probably get them anyway though.

That's a really great way of looking at it. I'd really love to see a prequel. Like a dragon slayers edition. It'd be hard to keep it fresh and won't ever happen but I'd like to see this world when it was in its prime.

Yeah, I probably taking internet criticism a little too seriously. I really like Demon's souls, but I think Dark Souls is a better game. I was at first a little irritated that it was less linear than DeS, but I've grown to love that part. Congrats on killing Gwyn. I was right then - the fight is kinda easy! I'm not sure what's with the depressing music though, I feel like I'm missing some part of the lore. I'm sure even if GFWL does go down that someone will mod it to ignore that. I suppose the ME comparison makes sense. ME1 is a better game, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the great ME2. The real reason I picked up ME2 is because I wanted to spend more time in that world after playing ME1 for countless hours. It wasn't as good as the first time, but it did scratch the itch. I guess DS2 will do that too.

1) bosses are less memorable and/or cheap 2) difficult to solo due to the above 3) world isn't as interesting and feels smaller 4) enemy variety is low. That's what I've heard and makes me think "do I need to play it?" Not sure how valid they are, but if it's a good game, it's a good game. I am trying to think what else I could be playing, and it's nothing particularly exciting. I do want to play the pc RE4 port since I never finished it on game cube but that's it.

I'm feeling either trying a SL 1 run, or playing again as a magic user. Probably leaning more towards SL1. Kind of want to play DS2 now while it's still hot though. Especially as I've completely missed the online component. I keep hearing bad things about it though. Everyone seems to be so down on it, which makes me feel like just sticking with DS1 and saving myself £40. I'll go >.< the hydra boss isn't making me feel better about it though. Those things suck.

I actually played Dragon's Dogma but got fed up with backtracking through the rather boring world. Also I had no clue what was going on most of the time, and the quests were really lame too. Go here, kill this dude, pick up his special thing, return to the quest giver. I was having fun with it at first but I just got tired after about 3 or 4 hours feeling like I wasn't moving the narrative nor my character forward.

Fair enough. I will have a look. Hopefully tonight! I'm currently on the cusp of finishing two fantastic games that I'm massively late to. Obviously Dark Souls, but also Persona 4. Interestingly both are Japanese, and I've always told myself I do not like Japanese games (Nintendo is the exception). Also I'm much more of a PC gamer which limits the Japanese games you have access to. However after playing both of these, which I'm now feeling are going to be two of my favourite games ever, I need to pick up some more games from the east.

Well looks like you're ahead of me. I still have the Painted world left. I might check out the Ash lake, but frankly I really want to finish it. I'm using the elite knight set too. Everything is +5 but I don't really feel the need to farm. I have so much HP and Gwyn isn't particularly difficult at my current soul level. Hopefully I'll have Dark Souls finished by the end of this week. Feels good to say that! Will you be picking up DS2 immediately Gormongous? I feel like I need a break, but then again I bet I'll be thinking about it constantly.

I can't get used to the hover engine. Really struggle with not getting hit. The cannon is good too. It's my second choice! I love that there are challenges. If it was just high score chasing I would be bored with it fast. Vlambeer really do deliver on their promise of an arcade experience. I missed out on that as a child. Born a little bit too late, as well as being in the wrong country for an arcade culture. Vlambeer games make me feel like I'm playing those classic arcade games. So incredibly tight. Their music is always great too. Luftrausers and Nuclear Throne have some of my favourite game music the year. I think it will be hard for them to be topped (until Hotline Miami 2 comes out of course).

My best scores have been standard gun, bomb body and either standard engine or propeller engine. Simple but feels great.

I intend to write a longer reply when I get home but I couldn't resist. Love Luftrausers. Fantastic game. I'm about to double dip, I already have the vita version but I want the steam one too. The technical issues on the steam version aren't game play, but more the fact that you can go in and edit everything. So the score tables are full of people who have cheated the shit out of the game. I was kinda irritated when the thumbs commented on how they don't like the backlash that the game has received. I may have stopped listening though because I love the game so much. I just got nuclear throne too. Only played 5 minutes before my girlfriend yelled at me "will you stop with the fucking clicking". They need to let you hold down the fire button on that game.

I've been to the Valley of the Drakes. Killed most the drakes thinking it was an area I needed to go through. The ash lake looks interesting, although there's no bosses there from what I can tell. I might as well have a look see. I'll probably look up how to get to these places as I didn't notice anything other than the knight in the Asylum. I actually found Gwyn to be pretty easy without parrying. Sure he does a lot of damage, but he's easy to stagger and my weapon was chewing through him without me bothering to learn any of his attack patterns. Hence why I let him kill me! Still going out on a parry would be a cool way to end the game.

Painted world? I just tried Gwyn for he first time. I actually let him kill me because I wasn't ready for the end of my play through yet. Good job! Can you back stab him? I tried but never managed to do it. Is it possible to parry him? Everything else? I've pretty much stuck to the main path except for the DLC. So I'm not sure. I don't want to miss out on anything! Had a quick look and it appears I've not killed "Dark Sun Gwyndolin" nor have I killed Priscilla. Apparently there's a drop in the asylum that I missed. So I'll go back and grab that. It sucks that killing the final boss ends the game. I'd really like to be able to explore some and take on optional things after the final fight. Yeah offline, but not intentionally. GFWL just fails for some reason.

I think I did a bit of a hybrid of your strategy and whatever the online consensus is for Kalmeet. I tried my hardest to avoid everything by side stepping but I had my shield up most of the time. I didn't cut off her tail though. It was too high in the air for me to hit most of the time. My weapon wasn't great for such a defensive fight. I would have preferred something slower that hit much harder, but DEX build! I also got kicked out the fight ankhs to GFWL disconnecting. It was a perfect run too, I didn't get touched and got her down to like 20%. I was pretty angry. I managed to kill her on the reconnect, but it was horribly sloppy. I was constantly getting hit and healing up. Really enjoyed the DLC fights though. All of them were memorable. I just need to head back to the undead asylum, upgrade my equipment then venture past The Lord Vessel. The invasions do sound like a pain, but I wish I had some. Similarly, I wish I could go help so,e people out using coop. Playing completely single player diminishes the experience.

That's fair enough. I'm not saying the Armored Core (I think that's what they're called) games are bad, they're just not my thing. A little difficult to get in to. I have to chime in with everyone else. I'm still working through DS1 and I will need a break before I take on DS2. It's a draining game.

I'm back in the saddle! Fired up DS today after a few weeks of not playing and realised I was at a tough boss - Manus. The first attempt was me poking him, relearning his mechanics and eventually dying after very slowly chipping him down to about 20%! Second attempt I killed him using the patented Griddlelol's One Last Hit Out of Panic tactic. He had about 10% left and I was full HP so I just two-handed my katana and went to town on him. One more hit and I would have been dead though! What a great fight. Once you learn Manus' tells he becomes pretty easy. Now for Kalmeet, which is proving to be another of those "learn the tells and you'll be fine" fights. Still tough though! I did have a sudden moment today though.

Nope! I'm a miserable old bastard though. Still, could surprise me. I'm glad they're doing something else rather than pushing the Souls series until everyone hates it though.

Two problems. 1) I don't want a PS4 and a TV. 2) From Soft haven't made anything I've enjoyed other than the Souls games. I don't exactly have much faith in them as developers...