Griddlelol

You can't continue after beating the game? It immediately sends you to NG+? That's a bummer, I'll definitely do the DLC before I finish then - just assumed I'd be able to explore a bit after I killed the final boss. I keep telling myself I'm not going to play, but I'll probably have another crack at the cyrstal cave tonight and maybe in the morning before my train. It's either that or Titanfall...my antithesis to Dark Souls that I use to take a break when I die 100 times on trash mobs. Edit: Actually that makes me think...I've died far more to trash or level design than I have to bosses. Maybe it's because I take the bosses seriously, or maybe it's because I try to rush through the trash when I figure out my boss strategy for the first time. Anyone else experience this? I get excited about bosses, and I dread the trash rather than finding it benign.

unfortunately GFWL disconnects after 8 minutes exactly, every time I play. It's really annoying!

Alright, I thought as much. I'll probably skip the DLC and come back to it later. I really want to finish the game but I'm running out of time to play pretty rapidly, and I'll be really annoyed at myself if I get this far and stop due to lack of time and frustration at not retaining the necessary skills.

The paths have little crystal flakes land on them and mark them, so it's easy to see where they go. It's just fighting the golems on the narrow paths that is the pain for me. Too scared to roll dodge, and their knockback takes me off. I've already done Tomb of the Giants, that was quite rapid: finished off that boss today. The crystal dragon seems like it'll be a pain since it's hard to get in melee range. Although I only fought it once then got stuck in prison, so the fight may change for all I know.

I've decided to stop for a while. I'm at the crystal caves (which I'm not happy with the pathways), and I won't be able to play for a week, so I'd rather just wait it out. 30 hours in...much left to go? I've got 2 of the souls for the Lord Vessel.

Not a huge game, but Pushmo is good. Ghost recon is pretty decent if you like TBS games. The new Pokemon is worth a shot too! I'm sure there's more great games, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Woot! I can't believe that I killed him on my first try on my 2nd play through attempt after dying easily 20 times on my first. I was absolutely dreading that fight. Usually the adrenaline kicks in on a boss fight when they're about 1/4 health left, but the Capra had me feeling that horrible stomach sinking from the moment I saw the fog gate. I've still not gotten the Drake Sword, I'm kinda glad! Sounds like it makes the game harder in the long run.

Ok thanks all. Havel's set + fire sword turned that fight into a farce. I was just waiting around for the next one to spawn. I would never have found Havel's set without looking it up, but I suppose I could have bought Smough's set which has the same poise benefit if I'd really thought about it.

I just did the catacombs. The boss was a cakewalk compared to 4 Kings. I think I had him down in about 10 seconds, although I managed to lose the 20k souls from the boss by falling off the edge twice in Tomb of Giants - slightly annoyed about that! Yeah Uchi is level 14, so I'm on the look-out for that slab. Still, 14 does a good amount of damage, just not enough to deal with 4 kings. I'll get the charcoal pine resin and give them another shot tomorrow. I'm super close each time, it's just very frustrating when the second one appears and they chain attacks together stun-locking you. Where can I find Havel's set? Lol just looked it up. This game can be so silly. Would be useful if I could just go in there and swing until they're gone.

I did. I took out the boss in that area and got the ring I needed for the staircase that I couldn't figure out. Four Kings is the hardest boss I've faced by far. Having a "dps timer" before another one arrives to fuck you up is horrible, it's really not how I like to play. I prefer to take my time and ease into things. Plus they really like to chain their attacks together to stun lock you which just feels incredibly unfair. Anyone got tips for taking down Four Kings?

Oh I have the silver knights spear. I forgot about that. I got Uchi to +12. Those ghosts SUCK. Now I decided to go off and explore (with a little help from the wiki since I'd never have thought there'd be a ladder behind that waterfall), and hopefully find the materials to get it to 15 along the way.

No, none, although I do have the gargoyle's halberd. That scales better with Dex, has a lower Str requirement but overall looks weaker. I like having the katana/spear combo as it allows me to attack at a long range, or a short range, so maybe upping another weapon with a long reach like a halberd wouldn't be a bad idea.

Well looks like I'm going to ghost town. Unfortunately I've not touched Int, and I killed Smough second, so I didn't get Orn's soul. Doesn't look like there's going to be any unique weapons I'll use. Quelaag's fury is alright, maybe if I upgrade it a lot then it'll be good.

I still really love Titanfall. I was playing a lot this weekend and finally regenerated. I have to agree though. At one point I was matched up against a premade of gen 8/9s while my team had me as the only gen 2. It's a pretty terrible matchmaking system. I find that if you keep trying eventually you get into a balanced game. It's a game about cool moments for me. I had a couple which I'll describe because I'm waiting for stuff to finish at work. 1) Wall running above a catwalk I killed an enemy who had spotted me, turned to my left to see someone else shooting at me in a room, I lobbed a satchel charge in and blew him up for a double kill. All while wall running. 2) Grabbed the enemy flag, at the last second before they capped, hopped in my titan waiting outside turned to see the enemy flag carrier who had chased me out. Punched him, activating my dash core. Popped it and sprinted to my cap within a few seconds. The matchmaking is pretty weak, so is the jump kick. It's so freaking glitchy. I've been killed by people who looked like they were across the room, or behind me facing the other direction. In their kill cam it looks fine, so I suppose it's the way respawn deals with latency. It's just really frustrating.

Alright, an update (because while I'm at work I'm just thinking about DS)... I went through one of the big fog gates that was blocked off before. SO. MUCH. TRASH. It's at Anor Londo. The cut scene showed more opening, although I have no idea where to go for them. I'd not noticed them. Is the one in Anor that hardest? It takes a long time for me to clear the trash, and I'm normally out of estus charges once I'm done. I have my Uchigatana as my primary weapon, offset by a lightning spear and Quelaag's fury for enemies with specific weaknesses. Uchi is at +10 right now, but feels quite weak and neither smith will upgrade it past +10. Is there another smith, since it doesn't show up in the possibilities of things for them to do, usually if I'm missing reagents it'll just be greyed out. Yeah, I've gone only melee. I think if I'm going to play, I'm going to play the way I think is coolest (and after reading, is apparently the hardest). Dumped all my stats into Vit, End and Dex, with a couple in Str so I can wield Uchi. Although I just got that ring from the guy who murdered the fire keeper, so I think I can afford to ramp up my Dex input now to buff my attack. I don't know if there's a weapon I really like yet, I'm liking Uchi, it looks cool, hits harder than most of what I have, plus the moveset is good. It's a shame that the upgrade damages you. When I first read it I thought it was a vampirism effect, which would have been fantastic but oh well... Spears! They're quite useful! If there's a one-of-a-kind spear, I'd definitely consider getting that. To Gormongous: There is a way to mess up your stats. From my personal experience, dumping too much into Vitality excluding other stats really screwed me over. It's great to see you picked it up again! The DLC, I take it that it's worth it? I'll definitely check it out.

Great! Boss fights are the best part of this game. I has given me another point of "where the hell do I go now?" I kinda wish they gave you a few more hints.

Haha! I found it, that's a cool blacksmith. Although he can't seem to bump my 5+ weapon to 6+. I actually just beat them. I had a single slither of health after I took down Ornstein. No flask charges left either. Smough didn't touch me once. People say that Dark Souls is the opposite of a power fantasy, but when you kill a boss you've died tons of times on finally, you feel like a badass.

Ok I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to rage quit there. I'm so glad there's a bonfire really close to the boss. No, I've not found the blacksmith. I do have the shield you mentioned it's pretty good. That's what I've been doing. Kiting. All. Day. Still no luck though. If you make a mistake you're dead. Simple as that. I'm sure once I've take out the little guy, it'll be a piece of cake though. Big slow bosses are very easy to kill, it's the casters/fast ones I have trouble with. I've only summoned once, at Quelaag. The summoned NPC was useless. She spent the whole time bouncing off lava on the floor while I did all the work. I don't really trust the friendly AI! Also, yay! I'm not the only person starting this again. All I can say is stick with it. Once it clicks, suddenly you understand why everyone loves this game. The only thing missing in my opinion is fast travel.

Yeah, I saw those, but I thought my precious souls would be better spent elsewhere. Probably a mistake! I have a shitton of deamon titanite, what is that for? Nothing seems to use it. Holy shit. The Anor Londo boss is ridiculous. I usually die at least once, but I know what strategy I should use by the end of that death. This fight I don't have a clue what I should do.

I do find myself yearning for fast travel. I'm in Anor Londo (?) and I've got so much titanite that I want to use, but I really don't want to travel back to the blacksmith through Sen's Fortress. Anor Londo feels a little cheap to me. Archers with crazy pushback...on a ledge. I haven't screamed much at this game until I came across them.

Yeah boulders. Same thing in Zelda games. That split second just registers with me as "oh hey, it's stationary, it's safe now." The hardest boss in Sen's were the glaives. I died to them about 20 times while the boss was actually pretty easy. My timing is awful. I was really pleased to see that every time I died to a glaive I wasn't "sliced" and die where I stood, but actually flung off the sides. Made it entertaining to see where I'd land at least.

I guess the girl and her bodyguard who were praying are missing too. And the guy who I let out the jail cell. Yeah I like Sen's Fortress a lot. I'm stuck, but I don't resent it like I did in blighttown. That was simply because the camera was horrible to use, Sen's feels different. I'm extremely tempted to look up a map and figure out where to go, but that feels a little like cheating.

Sen's is very easy to get lost in, I keep going around in circles :/ It also has one of my pet peeves in video games. Stationary large objects that hurt you if you walk into them. I went back to firelink and found the bonfire had been extinguished, and the dumb girl was dead. Not really sure what to do there!

I have two weapons at 6+ the standard long sword and a katana. The katana does more damage but I like the long sword because it's easier to use. I may have to head down to blight town then, bleh. The fortress is slow progress. Out of curiosity, what happened to the fat bloke that was sitting there before I opened the gate?

I really don't want to run through blighttown again. I thought about doing that but it's hellish getting back to where I am now. I'd rather just stick it out and leave when I have to! I did eventually kill her. Now I'm fighting snake people. This is now what I consider really hard. It takes a long time to take one down and two mistakes will lead to me dying. I might have to farm souls and titanite (if that's at all possible) for a while...