prettyunsmart

One thing I've been noticing is how the bonfire warp screen has been essentially telling me where to go next. I've unlocked different areas out of order, but when I look at the warp screen, I can think "oh, I haven't killed a boss in this area yet, I should probably explore there before starting this other area. That isn't to say that is entirely bad, but it does make it feel like there's more of a "right way" to progress through the world, as opposed to Dark Souls' more twisted-interconnected feel.

I definitely agree about the titanite supply. The Fire Longsword is about the only thing I have decently upgraded. Beyond that, I have a bunch of +1 or 2 items that I really wish I hadn't wasted titanite on. Also, I had a two on one invasion too just a minute ago, which I somehow survived. Then, immediately after, I got invaded while summoned into someone else's world. Is that even supposed to be possible? Or is Belfry Luna just PVP central?

I just got invaded for the first time. The guy didn't even bother to bow or anything and just tried to backstab me as I bowed. Anyway, I still won, so whatever. It happened just before the

I joined the Blue Sentinels, and wow is that fun. I've never been one to invade people's games in Dark Souls, but I love the feeling of getting called on to protect a newer player. The fact that I get humanity and souls each time it happens only makes it all the better. Also, I'm pretty glad to be leaving No Man's Wharf. That place creeped me out. Then again, this is Dark Souls, so I'm sure whatever's next won't be any better.

As far as I can tell it runs for 5 minutes or so, though I've seen comments that claim to have made it about 7. I think the idea is that the required scrolling speed to not drown gets exponentially faster as you go along. I know the feeling. I was legitimately creeped out for a while after playing that.

Yeah, it seems to be back to normal for me now. That makes a lot more sense than just a random change to how the game works with super slow stamina recovery and always raised shields. So, random lore question:

Which part of the state are you in? I've noticed that even Columbus is a bit more closed-minded than I'm used to, but maybe I just used to live in a land populated by many hippies.

So I died a bunch on the Pursuer. I still haven't beaten him myself, but I decided to drop my summon sign and help some other people take him down. After getting my humanity back from killing him with two other players, I decided to summon some people in to fight with me. Unfortunately, the first guy I summoned shot me in the back with a ballista. Video games.

Who needs the Idle Thumbs Store when this is still up and running: http://www.cafepress.com/idlethumbs

It was even crazier to see how quickly the death count grew. When I first got out of the tutorial, the count was around 50 thousand, and after I finished the first boss it was around 750 thousand. Random question: How sparing is everyone being about using effigies? I've lost about two chunks of health, but I hesitate use an effigy because I still don't know how hard they are to come by.

Well, time to first death: about an hour and 36 minutes. It's weird being back with a level 1 character after going through new game plus with Dark Souls 1. The starting sword has so little range, the endurance bar refills so slowly, and it seems like rolling in general is less powerful. And the "your shield is always raise thing" is super strange to me. Quick question about the thing that killed me:

Since we're only a few hours from PC release, are there any things you wish you knew when you first started (not necessarily spoilers on the level of the Drake Sword or how to fight a specific boss, but just things that aren't explained super-well)?

I was a slacker-backer for SportsFriends and was told to email a dev or community manager to get forum access. My message never got answered, so I never got any updates about the project, though from news around the internet it should be releasing soon. Not sure what to tell you, since I'm in the same situation without any real solution.

Sortie en Mer

Wow. This looks pretty great. The Game Boy was my first system, so where other people have intense NES/SNES nostalgia, my first Mario/Zelda/Metroid memories are all tinted in green and black. Nicer graphics sort of dull the nostalgia rush of it a big, but the upgrade does look nice.

I must have missed the boosters when I had it installed. Anyway, I'm not trying to go off the grid or anything. I use enough Google services (Android included!) that I'm sure there are countless marketing profiles of me out in the ether. Still, some of the questions in QuizUp just felt like they were randomly generated from data scraped from Wikipedia questions rather than more authored like something like You Don't Know Jack. For some reason that seemed to make a difference in my impression of it. On a happier note, I'll second graddy's point about Hoplite being pretty great. I haven't beaten it yet, but it is my go-to "waiting for the bus" game since it is small enough to install on my phone without any trouble.

I played QuizUp for a little while, and then I thought about what their economic model is. Since there isn't any way to spend money in the app and I wasn't seeing any ads, the only thing I could guess is that by playing the game and picking categories, you are essentially creating a really specific profile which they can use/sell for targeted advertising. I know this sounds kind of tinfoil hat-ish, but the idea creeped me out, so I uninstalled it. I haven't played much on my phone lately since it has a tiny amount of internal storage and I can't seem to move anything to my SD card. I have played a bit of Out There on my tablet though, and found it to be pretty interesting. It seems like a stripped down version of FTL that might even be a little more bleak than FTL. Actually now I just wish there was an Android port of FTL.

This goes a bit deeper than I care to get with PC graphics settings, but PC Gamer has been running a series of articles from the guy who made DSFix. This one is about how to get the best looking version of Dark Souls 2.

I don't know if that is my favorite or least favorite thing ever.

I'm really conflicted about if I should comment about the robo-dog and if you should buy it. One one hand what I'm going to say is sort of a spoiler, but on the other hand it might be good to know. I'll just spoiler tag it and you can read it if you want to.

One thing to think about is how your shins/knees feel if you are running every day. I usually try to alternate days running and biking because I get pretty rough shinsplints and knee pain if I don't. Ultimately though, it just comes down to what you feel like you can handle. You want to push yourself, but not cause any long term damage. EDIT: Yeah, I only do cardio because the bros at my university's gym freak me out, so I don't want to go in the weight room with them.

Alternate thread title: Sweaty Thumbs. I was going to ask if anyone has something like the Couch to 5K thing for getting up to a 10K/Half Marathon. I've been hovering around running 3-4 miles 4 days a week or so, but only occasionally sneaking in something a little longer. I know I should try to go farther, but I need some structure to do it. Yes, I could just google it, but I figured if anyone has a program they've used and liked that might be better than just trying out whatever the first search result is.

Hey twig, would I be robbing you of invisible internet points if I made an exercise thread? You said you thought about it but probably wouldn't but I think it is totally worth having.

Since I'm not familiar with his comedy, I'll probably do that and picture you as the parrot from Aladdin.

Thanks? The first sentence sounds kind of damning, but the second is nice. Anyway, intellectually I know I'm ready. That just doesn't stop anxiety from happening.