prettyunsmart

I just finished Dark Souls! It only took me about two years. I first played it a couple of months after it came out. I had heard mixed things about it, not so much that it wasn't good, but that it might not be for everybody, so I acted like it was the 90s and rented a copy from Redbox. I played a ton of it over the weekend since my wife was out of town, and I got as far as the gargoyles before I got stuck. I started just wandering and ended up in Darkroot Garden. I really enjoyed my time with the game, but I didn't end up picking up a copy. When the PC version came out, I added it to my steam wish list and ended up waiting for it to go on sale. Once it finally did, I played up until the same point, getting stuck at the gargoyles. Now, I know that my problem was a combination of not upgrading my equipment, not understanding the equipment load system, and leaning too much on the Drake Sword in the early game. I played for a few hours, then I put it down for about six months. I came back, this time determined to understand the systems, upgrade my gear, and grind out some levels to get over the initial hump. Once I did that, I got through the gargoyles without too much trouble. Over the next few months, I played the game for short bursts, up until I got to Anor Londo. I was feeling pretty good, up until I got sucked into the Painted World before I was ready for it, without any items to prevent/cure toxicity. I gave up. I posted about it in the "Quitters Club" thread here on the forums, but a bunch of people gave me suggestions on how to get through it. I ended up running past the toxic enemies, finishing up the Painted World, fighting the boss, and continuing on my way. Last night I took down the last few bosses in quick succession, only to get stuck on Gwyn. This morning, I decided to give a different strategy a shot (tanky Havel's armor/Iron Flesh instead of fast rolling robe wearing) and got through it with only a couple of tries. I have never felt so accomplished on finishing a video game.

I did it!

I just took out Seath and Nito in one night. I am the best Dark Souls person! Just kidding. I'm actually pretty terrible and am just good at mashing two-handed attacks before the bosses can kill me. EDIT: And the Centipede! DOUBLE EDIT: And the Bed of Chaos!

I know this has been asked all over, but is the general consensus that the game is still totally fine if you don't have a save file? I played on PS3 and had my hard drive fail, so I know I can't bring my choices over. I've been holding out, hoping that someone would put together a save editor, but it seems like that is probably not going to happen. Does it seem like not having a save would break the experience too much?

Sorry for the bad info. I should have said that I started the fight without it on, quick equipped it, and then saw my curse meter thing stop filling up (or at least slow way down).

I really hope there is more to this than just upgraded graphics and a bigger world in which you can occasionally drive. They probably aren't going to heavily revise the formula, but I hope they've had enough time to make some meaningful changes to the core design. It isn't to say that I don't like the last two games, but I don't know if I'm in for a bigger version of the same thing.

I haven't beaten him yet so I'm no expert (I got killed in the fight you can't win and am just heading into the crystal caves now), but I found a ring in the New Londo Ruins that basically nullifies curse called the Cursebite Ring. Searching around for that could help a lot if you get stuck.

A bit late on this, but if anyone wants a Starseed Pilgrim/Fez code, PM me!

What are the advantages of "not" shooting her with an arrow. I know but does the game change significantly depending on what you do? EDIT: Also, I just got through Four Kings and it looks like I'm sort of headed for the endgame. Am I close to actually finishing this thing, or does it just seem that way? Also, any advice for not horribly screwing this up?

Apparently complaining about Dark Souls is just what I need to get motivated to kill bosses. Now I can warp around, and I met a giant lady.

Yeah. I was just about to summon Solaire to help me out, and then a guy with a shiny mega sword took me out. I suppose I could just unplug my connection, but could that cause saving issues because of Games for Windows? EDIT: Also, I misread your last sentence as a Vanaman-esque "Alt+F4, delete local content" type slam.

http://www.giantbomb.com/rust/3030-42984/forums/unofficial-giant-bomb-classic-rust-server-us-east-1473638/#3 This could be promising. It might end up being most of the same people I was playing with before. I'll PM the guy and see if an influx of thumbs would be OK with the person running the server.

I suppose part of the problem might be my own fault for just knocking out guys when I had the chance. The forced action sequences are my real complaint though. Maybe there is a way to slip away and then resume sneakiness, but particularly the Iranian Intelligence office mission has that bit where it transitions from sneaky-time to tons of dudes trying to shoot me in the dark struck me as annoying.

So am I approaching this game wrong if I get really annoyed when I get invaded? I usually walk around hollow since my weapon doesn't scale with humanity, so the only time I am human is when I'm about to fight a boss with a summon (in this case I've been stuck on Ornstein and Smough for a while). Whenever this happens, I get invaded and some player with unbelievably nice gear comes and wrecks me completely. I know, it is supposed to be hard, and I know a game respecting your time isn't what people come to Dark Souls for, but when that happens it really makes me question if this is the game for me.

Just for fun, I thought I'd post some alarmist commentary from the 18th century about the dangers of reading non-literary things. "The languishing and affectedly sentimental compositions formed on the pattern of Sterne, or of other less original Novelists, not only tend to give the mind a degree of weakness, which renders it unable to resist the slightest impulse of libidinous passion, but also indirectly insinuate, that the attempt is unnatural. ...In vain is youth secluded from the corruptions of the living world. Books are commonly allowed them with little restriction, as innocent amusements; yet these often pollute the heart in the recesses of the closet, inflame the passions at a distance from temptation, and teach all the malignity of vice in solitude. There is another evil arising from a too early attention to Novels. They fix attention so deeply, and afford so lively a pleasure, that the mind, once accustomed to them, cannot submit to the painful task of serious study. Authentic history becomes insipid. The reserved graces of the chaste matron Truth pass unobserved admist the gaudy and painted decorations of fiction. The boy who can procure a variety of books like Gil Blas, and the Devil upon Two Sticks, will no longer think his Livy, his Sallust, his Homer, or his Virgil pleasing. He will not study old Lilly, while he can read Pamela and Tom Jones, and a thousand inferior and more dangerous novels." - From Knox's "On Novel Reading"

I tried to go back to my old server the other day and found it wasn't around any more. Are either of you playing on a good server consistently?

I might be done with Splinter Cell: Blacklist after playing about half of the game. The amount of times you get forced into combat during a cut scene is pretty obnoxious. Also, the fact that a "ghost" play style seems to consist of only a series of sleeper holds, I feel less like a super-spy and more like a pro wrestler having a very bad day.

It's kind of a shame, but it seems like his duties on Polygon lately have shifted toward the editorial side of things rather than writing reviews. On his Tone Control episode, Tom Francis talked about how that seems to be the way it always goes. Good writers get promoted and don't get to write as much. As for other reviews I read, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Giant Bomb yet. They haven't been doing as many lately, but I generally tend to find their reviews honest and insightful, even if I sometimes feel differently about games than they do.

How many game studios that you know have that good of a theme song, especially before they even announce their first game. Come to think of it, how many game studios have theme songs at all?

I don't think that's totally different from my experience. The faculty I work with all have a generally positive view of genre fiction, mainly because that's what I work on. There are just as many around who have their hangups about it, so really it's just a bit more of a contested issue here. Then again, nobody's saying don't read sci-fi, they just would rather focus their attention on fancy modernist literature and the like.

I don't mean that they don't get discussed, or that articles aren't published about them (Carol Clover's chapter on Alien from Men, Women, and Chainsaws is a personal favorite). I just know a fair number of people in film studies departments who turn their nose up at genre films, with exceptions made for Kubrick and a few others. The high/low divide has been eroded a bit in the university, but there are still quite a few pockets of conservatism about canonical films hanging around.

I actually chose it because of something a police officer once said to me. Come to think of it, is there a "tell us the story of your username" thread?

I think the internet just gives us access to the internal thoughts of more people than we would have seen otherwise. The guy you pass on the street or the woman in line in front of you at the coffee shop my have some profoundly misguided thoughts about ancient aliens or where Barack Obama was born, but you'd never know it. If either of them goes home and posts a comment on a YouTube video, though, we immediately get to see how they see the world. On a more serious note, I think this could have something to do with wealth inequality and an unequal access to education/information across classes. Science and technology are making great advances all the time, but only those with the leisure time to read about it/engage with that sphere of conversation will ever know about it.