Cbirdsong

I'd recommend the Top Score podcast, if you're not already aware of it.

It's kind of odd how, in New Game +, the item drops are not adjusted. The enemies in Central Yharnam are significantly more durable than anything I had fought near the end of the standard game, but then they drop Blood Stone Shards and Coldblood Ore.

If you can get away with it, running past stuff is a perfectly valid tactic! Just don't make it your primary one.

I was about to finish the game and looked up how to get a +10 weapon, since I hadn't found anything.

Yeah, I was waiting for someone to drop "Keysnian economics." It was right there.

I've just gone through the Upper Cathedral Ward, and

I think you have the wrong non-video games thread. It also makes me sad that in 5th edition I'd have to make my own user-friendly monster stat blocks after they totally solved that problem last time around.

Yeah, by that point in Blighttown I was being the most careful. I definitely just stood back and unloaded a dozen arrows and wondered what the fuck that thing was.

I explored the unseen village last night. Random spoilery questions:

Did the patch fix the rest mode-related summoning issues?

Yeah, cleared out Cainhurst! Boss only took two tries. That was the most Dark Souls-y area I've gone through yet. It's really baffling that the enemies in the courtyard are so damn difficult. Even the little worms down the hill are crazy strong. I guess that tiny area is this game's Valley of the Drakes.

Worth noting: if you don't own a PS4 yet, you should still be able to "purchase" it and download it later on: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/pt/cid=UP4511-CUSA01127_00-PPPPPPPPTTTTTTTT

Finally beat Rom, at around level 55-60, and I'm trying to figure out where to go next. The area that you're dumped in post-Rom is bonkers, Other areas I can go: - I am up to the boss in the nightmare frontier, but I was doing single digit damage amounts, so I probably shouldn't worry about that right now. - Cainhurst Castle, where the horrible tick monsters in the courtyard absolutely wreck me, so I definitely shouldn't worry about that right now.

You could just set it in a sci-fi setting on the decline, as these games often are. Ammo for crazy ranged weapons/magic equivalent is limited because there just isn't a lot of it left in the world.

I don't mind paying Zynga to remove ads because it sends a message that there are people who are willing to pay for quality ad-free/consumable-free games. It's voting with my dollars!

The fact that you have to burn through your stack of consumables also makes me feel a lot less excited to try and co-op. I tried to help people fight Rom last night, and after three failures all I had to show for it was the need for a trip around Central Yarhnam to top off my blood vial stack. Related: Before doing that, I was trying to get help for my fight with Rom. Rang my bell / burned an insight, and half a second later a message popped up saying the server was going down and I needed to reboot the game. That felt great.

Looking at the way this has been designed, Activision seems to have learned the lessons of the previous instrument boom-bust cycle, and they're setting up the new GH to create a sustainable long-term business, just like Harmonix did (and wants to continue). This time, they are not cashing in on a fad, just building something relatively modest, and designed around the series' still-compelling core.

What level is that?

Iosefka:

Hidden information is key to Ticket to Ride, so you'll need multiple screens, but the Steam version can play with the Android tablet and iPad (but not iPhone ) versions. Catan is also heavy on the hidden info. I can't speak to the quality of that version, but I doubt it supports any sort of local multiplayer. Small World might support hot-seating. The iPad version is a great pass-and-play game. It's a pretty okay game overall - much better when you can speed through a game in ~10 minutes like you can on the digital versions. I think they all play together, like TTR. Talisman is overlong roll-to-move trash and it makes me sad that it is one of the few board games with a nice Steam version.

It has nothing to do with PSN names and is very confusing: http://kotaku.com/a-helpful-guide-to-bloodbornes-confusing-multiplayer-op-1693582137 I think the process is trying to evoke a feeling of unknowable cosmic horror.

Mimics are a pretty classic dumb D&D fantasy trope and would feel pretty weird in Bloodborne's setting, I think. I wasn't really expecting to see one (but I still hit almost every chest I see).

This is related to another annoying thing about the healing system. Previously, when you were helping someone with a boss, you could take a few hits here and there and get healed by their flask, but now you have to spend your own consumables. A few failed summons in a row can leave you having spent half a stack of vials with nothing in return. It makes it feel like you have a lot more to lose by trying to help people, and it feels a lot more frustrating when the host does something fatally stupid halfway through a fight.

The most efficient route I've found to farm up blood vials: spawn in at the Great Bridge, kill brute (2) + two werewolves (6), walk down through the house and kill the four regular dudes in there (0-2, plus some bonus bullets), head out the back door and clean out the area with two brutes (2-4) on your way back up to the Central Yharnam lamppost. Pretty short route, and you get 10-15 vials plus a bunch of echoes you can buy more vials with. (The consumable system is easily the worst part of this game.)

After losing when he had only a sliver of health left, I ended up cheesing him in a similar way. If you invite him back to the chapel,