What are you playing?

[Devo]

I'm just about to start Bard's Tale III Remastered. Finished up Bard's Tale I Remastered about a month ago, then started Bard's Tale II Remastered, was steamrolling this difficult game with a well-optimized party including two archmages when suddenly... I lost my saves when I did an Acronis restore and forgot to back them up. But I really wanted to play BT III because of its greater emphasis on story. Michael Cranford was great at dungeon crawler game design but terrible at storytelling. I tried to play Bard's Tale 3 on the C64 many years ago but it was too ugly and annoying, having just played the great Dragon Wars a few weeks earlier. You can't go back from that.

[Muzkat]

Dark Souls Remastered and Soul Calibur 6.

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[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Muzkat

Dark Souls Remastered

More pain than pleasure, eh? Still think it is that hard?

[BarryB]

Replaying Black Mirror, didn't realise how difficult this point n' clicker was from when I last played it about 15 years ago

[Muzkat]

Originally Posted by gimbal

More pain than pleasure, eh? Still think it is that hard?

Ha! I'm only on the second level, but so far I'm enjoying it. I think playing The Surge and Lords of the Fallen helped prepare me for it.

Maybe one day I can tackle Bloodborne again. I could never get very far in that one.

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[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Muzkat

Maybe one day I can tackle Bloodborne again. I could never get very far in that one.

It definitely is the hardest of the bunch (although the main game is still a walk in the park compared to "the Old Blood" DLC). Although Demon's Souls can also be a real pain if it decides to be, it's the more unpredictable game of the series.

I asked because Dark Souls 1 is popularly heralded as a game so difficult it is masochistic, but it is actually not at all so difficult once you get the hang of it People complete the game playing with only one hand, or without getting hit, or while keeping their character at soul level 1.

There are three common things that give the game it's reputation:

- the asylum demon which you have to face within 10 minutes of playing has put a great many people off of playing the game altogether. Even though that unofficial boss is just there to teach you one simple fact: stick to the ass of a boss and you'll probably do a flawless victory.

- Capra Demon. You probably never reached this boss yet so I'm not going to spoil anything, but ho boy... this was my almost-rage-quit moment. But I just upgraded my gear a little more, went in again, learned to not lock on with the camera and then Capra Demon was my Capra Bitch.

- Ornstein & Smough. This boss pair is legendary, even if you've never played the game you probably heard at least something about O&S. The one boss to enrage them all. It is actually not that hard of a fight... but until this point you will have gotten very comfortable solving all your problems in a very similar way and you'll have gotten really good at it making yourself believe you've mastered Dark Souls, and this boss pair forces you to approach them entirely different - basically reverting you to a Dark Souls novice all over again. A really special moment. I urge you to keep playing until you reach at least this point.

[Muzkat]

Thanks Gimby.

The Asylum Demon was abit of a challenge so early in the game, but as you said, was also a decent lesson in taking on bosses. I also appreciate your advice about the other challenges this game is going to throw at me.

Any tips on parrying? In the other Souls-like games I've played, it's something I could never do consistently.

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[gimbal]

DS1 parrying is not too difficult, it is based a lot on knowledge (and reflex) - you have to know the attacks that enemies do so you know which ones are short and which ones are long. Then you just keep a look out for the start of a swing animation, and hopefully with a bit of muscle memory you can predict when the swing is going into a strike, because that's the moment you need to hit the parry button with most shields.

Tip 1: for 99.9% of the game, parrying is pretty irrelevant and basically a hack to play the game on easy mode. If you master parrying you will be a god in the game. Dodging, rolling, sneaking and backstabbing are more important tools and don't require a whole lot of skill to pull off. Parrying is only useful for a particular boss very late in the game, so plenty of time to practice along the way.

Remember, in souls games rolling gives you invincibility frames so you can literally roll through attacks if you time it right. That is your bread and butter.

Tip 2: you can parry with your arm, you don't need a shield. It makes learning parrying slightly easier as you don't have a shield blocking part of your view.

Tip 3: There are shields dedicated to parrying (the buckler and the target shield) which have a longer parry animation to them. If you see yourself tending to parry too soon, you may want to wait until you find such a shield. Both of them can be found around the area you are likely calling "the second level", the game actually has no levels

[Muzkat]

Cool. Yes, I'm calling the Firelink Shrine the second level. Thanks again

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[gimbal]

Ha ha, I envy you. The moment you start to git gud at Dark Souls and you stop dying all the time... Beautiful. If only we weren't living on opposite ends of the world so I could join your adventure sometimes

[Muzkat]

Sharing the adventure would be fun. If only you were playing the remastered version on PS4 like me, I might catch a glimpse of your avatar when I look into a blood pool!

You guys are truly lucky to be in Europe and the UK. You live in a beautiful part of the world and have amazing holiday destinations at your doorstep. Most importantly, you have access to lots of cool Amiga stuff!

just started on Powerglove, very good and fx+music at the same time

[Anubis]

Last week played Baloon Fight (NES) and this week Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future on ZX Spectrum. Fun platformer from 1986.

[Hillsy_]

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

Back playing Wing Commander, this time the CD32 version. How I managed on a stock A500 I'll never know. Amazing game that balances story and gameplay so well.

Also the recent remaster (that's stretching it) of Shenmue I & II. Apparently sailors like to hang out in bars?

Wing Commander 2 is a better game.

[amiwolf]

This week, I have been mostly playing: The Faery Tale Adventure.

Props to ross for V2. Still can't win with Kevin, mind.

[MartinW]

Modern: Anthem, Retro: Worthy. Still! Keep going back to Worthy, over and over.

[edit] PS: Have quite literally 0 friends on the Origin platform. If anyone fancies adding me for some Anthem play (I'm not all that good) I'm 'Guddler' on there (and Steam)

[Nobby_UK]

Started a new character (Viking = Big Nord) in Morrowind

Wow !
I forgot how much grinding there was ---

[gimbal]

That is the aspect of Morrowind I like the least, you need to grind all your skills to get anywhere and they do not level easily.

[Anachronist]

I'm playing Dreamweb and It Came from the Desert on my 1200. The music in Dreamweb is killer

[Anubis]

Elite Dangerous - what a time sink.... moved from couple of mil owned to ~40 mil in past 2 days, after setting EDDiscovery and free setup for Voice Attack. Just flying around is astonishing and gives nice vibe...

For RGL playing arcade version - Wonder Boy III : Monster Lair.