SA2's Gaming Blog Topic

[Marie Rose]

A friend of mine just beat the game a few weeks ago and had a similar experience with the community. It kind of blows my mind that a game where getting help from others is a key point has such a hostile community.

I forgot to include collision detection on the list, though it came up pretty frequently in Blighttown so I guess it doesn't matter. Saw a 4 hour steam of Dark Souls 2 on Twitch 2 days ago. Really liking how fluid the movement & combat looks in this game (is that the right word to use?) and the areas look pretty good (not that the areas didn't look great in DkS, that was one of the good points), bosses seem a little eh at the moment, haven't got much to say on the ones I saw. 1 thing I do hate is the healing system in general. Apparently having 5 estus flasks was simply too generous, didn't some people say that they were planning to appeal a little more to casuals? Plus the healing is so slow, reminds me of replenish in DkS, but somewhat faster.

Again, I don't get people. Going on about how watching any of this will completely ruin the game for them, break full immersion & the joy of exploration etc. At points like this I feel I have to acknowledge I'm weird but these guys need to calm the fuck down. I want to have the general gist of what the first hour or so will be like, possibly where to find the good equipment for a particular build, all the gameplay changes between the 2 games by viewing the final version. I didn't play Dark Souls for immersion, the lore, or because everyone said how hard it was & I needed to stroke my e-peen, I decided to finally play it because as an action RPG I figured it would be hard not to find enjoyment in the gameplay. As a game, that's the most important thing.

[Youef]

I think they said they wanted to make the game more accessible. But by that they meant they just wanted to make certain objectives and aspects of the game clearer to gamers in general, since Dark Souls was a little too cryptic at times.

And yes, Dark Souls fans are awful creatures.

[ganonfloyd]

The healing thing is definitely bogus. I've only seen two bosses thus far but I liked both of them . BOSS SPOILERS The Last Giant ripping his ar off and using it as a club was great and the Pursuer just looks awesome.

Youef hit the nail on the head though; I think they were going for clarity rather than making it any more easy or anything like that.

[Marie Rose]

Wow, not only is my favorite enemy coming back, they'll be used as backup in a boss fight. I never asked for this...

[Scourge the Hedgehog]

The community always feels the need to dictate how the game is suppose to be played, like they developed it. It's one of those things that they feel like they have pride for since they have nothing else and anything that isn't what they consider the "norm" is deviant or "casual". They have their own little society going on and it's bolstered by anonymity.

I remember telling ChristoperOdd about getting the Dexterity Scaling Uchi in DS from the merchant and I got flamed by like 5 people because apparently "that's not how you play the game" even though it was up to HIM to follow my advice or not. I guess It's impossible to avoid with niche games and people that will literally get upset when you don't play the game exactly like they did.

It's contradictory, laughable, and biggest of all, because of a fictional video game

[Youef]

Some people just don't understand that there's really no one way to play Dark Souls. You can play it however you want. That's what makes these games enjoyed by all sorts of people. It's flexible enough to fit with most people's play-styles.

People are dumb.

[Marie Rose]

Only casuals like variety, youef, remember that.

[ganonfloyd]

filthy scum

mlg giant dad is the only way to play

[Youef]

Wt ring you got bithc?

[Marie Rose]

Havel's ring
Ring of Favor & Protection

STAMINA
HEALTH 
ENDURANCE

EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT

[Youef]

I GOT BACK UP AND PWNED HIM

[ganonfloyd]

GIANTS
GIANTS
GIANTS

BECOME
UNSTOPPABLE

[Marie Rose]

I couldn't help but smile when I saw the name...

[ganonfloyd]

*thumbs up*

[Marie Rose]

Aw yeah, it’s here! I’ve been waiting my entire life for this! Ever since Dark Souls saved my dog from that house fire, and was there to loan me that $200, and that time DkS was my wingman, I considered him the best guy ever, so let’s start this up & get back to seeing him again. Bando Namkai Games, whatevs. Aww yeah, gotta get me some of that FromHard dick, that 20 icnher, it’s been too long, no homo. Terms & Conditions? Get that shit outta here, what is this? Casul souls? Skip that cutscene, seen it enough, don’t care. So I take this jog to some house in the middle of some woods. My name? Rek, cuz dats wat I do, scrub. I play as a Knight because that’s a real man’s class (I actually chose a sorcerer just for their starting stuff but I’m gonna be focusing more on my STR & DEX to get that up to speed, yes, a caster doing more phy combat instead of mag, I’m that good. I‘m also probably gonna do a Swordsman on another file). These bitches must be crazy, lose all my souls? Bitch, I played the first game, can’t lose tons of souls if you make sure to spend ‘em. Mo’ souls, mo’ problems. Run through these fog doors and ignored the tutorial tablets, those are for faggots. Came across some big ass hungry hungry hippos, and would’ve normally pwned them but I let them live for now. So I come to this place called Majula, I ran around the area & eventually got attacked by some scrubby pigs who thought they were all good. Found items, the covenant of champions which only hardcore players like myself join, and other nonsense.

I decided to go with ‘ignorant tryhard gamer’ this time instead of ‘senile old man’

Cereal talk:

- First of all, I LOVE that I can target things more than 5 feet away
- Next, spells can be cast even faster & cancelled if need be, praise the lord sun
- Third, you now have 3 equipment slots per hand. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted more so I could have a physical weapon, a staff, a shield, a tailsman & a Pyromancy glove to swap between on the fly. Now I can have a bow fit one of those slots too. Always did love having some variety for almost any circumstance.
- Still don’t like healing in general. How you start with just 1 estus that takes even longer to drink than in the original & the heal is a regeneration effect, and lifegems leave you wide open for 5 seconds and are even slower than flasks. Thankfully, I’d rather avoid being hit so I’ve barely used the lifegems & have like 25 right now from running all over the Forest with the merchant hat that increases drop rate. It just makes the early game harder for new players who don’t know very much about the game besides enemies disappearing for good after 15 kills (which I still think is dumb)
- Speaking of which, hate that the I-frames on rolls were nerfed, as if the heals being nerfed weren’t enough. Haven’t found an 100% block shield yet so I take 10% if I block & half the time I try to roll I’ll still randomly get hit so I’m better off blocking things.

First hour I started, I messed around with the Swordsman, just quickly getting used to the controls, running around & going through the first half of Lost Giants Forest. I’ll continue with that file eventually. Just recently beat Dragonrider with my sorc. Also, the summon thing was no joke. After beating the Last Giant I got summoned like half a dozen times in 15 minutes. Once I got summoned like 10 seconds after putting my sign down, I randomly alternated between using magic or melee during that, his pattern isn’t too hard to learn that I’d avoid fighting him up close. I'll actually made a lot more progress pretty soon.