Dark Souls Special Part 2: Hashtag DESERVED

By Shamus Posted Thursday Apr 24, 2014

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 105 comments


Link (YouTube)

Ah, the joys of doing a show unrehearsed, unplanned, and un… sane. This is one of those moments we couldn’t have achieved if we wanted to. It just had to happen on its own. I’d love to hear some theories on what the other player was doing. He seemed to swing wildly from super-tryhard to self-destruction. I assume there was some sort of plan here, but I can’t even guess at what it was.

I’m really glad we waited until George was on the show before we covered this game. This whole section was that much more exciting with his commentary.

References:

The pot-smashing reminded me of this little gem. The random nonsense names that we were calling out during the invasion were from Mystery Science Theater 3000: Space Mutiny. I already linked it yesterday, but since we mentioned it again he’s another link to the SBH Critical Close-Up of Dark Souls. And as Josh said, we’ll be doing a live broadcast of Josh playing Dark Souls 2 tomorrow.

 


From The Archives:
 

105 thoughts on “Dark Souls Special Part 2: Hashtag DESERVED

  1. Sougo says:

    Yeah I agree, Geogre’s hilarious reaction really put a smile on my face during the episode. I hope he stick around some more for any future seasons.

    1. KremlinLaptop says:

      Agreed! To be honest with the mix of schedules I think doing SW with Josh playing and just a random selection of people each week wouldn’t be so bad — since that’s pretty much what’s been going on recently anyway.

  2. Kana says:

    Oh lord, you attacked Crestfallen Warrior. I think it’s this funny thing where all the undead you fought so far is weaky little hollows, and then you hit this guy and he will wreck your day.

    My friend did that and it took her like 45 minutes to kill him. Eventually glitched her way on top of that arch near him and just drop attacked him until he died. And then decided to kill every npc. :'(

    Edit:

    Watching the whole invasion fight… yeah, he was either messing with you or trying to train new players to deal with invasions. He had Poison Mist and pretty sure the Crown of Dusk… but hittin’ you for next to nothing. Either he’s really patient, or the guy has a much higher level weapon than he was using.

    1. kanodin says:

      I can’t imagine it’s training when that poison is strong enough to kill most low level players on it’s own, bearing in mind most of them would only have half the estus charges josh does. Also he sorta gave up on a straight fight and tried to use the environment to win, a sure sign he’s either lagging too hard to hit or terrible.

      1. Kana says:

        I don’t know, poison itself won’t kill you unless you let it. One or two Estus should be enough for you to tank the whole of it, and the guy was playing kind of silly. Probably doomed if he got you at all with the other two casts, but after the first one you should know what the ‘breathing in’ windup is about to do.

        Now, if it was Toxic, Josh, or anyone, would be utterly screwed at this level. There’s no way you could outpace the damage on that while trying to fight an invader.

        1. Humanoid says:

          Maybe he heard the previous discussion about levelling in poison resistance and wanted to prove the point.

    2. TMTVL says:

      Odd thing is… He went and healed with a Humanity rather then using a more powerful weapon. Maybe he’s doing some kind of gimmick build.

      1. Kana says:

        Well, I say he might have a better weapon because I’m pretty sure he had Crown of Dusk. You can’t get that without killing Hydra and Crystal Golem in the Darkroot Basin (believe that’s the right name). Weirdest fight I’ve ever seen in Dark Souls.

        1. IFS says:

          Its possible someone invaded him (or was summoned by him) and gave him the crown, but he’d still need to have visited Blighttown for that pyromancy. So yeah, definitely a weird invasion.

          1. Zukhramm says:

            Might been the lag was worse on his side.

  3. IFS says:

    That is probably one of the silliest invasions I’ve seen, though I don’t think it competes with the invasions that turn into dance offs, the invasions that result in gesturing at each other, or this.

    1. The Rocketeer says:

      OH MY GOD.

      So if someone invades you and is greeted by a Rod Stewart disco trident hoe-down, they’ll just leave of their own accord. “No,” they will think, “no, this is beyond me. I don’t want any of this,” and depart stage-left.

      But if you don’t have the partners or the phonograph to pull that off, just rip off your shirt, swagger toward your foe with the light glistening on your pecs, and express your dominance like an apex predator, saying, “Bro. Bro. Do you even Praise the Sun?” Truly, you will appear too mighty, or perhaps too beautiful, to assail.

      Why is this not the side of Dark Souls I’ve been forced to hear about for so long?

      1. Akri says:

        Those links + your commentary = the best thing ever.

        1. IFS says:

          Happy to provide the links :D

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      That,was amazing.Josh,you definitely need to mine rocks and flex your blue pecks.

    3. Sabrdance (MatthewH) says:

      What on earth happened in that second video?

      I mean, the gestures were weird, but then the other guy just left.

      Is there an etiquette to this or something?

      1. Klay F. says:

        I guess its hard to see from a outsider perspective. But he was basically doing no damage to the invader, whereas a single swing from the invader’s lighting shotel. Basically the moment the players spear hit, it was obvious to the invader he could stomp the player with no effort at all. If the invader was an asshole, he would have proceeded with the stomping, then gloated about it while waiting for the post-fight loading screen. The invader in the video was a gentleman however, and was likely looking for a genuine challenge, and so wasn’t looking to ruin a random newbie’s game for no reason. These kinds of people are pretty rare, though obviously not extinct.

        That encounter ideally wouldn’t have happened at all, but since the matchmaking system is kind of a pile of ass, its pretty common.

        1. Deadpool says:

          This is actually something they fixed in Dark Souls 2. No longer can a player with late game gear invade a new player without flat out cheating…

      2. syal says:

        Keep in mind those were also Something Awful Let’s Players and the invader may have been a fan.

        1. Cybron says:

          He probably would have shown himself in the thread if that were the case, which didn’t happen as far as I know. Besides, seems unlikely given their filming schedule.

          ‘Nice’ invaders aren’t that rare. The last time I got invaded on a low level character, as soon as the guy confirmed I wasn’t twinked out he dropped a +5 weapon and we had a nice civil fight to the death.

    4. Alexander The 1st says:

      I think this still could’ve been a more sillier invasion – double shield vs double shield.

      1. IFS says:

        Here you go. Not pvp but still full of shield related silliness.

        1. Klay F. says:

          That was quite an epic tale. Not only that but the power ranger music made me think of another nickname for O&S: Bulk & Skull. :D

      2. Deadpool says:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CeEM9jkfAw

        A lot more serious in Dark Souls 2…

    5. Destrustor says:

      My personal favorite is this one. (these ones, to be more precise.)

      1. IFS says:

        XD! Awesome, hadn’t seen that one before!

        1. Ringwraith says:

          Oh man, still probably my favourite.
          Followed by the various tree-related incidents.
          Or the even better disguising as an enemy NPC.

          …and now I remember the excellent incident when someone comes across a cheater.

  4. Mr Compassionate says:

    Reginald has finally killed a real person, he is now a man.

    George mentions the Harvel Armor in this, Harvel armor is great and all but people talk sweet nonsense about how great it is. If you are using a rapier, scythe, spear or any other fast weapon with reach then Harvel characters are basically beached whales. I had a Lifehunt Scythe build I used to invade a Harvel equipped with dragon tooth which resulted in about 5 minutes of him bleeding profusely, healing only to bleed some more. He chugged estus like my alcoholic mother and still couldn’t survive simply for lack of speed.

    Here is the magic trick to beating heavy weapon characters: Get close, they will swing, you step out of their weapon reach then back in and hit them before they recover from the swing. Then do this over and over because they cant do anything about it.

    1. TMTVL says:

      If you’ve got a crazy high endurance, you can light roll in Havel’s with a light weapon.
      That being said, heavy armour also works pretty well with the different types of magic, since you have a lot of options and can’t easily be attacked out of the animation.

    2. Klay F. says:

      If you are facing a competent strength build PvPer, usually one swing is all thats needed to win, so they won’t swing until until you are unmissable. Honestly, I’ve faced tons of backflipping idiots in PvP who think they are fast enough to evade me, I just follow them until they run out of stamina (something I can intuit from experience) and swing immediately afterwards. Invader vanquished.

  5. Gruhunchously says:

    I swear, Josh’s ability to weasel out of seemingly unwinnable situations is becoming uncanny.

    1. BeardedDork says:

      I was just today looking for how he got through a stupid situation I find myself in, in Metro 2033, and Spoiler Warning should not be used as a video walkthrough.

    2. AJax says:

      Don’t you ever doubt the Cuft(bert)!

  6. Daemian Lucifer says:

    So,that npc duel and invasion got me thinking:can you pop into someones universe and piss off a bunch of npcs and then leave?

    1. TouToTheHouYo says:

      Nay. When you invade another player NPCs and enemies do not react to you.

      You can, however, troll someone into pissing off NPCs themselves.

    2. kanodin says:

      No you can’t mess with npc’s at all as a phantom. Best you could do is stand right next to an npc and try and get them to hit it attacking you, but even that seems dubious.

    3. Klay F. says:

      There is a way to infest another player’s world with enemies that are EVEN STRONGER than the normal enemies. Unfortunately its prone to a bad case of not really working. You can mod your game to do the same thing to YOURSELF though. :D

      1. IFS says:

        Not only is it prone to failing but when it does work it only affects players in NG+. I suppose this was because they didn’t want things being too hard for new players, but it kinda makes the covenant pointless.

        1. Klay F. says:

          Even if it did work, new players would have no idea how to stop it. It was such a good idea let down by really bad netcode and execution. :(

          1. Kana says:

            It’s pretty obvious if the Gravelord Servant is actually trying to farm eyes of death. Where ever he or she is standing, there is a black summon symbol. It’ll ask if you want to invade and try to clean up. If they’re farming, it’ll pretty much be at or near a bonfire.

            ‘Course they can be jerks and just hide somewhere letting the blighted world try and kill you instead.

            Too bad it rarely ever worked. :(

    4. IFS says:

      As others have said you can’t interact with NPCs as an invader (or as a summon for that matter), they just appear as ghosts to you and your attacks do nothing to them.

    5. Deadpool says:

      You never could interact with NPCs but… In Demons’ Souls you COULD use a luring item to move enemies around.

      This may not seem like much, but the Souls games are very similar to Castlevania where enemies are positioned in a very specific way. Moving them before the player aggros them can either make the stage much easier or much harder…

  7. StashAugustine says:

    Josh are you using M+KB? Cause I can’t wait to see you react to the default mouse controls in DS2.

    1. Friend of Dragons says:

      The first time I played Dark Souls, I spent about 5 minutes trying to open the menu to check keybindings or just quit, and I simply could not figure out how. Esc. did nothing. Tab did nothing. The game continued to stubbornly ignore everything else I tried, until I game up and used ctrl-alt-del to force quit the game.

      I later learned that the default key for accessing the main menu was the ‘end’ key. THE ‘END’ KEY.

      1. HeroOfHyla says:

        This is the keyboard layout (no mouse used) that I used for Dark Souls before I decided I needed a controller for it.
        http://i.imgur.com/l5yV1RF.jpg
        Basically, you have one hand on WASD, one hand on numpad. WAS moves, numpad controls the camera. numpad 0 and 1 are your right hand attacks, shift and tab are your left hand. I don’t remember how much of this was default layout.

    2. Tse says:

      Yeah, as i said in the forum, the KB/M controls in DS2 are unusable. You can rebind them, but the whole “double click is a different command” bullshit, coupled with the game not allowing you to use any extra mouse buttons, makes the game unplayable for me.
      EDIT: Really, this is the only game I’ve ever seen with controls inspired by an office application. Ctrl+(button), Shift+(button) and Alt+(button) commands are also present.

  8. Regarding the GFWL discussion: Was a controller setup ever required for PC? The only GFWL game I ever played was Fallout 3, and I just used my keyboard & mouse to discover its “Microsoft Points/Marks” system was idiotic.

    Also, I thought it was console hardware limitations that made PC games not as good as they could’ve been, though it had the saving grace of helping to ease the trend of needing a new graphics card every six months to play the latest games.

    1. AdmiralCheez says:

      I don’t think so. I played Fallout 3 on PC and don’t own a controller. Then again, I don’t remember installing GFWL. I guess I must have, since everyone says it was required? I don’t remember it ever existing on my computer, though. With all the horror stories, you’d think I would remember it. Maybe I just got lucky and it never bothered me.

      1. I want to say it installed automatically or somesuch if you bought the preorder version (like I stupidly did. Not that the game wasn’t fun, but the Pipboy clock drained the batteries in about 2 weeks, which is impressive for an LED clock and three buttons that lit up when you pressed them). I think the only reason I ever fired it up independently was when I wanted to buy the Point Lookout DLC.

        I’m pretty sure it was a kind of stealth install as a lot of people later bought the GOTY version on Steam and were surprised when their Steam install of F3 “needed” GFWL running. In reality, it was looking for save games, found an old GFWL save folder, and assumed the worst about you as a person and, by extension, your computer. :)

      2. HeroOfHyla says:

        GFWL got patched into Fallout 3. I remember my friend was playing my copy and he decided he would update me to the newest version so he could use trainers to cheat. The next thing I knew, GFWL!

  9. Klay F. says:

    I honestly just think that invader was just screwing around. Whatever the case, its pretty obvious that guy wasn’t a serious PvPer or griefer.

  10. Lotus Gramarye says:

    Invader was just fucking with you. You can tell cause he didn’t have a much stronger weapon, he kept standing still (probably going through his inventory), and not really trying. Though most low level invaders tend to be terrible anyway.

    Invaders can’t be higher level than you, for the most part (if it’s a red they can only invade 10% of their level down, and infinitely up).

    You weren’t getting backstabs because that’s how Dark Souls PVP is. Everything that is on the screen is about half a second behind what’s actually happening, due to latency.

    1. Kana says:

      The most annoying thing about Dark Souls pvp is that weapon levels aren’t tied to character levels. You can get invaded in the parish at level eleven, and then get one-hit killed by some guy with a +10 lightning weapon.

    2. burningdragoon says:

      in my experience every invasion at the lower levels is someone who is good enough to have gamed the system and has great gear without a high level.

      1. IFS says:

        Alternately back in the days of the bottomless box sharing glitch someone who just abused the glitch to screw over new players without being good at the game themselves.

  11. Spammy says:

    While I laughed, this video makes me feel really vindicated for never going Human so far. Not only is there the bullcrap with the PVP people basically playing a different game than anyone that they’d be invading and a whole system that just reeks of some smug tool telling you that you’re not enjoying the game right… it doesn’t even work. It’s laggy almost to the point of unplayability and from what I have seen in streams the real danger is that the person invading you can’t connect and you’re stuck waiting for them for minutes while the doors are all fogged up.

    That’s just icing on top of the cake of awfulness.

    1. Klay F. says:

      There are three reasons to go human. One is kindling bonfires, which increases your max estus flasks, the second is the NPC invasions which give you some nice weapons and armor when you defeat them, and the other reason is co-op summons, meaning if you hit a wall with a boss, you can summon other players or sometimes NPCs that basically make the fight a cakewalk. If estus is all you care about, then you can just turn human, kindle, then immediately jump off a cliff. There is absolutely no penalty for doing so since your bloodstain will be right there.

      1. Kana says:

        While you have to be human to summon, you can be undead to get summoned. It’s a great way to learn a bosses move set, and if you win you get 50% of the souls the host would have and a Humanity… which lets you summon people yourself. The summon system is really interesting, but the Invade system just tends to be broken.

    2. IFS says:

      Invaders actually don’t hold you in place either, while you won’t be able to backtrack any fog doors that mean progress can still be passed through, and in fact entering a boss fog door sends the invader back home. Its not always laggy, though it certainly is far too frequently in my experience, and PVP builds do outmatch PVE builds by too much. Fortunately (in my experience at least) Dark Souls 2 fixes all of those problems, I’ve had very little lag and its been fixed so just about any build is viable.

      I do still think invasions add to Dark Souls in a number of ways, my first playthrough of the game was radically altered by a couple invaders, one who opened shortcuts for me in an early area and another that gave me late game armor really early on (it was too heavy for me to use for a while, but still proved rather useful). Besides those times when you get a closely matched PVP battle with little lag are fantastic enough to make up for the various one sided bouts.

      1. Ringwraith says:

        Dark Souls used peer-to-peer for its online, hence why it’s laggy. Demon’s Souls had dedicated servers for this kind of thing, and Dark Souls II has gone back to using them I think. So it’s not really an issue.

    3. Sleeping Dragon says:

      So, this is the aspect of the game that I fail to understand. For quite a while I heard about Dark Souls as this horribly hard RPG with a pretty cool atmosphere, which is something that I’m willing to give a try or, in worst case scenario, cheat my way through.

      But then I’ve been hearing these horrible stories of invasions and other people dropping into your (already difficult) single player experience to murder you just because. So… how optional is this multiplayer aspect of teh game?

      1. Kana says:

        100% optional. You can disconnect from the internet on start up, start the game, and then reconnect. Dark Souls doesn’t ever try to push you online unless you log all the way out. It is worth being human in some places, since there are NPC invaders tuned to be roughly around your level. You can also summon a few NPCs to help out on certain bosses.

        Do not summon the NPC in New Londo. Under any circumstance. She gets stuck on geometry or runs off to fight random crap, and having a summon increases the boss’ life by half. All the others are fine and have varying ranges of usefulness. If you do play Dark Souls, online or offline, I hope you enjoy it.

        1. Tse says:

          I summoned her in NG+. It was funny how she didn’t reach the 4 kings and I had a sixth come out by the time I killed the fourth. Still, as long as you’re in close proximity to one king’s groin, the others do not attack. Had to use several humanities, but didn’t die once.

          1. Kana says:

            I’ve heard the reason why is because she aggros all of the ghosts around the boss gate. You know, the ghosts you can’t attack unless cursed. So she sits there forever trying to hit an immortal enemy instead of following you into the Abyss.

            If you ever play again, I’d be interested if she follows you after you clear out any ghosts nearby. Probably have to kick her down the hole, npcs don’t like falling.

            1. Vipermagi says:

              She will happily jump down if there’s nothing nearby. If you’re lucky, she can even disengage from ghosts if you run away, but it’s just as likely she gets shoved into a deathfall, or blocked against a wall, or doesn’t want to break aggro.

              The Four Kings will totally take a stab at you, even if you’re flat up against another. It doesn’t happen very often, but they hit so hard it doesn’t have to, either.

              And while we’re on the topic of useless summons: you can summon two dudes for the Gaping Dragon. Neither is of any use.

              1. Tse says:

                Guess I was lucky, they never did. Maybe it’s because they spawn away from each other and they take some time to close the distance?

              2. IFS says:

                Well if you’re trying to get sunlight medallions it can be worth summoning Solaire for the Gaping Dragon fight, Beatrice though is only useful for the butterfly. I’ve never had her get hung up on enemies the few times I summoned her for the fight, but she does very little damage to the four kings and dies pretty quickly, so yeah not in any way useful for that fight.

                1. Raygereio says:

                  Well if you're trying to get sunlight medallions it can be worth summoning Solaire for the Gaping Dragon fight

                  Still not worth it. The NPC summons surviving for longer then a few minutes in the Gaping Dragon fight is extremely rare. They simply don’t get the concept of “staying away from the super-smashy attack”.

            2. Cybron says:

              I got her down there the one time I summoned her (on NG+) and it was still an awful idea. She buffs the boss’s health so much that she’s far more of a hindrance than a help.

        2. Sleeping Dragon says:

          Ah, well that’s a relief. This will bump the game up a few notches on my buying list.

    4. Deadpool says:

      Pro tip: You can get invaded while Hollow in Dark Souls 2…

      1. IFS says:

        Invasions in DS2 are much more balanced though, and tend to be pretty rare on standard game. NG+ is another story entirely though, they get much more common, though by that point hopefully you’re well enough equipped to handle it.

        1. Ringwraith says:

          Also the more hollow you are in Dark Souls II, the further down the invasion priority list you fall.
          So practically, unless you’ve been invading others yourself (and thus bumping yourself up the list, and making yourself a target for the blue PvP police), you’re not going to get invaded while not human.
          NPC invasions also don’t occur unless you’re human.

          1. IFS says:

            NPC definitely do invade when you’re hollow, I’ve had the one girl with the scythe invade me in the Copse when I was fully hollowed. I think there are more NPC invasions on NG+ but thats about it.

            1. Ringwraith says:

              I think I only stumbled into one when I was human. Have since experienced otherwise, so yeah.

  12. arthurbu says:

    I’m surprised to say that you guys are convincing me to give this series a try. All I ever heard is that it is super hard but it actually looks pretty neat.

    I think George mentioned offhand that he likes Demon Souls better. I’ve got a PS3 and it’s cheap. Anyone have any opinions on that one?

    1. Nordicus says:

      Demon’s Souls is also really good, but some call it harder than Dark Souls. You don’t get bonfires that refill a minimum amount of healing items, you have half the max health if not in body form, and dying in body form causes the level to get harder (monsters get higher stats upto a certain limit).

      That said, Demon’s Souls has loads of memorable moments, there’s strong atmosphere, the level design is gorgeous and in ways better than its sequels and the gameplay is fairly identical to what you see here (with exception of the jumping attack)

      Go ahead and try it if you can get it for decent price, and don’t be afraid if you aren’t *instantly* enamored with it. It took me around 6-10 hours for Demon’s Souls (and Souls in general) to “click”, a word which you’ll see a lot of people using in regards to this series. It’s hard to explain, at some moment you’ll realize “Oh, so I’m *NOT* supposed to dash through the levels or bash my head against a wall until I win!”

      1. Deadpool says:

        A small note: It takes several deaths IN HUMAN FORM to lower World Tedency to anything noticeable. Dying in spirit form has no negative effects besides the obvious.

        Demons’ Souls is pretty awesome. I do like it better. The game feels a bit tighter, the lore a bit more interesting, the stage designs a bit more varied… But it is an older game. Some things are a bit more obtuse, some things are a bit less polished, some items a bit more overpowered (Purple Flame Shield + Moon Winged Spear = easy mode PvE), etc…

        It should be relatively cheap too. I’d recommend it.

    2. IFS says:

      Demon’s Souls is great and well worth the price tag its going for on PSN, that said it is more punishing that Dark Souls and you pretty much need a guide to understand things like world and character tendency (though understanding those isn’t necessary to play the game) and a lot of the early areas can be pretty rough until you’ve built up a stash of equipment. Its a lot more focused on preparation and being properly supplied for the world you enter than Dark Souls. That said if you’ve played a souls game already you shouldn’t have any trouble in the early game (it felt easier to me personally) and if you’re well prepared you can easily make it through with very few deaths.

      Personally my favorite game of the two, and the one I see as harder is Dark Souls 1, though that’s likely because I started with it. Demon’s Souls does have some fantastic levels (Tower of Latria remains one of my favorites from any game ever) but it also isn’t as polished as Dark Souls is in places (lock on is clunkier, Valley of Defilement is the worst level in the series though it does make up for it with a fantastic final boss, and the online features are really obtuse). Overall its still a fantastic game though, and I would highly recommend it.

      That said if you’re just starting the Souls series I’d say Dark Souls 1 is probably the place to start, if nothing else its quirks and obscurities are better documented than Demon’s Souls, and once you’ve played one souls game the others all become easier for you.

      1. Deadpool says:

        I love Valley of Defilement. Oh sure, it feels super unfair at times (poison swamp that slows my movements but not the giant enemies that block my path? Fuck you game!) and do NOT piss off Selen… But, honestly, the ingenuity needed to get through it is what makes it fun. This is the stage that screams “Why aren’t you using a Bow once in a while?”

        Also, Blind is a fun weapon…

        1. IFS says:

          For me at least its a combination of the giant guys just being a massive pain to fight even without the poison water slowing you down, and there isn’t a poison meter like in Dark Souls so its impossible to know how close to being poisoned you are. The main thing that turned me off of bows in Demon’s Souls was the number of arrows you needed to carry to be effective took up too much carry weight for my tastes, plus I could never find any spiderstone. The Valley isn’t really horrible though unless you’re trying to pick up every item in the swamp, because its massive, samey, super slow with occasional poisoning, and the slowness plus the darkness makes it annoyingly hard to navigate. I ended up turning my brightness way up and using magic to get through it on my first run.

        2. burningdragoon says:

          My favorite (maybe least favorite, not sure) part of the Valley is how there’s this neat little path of glowing items in stage 2 that leads directly into the butcher’s knife black phantom. First time I played I thought I was so clever sneaking around the giant depraved one only to end up “fighting” a much stronger enemy with even less mobility.

          1. Deadpool says:

            Oh yes, the Butcher girl was rough… Still not as bad as Selen, but harder to exploit. Hell of a fight…

            That area with the two Giants and three little guys blocking the path? I don’t think I ever killed them once. I just run past…

    3. kanodin says:

      I would recommend either dark souls over demon’s souls, at least as a first game. I just got through playing demons souls as someone who really liked the other two and it still made me rage with how cheap some of the design is. Don’t get me wrong I still liked it, and it does have great and memorable moments, but oddly the first game of the series is by far the least accessible.

  13. Haven’t watched the episode yet, but I did start watching the Super Bunnyhop video, and is that Oakland Cemetery? Cause it really looks like it and the bits of the skyline visible look like Atlanta. Just curious…

    1. Isaac says:

      Super bunnyhop lives in ATL

  14. Anorak says:

    I’m still working my way through my first Dark Souls play through. I’m currently in Blighttown.

    My favorite thing about the way I experience the game is the sense of accomplishment I get from it. Making my way through the Undead Burg took me what felt like hours, and each time I died I did so having learned a little bit more. Every new room was a victory.

    So I didn’t mind too much about dying – it rapidly taught me how to play the game.

    All this fell apart with the Boss fights though. Suddenly, I’d mastered the basic enemies and the area, but it was still a ten minute slog to get to the Tauraus demon, where I never tended to last very long. I think it probably took me 15 attempts or more. I wasn’t progressing, and it was less fun.

    1. Tse says:

      I’d recommend getting to the Capra demon from Firelink shrine. You get less damage done to you this way.
      Now the Taurus demon is not that hard once you learn that there are archers at the top of the tower. But the first time is awful, I agree.

      1. Anorak says:

        The capra demon was a nightmare. I was actually getting there from the firelink shrine, but I got killed by him over and over again. I was only able to beat him by improving my armor to the point where I didn’t get staggered by the dogs.

        1. Tse says:

          I got lucky with my melee pyro, swung twice with the Black Knight Sword and everything in the room died. My sorcerer could only kill him after getting aural decoy, but it was pretty easy after that, I didn’t even move, just spammed a quick succession of decoys and heavy soul arrows.

      2. IFS says:

        Taurus demon is a pretty good early boss in my opinion, the archers are a pain but it rewards observant players who can climb the ladder and take them out before the fight starts. Having that ladder is especially useful for the fight because you can do plunging attacks for massive damage from it. Plus there is a break in the wall on part of the walkway where if you know what you’re doing you can get the boss to fall to his death, which is especially great for speedrunners.

        Capra demon’s main problem is that you don’t get to see the arena before fighting it, if you were forewarned of the dog rush and the stairs you can use the fight would be a lot better.

        1. Cybron says:

          On my first run through I had a hell of a time with Taurus. I found the tower but didn’t realize how plunging attacks worked (yes, I managed to miss that in the fight against the Asylum demon). Plus I was wearing the knight starting equipment, so I was fat rolling. Demon beat the hell out of me. I did not do well.

          Eventually someone told me about the plunging attack and I took off the way-too-heavy armor, and that fixed everything.

          1. Ringwraith says:

            I sunk levels into nothing but Endurance for my Knight so I could do reasonable rolls early on.
            Takes forever to kill anything, but ditto for killing you.
            Ended up dipping into Faith for healing miracles, and I was rather hard to kill on lengthy treks as a result, rarely having to even use Estus flasks that often.

  15. Ranneko says:

    It is worth noting that there was branding for both Games for Windows and Games for Windows Live.

    They both had certification requirements for the branding to be usable, but only Games for Windows Live includes the dreaded Live experience.

    A game with the more mundane Games for Windows branding, just meant that it worked properly with both 4:3 and widescreen monitors, the game installed in very few steps, it supported parental controls in Windows Vista onwards, and it supported a couple of other minor windows features (Games explorer and media center).

    So games with the Games for Windows branding generally worked reasonably well because they had at least been through that certification check. I considered it a positive mark for the game.

    In theory the same thing would apply to Games for Windows Live branded games, except that of course, Live is a terrible service on PC that has a tendency to break games entirely separate from their own qualities.

    1. Ahhh, so the things discussed in the video only applied to actual games made for the console and pushed by MS, not third-party games (like Fallout) that just made their games available via the GFWL store?

  16. Vipermagi says:

    Portals/wormholes were briefly mentioned, so:
    Collision data displayed as a 3D world map (spoils area names, natch). In my opinion, this is one of the coolest things in Dark Souls – the world actually fits, and there’s very little teleporting going on between areas. It’s mostly just walking. It makes the world feel more believable, to me, and makes me really appreciate the layout of many areas.

    Related note: I don’t like the Tower of Latria in Demon’s Souls for this same reason. It makes absolutely no sense, which ripped me straight out of the atmosphere set by the first section of that area.
    (also Iron Keep)

    The Uchigatana was mentioned. It has a huge forward thrust as its one-handed Strong attack. The only other katana with a thrust requires Strength investment as well as Dex. This makes the Uchi the best katana for PvP purposes: long range + lag = easy hits.

    Red phantom invaders, or Darkwraiths, have strict level restrictions. He cannot have been more than 10% higher in level, so he was probably soul level 10. However, that same level 10 invader can totally invade someone that’s level 256 using an Abyss Greatsword with maxed out scaling and just be demolished in a single blow.

  17. Ilseroth says:

    Have to say, best ending to an invasion you could have gotten. For the record, the guy was clearly intentionally trolling. I have done it on some characters just to have fun with newbies.

    Though I wouldn’t have used that toxic poison, that seems to be a bit much.

    One time I got a scythe and wore a black robe and walked after people slowly through the entire level. If they let me catch them, I killed them. But I *never* ran. so all they had to do was outrun death.

    Although I am not sure how he had so much health; you are very low level so he must’ve been as well, and it wasnt like he was wearing armor… hm.

    That being said; I nominate this for an actual season of spoiler warning… please… It was pitch perfect for spoiler warning. From the NPC murdering you then jumping off a cliff to that invasion; to the getting murdered by a bunch of guys in a tiny room

    The only major issue why it wouldn’t work is the fact there is no save/load feature which means no multiple takes, so death may take you back a ways… not that you always take advantage of that in games that do.

    1. IFS says:

      I second making this a full season, can you imagine how crazy Josh would go if he got a Bonewheel shield? Or the casts reactions to some of the crazier looking bosses like Gaping Dragon or Quelaag? Plus the ability to kill any NPC might provide much needed catharsis after the frustrations Skyrim NPCs are giving them.

    2. Nordicus says:

      I do think George would have to be present for most of the thing just so that they could keep the ratio of in-depth talk to confused laughter in decent balance.

  18. Cybron says:

    Rutskarn pretty accurately described my experience with GWFL. I saw Shamus’s rants and knew it was bad, but nothing can prepare you for just how bad it is.

    Also that entire episode was amazing. Just all of it.

  19. Irridium says:

    So, I got a fun invasion story.

    It was in the woods, the place on the way to fight Sif, and some dude invaded and couldn’t find me. He was running around the forest looking for me and, well, couldn’t find me! I was sitting right at the boss gate, waiting. Eventually I got fed up and just went to fight the boss, which booted him out of my world. Was funny.

    1. IFS says:

      I think my favorite invasion victory has to be the time some guy invaded me in the catacombs and I used Patches lever to drop him off a bridge to his death. He invaded again shortly afterwards and I beat him legitimately, though it helped that he was one of the few honorable invaders I’ve run into (bowed before attacking and all that).

      There was also that time I got invaded in Sen’s fortress, didn’t feel like fighting the guy so I just hid in Ricard’s tower and waited until he left of his own accord.

      And most recently in DS2 I got invaded in Iron Keep on my way to the boss, didn’t know where the guy was so I just kept going. He managed to fall into the lava on his own and leave me with half a million souls, which turned into just shy of forty levels for that character.

      1. Ringwraith says:

        Once you get past the early stages of twinked-out characters, I find most invaders are courteous.

        1. IFS says:

          That has not really been my experience at all, sure the ones who invade new players to grief them are the worst but I’ve had plenty of people invade even in the late game and continue to be jerks. Worst would be I think when in NG+ some jackass invaded in Anor Londo, killed me, and raised the bridge back up so I had to go through the cathedral again.

  20. Eschatos says:

    Yeah there’s no way that darkwraith was as bad as yall thought. You don’t become a level one darkwraith with spells like toxic mist without knowing what you’re doing. He was definitely just fucking around with you, though that’s a lot better than being a minmaxed darkwraith who exists to slaughter noobs.

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