Be Excellent To Each Other

WELL FUCKING BLOW ME.

This is brilliant

I'll just twiddle my fucking thumbs shall I (but not over my joypad)? FUCK YOU SONY CUNTS.

I didn't even know they did that! They're denying non-Plus folk from paying money for a game? Demos and betas I can understand.

Just read that it has been an exclusive for plus members since 17 October.

It gets its full release on 24 October.

BUT IT IS 24TH OCTOBER! Fucks sake.

...and we thought paying for Live was bad!

Finally! It has let me buy it. A mere 100KB? Well ok then. Downloaded in a flash. Let's get cracking!

*inserts disc*

*has a flick through the art book*

Cor, that's aces. I remember that bastard.

*looks up at screen suddenly downloading update*

"180 minutes left"

It's done! Yay!

It's bedtime. Boo!

Plus, I'm in Blightown. I can't remember that crystal shield or why I'm not wearing my tank armour. What the hell was I doing? Where am I going? I can't remember the controls? Hnngh.

I've still not progressed.

I've arrived in the Sanctuary!

I am dead.

I almost survived that first barrage then. Almost.

Right, should I continue on from where I left my finished game for the DLC or should I start from the beginning?

Tempted to go from the start again and try a new build.

I'd go from the beginning personally, but it depends on where you left the game.

"I get by with a little help from my friends, ooh, I get by..."

I'm in.

You need to have got the Lordvessel before you can get into the DLC so personally I'd start from where you left off if you want to have a look about. Plus, it's nails, so having some good equipment already would help. Probably.

Goddamn bedtime! I'm just been smashed to bits by large hammer guy. I'm also wielding a giant fork.

I'm going to bloody love this, I just know it.

Bloody guy is kicking my ass.

I did enjoy the walk around the Royal Wood though. Fecking knights are a pain in the arse, especially two at a time.

I'm loving going back to the slow cautious fights of Dark Souls. Stalking your enemy looking for an opening. Lovely stuff.

Oh and the atmosphere in this game is second to none. The fear of death absolutely thick in these new areas. Half energy, no pimp cups wishing as hard as I can that I don't bump into anyone as I tread through the forest. Fucking magic.

'cept magic is for poofs.

I still haven't figured out what to do about that dragon despite finding a couple of spots where I can safety stand. I've mopped up the goodies on the floor, mind. I might as well just ignore that area.

It is a most awesome fight. (Although super bollocking hard on NG+)


Too right.

Well that was difficult. I'm on NG+2 and he was kicking my ass all over the place. Apparently he's got a resistence to lightning and fire. Guess what two Halbard's I'm using? Maxed out fire and lightning sticks. Tch.

I tried an enchanted Falchon +5, a spear and some other shitty weapons doing a whopping 40 damage which was quite good at getting a quick hit in between moves but takes far too long and I messed up far too many times getting impatient.

I also tried my big hammer weapons (Dragon tooth+3, Demons Great hammer, Dragon King Greataxe+5) but you don't stand a chance as you're far too slow and he hits far too hard.

A trip outside to visit the 'Smith and my zap zap stick has lost its mojo but fortunately had enough rocks to knock it up to Halbard +15. Each hit knocks about 195 off 'im.

Cue me kicking some ass yo'.

The bit after that is aces. I love the slanted buildings. From's designers make some wonderful looking stuff.

Also does that chiming noise remind anyone of the cells from Demon's Souls?

That's strange.

A PvP optional area where you can deathmatch against other peeps, or 2 on 2, or 3 on 3. I'm not sure that this is needed but there it is. It's in there.

Yeah, I was a bit confused about that too. Unsurprisingly, I rather ignored it.

It has a pretty active community of PvPers, so it's nice they put that in.

It's trying to be Call of Duty!

I've got 78061 souls. There's no fecking way I'm going through that fog door at the bottom of the abyss.

Pff! I've lost more souls than that falling off a cliff!

Surely that's not very many souls by NG++ time?

Yeah, but it takes ages to stockpile them, and each level is now 86000+.

First attempt at the final boss; got him down the half energy. Gah. I really wanted to nail him first time.

FACK. About 20% energy...

Deadid.

That was awesome throughout. What a fabulous game this is, a master class of design. I'll just have a crack at that dragon now and I'll have wrapped up my journey to the past.

FYI, if anyone was complaining that they haven't got enough humanity there's an area to farm at the bottom of the DLC. One sweep through the area and I'd picked up 15 humanities and 12 twin humanities. You'll never go without after finding that spot.

Also, it's got a story! Yay! It's entirely self contained for this area and tells of Astorias and Sif, the abyss, the four kings and, er, shit. Take that naysayers. Sif even pops up to help for the final boss if summoned.

So what's wrong with it? It'll take a good ten hours of your life but you'll still be thinking it was short. Too short? Maybe not. But the draw of Dark Souls is so great that you don't want it to end. I wanted to explore more of the same world but back in time.

The enemies are varied though. No reused assets here even though one enemy here is from the present. I loved watching some of the farmers clipping the trees. I enjoyed the rat dog things who only make a brief appearance. Even the ghosts seemed terrifying at first, especially when you first see them. The placement and number of sorcerers designed to piss you off is classic Demon's Souls.

The scenery is lush as ever throughout. Looking at Lordran from the past, it's gorgeous. The waterfalls, the vista's, the "gorgeous view", the intricacies of the decimated town, and so on. It all fits in with Dark Souls template beautifully.

Yeah, I loved it to bits. I was going to anyway, right, but I'd like to think as being someone who's been through both Demon's and Dark Souls if there was any part that was flawed design or cheap or rubbish I'd have spotted it. As it turned out, it's quality stuff but I wanted more.

Oh, hang on, getting "into" the DLC was a bit abstract. That was shit really and should have been clearer. I looked it up after running around for a while thinking I'd fucked up by murdering Dusk.

That's when I figured out what I'd been doing when I restarted...

... I'd been murdering every character for their loot and to see what happens. Shameful really.

Absolutely fucking brilliant! What a fight!

Teamed up with two others to fight old big black dragon and what a battle it was! You had to have been there. I was. It was awesome. It reminded me of Lost Planet 2 as we chipped down his energy so very slowly. One guy bit the dust but the other chappie stubbornly persisted to the bitter end.

As he dissolved into a watery dust, I waved goodbye to him, and waved and waved as he evaporated into nothing until I was just waving at the waterfall behind him. I kept waving and waving. Then I waved some more. The button was stuck. But I hoped he could see me still waving at him beyond the ether.

Started again with a knight. Fuck you dark souls and your shitty fat demon thing. Fuck you in the eyes.

So excited by the DLC! Bought it on the PS3 so I've a lvl 70 knight who got to Nito, or I could start fresh... Dunno what to do...

Either way, want to finish a play through of Xcom first. Golden age!

Lave, you keep going, man, keep going.

I've now murdered all the DLC merchants (the big blind guy was a bitch), gone back to the future and cheaply killed off the Lord of Cinder after finally figuring out a nice ramp to lure him up where his blows go over your head.

It's going back in its box again after 108 hours total play time. Top five games ever made ever.

DLC got.

Carried on with the new build I started. Intend to build her as a Tank/Miracles character so I get to play with the toys my previous character couldn't.

Already rang the first bell. Forgot how good this game feels.

I released the Gold Knight guy but this time...


Awesome game.

I feel like i'm peering thorugh the window at people having an awesome party.

But the really awkward camera means the window frame is blocking half of your view.

Indeed. I land on the thing's head and go slashy slashy, then I fall to the ground and it smacks me into a corner and everytime my man gets up it smashes me again. And then I die. Again.

You're getting a good smack on it as you drop in from above, yes?

Read this: http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Asylum+Demon

Stand on a box.

I couldn't find any decent strategy videos and this guy was making a real meal of it.

Look at that drop hit? It halves his energy.

What he didn't do was use his lock on. Use it.

When the boss floats up - move away.

Also, got hit? Move away with your shield raised and when you're away get your pimp cup out.

And don't stand near the corners of the room. Get close to him in the centre of the courtyard where you can circle around him; moving away when you get hit.

Still can't do it? Have you thought about getting Professor Layton?

I've tried really, really hard! I'll try some more tonight. My brave knight aarghhhhh seems to be a bit better than MontyB the pyromancer.

I seem to get stuck and then just run around in circles and face the wrong way, too. And I don't know which buttons to press.

I drop from the ledge and press and hold the buttons to do the falling attack, and then end up at his feet and he beats me up

Ok, just done a check...

With a knight, blocking with a shield should prevent any damage*, so if I were you, I'd go into the fight, hit him on the way down and then when down the bottom just get used to blocking his attacks and recovering afterward without actually trying to attack him. (So LB to block, after being hit, release it to allow the green bar at the top left to refill, and then start blocking again) Once you can survive, the fight should hopefully be easy

* - Except maybe his flying attack, he didn't do that to me, but if he does that, I'd just move away from him.

Work colleague said I should have started a brand new game after getting the DLC, is he talking wank?

The game I'm playing is the one I began immediately after finishing it the first time, so it was started before the DLC came out.

You "have" been blocking haven't you Mali? :|

I was beginning to think

I don't know - I'd mainly recommend it because taking a higher level character in might make it a bit easy, and therefore a bit short.

<looks down>
<whistles>
<twiddles thumbs>
Um... Should I have been? I didn't think that aarghhh could block the thing as it is very big.

Yes, it takes off about half stamina, but that should recover and allow time for an attack or two before he hits again.

Oh, right. I've been hammering the "TWAT HIM HARD" button.

Oops.

Thanks, people. I'll let you now how it goes later.