The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Oexmelin]

So, I finally decided to face DS3's final boss. I beat the Lord of Cinder at my first go. I expected it to be easier, especially after Friede, Slave Knight Gael, and Darkeater Midir - the DLC bosses.

Thanks again, Syt. That was a great gaming experience.

[crazy canuck]

I think I am getting a bit addicted to it.  Playing early dungeons on hard, they are quick hitters, easy and quick matching system.  And the play through ARPG solo very much as the quality of just one more encounter before I log off.

I am learning what to look for in mobs to decide whether it is worth stopping to fight the random ones.  And lot is pop up quests that make exploring an area worth while - so you can stay on the rails if you want (and lots of guides suggest that) but I am in no race to get to the end game, and I am finding the exploration and rewards that go with it fun to do.

[Syt]

So, I finally decided to face DS3's final boss. I beat the Lord of Cinder at my first go. I expected it to be easier, especially after Friede, Slave Knight Gael, and Darkeater Midir - the DLC bosses.

Thanks again, Syt. That was a great gaming experience.

Glad you liked it. Soul of Cinder is definitely easier than the expansion bosses, but it also depends a bit on what forms/weapons it uses in phase 1. Did you do all optional bosses, like Midir or Old Demon King?

One of my favorite moments in the game is in the second DLC, when you meet Filianor, reach out, and the world turns into the wasteland at the end of time.

[Oexmelin]

Glad you liked it. Soul of Cinder is definitely easier than the expansion bosses, but it also depends a bit on what forms/weapons it uses in phase 1. Did you do all optional bosses, like Midir or Old Demon King?

It used mostly the homing missile magics and the sword. Even accounting for being OP from defeating DLC bosses, in the end, I think I am better against humanoid bosses than against monstrous ones.

And yes, I did all the optional bosses. Spent some time before Soul of Cinder to make sure I hadn't missed the invading phantom NPC (because these depend on being embered at the right spot). I unexpectedly discovered the Deserter waiting on the site of the Abyss Watchers. 

One of my favorite moments in the game is in the second DLC, when you meet Filianor, reach out, and the world turns into the wasteland at the end of time.

That composition - with Filianor asleep - was indeed quite striking. I also really liked finding the alternate firelink shrine, and realizing it was in the the past.

[Syt]

Yes, the "dark firelink" has led to a lot of discussion and analysis. Because you go from (what we assume is) present day Lothric to that place. The main indication that it's in the past is that if you don't talk the the old handmaiden seller in "main" Firelink at all, and talk to the one in dark Firelink first, she will recognize you in the "main" Firelink from earlier. Also, Champion Gundyr is a hint.

But that the raises the question: are we going into the past from "main" Firelink? Because the main one is not directly connected to any of the other areas ... or maybe the passage after Oceiros is a portal to the past? It's one of those things that keeps YouTube lore video makers in business.

Filianore's egg scene might be inspired by the movie Angel's Egg. Vaati Vidya has a video on that: https://youtu.be/T9wSol7JdG0

Some people have pointed out that it also bears a striking resemblance to the rare Vagrants in Dark Souls 1 (I once encountered on in DS1 Prepare to Die Edition in Undead Parish where I had been countless times without knowing about them and was properly freaked out ).





What that means, if anything? No idea

And I really liked the end where the world, through the endless rekindling of the flame is reduced to ash and a few ruins. Proper bleak end of times stuff (I think the only other story I recall set at the end of time itself would be Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, with its Restaurant at the End of the Universe ). Well, there's another game, but mentioning it would spoil playing it.

If you want to give Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin a try, I have an extra Steam key.

It's a weird game. It's trying to be DS1 but bigger and with more stuff. However, it had some troubled development, and it can be felt throughout. It has some great ideas (power stancing when dual wielding weapons), and some terrible ideas (Adaptability stat influencing how fast you roll, how fast you use Estus ...), and feels more like a fever dream, like when you get to the top of a tower, take an elevator UP, and end up in a lava cave. Err, what? But the DLCs are some of the best content. The lore is ... yeah, weird. It definitely feels more like a game and many areas are even more linear than in DS3.

The original release was quite messy, but the Scholar edition tries to have things make more sense. However, especially at the start, the areas before the bosses can be quite tough. I found myself dying tons of times in a place, only to one-shot the boss afterwards.  On the plus side, if you kill enemies 12 times or so, they stop respawning, so eventually you will make progress. It has a bad reputation, but I think it's still a great game, even if it feels a bit weird compared to the other two main games.

[Iormlund]

Holy shit, the EU release of Lost Ark is a dumpster fire. Can't even get through to the server selection screen before an error pops up now.
Not to mention the lack of language-specific servers and thus completely predictable toxic chat.

How can Amazon be so bad a server deployment?

[Iormlund]

Haven't been able to get past the loading screen since Saturday.

Amazon have announced they are bringing up a whole new European cluster of servers, but they won't transfer your characters, and there will be no cross-play between both regions.

This is a MMORPG. There's no point of playing without your friends.

[celedhring]

Seems odd that Amazon of all companies couldn't deal with this.

[Iormlund]

It's on one hand an architecture failure. The game is not designed to be scalable. Which for a MMORPG launching in 2022 is remarkably stupid.

And on the other clearly a monetization issue. Characters and perks bought with real money are non-transferable. Which means that you can't just move to a new server with your mates and then get back again when populations invariably decrease in a few months. Which they most likely will.

So the perfect storm of incompetence and greed.

[mongers]

It's on one hand an architecture failure. The game is not designed to be scalable. Which for a MMORPG launching in 2022 is remarkably stupid.

And on the other clearly a monetization issue. Characters and perks bought with real money are non-transferable. Which means that you can't just move to a new server with your mates and then get back again when populations invariably decrease in a few months. Which they most likely will.

So the perfect storm of incompetence and greed.

Did Boris Johnson have a hand in this? 

[Jacob]

It's on one hand an architecture failure. The game is not designed to be scalable. Which for a MMORPG launching in 2022 is remarkably stupid.

And on the other clearly a monetization issue. Characters and perks bought with real money are non-transferable. Which means that you can't just move to a new server with your mates and then get back again when populations invariably decrease in a few months. Which they most likely will.

So the perfect storm of incompetence and greed.

Game dev is its own beast and Amazon isn't particularly experienced in the field.

[Solmyr]

So did Amazon just have TWO crappy MMORPG launches in a short period of time?

[Grey Fox]

Yes but it's the desirable outcome. Spending money for week 1 server capacity is dumb. A majority of players will not be there for week 2.

[celedhring]

Yes but it's the desirable outcome. Spending money for week 1 server capacity is dumb. A majority of players will not be there for week 2.

Amazon owns the largest on-demand cloud computing platform in the world. They could add or remove capacity without a hitch.

[Josquius]

True. Though I doubt it's that simple with internal accounting. The game division has to mark down that if bought server space from the server division.