[Felix]

we sure are hype for this new videogame

[Felix]

to be honest I always find myself upping the brightness sliders in most grimdark games so I'm not struggling to see things on my projector so I really can't complain.

[Felix]

Installed it. Not working at home much this week though so I can't even be tempted.

[Felix]

So apparently I wasn't the only one to completely miss the level up lady on my first trip to manjula. That's something.

anyhow, just beat the first boss after a couple hours and change. I've got two items that seem to be remarkably better than the rest of my kit at this point -- one weapon I got for leaving my starting gift in a bird's nest almost immediately (aw, From), the other a ring I found behind a wall in a basement.

they've clearly worked on mechanical stuff using Dark as a base -- there already seem to be lots of new melee fighting styles facilitated by dual wielding, and a couple times now I've had minibosses show up and gates arbitrarily close where they were open before I died; evokes Demon's world tendencies, obviously, but also goes a long way toward making it feel less like a linear Metrovania.

the shaders are totally fucked up though! I have no problem playing the game as they are, but I'm honestly curious how this is going to resolve itself.

[Felix]

Yeah. I burned an effigy trying to reverse hollowing too (just one though).

[Felix]

I'm inclined to blame the shaders. The people in the houses aren't that missable, but anything that blends into the horizon has really bad contrast.

not to belabor the point but I think this adds support to the idea that you might be under some misapprehensions about how poorly visually differentiated most parts of the game are currently

[Felix]

[Felix]

[Felix]

[Felix]

yeah, I rolled swordsman and found myself using the first shield I got, but I switch off often enough that I'm still appreciating it

[Felix]

it's nice that VIT and END aren't as monolithic as they once were. I'm trying to avoid putting any points into STR or INT despite having found some stuff they'd be good for because it seems like that'd be spreading what's supposed to be a DEX char too thin, but I did up my attunement slots a little in anticipation.

so nobody else got the whip, huh? guess I got lucky exchanging my gift. been hugely helpful for making progress early on though it does tend to break a lot.

[Felix]

I tried summoning somebody named "HairyJubes" at 4am for a boss that I soon after decided I didn't really want to fight anyway

[Felix]

I just fought my way past several knights in a dark tower to a dead-end...

actually, shrug, I found that area you were (are?) in to be surprisingly easy and tidy. Though it also made me a lot less certain that anyone at From regards the current PS3 build as broken since the game's lighting is actually used to relative effect, and that's a bit disconcerting given the rest of the game...

[Felix]

not sure I'd go that far. a lot of the textures still look really flat and shallow, and running around someplace like Heide's Tower, which at least doesn't have the terrible contrast issues of Forest of the Giants (which I agree are the worst part hands down), still feels more than a little undercooked. that, and I really don't like whatever they're using for quasi-DoF; looking across Manjula to another landmark is like I'm wearing a monocle in the desert.

I didn't really look at much/any prerelease media and after the past couple days I have to say I'm pretty much coming down on neogaf's side of things -- in terms of "this game is fairly ugly and wasn't supposed to be" -- if not, obviously, their reaction.

[Felix]

I'm telling you, DJ, it's a contrast issue

let me play with the gamma slider and see if that does anything (needless to say should not be necessary)

[Felix]

Well, it looks like ornstein has had tremendous success going out into the pillar-breaking business solo!

I have a bow and a catalyst and all kinds of good stuff at this point. Five(?) bosses down, level 50-something, about 7 hours? I feel like I'm making really brisk progress. Game is very good.

[Felix]

just got invaded on a ledge and managed to push the other person off, shit yeah

I seem to have a choice between underground skeleton forest and triple boss at this point

hmmmmmmmmmmm

joe have you gotten to the torch-intensive watery level yet? because that was when I realized with dismay that they may actually be under the impression that the lighting is on

I'm still using a combination of the scimitar+5 and old whip for my main weapon(s), they both have an attack rating in the upper 200's, I have magic weapon (which doesn't seem to do very much), all's good there. can't find an off-hand weapon I like and don't have the stats yet for the twinblade (been too busy pumping int/att/vit) but I swear I enjoyed the dual wielding I've done so far.

I'm approaching an area of the game where my relative confidence in my character is starting to feel at odds with the harshness of the unshaded environment again but seeing as I've been putting in like four hours a day for the past couple days I'm not sure I'm actually going to slow down for any reason...

anyway, day 2 impressions: the only thing wrong with it relative to DkS is still the visual / world design.

[Felix]

Yeah, another example of how the combat mechanics are better but the world is not.

I've been using Drangelic gear for a while due to the combination of weight and defense and I'm not sure what'll get me to switch...

just to check, did everyone else find the cloranthy ring? Because it seems like something you'd never ever take off, to get it so early in the game, and they've done a good job elsewhere of eliminating sine qua nons

[Felix]

[Felix]

yeah, the fact that you have to repeatedly choose the "talk" option with any of the merchants who eventually do so is a bit unintuitive (particularly as they apparently do more than just sell the stuff that you probably weren't interested enough in to talk to them in the first place)

[Felix]

so I just took a little more time off work in the middle of the day than planned in order to beat the ruin sentinels ... that was just about two hours on the couch. I have to say that I never got tired of the ten mooks that you have to lure out of the building and kite over the broken bridges before the boss -- their pathing is so hilariously bad that getting all of them out there and having them run into each other and off the walls was a great interlude between attempts at what would've been a more frustrating fight otherwise. also, about five seconds of the boss music loop sounded a lot like rilo kiley to me for some reason. that was really all terrific. don't think I'd have been able to manage if I hadn't picked up some sorcery beforehand. time to finish up work and then get back to making some actual progress tonight!

[Felix]

[Felix]

[Felix]

You are brutal and I'm not even at that fight yet

greng maybe resize that photo?

[Felix]

Well I'm now at a point where there are three different bosses I can fight and each one devastates me in seconds so that's cool

great torching round these parts though!

[Felix]

Wait, no, nevermind, four bosses

[Felix]

Anyone want to tell me whether this magic mace I found has any special skeleton-killing properties before I grind the couple STR I need for it?

alternately, anyone want to help with any of the four bosses I'm at? I'm sure you can guess...

[Felix]

I decided to take a chance on the easiest of the bosses available to me, and opened up like four new areas inside of an hour, including the aforementioned earthen peak

I now finally have a pyromancy trainer but still no apparent way to get my hands on a flame? Not that I badly want one

I'm getting to be curious how big this game is since I'm like 13 hours in and still basically branching outward in every direction. I am really enjoying having so many things I can potentially do at any given time.

even if I were somehow obliged to "objectively" judge the game negatively for its visuals, there is still nothing else out there that gives me so much to work with like this.

also, sunbros!!

[Felix]

Oh man oh man

judging from mauve's most recent posts he may be one step ahead of me but I feel like I just found ash lake...

I'm totally at the mid-game peak of exploration right now, I must be, but even so, given that I'm actively avoiding three bosses I know of at the moment and I have four or five new areas to explore, this is nuts.

also, analogos, that item you were concerned about only having one of? I just found three. Any idea where straid went, though? I'm developing a nice little collection of NPCs back in majula (I'm actually surprised From indulged to this extent, but I do enjoy it) but he's nowhere to be found, and I only made one of his weapons...

[Felix]

[Felix]

Also, let the record show that I have hardly ever been on top of a game's first couple weeks after release and been sufficiently enthusiastic to partake in one of these threads as we discover it together~

the last time I remember doing this was honestly shadow of the colossus

man this is great. I'm going to bed.

[Felix]

Looks like we're all pretty much in the same place today, that's neat

[Felix]

[Felix]

so uh hey is the expectation that each of these semi-linear-semi-intersecting paths eventually going to terminate in one of the four "great souls" or what have you? because so far the game's dropped more hints about the last game's narrative than it has about its own.

I have a lot of work to catch up on today.

[Felix]

my thinking is that either the testing folks counted toward the total on 360 and not on PS3 due to inconsistent APIs OR the series has caught on among achievement-loving, large-amounts-of-free-time-having, finish-the-AAA-game-inside-of-three-days folks to a much greater extent than expected, and these people disproportionately own 360s.

in terms of visuals what I've heard is that the 360 framerate is actually parked around 30 most of the time (as opposed to the PS3's wild swinging from 15-50, which doesn't bother me that much), but it has the tearing issues we see now and then on 360 games. I've been seeing plenty of messages on PS3 and have been invaded multiple times so no worries there!

[Felix]

I've actually been winning invasions unlike in Dark Souls, probably because I don't insist on using gear that's terrible for PvP once everyone's already at high levels

[Felix]

[Felix]

I dunno. I think it might be more deceptively-huge relative to the way Dark is paced and structured than actually-huge.

that said I'm like 15 hours in and the massiveness is definitely the most exciting part at the moment.

[Felix]

I would agree with that!

[Felix]

TXT you're basically right where I am and I've been averaging like 4 hours a day since tues

[Felix]

Curved & straight is a hugely fun combo but I'm a little disappointed I'm overusing the falchion for the third game in a row

something I do in every game with "soul" in the title apparently if you count hwang/assassin in soul calibur