Be Excellent To Each Other

Someone playing a role-playing game is complaining about numbers. PETALOLZ!

Oh I am sorry, should have drawn sliders and stars.

Yep, that would've been accurate.

Everyone play Skyrim. It's got stars.

Yeah, no stats at play in Skyrim, uh uh, nothing to see there.

*adjusts nose height, depth, and width*

No pointless numbers at all anywhere.

*changes hairstyle, cleavage, lip colour*

Just solid combat.

Play Skyrim. It hides the numbers. It's great.

Looks better too.

I am playing Skyrim, it's great at what it is.

The lighting and weather effects are stunning. Personal taste, but I think the character and enemy models are much better in Dark Souls though.

Ooh yeah locking on makes it much better. No pause even in menus is properly utterly shit though.

Isn't that because someone can join your game at any time, basically making it constant multiplayer?

Oblivion does this as well, btw.

If you're hollowed, nobody can join your game. And you'll spend a lot of your time hollowed. It was an issue for me at first - the lack of a pause button - but before long you realise that there are plenty of safe spots in the game - especially if you've killed all of the enemies in an area. It's perfectly alright to just stand around. Doesn't help when there's a knock at the door and you're in the middle of a fight, mind. It's pretty much my only major criticism of the game. Obviously it was deliberately done to make the game even more "hardcore", but it's frankly stupid. It's always going to be a video game no matter how immersive you make it, so just let us fucking pause it, yeah?

Pausing is a big deal for me generally, in fact, and something I'd make standard throughout all games. If I press the pause button I want it to instantly pause, and I want all audio to immediately shut the fuck up. Chances are if I'm pausing a game it's because the phone is ringing or I think I've heard someone trying to break into my house* late at night or whatever. I don't want to have to reach for the TV remote and mute it as well. Cunts. I can't stand pressing pause only for the BGM to get fucking louder in the pause menu.

*Or more accurately, some dickheads walking past the front of our house and playing football with our car wing mirrors. I'm desperate to catch them at it.

What about if you're playing multiplayer and the doorbell rings?

Well there's nothing you can do about that, is there? That's the risk you run when you fire up a game of CoD or whatever. You definitely shouldn't be able to pause multiplayer games. If the door goes, you drop your pad and start getting killed. There isn't another solution for that situation that wouldn't cause everyone else massive grief.

In fact, I even hate the fact that you can pause FIFA online. Granted it's only two player, but what are these tossers doing pausing the game for 60 seconds? Games typically last 10 minutes. If you don't think you can manage a solid 10 minutes without disrupting the game for 60 seconds, don't start a game.

Even when hollowed, there are still multiplayer elements though - particularly around fireplaces.

Although I believe it doesn't pause even in proper offline mode. I generally quit as my pause method.

Um, no it doesn't. Bringing up your inventory instantly pauses the game, and bringing up the guide button does too.

Sorry to keep banging on about this, but it's really really ugly. It's almost exactly like Nier. Couldn't they be arsed to do any character animation? Everyone stands around pulsing from breathing and either communicate via telepathy or are world class ventriloquists.

I'm finding lots of stuff written on the ground that makes no sense.

"Needs wonderful weapon. Rating: 2"
"Needs Death. Rating: 0"

What's all that about?

The multiplayer elements are just "ghosts" of other players appearing briefly. Sort of MMO-ish, but you can't interact with them or anything. Pausing the game when they're around wouldn't make any difference to them. You ought to be able to pause a primarily single player game at any time you like. They could easily make it so it's "unpausable" when you have another player in your world proper, allowing you to pause again when you get shot of them.

The character animation is great! Are you playing a different game? I've never played a game with such lovely tactile combat animation before. You can feel every collision. People in heavy armour when they roll around especially.

As for the messages, welcome to Dark Souls. Some are helpful, some are genuinely unhelpful, some will get you killed, some are nonsensical, some are funny, some aren't.

Would sir like a bucket of flinch with his combat?

Quiet! Where are you up to? I bet you fall in love with it when it gets a hold of your gonads.

Our Dimrill likes to be contrary, remember. He rails against hype!

I've just reached somewhere where a man's sitting down and his Nookie Bear told me to ring bells. Then I found some shit written on the floor which makes no sense and had to adjust some numbers which had no explanation text. I don't know whether attunement is something I need to level up, but it has been. It had a book icon next to it

I think part of the problem with the graphics (and to me they are 'fine' but nothing special) is the very poor frame rate at times combined with what they are trying to do with a massive draw distance - its different and sometimes looks very impressive but at other times just looks wrong :-(

The notes are basically 'junk' (or at least for the few hours i've played i've found them to be) , at one point you can buy an item to mark things on the ground however you are limited in what you can put (its not freeform) which makes it hard to get complex ideas across (try communicating on here in Dimlie's only) the numbers after them are the people who have said they found them useful

As an example near the first 'boss' beforehand I had some markings saying "danger" , and behind them in the next area there were a number of "yipee" type ones - that really doesnt help (there are also random ones near massive drops which say "try jumping" , or "great view")

Attunement allows you to hold more spells, essentially. One extra spell slot for 2 levels

Attunement gives you magic slots. Every few* points of attunement gives you a slot, allowing you to equip more spells.

*I think it's two, then three, then four, etc.

As for the messages, they don't make much sense until you get the stone that allows you to write your own, then you can see what they're all about. But basically anyone can drop a message on the floor that will appear in everyone else's game world. You can only create messages from a pre-written list of words, which is why a lot of them are nonsensical. Basically, someone is trolling you with daft messages.

Oh, so not helpful in holding a note better while singing? Shit. I've levelled up the wrong number. I'll try another one next time. Maybe the one with the chicken leg on fire next to it.

Also: http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/

It's pretty standard RPG stuff, really. You'll eventually come across a weapon that you can't use because one of your stats isn't high enough, then you'll know what to aim for - assuming you want to use said weapon. It's more about feeling your way about though from what I've gathered. Nothing is explained particularly well, but it all starts to make sense as you move on and discover.

You lot would really like Nier. It's exactly the same but without unexplained game elements that suddenly change from helpful tutorial hints to something an illiterate 12 year old wrote for "lulz".

To be fair, I don't think a game has been as hyped before on this forum as this one. The way people have been going on about it, for someone completely new to it not to be blown away by it instantly is unsurprising. But if you read the start of this thread, everyone goes through a similar process before it clicks and you realise how fucking awesome it is.

In fact, I re-rolled after five hours or so because I did a similar thing to Dimrill and ballsed up my stats upgrades. Going through that first five hours again was much more fun second time around - and much quicker - then the game really started to click and I couldn't stop playing.

I know exactly what that's like. It took three years for me to 'get' Dead Rising.

Dimrill is from Cannock, remember.

I'm mostly agree with Dimmers. I think it's nicely animated, and there are some nice vistas with a long draw distance, but I find a lot of the textures to be rough looking. The menus are pretty ropey and the voice acting is incredibly cheesy. It reminds me of early Resident Evils in that regard. It's very Japanese, I guess. I'm not particularly put off by it, but it's not superb presentation in my opinion.

I think I need to fire it up again and give it a thorough inspection. I thought it looked gorgeous. The game world absolutely blew me away. As a few of us agreed earlier in this thread, it has a bit of a Team Ico feel to it. I genuinely think it's one of the best looking games I've ever played - ignoring the limitations of the machines it's running on and the graphical compromises that go along with that.

I mean, rough textures are pretty much par for the course on the current consoles, aren't they? There are plenty of examples of this in Skyrim, to be sure!

I suppose it depends where you guys are up to as well, though. There's plenty of variation beyond the grotty prison island you start off on and the grotty area you spend your time in at the start of the game (although there are some beautiful views to be admired in parts of those areas). Once you start climbing up in the world (or heading down into it), you see some pretty spectacular sights. And the way the world is seamlessly rendered as one huge level, with the ability to stand at the very top and look down onto the very bottom. Man.

In the menu where you increase your stats if you press select then you can scroll down each skill for a more detailed description. Or, y'know, you can read the manual. :/

It's not just textures. Stuttering frame rate. Ugly as hell character models with no animation apart from breathing. Horrible, horrible menus that are all sharp edges and noise. Your character floats above the landscape and is unable to mount edges that are 2-3 inches high without throwing himself forward in a roll.

Fucking hell, which century are you from?!

I'll grant you the frame rate issues, but again, current consoles and all that.

The comparison with Team Ico games is relevant. They looked rough but had a charm beyond the quality of the textures. The dissenting views in the thread have barely seen a tenth of the game so far so I wouldn't be so quick to try and persuade them to like how it looks. Leave em to it.

Aye. I'm confident in the game's abilities to blow people away if they let themselves get properly into it. The exploration into the unknown aspect, and the feeling of "levelling yourself up" rather than just your character's stats made me feel like I was a kid again. I can't remember having as much fun with games since I used to sneak into my brother's room and play on his Amiga 500 when he was out.

The last one.

I'm sure it tells you on the same screen as the stats that you can press start for the description. Bottom left is it?

The help text for the stats is pretty useless at advising which stats to increase.

Just read the wiki. There are only a few different stats - shouldn't be too tough to remember what they all do. And to be fair, they're not exactly wildly removed from traditional RPG stat tropes:

Level
This is the player's current level. It will increase when leveling any stat.

Humanity
Humanity increases curse resistance and item discovery, as well as attack power for weapons that scale with Humanity. However, it is a stat unlike any other with many special rules to it. It can NOT be increased when leveling up, and increasing it does not affect the player's level. Instead, it must be gained through other means, and can be lost and spent in a manner similar to souls.

Vitality
Vitality governs the player's maximum Health points.

Attunement
Attunement governs the amount of Spell slots.

Endurance
Endurance controls the player's Stamina, max Equip Burden and resistance to Bleeding.

Strength
Strength controls the player's Attack Power for weapons that scale with Strength.

Dexterity
Dexterity controls the player's Attack Power for weapons that scale with Dexterity and increases casting speed for most spells.

Resistance
Resistance increases physical and flame defense and resistance to poison.

Intelligence
Intelligence governs the Sorcery Power. It also controls the player's attack power for weapons that scale with Intelligence.

Faith
Faith governs the Miracle Power and also increases the Magic Defense. It also controls the player's attack power for weapons that scale with Faith.

It's worth remembering that some weapons require a certain amount of, e.g., Dexterity and Strength to wield properly. You can still equip them, but you'll hold them like a spack-handed spack.

Skyrim's levelling system is loads more complicated than that.

You can press the back button on the stats screen to tell you what each one does.

As for knowing what to upgrade, well that's for you to decide. Pretty self evident that if you want a tank increase strength etc, if you want a sorcerer then boost your intelligence. Like pretty much every other RPG.

Dark Souls does not hold your hand, it is tough. IT IS AWESOME.

There have been a few useful messages left that I've come across - pointing out illusory walls, usually. The frame rate dips are annoying, particularly in Blighttown (apparently it's possibly relating the enemy pathfinding code in that area) but I do think it's a great looking game.

Killed the Spider Witch last night, but only by summoning just before it and letting that phantom do most of the work.

I can appreciate Dimrill's frustration though - a lot isn't explained. Some of which is fun to figure out as you go along, but some involve referring to the wiki or asking around.

The lack of explanation is one of the reasons it made me feel like a kid again. When I were a lad, for all intents and purposes the internet didn't exist. Your options for getting past a difficult part of a game in those days were expensive cheat phone lines and asking Patrick Moore. Some of the most fun I'd have with my days would be discussing games in the playground with my chums. Helping each other out on bits we were stuck on, telling tales of games one another hadn't played yet, and parts of games we hadn't got to yet.

Dark Souls brought all of that back for me, because I had to talk about it on here with you lot, go on YouTube and watch people doing stuff in the game that I wasn't sure about, read the wiki, etc. Oh, and just going out there and exploring the world yourself. That as well. There was a genuine mystery around the game that very few titles seem to manage these days. That being said, I wouldn't want every game to be like Dark Souls. It's a one-off. I definitely want something similar in the future, but sometimes it's nice for a game to hold your hand a little bit.

Yeah, I remember the dark days when games were struggling towards accessibility. Luckily we've moved forward since then, but not in this game.

Pff!

How do I hurt the ghosty people who are continually kicking my arse?

You'll have to return there later in the game when you've got better (divine?) weapons. I can't be more precise as I've not done that bit yet either.

You can also use an item that will temporarily let you hurt them. But yeah, you're heading in the wrong direction for now - that's quite a high level area!

The only other area I can see to get to is an graveyard with Skellingtons that won't die neither.

Sounds like the same point I was struggling with for a bit, so the advice after my post might be useful.

So where is that? Because the two directions I've found so far are making me hate life.

! BLOOD LOSS !