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After finishing the D4 season and playing Veilguard I went back to playing Dark Souls 3. I am now done with the game. I am also done with the series, which is fine with me. These games well overstayed their welcome, at least when unlocking all the achievements. The summary page tells me I have played the game for less time than Dark Souls 2, which is only because Dark Souls 2 takes ages to finish. Dark Souls 3 is relatively short by comparison. The grinding for the achievements though, oh, is just so much worse. If you thought farming in Dark Souls 2 was bad, well, think again. Proofs of a Concord Kept will haunt me in my dreams for weeks to come. Having to grab all the "new" rings from NG+ and NG+2 also meant that one couldn't just rush through to the end. Which is doubly unfortunate since +3 upgrades of the rings that I did end up using were all found in the DLC areas, so going through NG+(+) was nothing but a useless chore to finish up finding rings and grabbing spells that I didn't get the first time around. Well, and the Proper Bow emote, for which one needs to fail a certain NPC's questline rather early in the game. I'm pretty sure one of the FromSoftware cultists has a long-winded explanation of how and why this is fantastic game design, but it's just not. Since being fashionable is also one of the cult's favorite past times, I took a screenshot of my character's final appearance. This is a first. Meet pretty Meta McMetaface: McMetaface wears Morne's helm, Havel's armor, Catarina Gauntlets and Harald Legion Leggins, combined with the Sharp Infused Sellsword Winblades and the Grass Crest shield. Not sure how so much of the community arrived at the conclusion that armor is usless in Souls games. Perhaps a holdover from the first Dark Souls where iframes and rolling worked a lot differently, but even there it is not useless. If it were Havel Tanking the Four Kings would not be a thing. Anyway, the physical damage reduction on this combination is nothing to sneer at. The setup is complemented by Havel's Ring +3, Cloranthy Ring +3 and Ring of Favor +3, with one wildcard ring for whatever resistance is best for the area or boss. I don't recall needing more than three tries for any of the bosses except Champion's Gravetender (yeah, dunno, that's just like me having problems with an "easy" boss, just like in my first Dark Souls run where I died more often to the Gaping Dragon than all other bosses combined), and that was limited to DLC ones and Nameless King (Friede, Twiddledee and Twiddledum and Darkeater Midir). The game obviously plays a lot better than Dark Souls 2. The areas look great, and I enjoyed that it is more linear. I also never found myself yelling at the screen because of ridiculous hitboxes, so that is an area that was either improved a lot, or I just got used to it. It also shares traits with the other games in the series that I have harped on for long enough now - it once again features a gripping narrative and very satisfying endings and the same "story" for the third time in a row, although the game now has the third option for an ending that Aldia was probably looking for. Half of the game felt like gratuitous fanservice, and I still like the slower and more methodical combat of Dark Souls better than this one's, but that is probably also liberally seasoned by hindsight and having played newer soulslikes. Playing Dark Souls 3 after Lies of P and Sekiro makes it look like a red-headed stepchild in between with no identity of its own, which is unfair, as one of those games isn't even a FromSoftware title and the other is much newer than Dark Souls 3, and has a much different combat focus.

The Three Stooges

Proofs of a Concord Kept, now that brought back some nasty memories from 2016. I don't think i've farmed anything in Souls games as long as these ****ting things. And i've farmed everything there is to farm in every Souls game.

Update - with storm warning in UK, and not much work to do I spent a bit of time bashing my head against Radahn and finally bested him - ended up using help of a trusty Mimic Tear in the 2nd phase. And frankly after after I saw how absurd he get when he is near dying, I can't say I feel bad about it. Fortunately, I lucked out and managed to survive his final onslaught through panicked rolling and gulping any remaining Esuts Flasks that I had. It could have gone either way, but fortunately, once the lad calmed down he went for his heavily telegraphed grab giving me plenty of space to finish him off.

After being put on display in the last episode, the three kids ends up in the school nurses office, presumably to check if they are being bullied or similar traumatic experiences. Queen Sensei (the "nurse" with the whip) makes for a striking figure (left out the scene where she starts whipping a guy and tells the kids entertain themselves) Airas friends stops by and drags her back to class, where they all get themselves worked into a frenzy, helped by the false rumours Aira spread earlier. She decides to "come clean" and stop the torch and pitchfork mob in its tracks. Sadly I couldn't find a video clip of Aira banging her head against the bench, as it was quite funny Momo and Okarun gets a heart to heart talk, about how he ended up pinning Aira to the ground the moment Momo stopped by. It ends in a bit of awkwardness Momos friends similarly arrives, meeting up with Momo and Okarun. They put on a little "detective" show, illustrating what they think is happening. Fun little sequence with 60's style effects They almost correctly arrive at the conclusion it's a love triangle with two girls fighting over a boy. Only way to explain how all three ended up in the hallway in various stages of nudity This would also explain (to her friends), why Momo seemed to study the mantis shrimp so intensively in the class room Similarly Momo and Aira have a brief conversation, where Aira confesses to not hanging Momo out as the source of evil in school. This is also around the point where the gig worker shows up again (the poor mantis guy with hard punches from previous episode) He looks weird and is covered in a white liquid running off him (more about that in a moment)... We get a bit of backstory. Gig worker is a [$@$@] from [$@$@], who needs currency really badly. His wife died from a disease, which his son has inherited and requires him to constantly taking ****ty jobs as bodyguard etc. to pay for his treatment They try to explain to Seiko that gig worker is an alien, but she'll hear none of it, he's just a "Kappa" The disease is a kind of hemophilia, causing them to bleed to death. The kids take pity on the gig worker, taking him home to Seiko (Momo's grandmother) and patching him up (the white liquid was his blood). Seiko makes sushi for all, with a typical Ayase household dinner to follow Seiko identifies the blood of gig worker as being similar to cows milk. Hence, he may not need to work himself to death to provide for his son home on [$@,$@] Gig worker is overjoyed and we get a scene where an UFO (or UAP if you ask Okarun) beams up a cow and flies away, promising something along the lines of eternal friendship A funny scene involving the three kids, Seiko and money for new school uniforms, followed by the doorbell, where a young man shows up, Jiji... turns out to be Momo's childhood friend and first love (leaving Okarun flustered)

I am not sure if easier is the best word - more fair, that's for sure. DS2 (similar to Elden Ring) suffered IMO from a lot of cheap bullcrap. I didn't think DS2 was too hard, I just thought it was full of "gotcha" moments. DS3 went back to telegraphing its intent and when it it jump at you, it was rarely with intent to kill. But there is still, of course, an element of player experience in the genre. The combat model is pretty simple really, as far as player involvement is concerned so skill acquired in one game tend to transfer to another. Speaking of which - I might be burned out of Soulslike as well - that or I just didn't like recent releases. I used quite a few summons in Lies of P - I just didn't feel bosses were worth learning. I am also somewhat stuck in Erdtree - though I think it has more to do with how unreadable enemy attacks are. I am at the final boss - I learned his first phase and am chipping at this 2nd phase. There is so much visual noise that I don't see another option than to die over and over again, and try to learn and memorise proper dodge timings. But I don't think it is entirely me. I did enjoy some parts of Erdtree immensily. Some bosses as well - not as much as DS3, but still. I find a lot of the bosses to be artificial difficult though. Killing you through attacks to which proper defense is unclear, a lot of charge attacks which timings have to be memorised, similar looking attacks with different wind up times to trip you up. I don't know I feel Elden Ring was too much - it overstayed it's welcome, and DLC had far too much repeat for my taste as well.

I don't know/care about "woke" but sometimes I'm a little tired of all the constant "female protagonist" games (when you can't choose) in a lot of the games - well, at least re: those that aren't purposefully otp machismo-action/godofwar/military/whatever fantasy. I just sometimes (well, ok, often) don't want female protagonists. I weirdly don't relate most of the time, or don't like many female VA's, perhaps why any "gaming imbalance" never bothered me in the first place. What I've always wanted is a kind of equal numerical balance of all the tropes/issues/genres/hoohaa of the moment. So there's plenty of options/styles etc. all around, all the time. Which I know is unrealistic to expect, and it never happens - always swings one way or the other to extremes as trends. Ah well. I was considering wasting money on the Indy game out of curiosity re: performance on my aging rig - plus he's a non-otp-machismo male protagonist - but after skimming through a few ppl playing it, it looks ... kinda boring. I mean if one really wanted an Indy game to capture an Indy feel, it looks good for that - I just mean, for my gameplay tastes. I might still waste money on it tho, could be false viewing impression. Not paying the early-access price hike tho.

Fate of Atlantis Fists path best path!

I just remembered that a few years ago I've read Under the Wire by Paul Conroy. It tells the story of him and Marie Colvin (war journalists) in Homs, back when Syrian government and Russia were cracking down on the city. What they describe is pretty much the same that happened in Ukraine -- just relentless artillery fire, leveling the city meter by meter every day until everything is flattened. This, honestly, is really the only thing that Russia is capable of doing. Everything else in their military is useless. Take away the artillery and they are incapable of doing anything. And as we can see now, the only thing holding Assad's regime up was the Russian support. It's almost funny to see how fast it crumbles- if it just wouldn't be for all the civilian suffering at the same time.

Its interesting and complicated whats happening in Syria and its influenced by several different geopolitical realities and history But we also know how the term terrorist group gets defined but its selective around how people accept it. Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the US and I consider them a terrorist group but lots of people opposed to Israel for different reasons consider Hamas freedom fighters who are fighting against an oppressive and "Apartheid" Israel And then the incorrect comparison gets used with the real struggle against Apartheid in South Africa and a legitimate argument gets made similar to " was the ANC and Mandela really terrorists " For me Mandela was a terrorist in the technical definition of terrorism which is using violence to achieve a political change but because the Apartheid state was never a legitimate government, it didnt represent all citizens in the country, I dont consider him a terrorist and the ANC did fight against an oppressive and unsustainable type of government Syria is more complicated but I try to keep it simple Assad had a choice when the early Arab Spring protests started, he could have avoided the war by allowing inclusion and more political and economic representation of all Syrians and allowing something as simple as a free and fair election . As your link mentions " Pedersen added that there had been "a collective failure to bring about a genuine political process" to implement UN Security Council resolution 2254, which was passed in 2015. That laid out a roadmap for peace, with the principle in the text that “the Syrian people will decide the future of Syria”. The objective was a future shaped by free elections and a new constitution. But that meant Assad and his family giving up a country that they treated for years as their personal fief. More than half a million dead attest to their determination not to let that happen." But he refused and decided to stay in power and unleash the full might of his military on his citizens and the civil war started Then Iran, Russia and Hezbollah intervened and kept him power by helping to defeat the rebels\insurgency\militants\extremists But he could have avoided all of this And yet he has failed to change much in Syria both politically or economically since the civil war ended in most parts of country He is truly a reprehensible leader who only cares about one thing, staying in power at the expense of whats best for his country so this latest uprising was almost guaranteed I dont think there is an alliance between Israel and Turkey\rebels around this latest insurrection but I do think the rebels were motivated by what has happened since 7 October where Israel has vastly weakened and eroded Iran and Hezbollah in the region and they taking advantage of that. Russia is also deeply mired militarily in Ukraine so there additional support is questionable Israel's current biggest security concern would be Iran and its proxies and since Assad is considered a staunch ally of Iran they would support him being overthrown And this calculus would be because of 7 October which has obviously had a huge influence around Israel geopolitical views in the ME

Forgot the joy of radio call in shows. Dude called in and went on a rant about how tyrannical the Canadian government is and how we'd be better off under fascism. Then said we're under "corporate Communism". Shame the host didn't ask him WTF he was talking about.

Dark Souls 3 felt quite easy to me. I almost breezed through the main game. Not sure if the game is just generally easier, or if I suffered so much through Dark Souls 2 that my motoric skills improved a lot. On the other hand, for some reason I also burned out from the series a lot with it. Bought the DLC but never actually even started it. Took me a long time to get back to Souls games... actually Bloodborne a couple years later was what brought me back. Probably because it felt so very different. Oh, by the way. Not sure if I mentioned it, but I'm not in Bloodborne NG+. Just finished off Amelia and nibbled on the Hunters Nightmare already a little bit. Though I'm not sure if I can do that one again now... Facing the Orphan of Kos (some say, Kosm...) is not something I'm looking forward to at all. Especially not in NG+.

Yes Africa has several examples of the Russian military and state linked mercenaries meddling and getting involved in civil wars and conflicts and they do it to gain mineral resources and push neo-colonial Russian interests like vetoing the recent UNSC Sudan ceasefire The irony and hypocrisy with this is something I often raise, 10 years ago if this was Western forces this involved in this indirect way you would hear certain activists outraged around the normal " Western imperialism and colonialism " rhetoric But there is a deafening silence from most of these same activists when Russia does the same thing they criticized Western countries for And this will continue while the Africa Union continues to be an ineffective block that lacks real unity and doesnt enforce its own manifesto or rules for the continent

Yeah... some people were apprehensive at the prospect of facing Russia after Syria but before Ukraine. Sometimes the image in your head is more intimidating than reality once it gets put to the test. Besides Syria, Russian military units are also active all over central and western Africa. Maybe there is a Molotov-Ribbentrop pact equivalent for partitioning Africa? edit: between Russia and China that is

Indeed, people would then see that China is just a paper tiger as well.

https://www.getty.edu/publications/cultural-heritage-mass-atrocities/part-2/10-bandarin/ " But the worst calamity has been the dispersal of the Syrian population due to the violence. In 2010 Syria had an estimated population of 21.8 million, which shrank to 20.5 million in 20155 and 19.4 million in 2018. It is estimated that at least five hundred thousand people were killed and two million wounded during the war; over 6.5 million people were internally displaced, and over five million, equal to over 20 percent of the country’s population, became international refugees" But because only 32k people were killed in Aleppo and the city was destroyed "nothing to see " The unnecessary tragedy around the Syrian war was clearly just a Western projection and Assad, Russia and Iran did nothing wrong Great argument Zora, very convincing

I really wish those two would be friends. Eder isn't a fan of Xoti and her faith at the begining, but for some reason he managed to reach full +2 disposition with her, while Xoti who seems to be more interested in him than he is in her, his stuck at +1 for the whole game... Is there a way to legit make her +2 with Eder or are there just no dialogues that allow to reach enough positive disposition for that ? Thanks

Thats a reassuring interview and I like what he is saying "Inside rebel-controlled territory in Syria, it’s clear he operates less like a wanted man and more like a politician. After forces loyal to him took control of Aleppo, he made a public appearance in the city’s historic citadel. Jolani says he has gone through episodes of transformation through the years. “A person in their twenties will have a different personality than someone in their thirties or forties, and certainly someone in their fifties. This is human nature. Jolani’s interview with CNN on Thursday was an about-face from the hardline rhetoric that he used during his first-ever televised interview in 2013, when he was interviewed by Al Jazeera with his face in shadow. At the time, his remarks were focused on furthering al Qaeda’s branch in Syria. On Thursday, Jolani projected a different vision for the war-torn country. In a sign of his attempted rebranding, he also publicly used his real name for the first time – Ahmed al-Sharaa – instead of the nom de guerre by which he is widely known. " They clearly want understandable Western recognition and to change the narrative they are a terrorist organisation Im cautiously optimistic and I hope they continue on this path of wanting to be seen as legitimate