Hawke64

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin To the Frigid Outskirts. Zallen (and Lud) defeated.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Completed the game. Frozen Eleum Loyce was an amazing area, the interconnectivity and general design reminded of the original Dark Souls. I successfully found the knights of Eleum Loyce and challenged the Ivory King. Then I returned to the Expulsion Chamber bonfire and traveled to the Frigid Outskirts via the most appropriate means, a casket. I did not explore the area, just ran in the general direction of the fog gate (could not see much, because of the blizzard). The deer started to spawn pretty soon and they pushed one of the phantoms from the cliff before we reached Lud and Zallen, the King's pets. The pets took much more time, than their former master, but I managed to finish off Zallen as he was about to go berserk. Then I used a Bonfire Ascetic on the Throne of Want/King's Gate bonfire and went through three boss battles again to see, if anything was changed in SotFS. Somehow having played DSII several times makes it harder to appreciate the plot and not combat mechanics of the game.

It would be nice, though the basics seemed reasonably easy to understand. Certainly, easier, than in D:OS, at least. I suppose, putting it into the in-game encyclopedia, while explicitly informing the player that reviewing the information is highly recommended, would be preferable, as long tutorials at the beginning are hard to get through without context. So, when the player encountered a new ability or a combat situation, they were unfamiliar with, the information would be accessible. Though, there were tool-tips/contextual information already and the encyclopedia covered some subjects.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Shulva, the Sunken City. I explored the place, the interconnectivity reminded of DS1. Some of the rooms required a bow to access them. The invulnerable ghosts were quite interesting and, fortunately, not hard-hitting - I found and destroyed their corpses and did not die in the process. I successfully reached the first boss, Elana, the Squalid Queen, and defeated her with Benhart of Jugo. She summoned Velstadt twice during battle. The Slumbering Dragon took several attempts, the first was with two phantoms (I returned to the bonfire when they were vanquished), the others solo. Somehow, Sinh was easier and more predictable when I faced him alone. Also cutting his tail did not grant me a sword, though it did not happen in the vanilla either. The Cave of the Dead, a co-op area, felt better than the Iron Passage - there was no opponent who could slow me down (literally). One NPC phantom made it with me to the boss room and survived a few minutes there, allowing me to defeat the archer. The other two, Alva and Havel, took more time. I used poison arrows and falchion (which almost broke) for Havel, who was able to use Estus. It seemed that weapon durability is lower or depletes faster, than in DSII. I almost broke 3 swords (the Fume straight sword, the Mirrah greatsword and the falchion) between the first and the second bonfires in Frozen Eleum Loyce.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. The Iron Passage. It was a co-op area and I attempted to complete it with two NPC phantoms. They survived the first room, then I BC'ed them and went alone, dodging attacks, instead of fighting (except the priests, poison arrows were quite effective against them). I made it to the fog gate and successfully defeated the Blue Smelter Demon, though it took several attempts.

Attempted to play Shenmue III. I had low expectations for the game, but I did expect it to run. Now it either shows me black screen (and so helpfully tells that I can activate Ansel by pressing Alt+F2) when run from the *.exe or just crashes immediately when launched via EGS. I am unsure how to proceed, there are no links to technical support anywhere, neither on the devs' site (shenmue.link) nor on the publisher's (Deep Silver). Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated Sir Alonne.

The fragment should be on the wooden catwalk that led to the Godhammer at Dusk, if I remember correctly.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Raime, the Fume Knight.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I traversed the Dark Chasm of Old and defeated the Darklurker, though the second part (after the boss split) was more random than I would like. The second (?) DLC, the Brume Tower, seemed to be the same as it was in DSII. I successfully reached the bottom of the tower and defeated the Fume Knight, surprisingly, on the first attempt (Raime was the most difficult boss in DSII for me).

I liked it. The main campaign was linear, side missions were random, but somehow it worked. The combat provided enough tactical depth, character and 'Mech builds were diverse, animations were skippable, GUI was easy-to-read. Also there are a rogue-like mode and PvP. I have not played them, so can't say anything else.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated Aldia, the Scholar of the First Sin on the first try, though I did return to the bonfire right after Nashandra to restock and change equipment. Now I'm going for the Darklurker and the Fume Knight, not sure about the other two DLC. It is a bit ironic that I use the same falchion I started with (it was the first thing I bought). The Chaos Blade would be ideal for a dex build, but it causes too much HP damage per hit and its moveset is somehow worse, than falchion's, as I can't strike repeatedly - there's a delay after 2 hits.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin My journey started with a falchion... And with the same falchion it ended.

I remember my disappointment, when the game did not allow me to kill the redhead guy with mustache after defeating the bald guy. But the saber he gave me, Iris, was quite nice. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I've reached the Dragon Shrine. It changed a lot in SotFS - the dragon knights are friendly. It makes the area somehow unique, as everywhere else, except Majula, everything tries to murder me. I finished Lucatiel's quest line and it was a good reminder about DSII main plot's driving force - to preserve one's identity, memories, self. Still, it's a really tragic story.

Shenmue III has been released. I've received and activated my key (backed the game on Kickstarter) and it is downloading now (the size is about 35GB, despite the store page claiming 100; mentioning it, because it had bothered me greatly during the campaign). https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/19/after-18-years-shenmue-3-is-finally-a-game-you-can-play-right-now/ Edit. The game crashes (when launched from EGS) or shows only black screen (when launched from Steam). I suppose, I should have waited longer for patches. Not unusual, but still unpleasant.

On pre-buffing. Pathfinder: Kingmaker on Normal (mostly on Normal, there were several difficulty sliders) required pre-buffing in order to not die quickly and horribly. On my second PT, when I knew what to expect and understood the mechanics better, I buffed the party upon entering a map, then ran and murdered everything while the buffs lasted. There was little variety to it, so I wished I could write macros (and it made me appreciate PoE even more). Dragon Age at least allowed to customize AI and the companions could pre-buff themselves, though I don't remember if it was necessary. So, I like the approach to buffs in PoE.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I ran through the Gutter, cleared the Black Gulch (no idea how I was supposed to find the giants or Lucatiel, if I did not know about their locations - the ledges were nearly invisible) and the Drangleic Castle, reached the Shrine of Amana and collected all DLC keys. It seems like length-wise DS1 and DSII are quite similar - 2 bells=>4 great souls and 4 great souls=>King's ring =>the Ancient Dragon's thing (I forgot what it is) - but the order is reversed. The Outer Worlds. I completed character creation and part of the tutorial section. I am going to continue the playthrough after DSII. So far I like the humor and appreciate 5-button mouse support.

I haven't played a caster, but heard that it should be viable in DS1 and 2 and not recommended in DS3. I suppose (not sure), there are too many stats required to cast effectively and number of spells per rest is limited. Found a build for DS2: https://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Pure+Caster For DS3: https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Mage+Build

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated Duke's Dear Freja (a giant two-headed spider) with 3 phantoms, whom I summoned while looking for the way to the second bonfire in the area. It was more chaotic, than going alone, but the NPCs were quite capable. Also after saving Ornifex in the Shaded Ruins, I decided to try the Lost Sinner in NG+ (I had 1 bonfire ascetic). The boss dropped its NG+ soul, which I traded for the Chaos Blade. It leaves only one path from Majula to clear and the Gutter is a worthy successor of Blighttown. A lot of wooden ladders and catwalks, poison, and zero visibility as a bonus. There should not be anything necessary for the run, so I intend to get to the Black Gulch as fast as possible without exploring much.

I'm quite sure her romance starts at +2, not +1.

I suppose, the initial impression of "tropical biome + sloops + pirates" had bothered me, but I still supported PoEII. The main story line from the trailers was the exact thing I had wanted after PoE1 and I was not disappointed. The length of the critical path (Mort Maje=>Hasongo=>Ashen Maw=>Neketaka=Ukaizo) and that the inability to kill Eothas was backed up by lore (how can one destroy a giant adra statue?) I consider to be good things (when an NPC is killable by lore, but protected by plot armor or the game restricts your avatar's movement during cut-scenes, it is irritating). No strong feelings about Avellone.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated the Old Iron King. It has been a fairly straightforward run so far, I've been dying mostly to gravity, defeating bosses on first attempts. The Smelter Demon and the entrance to the Iron Keep were slightly more difficult, because the knights there were more mobile and aggressive, than I remembered, and I was low on Estus when I reached the boss. The bridge itself seemed to be recreated as a PvP spot even in the offline mode - I got two NPC invaders. The phantoms, added in SotFS, were both effective (could kill stuff and not die at the same time) and friendly (they performed appropriate gestures and used items). The old ones who were in the original version have not changed - sturdy, but not expressive. The two bosses who can be hard to defeat are the Fume Knight and the Dark Lurker (not sure about spelling). I have not yet found the keys to any of the DLC areas.

The Outer Worlds. I'm unlikely to play it right now, but I wanted to support the developers after the news about PoE3. Also I am worried that the future patches may alter the experience and EGS does not force to download updates, unlike Steam (at least, The Witness and Celeste have not tried to do it yet).

Thank you for the information.

I'm considering to purchase TOW (PC) on the Official Private Division Store (https://store.privatedivision.com/the-outer-worlds/order). In what form (a key or an installer or what) the digital version is delivered?