Skald: Against the Black Priory
Finished! I really enjoyed this one. It's somewhat short and small for a classic-style RPG, as it took me just under 24 hours to explore every map and do everything I could find, but it was enjoyable from start to end, and each location and quest felt interesting and substantial--no being tasked with collecting five squirrel nuts in the woods, in this game.

Although it appears to be a fantasy RPG with some horror elements, it's really more of a horror RPG that happens to take place in a fantasy setting. It gets surprisingly (and increasingly) mean and gory as the game goes on; I should have played through this back in October instead of on Christmas day! The story and writing were both quite good, though the focus of the game is definitely on combat and exploration.

It's quite a linear experience overall, though there are two optional quests that are actually quite meaty, and the middle portion of the game consists of a large chain of quests you can complete through either combat or diplomacy. Your choice here will largely be determined by the type of character you've built, so it's probably worth replaying the game with a different type of character to see what the other solution is like.

The combat is not especially complicated or hard, but you do have plenty of skills and abilities to use and it's a lot of fun! I enjoyed developing my party of characters over the course of the game, and unleashing all of the abilities of a fully developed party toward the end of the game can be a thing of beauty. All area encounters are fixed and do not regenerate, while you have the option of enabling or disabling random world encounters; I ended up turning these off because you get plenty of experience points just from the fixed encounters.

I really don't care for how the game looks, and actually prefer how it looked early in development when it more closely resembled a C64 game. However, it makes excellent use of sound effects in battle to really give combat a sense of weight and impact, and the music is outstanding.

Overall, I had a blast with Skald. Highly recommended!

More progress in Demon's Souls. I tried going to the Shrine of Storms, but that area might be too difficult for my current stats and equipment. However, I noticed that those rolling skeletons near the start give a decent amount of souls when killed. They are fast and strong, but like in DS1, vulnerable to blunt weapons. So I bought a plain old club, and farmed them for some extra levels. This allowed me to raise Vitality and Endurance to 20 each, which improved my survival chances considerably.

I then paid a visit to Stonefang Tunnel, which had some irksome platforming segments. Those top hat wearing enemies were pretty nasty too, due to their homing fireballs. And the fight against the big spider just wasn't that enjoyable for me. I heard that some boss battles in this game can be gimmicky or tedious, and now I see why. I died a few times here due to the lack of space for dodging, but eventually, I was successful. Still, forcing the player to fight that humongous thing in such a cramped location was an odd design choice.

Next up, I went back to Boletaria, to try my luck with its second level. Had no problems with the dragons torching those bridges, since I keep my equip load under 50%, and can sprint pretty fast when necessary. After some time, I found the area boss, that being the Tower Knight. This guy reminded me of the Iron Golem from DS1, so I knew what to do. Poked his knees until he fell over, then just piled on the damage. And sure enough, I got him on the first try. I wonder if this went so smoothly because I always play without lock on. In any case, I liked this boss fight much more than the last one. Looks like the next area is sealed off for now, so I went back to the Nexus to fix my gear and level up.

P.S.

I heard that Demon's Souls can run at 60 FPS via emulation and decided to try that. So I used the Apollo tool for copying the saves from my PS3 to a USB stick, and then transferred them over to RPCS3 on my PC. Worked fine, and the game does indeed run at a locked 60 FPS, thanks to a fan made patch. I also increased the resolution to 1080p and bumped up Anisotropic Filtering to 16x. Looks great and runs like a dream now. Think I'll continue my playthrough here, since everything feels much more responsive. Also, I prefer the Xbox controller to the DualShock3. The latter is a bit too small for my hands, so they get strained after prolonged play sessions.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-12-25, 08:13:

I heard that Demon's Souls can run at 60 FPS via emulation and decided to try that. So I used the Apollo tool for copying the saves from my PS3 to a USB stick, and then transferred them over to RPCS3 on my PC. Worked fine, and the game does indeed run at a locked 60 FPS, thanks to a fan made patch. I also increased the resolution to 1080p and bumped up Anisotropic Filtering to 16x. Looks great and runs like a dream now. Think I'll continue my playthrough here, since everything feels much more responsive.

Good to hear, I've got RPCS3 installed but I haven't yet had the time to even launch it, but apparently PS3 emulation is mostly in good shape. I intend to give Demons/Dark Souls a go with it at some point but quite honestly I expect going monkey bananas and launching the controller out the window sooner or later. I don't think they are for me but better make sure since they clearly are good games.

Also, I prefer the Xbox controller to the DualShock3. The latter is a bit too small for my hands, so they get strained after prolonged play sessions.

The first three PS controllers are pretty small. Caught me by surprise when I bought a factory sealed PS1 partly because I wanted an unused controller, well I got one but the thing is tiny. Didn't have that problem back when I was a teenager.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-12-25, 10:09:

Good to hear, I've got RPCS3 installed but I haven't yet had the time to even launch it, but apparently PS3 emulation is mostly in good shape.

Yeah, I found RPCS3 really easy to set up. It also helps that Demon's Souls has such a huge fan base, so there are a ton of guides out there for getting it to run as smoothly as possible. My advice is to first check its wiki page, since you need to turn on a few settings that are disabled by default.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-12-25, 10:09:

I intend to give Demons/Dark Souls a go with it at some point but quite honestly I expect going monkey bananas and launching the controller out the window sooner or later. I don't think they are for me but better make sure since they clearly are good games.

As someone who plays most games on Normal or Easy, I was honestly surprised how much I ended up enjoying the Souls games. Like others have said here, they are hard but fair. And it feels extremely satisfying to finally beat a boss who seemed invincible on your first attempt. I recommend starting with the Steam version of Dark Souls Remastered. It's more polished than Demon's Souls, and its gameplay mechanics are my favorite so far. Don't be afraid to look up a guide which explains the bare necessities, like how equip load affects dodging and such.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-12-25, 10:09:

The first three PS controllers are pretty small. Caught me by surprise when I bought a factory sealed PS1 partly because I wanted an unused controller, well I got one but the thing is tiny. Didn't have that problem back when I was a teenager.

Same here. I had no issues with these controllers when I was younger. But now in my 40s, I sure feel the strain if my ergonomic demands aren't met. Old man problems and all that. 😁

Sombrero wrote on 2025-12-25, 10:09:

Good to hear, I've got RPCS3 installed but I haven't yet had the time to even launch it, but apparently PS3 emulation is mostly in good shape. I intend to give Demons/Dark Souls a go with it at some point but quite honestly I expect going monkey bananas and launching the controller out the window sooner or later. I don't think they are for me but better make sure since they clearly are good games.

I agree with Joseph_Joestar that the first Dark Souls is the best place to start with the series, and I agree that you definitely want to look up some basic information on how the game works with regard to rolling, stats, etc. A great class to play for your first time is the Pyromancer, which some consider the unofficial "easy" mode of the game. Many enemies are quite weak to fire magic, and it helps to be able to attack from range while learning how the game works. Even as Pyromancer, you will have to go toe-to-toe with some enemies, so it's also a great way to ease into melee combat.

Honestly speaking, it's not so much that the Dark Souls games are particularly difficult (the gaming press, like usual, really exaggerates this), but that completing them requires you to actually learn to play them properly. They are actually quite kind in many ways; the game constantly saves your progress, so everything you accomplish (items gathered, shortcuts unlocked, etc.) is retained even if you die, and of course you always have the option of grinding a level or two if you want a little bit of an edge.

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-12-25, 11:22:

I agree with Joseph_Joestar that the first Dark Souls is the best place to start with the series, and I agree that you definitely want to look up some basic information on how the game works with regard to rolling, stats, etc. A great class to play for your first time is the Pyromancer, which some consider the unofficial "easy" mode of the game. Many enemies are quite weak to fire magic, and it helps to be able to attack from range while learning how the game works. Even as Pyromancer, you will have to go toe-to-toe with some enemies, so it's also a great way to ease into melee combat.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have a faint memory of magic classes looking very unfun to me. I'm personally very much in the heavy hitting melee class corner. That's the main reason I've held on the possibility of liking the series, I enjoy slowish but brutal melee a lot. So many third person melee games go far into fast and flashy spectacle fighter side of things and I personally don't like those at all. Reminds me I really should replay Severance: Blade of Darkness at some point.

Honestly speaking, it's not so much that the Dark Souls games are particularly difficult (the gaming press, like usual, really exaggerates this), but that completing them requires you to actually learn to play them properly. They are actually quite kind in many ways; the game constantly saves your progress, so everything you accomplish (items gathered, shortcuts unlocked, etc.) is retained even if you die, and of course you always have the option of grinding a level or two if you want a little bit of an edge.

Alright, good to hear. I don't shy away from challenge in general as long I find the challenge fun, which is the main reason why I haven't tried Souls games. I have a rather strong feeling I would find learning boss attack moves the hard way anything but fun. There seems to be a bit too much what I would call annoying bs.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-12-25, 12:18:

I'm personally very much in the heavy hitting melee class corner. That's the main reason I've held on the possibility of liking the series, I enjoy slowish but brutal melee a lot.

That's how I played both DS1 and DS2. As a strong guy wielding a big weapon, swinging slowly, but dealing a ton of damage. Didn't touch magic at all during my runs, and I had a lot of fun. That said, there will be areas and enemies where this build isn't optimal, and you'll have to adapt. Same goes for any other build I imagine, though spellcasters do seem to have an easier time overall, at least from what I've seen on YouTube.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-12-25, 12:18:

I have a rather strong feeling I would find learning boss attack moves the hard way anything but fun. There seems to be a bit too much what I would call annoying bs.

While this does help, it's not like you have to memorize the attack patterns perfectly. It's enough to recognize what's coming your way, so that you can react appropriately. But yeah, dying to bosses several times in a row is just part of the Souls experience. You learn something new with each attempt, and get better until you eventually beat them. With time and experience, you can do this in fewer attempts, and even defeat some of the easier bosses on the first try.

DeS is an excellent title - but remember it is an older game so it has it's qwirks
once you get a hang of it you can basically be a god in it and destroy everything 😁
Knight is also the class I chose for my very 1st playthrough - finished the game with a +10 long sword
and levels are not meant to be finished in sequence, it is true that after you finish the 2nd Boletaria stage you are supposed to go to Stonefang tunnel and finish that completely thus gaining an archdemon soul to allow progression to later stages on Boletaria
World Tendency will be annoying since there is no online anymore AFAIK but maybe on emulator you can change it? There are events and small sections on stages that are only accessible with either a Pure Black or Pure White tendency.... also some gear changes stats depending on your character tendency
It sounds convoluted but it was a good idea at the time where online mp was a thing... but also it is for the best such tendencies did not made an appearance in the following titles

I envy you J_J you get to experience DeS for the 1st time - and with 60fps too!

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-12-25, 08:13:

I heard that Demon's Souls can run at 60 FPS via emulation and decided to try that. So I used the Apollo tool for copying the saves from my PS3 to a USB stick, and then transferred them over to RPCS3 on my PC. Worked fine, and the game does indeed run at a locked 60 FPS, thanks to a fan made patch. I also increased the resolution to 1080p and bumped up Anisotropic Filtering to 16x. Looks great and runs like a dream now. Think I'll continue my playthrough here, since everything feels much more responsive. Also, I prefer the Xbox controller to the DualShock3. The latter is a bit too small for my hands, so they get strained after prolonged play sessions.

Thanks for mentioning this btw! I had been wanting to give this game a replay and was considering getting a PS3 just for it... but today I downloaded RPCS3 and found to my surprise that it runs great even on my aging gaming laptop! Amazing.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
I'm currently playing the Shivering Isles expansion, and it's really good so far! It takes place in a somewhat bizarre realm that feels a lot more like the unique world of Morrowind rather than the generic fantasy world of Oblivion.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
This is basically a cross between Skyrim (open world, perspective) and Dark Souls (builds, dark fantasy vibe, comparatively challenging combat). I played it for an hour and a half, and it's really good so far. I just got out of the tutorial dungeon and stepped into the open world, and I'm intrigued.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection
It turns out that the data collection stuff I whined about in a previous post is really not as onerous as it first seemed (it's worded very ominously on the consent screen), so I repurchased this and linked it with a burner MS account. I played Halo briefly on the original Xbox back in the day, so it's been interesting to revisit it. There are still things I absolutely hate about it, but I do like how the game is built around set pieces without being completely "cinematic" and on rails like a lot of the other games that were coming out around that time.

This collection allows you to switch between the original graphics and remastered graphics on the fly by pressing TAB, and it's surprisingly fun to compare the two from area to area. The remastered graphics change way too much and don't look as striking, though they are of course technically more impressive, so I've been playing in the classic mode.

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-12-25, 15:20:

Thanks for mentioning this btw! I had been wanting to give this game a replay and was considering getting a PS3 just for it... but today I downloaded RPCS3 and found to my surprise that it runs great even on my aging gaming laptop! Amazing.

Glad to hear it.

And yeah, RPCS3 is surprisingly light on my system too. I checked its performance via MSI Afterburner, and both CPU and GPU utilization hover between 20-25% while playing Demon's Souls on my Ryzen 7 5700X + RTX 3060 12GB rig. Kudos to the developers for optimizing the emulator so well.

keropi wrote on 2025-12-25, 13:26:

I envy you J_J you get to experience DeS for the 1st time - and with 60fps too!

Cheers! 😄

BTW, I watched this video earlier today. Now I understand why both you and @newtmonkey said that the original PS3 version is better than the PS5 remake. It's too bad the remake devs didn't consult with From Software before making some of those less desirable changes.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-12-25, 20:33:

Cheers! 😄

BTW, I watched this video earlier today. Now I understand why both you and @newtmonkey said that the original PS3 version is better than the PS5 remake. It's too bad the remake devs didn't consult with From Software before making some of those less desirable changes.

yeah, the game lost it's soul on that remake
not everything is about the graphics
I sure hope they do not make some kind of Bloodborne remake and butcher it as well , someone else must handle this if it ever comes to reality

I loved Demon's Souls on PS3, was nothing like it. From what I remember, I never like the mechanic with ligt/dark world or what it was called though. But overall an awsome game. The mechanic that you could jump in and play as the boss against other players, wow! 😀

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Finished! The last couple of sequences were riveting, and so satisfying! In particular, a part where you have to stealth your way into an enemy camp, (optionally) rescue a brother, and sneak back out (while carrying him). It took many, many reloads before I succeeded. The final ending was a series of cutscenes with a few dialog choices you have to make to determine the ending. Again, very satisfying, and definitely openings left for a 3rd game in the series.

Final stats: 172 hours according to the in-game counter. 2931 world hours passed (122 days).
Enemies killed: 286
Enemies killed with bow: 138
Enemies killed by headshot: 36
Enemies killed with crossbow: 10
Arrows fired: 570
Bolts fired: 50
Quests completed: 71
Quests failed: 2

Afterward, you are dropped back in the world where you can continue with side-quests, DLC or just explore the countryside. I would say this was at least as satisfying and KCD1, probably moreso.

It did take me a whopping 272 real world days to complete the game, which is more a function of the amount of gaming time I have available than the quality of the game.

Now to decide, do I continue with optional stuff in this game, or move on to something else?

clueless1 wrote on Yesterday, 14:34:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Finished!

Congrats!

It's been fun following your journey through this game. Makes me really want to play both KCD1 & 2, but I get motion sickness from the camera movement when the character runs, picks up items, sits down and so on. Hopefully, mods can fix that to some degree, because the games look super interesting.

Cleared a few more areas in Demon's Souls. First, I went back to Boletaria to rob the dragon nest. After dying a few times, I managed to grab the Purple Flame Shield and a ring which increases max equip load. The latter is especially useful, as I can now wear my full suit of armor without being overburdened. And since my strength score is now in the 20s, I can finally use the Great Club. Naturally, I wanted to test it on those annoying skeletons from the Shrine of Storms. The silver ones went down easy, but the black ones not so much. Still, I managed to land some lucky backstabs, and then finished the job with a few normal hits.

I then got my revenge on the tutorial boss, who is now considered just a regular enemy. He still had a ton of health, so that took ages, but I managed to beat him. After dispatching many more skeletons of various colors, I finally reached the proper boss of this area. Fighting the Adjudicator isn't that hard, as long as you keep hitting his weak spot. Also, his attacks are slow, and very easy to dodge. I mean, after beating Fume Knight and Sir Alonne in DS2, these early Demon's Souls bosses kinda move in slow motion for me. And yeah, I got the Adjudicator on the first try. This was great, because the runback would have been a bit too long for my taste.

I then revisited Stonefang Tunnel to take a look at its second level. Well, the platforming in this area was atrocious, almost as bad as Sen's Fortress in DS1. Seriously, I'm here for the fun combat and challenging boss fights, not to play Super Mario 64. Anyway, the Flamelurker was surprisingly tough. I equipped the Crescent Scimitar from the skeleton area, and managed to get him to 1/4 health. But then he started chain spamming those explosion attacks, and killed me before I could even get back up. I had more luck on my next attempt, though it was often hard to see what was going on due to all the fire and smoke from his attacks. I beat him eventually, but didn't particularly enjoy this fight.

On the plus side, I found some cool items in this area, including the Dragon Long Sword, which deals fire damage. I promptly brought that to the local blacksmith, and upgraded it further using shards that the big fire bugs dropped. Interestingly, the blacksmith also offered to transform my plain old club into a Meat Cleaver. Not sure how that makes sense, but I'll gladly take the S rank scaling in strength. Now to find a suitable place for testing all these new weapons.

hehe the Flame Lurker is one of the "obstacles" of the game
it helps to have the thief ring equipped (basically equip it for the whole game...) as he will stop aggro if you go far enough giving you a breather
the boss philosophy of DeS (except few of them) is that they are on the easy side - it's the path leading to them that it is hard

about the 2 dragons - you can actually get rid of the red one on the king's passage - get a bow and station your self on the first tower
the dragon will keep looping and scorching the 1st area and each loop you can fire an arrow to hit him
will take something like 50-60 arrows depending on stats/bow (there is a free longbow on 4-1 on the left side of the ramparts where the ex-boss demon was)

on a sidenote I also decided to try rpcs3 emulation.... my system is a 14700KF and I replaced the GT1030 I had installed with my old 1070ti ... I can play DeS at 1080p at 60fps with cpu/gpu load of something like 30% which was a surprise to me
so I also decided to try the 60fps BloodBorne experience - and it actually works! 1080p and gpu load is 80~95% which means I am at the limit of the good old 1070ti 🤣 but the overall experience is really surprising - that it actually achieves 60fps and keeps it almost stable the whole time... probably at some later stages that are more demanding there will be frame drops...
So now I have this idea to get a new gpu just for this 🤣
but I do not really want to spend much money on this upgrade since I doubt I will game outside these emus - if anyone has a suggestion for a gpu do tell because now I fell in the rabbit hole of specs and stats and I want to get the 5070ti but I cannot really justify the cost 🤣 so I am all ears on this one , I've been out of the loop for quite some time now
ideally spending something like 400e in the end sounds good to me

keropi wrote on Today, 17:13:

hehe the Flame Lurker is one of the "obstacles" of the game
it helps to have the thief ring equipped (basically equip it for the whole game...) as he will stop aggro if you go far enough giving you a breather
the boss philosophy of DeS (except few of them) is that they are on the easy side - it's the path leading to them that it is hard

Thanks for the tip! I do have that ring, but I didn't equip it much so far, except in the Shrine of Storms to avoid the flying enemies throwing spears at me. I'll give it a shot during boss fights if I run into trouble.

keropi wrote on Today, 17:13:

so I also decided to try the 60fps BloodBorne experience - and it actually works! 1080p and gpu load is 80~95% which means I am at the limit of the good old 1070ti 🤣 but the overall experience is really surprising - that it actually achieves 60fps and keeps it almost stable the whole time... probably at some later stages that are more demanding there will be frame drops...

Oh wow, I didn't know PS4 emulation got that far. I have a launch PS4 Pro model, so I think I'll try iBloodborne there first. Got it on a sale years ago. But if the low frame rate gets to me, I might settle for emulation too.

keropi wrote on Today, 17:13:

if anyone has a suggestion for a gpu do tell because now I fell in the rabbit hole of specs and stats and I want to get the 5070ti but I cannot really justify the cost 🤣 so I am all ears on this one , I've been out of the loop for quite some time now
ideally spending something like 400e in the end sounds good to me

The AMD Radeon 9060 XT 16GB probably offers the best value for money at the moment, if you can get it at MSRP (around 350 USD).

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 17:36:

Thanks for the tip! I do have that ring, but I didn't equip it much so far, except in the Shrine of Storms to avoid the flying enemies throwing spears at me. I'll give it a shot during boss fights if I run into trouble.

the ring just reduces the aggro distance of enemies - so you need large boss arenas to actually use it
but during levels it helps that enemies do not detect you from far

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 17:36:

The AMD Radeon 9060 XT 16GB probably offers the best value for money at the moment, if you can get it at MSRP (around 350 USD).

just checked, this is a 400~450e card here (tax included) so it's not that bad... hmmm 😁