A bit more progress in Dark Souls. In preparation for the new areas, I've been farming Royal Sentinels in Anor Londo to level up some more. These guys hit pretty hard, especially since I'm wearing light armor for better mobility, so it's not exactly a walk in the park. That said, with the Black Knight Sword +5, I can usually kill them in 2-3 hits, and they give 3000 souls each. It took a while, and I didn't do it all in one sitting, but I managed to raise strength all the way to 40. Consequently, my damage output skyrocketed, so this was definitively worth it.

Next up, I went on a weapon upgrade spree. First, I got the Very Large Ember from New Londo Ruins, which improved the Claymore to +15. At that level, it's roughly on pair with the Black Knight Sword +5 based on my current stats. However, the Claymore can be further buffed using various types of resin, which should help against bosses. On that note, I bought a bunch of charcoal resin from the merchant in the sewers, in case I need some extra fire damage. Lastly, I had given Andre the Divine Ember some time ago, and now I got a chance to use it. For the target, I picked the trusty Longsword that my warrior originally started with, and the result was excellent.

After all that, I finally decided to brave the Catacombs near Firelink Shrine. The skeleton enemies here gave me some trouble in the past, but my newly minted Divine Longsword +5 can permanently kill them, which made things a lot easier now. This area can get a bit confusing due to the low visibility and breakable floors, but everything fell into place once I got to the undead blacksmith and the nearby bonfire. After that, I ran past the spinning skeletons, heading straight for the boss, which was a surprisingly easy fight. Most importantly, the loot from that encounter included the Rite of Kindling, which can greatly boost the number of healing flask uses.

So far so good. I feel much more prepared now, so I may tackle one of the harder locations next. Should prove interesting.

Still on Dark Souls. While searching for a way to enter the Abyss, I went deeper into Darkroot Garden, and noticed that it has many plant-like opponents. For that reason, I decided to try another weapon that I had forged recently, that being Quelaag's Furysword. I wanted something that natively deals fire damage, and this seemed like a good fit. Sure enough, it cut through those tree and mushroom enemies with ease. As for the area boss, I felt kinda bad for having to put down that big doggo, but it seems to be necessary for progressing the plot.

Next, I returned to the bottom of New Londo Ruins to face the Four Kings. This fight was pretty hard, for several reasons. First, just getting to the boss is a challenge. Many powerful enemies roam this area, and there are no bonfires nearby, except for the one way back at Firelink Shrine. Second, you need to wear the special ring that the doggo dropped, or you die instantly in the Abyss. So one of your usual rings is unavailable during the fight, which technically weakens you. And lastly, I couldn't seem to summon any phantom NPCs to help me out here.

Anyhow, as the Four Kings are weak to fire, I pulled out Quelaag's Furysword once again. Before the fight, I also put on Havel's armor for more defense. Usually, I don't like the reduced mobility resulting from wearing heavy armor, but I felt like I needed the extra protection here. Having 19 healing flasks (one was spent just getting here) was a big help too. Thanks to all that, I somehow managed to win, and get my first lord soul. Three more to go, I think.

Gotta say, I'm having an absolute blast with Dark Souls. Especially now, with higher stats and better gear. It's still hard, but maybe just a bit smoother than before. And I feel like my own skills as a player have grown too, which made the game even more enjoyable. I still don't like some of the locations with crappy platforming segments, but overall, this is really fun.

dr_st wrote on 2025-10-31, 06:51:

UCyborg wrote on 2025-10-30, 21:55:

Also "dusted off" the NBA Live '97. I played it on Windows 95 PC back in the day.

I never got really good either, but I figured out that the dumb strategy of trying to get a player into a clear shot as close as possible to the basket tends to work most of the times and allows me to win most games, even on 'all star' difficulty.

After many many many tries I managed to win...1 game on starter difficulty playing with two evenly matched teams. I'm a hopeless case.

Are you usually playing Windows or DOS version? I figured DOS version's frame rate is all over the place, ball stutters all the time when it's passed around, the camera moving on to / out from the field is a bit too fast.

I got Windows version working and it seems more consistent, though I run it in a window with DxWnd to avoid trouble with DirectDraw. I can't move the window around and it gets Aero basic styling. Besides IgnoreException shim applied through Windows' compatibility database, it also needs GlobalMemoryStatusLie (can't seem to allocate memory otherwise) and SingleProcAffinity (hangs on exit without).

Also, the only thing fixing sound rattling is a dsound.dll from XP era.

I tried using dgVoodoo2 to have it fullscreened normally, but then text popups midgame are all corrupted.

Edit: The first victory was few days ago. I did it again just now!

UCyborg wrote on 2025-11-08, 20:25:

After many many many tries I managed to win...1 game on starter difficulty playing with two evenly matched teams. I'm a hopeless case.

Are you usually playing Windows or DOS version? I figured DOS version's frame rate is all over the place, ball stutters all the time when it's passed around, the camera moving on to / out from the field is a bit too fast.

Hey, we all started this way. Back in the day I recall playing on 'starter' for a good while before it became too easy, and I switched to 'all-star'.

I have only ever played the DOS version. The stuttering is there, but it doesn't mess up the gameplay, at least on my modern PC running DOSBOX with 'max' cycles.

Thanks for the recipe to get the Windows version working. Maybe I'll give it a try one day.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-10-29, 20:59:

And honestly, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish Dark Souls either, but there is some weird satisfaction in making even a little progress in these kind of games. We'll see how things go.

I was captivated by the original game for weeks if not months and for me the biggest thing the game had was this beautiful superinterconnected world you can travel through by foot and expore and how all the very diverse locations came together to form one - from the fiery depths of hell and sea of ashes to the rooftops of godly Anor Londo. DS2 replaces that with a more conventional "flat" fantasy land to explore, and I just was not engaged enough to actually uncover its secrets - stopped playing just after a few hours.

I played the PC version of the original and actually fooled around with some texture mods that were around. Also it gave me an option of abusing save system, so I could avoid tedious repetitions. Even with that making progress in the game felt rewarding to an extent I can't easily compare to other games. I effectively cheated with the final boss battle, exploiting some of the original game's limitations to my advantage - as otherwise the boss was too overwhelming 😀 FFVIII comes to mind as the comparison for how demanding the final battle in a game felt 😀 Oh and I broke couple gamepads on the way, what memories...

lolo799 wrote on 2025-10-29, 18:56:

This game doesn't need an introduction, surely you all know it!

Oh, the Amiga version! Curious which resolutions it supported when compared to the PC one as the screen shot looks so very nice.
I have the PC version (gold as well), but would not play it for now because it's the only box I have that is in foil.
Man should have an unopened big box in the collection, right? 😉

ludicrous_peridot wrote on 2025-11-09, 09:10:

I was captivated by the original game for weeks if not months and for me the biggest thing the game had was this beautiful superinterconnected world you can travel through by foot and expore and how all the very diverse locations came together to form one - from the fiery depths of hell and sea of ashes to the rooftops of godly Anor Londo.

Agreed. Most of the area design in this game is superb (crappy platforming segments excluded), and the many connections that you find between various locations always left me amazed. For example, the first time you take the elevator from the undead cathedral and get back to Firelink Shrine feels incredible. The world of Dark Souls feels cohesive and realistic, which is not that common in today's games.

One thing I kinda regret now is that I used guides right from the start. The reason being, this game doesn't explain some basic stuff that you really need to know (e.g. how going above 25% weight slows down dodging and running). But despite that, I feel like my experience would have been even better had I discovered some of this stuff on my own. When I eventually get to DS2 and DS3, I will try to play them without guides as much as possible.

ludicrous_peridot wrote on 2025-11-09, 09:10:

FFVIII comes to mind as the comparison for how demanding the final battle in a game felt

Interesting. Everyone always says how difficult the Ultimecia fight was, but I honestly don't recall having that many problems with her back in the day. And that was while playing on original hardware (PlayStation 1 + CRT TV). Also, Quistis was best girl. Too bad the devs shoved Rinoa into the protagonist's arms without offering us a choice.

ludicrous_peridot wrote on 2025-11-09, 09:10:

Oh, the Amiga version! Curious which resolutions it supported when compared to the PC one as the screen shot looks so very nice.
I have the PC version (gold as well), but would not play it for now because it's the only box I have that is in foil.
Man should have an unopened big box in the collection, right? 😉

Requirements are all over the place for it!
I tried with an emulated 1200 with a 68040 (the minimum required as per the official website) and it runs in 320*256 or something.
With a faster PPC based machine and a graphic card you can go up to 1024*768.

I'm playing on a Mac Mini G4 with MorphOS, it works without any issues at the maximum resolution at 60fps.

You can keep your PC box sealed and get it on gog if you badly want to play it!

dr_st wrote on 2025-11-09, 04:47:

I have only ever played the DOS version. The stuttering is there, but it doesn't mess up the gameplay, at least on my modern PC running DOSBOX with 'max' cycles.

Thanks for the recipe to get the Windows version working. Maybe I'll give it a try one day.

I figured old dsound.dll just makes the game fallback to waveOut functions rather than using DirectSound. I managed to modify the EXE to do that in any case.

This game is strange, not sure if I missed anything, but it doesn't seem to either call Blt or Flip (is this possible? these methods are part of DirectDraw interface dealing with surfaces), AFAIK windowed games usually do Blt while fullscreened do Flip. RivaTuner Statistics Server doesn't pick it up either. With DWM8BitAnd16BitMitigation compatibility mode set through Compatibility Administrator, it runs in fullscreen natively on Win11, but then it's stuttery like in DOSBox.

So frame rate measurement and limitation is not straightforward. DXWnd claims it runs at 300 FPS normally and 150 FPS during replays. I wonder if there's any difference how it behaves on WinXP between fullscreen and forced windowed mode.

More areas cleared in Dark Souls. First, I went to check out the Demon Ruins. As expected, you fight a lot of demons there, so I switched to the Black Knight Sword which is extra effective against them. Regarding the big lava boss, I baited his attacks from the nearby passages, and he did almost no damage to me. After that, I fought the fire sage demon, which also went quite well. But the centipede boss was a different story, because a large portion of its arena was filled with lava. So I sat in the corner to avoid getting burned, tanked a bunch of hits, and attacked whenever I saw an opening. Eventually, I managed to bring that thing down, mainly due to having 20 healing flasks.

Next up was Lost Izalith, which is basically a huge lava lake filled with demonic dinosaurs. Sadly, that's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. This is followed by what is widely considered to be the worst boss fight in the game. In short, it's based on puzzles, platforming and a bit of luck. Also, one misstep means instant death. I tried it a few times, destroyed the orbs of power, and died repeatedly because the floor kept collapsing beneath me. Then I looked up a guide and beat it with ease, due to how gimmicky and poorly designed that whole fight was.

Afterwards, I visited the Tomb of Giants. Normally, the utter darkness in this place makes it very dangerous to traverse. But the light emitting helmet which I got in Lost Izalith took care of that. It's still a pretty challenging area filled with hard hitting enemies. The gravelord boss was quite difficult as well, mostly due to the mandatory fall damage that you take at the start, and all the skeleton minions loitering there. Not to mention the toxic effect inflicted by his attacks. Overall, it was a tough fight, but also very satisfying to complete.

In comparison, I kinda breezed through the Duke's Archives. Nothing particularly memorable there, other than the plot-forced player death during the first encounter with the dragon. The Crystal Cave was more interesting due to all the invisible bridges, akin to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I like how the falling snowflakes melt when hitting those, giving you a hint where to go. The dragon boss is easy after you destroy his invincibility crystal, which is telegraphed by the preceding cutscene. I then used resin to imbue my Claymore with lightning damage, which took him down pretty quickly.

And now, I have all four lord souls. However, before tackling the final boss, I want to check out the DLC areas. From what I gather, this is the last opportunity to go there.

Finished Dark Souls! I really liked the DLC boss fights. In particular, the one with Artorias was my favorite of the bunch. It was extremely difficult, but also highly enjoyable. I died quite a few times there before figuring out a working strategy. Basically, I needed to dodge those heavy overhead strikes (easier said than done since he's so fast) while also using my best shield to block his lighter jabs, which briefly left him open to my attacks. This process worked well, and it became a matter of managing my stamina recovery while dealing small amounts of damage here and there. Slow and steady, but he eventually did go down, and it felt so satisfying.

After I was done with the DLC, I used the Lordvessel, and proceeded to the grand finale. The last boss was nowhere near as hard as Artorias, Manus and especially Kalameet, who was the most troublesome one for my melee focused build. As for Lord Gwyn, I employed a similar strategy as with Artorias: block his strikes with my best shield, and then use the opening to either attack or heal. Rinse and repeat, and he eventually went down. Not sure if I was possibly overleveled for this fight (I was at level 118) but it wasn't that much of a problem. Then I accidentally got the Dark Lord ending, because I didn't see the bonfire, and figured maybe I needed to go back and talk to the snake creature. 😁

Final thoughts: I see now why this game is so beloved. The tense atmosphere during combat (especially in boss fights) and the incredible sense of accomplishment after defeating a tough enemy is what makes it so special to me. At first, I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle the high difficulty, but I did eventually acclimate. I think by playing this game for some time, your skills as a player also improve, just as your in-game character's stats do. All of that is what made Dark Souls so great. And yeah, I'll definitively be playing the sequels as well.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-12, 11:46:

Finished Dark Souls!

Congratulations! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it enough to finish it. I think if you ever decide to replay it (or play the sequels), you'll find that you're totally right about player skill... I expect that you'd have very little trouble getting through the rest of the trilogy, assuming you do a bit of research on how things like rolling and stamina change from game to game.

The rest of the trilogy is definitely worth playing, and the first game is definitely worth replaying at some point with a different type of character. If you ever decide to replay it, I recommend the Pyromancer class, as it's quite a different experience.

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-11-12, 16:53:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-12, 11:46:

Finished Dark Souls!

Congratulations! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it enough to finish it. I think if you ever decide to replay it (or play the sequels), you'll find that you're totally right about player skill... I expect that you'd have very little trouble getting through the rest of the trilogy, assuming you do a bit of research on how things like rolling and stamina change from game to game.

Thanks! I currently don't know that much about Dark Souls 2, as I intend to go in blind when I get around to playing it. Meaning, I won't be using guides unless I get really stuck somewhere.

I did find out that it has a somewhat mixed reputation in the community. Some people suggest playing the original version, while others say the same about the "Scholar" edition. Any thoughts on that? I have the Scholar version on my PlayStation 4, along with Bloodborne.

serious sam, i miss co op and split screen days. I wonder if serious sam is a horde shooter? My uncle got me hooked and the game ran pretty well on my pc i cant remember

So I played Ys Chronicles 1. I wasn't that invested in it, instead just exploring what super stripped down RPG mechanics might be like for some ideas I've been throwing around.

First, I think I should have played it on Easy instead of Normal. I mean, Normal was fine. A few bosses had some difficulty spikes, but nothing a little practice couldn't overcome. You can save and restore anywhere, so it wasn't a huge deal. At a certain point I fell back on a walkthrough because the trail of subtle hints random NPCs give you just wasn't clicking for me. But I was enjoying myself for the most part.

Then I got to the final boss, decided I was too old for that bullshit, and just watched someone beat it on youtube. A day may come where I start the entire game over again on Easy so that the final boss is achievable for me, but today is not that day. The problem for me, primarily, is that every time you hit the boss, he deletes the portion of the arena you are standing on. After hitting him enough times, it leaves you essentially trapped and then you just get murdered by bullet hell and also can't hit him anymore. Pretty sure on easy, it would have taken few enough hits to kill him for this to be less of a problem for me. 11 hits versus 22 hits if the youtube videos and my ability to count are to be believed.

Oh well! It was an interesting game, in a sort of minimalist way. Not very long either. I can't exactly give it a strong recommendation, but I found it a fun curiosity.

The Outer Worlds
This has been sitting in my library for a long time, but never played it beyond testing to make sure it actually runs on my aged "gaming" laptop (it runs fine). WHy? I was thinking I should complete Fallout: New Vegas first to get a better understanding of how Obsidian's style has changed over the years. This was a dumb reason, because game studios go through so much turnover year after year; Obsidian from 2019 is not the same the company it was in 2010.

Anyway, I put 16 hours into the game over the past couple weeks, and I think I like it. Much like Fallout: New Vegas, it's an FPS RPG with a heavy focus on exploration and solving quests with whatever skills your character has developed. Unlike that game, though, the game takes place not in a single open world but a bunch of smaller areas you access by flying around in your spaceship (that is, selecting them from a menu). This bothered me at first but I grew to like it. It's just a different, more focused approach to the same thing, and the areas are still quite large with lots of stuff to find.

The setting is sort of interesting, but not really implemented well. It's ultra capitalism where everyone is either a company employee or a renegade, though there are both good and bad people on both sides, to the game's credit. For some reason, everyone acts like some kind of a frontier cowboy, which really makes no sense to me. It reminds me of how the Bethesda Fallout games are stuck in time and how everyone has spent hundreds of years acting like 1950s Americans.

What really kills the setting, though, is the dialogue. Nearly every single line of dialogue is a "joke," and it makes the game nearly impossible to take seriously. It happens so often that I have to assume that the people who wrote the game thought it was a bunch of garbage.

Atari 50: The Namco Legendary Pack dropped today. Been playing the included games and going through all the extra content and interviews. Well worth the $7.99 asking price IMO. 😀

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-12, 11:46:

Finished Dark Souls! I really liked the DLC boss fights. In particular, the one with Artorias was my favorite of the bunch. It was extremely difficult, but also highly enjoyable. I died quite a few times there before figuring out a working strategy. Basically, I needed to dodge those heavy overhead strikes (easier said than done since he's so fast) while also using my best shield to block his lighter jabs, which briefly left him open to my attacks. This process worked well, and it became a matter of managing my stamina recovery while dealing small amounts of damage here and there. Slow and steady, but he eventually did go down, and it felt so satisfying.

Congrats! The DLC bosses are more akin to those on later games, in particular from Bloodborne/DS3 onwards, with faster and more varied attacks. But in general most of them have some weakness (elemental, environmental, weak points) you can exploit if you don't want to learn the entire moveset.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-12, 11:46:

After I was done with the DLC, I used the Lordvessel, and proceeded to the grand finale. The last boss was nowhere near as hard as Artorias, Manus and especially Kalameet, who was the most troublesome one for my melee focused build. As for Lord Gwyn, I employed a similar strategy as with Artorias: block his strikes with my best shield, and then use the opening to either attack or heal. Rinse and repeat, and he eventually went down. Not sure if I was possibly overleveled for this fight (I was at level 118) but it wasn't that much of a problem. Then I accidentally got the Dark Lord ending, because I didn't see the bonfire, and figured maybe I needed to go back and talk to the snake creature. 😁

A hint if you ever play again: Gwyn, as well as enemies like Black/Silver Knights and Havel, can be parried without much effort for a critical attack. IIRC he's the only boss that can be parried in DS1, unlike later games which have quite a few parriable bosses. If you take some time to learn the timings you can trivialize many difficult fights in the series by parrying and it's quite satisfying once you pull it of consistently.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-12, 18:21:

Thanks! I currently don't know that much about Dark Souls 2, as I intend to go in blind when I get around to playing it. Meaning, I won't be using guides unless I get really stuck somewhere.

I did find out that it has a somewhat mixed reputation in the community. Some people suggest playing the original version, while others say the same about the "Scholar" edition. Any thoughts on that? I have the Scholar version on my PlayStation 4, along with Bloodborne.

Later games streamline certain obscure things such as weapon updates so now that you're used to the combat you probably won't need much in term of guides other than strategies for some difficult enemies or some optional sidequests (although I'd argue that sidequests in these games are just events you're supposed to run into even though you may miss them, instead of the usual "map marker guided homework" of other games). In general my "strategy" consists in focusing on HP/Stamina at first until I can take quite a few hits before dying, in terms of damage I just raise the stats to use the weapons I want since early on weapon updates matter much more than stat scaling.

My main gripes with DS2 are the art design and character animations, which I don't feel are up to the standard of the other games. Story-wise it's not bad, but it feels quite disconnected from the world of the original game (series creator Miyazaki had little involvement with this one) and combat is similar except for some aggravating mechanics that were fortunately reverted on later games (such as slower healing and enemies that chase you to the end of the earth). The Scholar edition integrates the DLCs more seamlessly into the game and changes certain small things (enemies are added/moved, puzzle changes and so on)... some things make sense, others do not. A mixed bag, but I don't think playing either version will radically change your views on the game.

DS3 gets back on track with the story as a true sequel to 1 but it's much more linear, and although I missed the tightly interconnected world from the first, the art and music on this one are on a cinematic level. Many bosses really feel like absolutely epic events, and the faster paced combat also contributes to this.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-12, 18:21:

I did find out that it has a somewhat mixed reputation in the community. Some people suggest playing the original version, while others say the same about the "Scholar" edition. Any thoughts on that? I have the Scholar version on my PlayStation 4, along with Bloodborne.

I've actually played through both versions of DS2, and I generally prefer the original version. I do like Scholar, but it feels like a hard mode hack of the original game.

The original has a much kinder difficulty curve, starting out quite easy and ramping up as the game goes along, with some annoying spikes here and there. Scholar was an attempt to make the early game harder, and the developers accomplished this by adding a bunch of enemies, sometimes to the point of frustration. It also adds strong NPC phantom invaders throughout the game, often after tough sections in between bonfires for ultimate frustration. The result is that Scholar starts out surprisingly tough, continues to get tougher until it peaks around the middle, then gets easier toward the end.

Strangely, Scholar is more linear than the original version, because the developers placed statues blocking entrances to certain areas. Getting rid of these statues requires a pretty rare consumable you won't find until much later in the game, which limits your exploration during the early game.

TheMobRules wrote on 2025-11-14, 01:04:

Congrats! The DLC bosses are more akin to those on later games, in particular from Bloodborne/DS3 onwards, with faster and more varied attacks. But in general most of them have some weakness (elemental, environmental, weak points) you can exploit if you don't want to learn the entire moveset.

Thanks! Artorias from the DLC was my favorite boss fight. So I'd later games have something like that, I'm sure I'll enjoy them too.

TheMobRules wrote on 2025-11-14, 01:04:

A hint if you ever play again: Gwyn, as well as enemies like Black/Silver Knights and Havel, can be parried without much effort for a critical attack. IIRC he's the only boss that can be parried in DS1, unlike later games which have quite a few parriable bosses. If you take some time to learn the timings you can trivialize many difficult fights in the series by parrying and it's quite satisfying once you pull it off consistently.

You know, it never occurred to me to try parrying against Gwyn (I had stopped reading guides by that point). But I did use it against Silver Knights, especially the ones with the long spears. It helped a ton there, though getting the timing right took a bit of practice.

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-11-14, 03:32:

I've actually played through both versions of DS2, and I generally prefer the original version. I do like Scholar, but it feels like a hard mode hack of the original game.

Cheers! I'll see if I can get the original on Steam then, and keep Scholar in my back pocket for a potential future replay.