[Traveller]

Well I'm pretty firmly in the sony camp now after the way microsoft turned my xbox into a massive advertising centre, and wanted more for online play.

I really like my ps3, no problems with it at all - but no real incentive to upgrade yet, although it's on the cards.

Bloodborn looks good enough to persuade me though - I love the blade weapon that extends for big sweeps, or shortens for close work.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 20 August 2014 - 10:06 PM

[tiam]

Traveller, on 20 August 2014 - 10:02 AM, said:

Well I'm pretty firmly in the sony camp now after the way microsoft turned my xbox into a massive advertising centre, and wanted more for online play.

I really like my ps3, no problems with it at all - but no real incentive to upgrade yet, although it's on the cards.

Bloodborn looks good enough to persuade me though - I love the blade weapon that extends for big sweeps, or shortens for close work.

Yeh im 360 atm with no desire to upgrade. Still so many current gen games that I havnt got around to playing yet. Plus the new games a console are released on are always rushed bar a few AAA titles. This does look good but I cant really justify buying a console for it. A DS3 release on the other hand...

In the video comments the consensus seems to be that this will never port to a PC.

[Wolfdrop]

Bloodborne gameplay looks great. Similar enough to be familiar but with some new additions. Since we won't get shields this time, apparently you can regain health lost by countering before the yellow bar drains. Guns and transforming weapons. Defo jumping ship to sony for this, as Traveller says the xbox home page is nothing but adverts and their customer service is awful.

This post has been edited by Wolfdrop: 21 August 2014 - 01:16 PM

[Traveller]

New dlc - Crown of the Iron King - out next week.

I enjoyed the last one, based on that I'll be getting it.

[Trull's son]

Yeah looking forward to it. The last dlc was well worth the price, in my opinion. I'll probably spend more time getting back into pvp than playing the actual dlc.

[Wolfdrop]

Awesome, hopefully it'll be in the vein as the last one. Saw a screenshot with what looked like a revamped Shiva armour. I wore that for loads of the first game for the looks, despite it being pretty shit.

[Trull's son]

Anyone try out the new dlc yet? I played an hour or so last night and had my ass handed to me a few of times. The spell casting monument things are interesting... and annoying. I'm running it with my sl 130 char with fully upgraded crypt blacksword and it is still a challenge (Sometimes takes me 3-4 shots to kill regular minions!). Overall I can't wait to get more time to sink into it.

[Inane Babble]

Played, and completed it, last night.

Seems like there is a polarising response between the two DLC at the moment, some people like SK a lot more than OIK, as great as the OIK DLC is it's just not as good as the sunken king. The new DLC has better variety of enemies and more useful items to more players, but the maze-like claustrophobia the first DLC elicited was far superior to the more vertical puzzle the second went for.

Mild Spoilers

Spoiler

In the first DLC you had a lot of choices to make about where to go, and didn't know where each branch was going to take you. You could even alter the layout of the map of your own volition. In the second you get lots of waiting on lifts just watching the map scroll past, and the backtracking you have to do is generally as a result of the game arbitrarily deciding that some of the doors require a key you cannot find until much later. The journey down is a lot of fun, but it felt too linear, in shulva I got lost repeatedly, even if I was looking back where I had just come from, because the perspective and shifting geometry (that I did to myself ) made it look unknown. In the OIK it's a pretty much straight forward progression and you don't tend to lose track of your level.

Serious spoilers - do not read unless you have completed the DLC

Spoiler

The only trouble I had was re-finding all the ash statues, I left them all alive because the item you use to destroy them mentioned it weakens them, so I wanted to leave them all alive and fight the toughest boss possible, sadly it didn't end making the boss any harder, and I ended up having to travel through the entire map again just to collect the shards from them.

[Wolfdrop]

How was length on this one? I'll be picking it up tonight, will need to take a break from Risen 3 (which is awesome btw) to go through it.

[Inane Babble]

Wolfdrop, on 27 August 2014 - 11:35 AM, said:

How was length on this one? I'll be picking it up tonight, will need to take a break from Risen 3 (which is awesome btw) to go through it.

About 5ish hours? Depending on your build and personal ability. Depends if you get stuck on any of the bosses. Say ~4 hours worth of exploration and X time on the bosses.

[Traveller]

I tried to get it last night but it wasn't available yet.

Will definitely be getting it later though.

[Wolfdrop]

Enjoying it so far, while the exploration isn't quite as good as the last one, I'm finding this one more difficult.

The new enemies are pretty tough when they come at you in groups and the big headless ones with the hammers are brutal!

I'm liking using the spikes to defeat the fragments of the new queen though, seems like a cool concept.

[Traveller]

I started last night, fought down the tower to about the third bonfire now. Do you actually have to kill the ash monuments to progress? I left a couple alive.

So far I've made it without a single death - so either it's easier or I'm just more careful these days. I was pretty much down to the last estus when I finally reached the bonfire though.

Those ambushes nearly had me but so far the big guys have been slow and quick to take down - also there are lots of sniping points.

I like the noise those tall iron soldiers make when they die... like ringwraiths.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 28 August 2014 - 11:41 AM

[Wolfdrop]

I don't know if you need them to progress but you get a fragment of the new queen's soul for killing each one, so will presumably get a soul we can trade for something after getting them all. They buff the enemies in the rooms they're in as well so I thought it was worth dealing with them.

I've made it to the second bonfire, died a few times at the same spot. A ladder drops down into an area filled with a whole bunch of ash knight guys, one of the great big headless guys, an archer and one of the queen fragment things.

Sniping is pretty limited there as you can only hit them if they're right under the ladder.

Was so close to getting them so tried to get back up the ladder for a quick estus but the big guys hammer reached me a few rungs from the top, got knocked off them swarmed. Nightmare.

[Traveller]

It is possible as I managed it with a bow.. went down the ladder for the last guy and the one chucking bombs but cleared the rest from the hatch.

If those ash things have soul fragments I guess I'll be going back for them.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 28 August 2014 - 06:44 PM

[Wolfdrop]

Anyone else found the Majestic Greatsword? It's a rusty version of Artorias's sword. Has a normal greatsword moveset if you use it right handed but if you use it left handed like Artorias it has a totally different moveset, maybe Abyss Greatsword from DS1.

[Traveller]

Haven't got that far yet. I went back to kill the ash idol things, and then went down as far as to those fat exploding crawling things are.

Found a hidden area I couldn't reach though... two doorshaped areas of brick, in the corridors where there are spiked walls and flaming minotaur heads. Have to explode them somehow I guess. Might just be a short cut but I'm curious!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 29 August 2014 - 01:23 PM

[Wolfdrop]

Fume Knight is super difficult, there's a nice lore tie in with him though which is cool.

I'm finding this DLC a lot harder, I'm kinda disappointed they've reused Smelter Demon, just changed his horns and made him blue. Has a ton of health but I'm pretty sure that whole area is intended for co-op, it's got the summoning stone things.

Also found a huge set of armour and a katana in a room at the top of the tower, I can't interact with it yet but presumably it'll take you to a memory similar to when you touch Vendrick's armour once the requirements are met. I'm going to assume it's beat the Fume Knight.

[Traveller]

Well I died quite a bit last night. Mostly from ill timed explody things. Found the Majestic sword but goddamn I hate weapons that require faith when I haven't invested in it.

I think I must be getting close, I found the flame staff and set all the lifts going in the central chamber, so I've got some new places to explore later.

Any luck with the Fume Knight?

This post has been edited by Traveller: 30 August 2014 - 03:37 PM

[tiam]

Ive been replaying DS1 as I didnt fancy getting the DLCs for 2 yet probably get them in a bundle at some point.

Ive never played a sword wielder at any point. the closest I got was using my +10 poisoned Rapier on DS2 because magic was nerfed a fair bit, though it did need to be. I actually preferred using a sword with a ring of blades to casting for most of it. So I went a Pyro dex build in DS1 and I am loving it.

Its like a completely different game. As a mage you get used to mid range combat for everything so I wanted close up but not full havel strength heavy. So im using wanderer armour. One of the things I dislike is weapons that dont stay viable late game. So you use a weapon throughout the game and a newer weapon is so superior that it makes the other one a waste. Luckily for a Dex build theres the Balder Side Sword which ends up with a A in scaling and has a very good move set. Its almost +15 now and with pyromancy as a back up for mobs its a really enjoyable build.

My only problem is I realised I really enjoy early game yet not late game. I like everything upto the Lord Souls and have just beaten the 4 Kings. After Seath I have the Tomb of the Giants and Lost Izalith with the Bed of Chaos which I dislike.

Still playing as a sword wielder is a refreshing playthrough.