Dare I ask what special abilities that class gives you?

I'm deeply saddened by the fact us PC-ers have to wait until the 25th of April to play, hopefully they'll use the time to patch some of the glitches and bugs out though.

I've also been playing Dark Souls 1 quite a lot recently, I used to despise the game but it's actually fantastic once you realise you have to play intelligently.

Jew-Jitsu, Circum-Scythe, Sling of David, Plagues of Egypt and Whirling Dreidel of Doom.

I know David and Goliath is a popular story, but wasn't King David more notorious for his unbreakable shield? What with the double-trianglular reinforcement and all...

Given that I'm Jewish and didn't know he had an unbreakable shield, clearly not. Also, the thing about his shield being made up of two triangles is accepted as a myth even by people who believe the bible is literally true.


EDIT: Google isn't even giving any results about him having an unbreakable shield, so I think that story may only exist inside your head.

I have never heard of a shield being involved in the David and Goliath story.


Wasn’t the PC port of Dark Souls a blurry mess that some guy from Neogaf had to fix for anyone to play it?

I'm kind of tempted to get Dark Souls I pre-emptively in wait for Dark Souls II, but I just bought Limbo, so never mind.

I'm playing Limbo.

Finally.

Yep, it was absolutely bloody awful, it was a straight port from the console versions so it didn't even have a 1920 x 1080 option. Great now that it's modded up the arse though.

I heard the reason they're taking so long with the PC version of Dark Souls 2 is because they want to do it properly this time.

King David is the one who fights communists, right? Wears a lot of blue and red?

He wasn't King David back then, silly.

Oh. What's the deal with the star, then?

Read this, then you'll know all that I do. :p

So it is known as the Shield of David, but no-one really knows why.

Pretty much. I think that the explanations that link it to David are probably backsplanations. The most plausible I've heard is that the two triangles are two capital (Greek letter) Deltas, representing the two D's in David's name, which is spelled 'DVD' in Hebrew.

That's an abjad, right?

*googles*

Yes.

Played Dark Souls 2 for 6 hours straight today, killed a few bosses, got to level 91 and upgraded my weapons and armor. The game's so damn addictive.

No, that's the title given to Bathsheba.

I caved and bought the PS3 version of Dark Souls 2, pretty good so far, internet connection issues notwithstanding. I'm not fond of how floaty the movement feels compared to the first game but I'll probably get used to it. I also really love how they animated clothing this time.

Picked up Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies on DS over the weekend.

I enjoyed the crap out of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, So I've wanted to try out more Dragon Quest games for ages now.

This one has a very cool system where you can see the encounters on the battlefield, instead of them being random. So you can avoid battles if you want to just quickly run though a section of the world. It does however make grinding feel like an opinion where as most RPGs, it's something that is required and forced upon you. If you want to quickly go though the game, You'll be very under leveled.

Also...

A lot of Dota 2...

I like the movement in DSII, waiting on elevators is fun because you can spin around with inhuman speed and dem capes look stunning following in your wake. Not too mention the big whoosh whenever you jump. But the movement feels good, much easier to fish for backstabs off NPC's.

So far, from what I played anyways, I'm enjoying Dark Souls 2. The bosses may be a bit on the shit easy side but they make up for that with the area before the boss being up to scratch. Oh so many deaths. My very first death was due to gravity so that was a nice way to start the game. Oh, and sorcery this time is OP as fuck. The lighting is good too, I love lighting a bonfire and seeing my majestic char's shadow being flung up on the wall, like some sort of grand portrait. Haven't had a chance to test out the PvP yet so I can't make a comment on it, but the way the stats are set out it looks as though you can do any build and not feel as though you're at a disadvantage with other players (but I'm sure people will prove a way to shit on that theory.)

But I like what I see so far, and I can't wait until I'm finished so I can get right into the lore discussions. So many fucking things needs explained, at the minute.

I've got around 35 hours on Dark Souls 2 right now, just killed quite a scary boss, took me a few tries but managed to do it alone. I suppose I should head out to the Drangleic Castle next. I've been thinking of using a soul vessel and leveling my character to be a Hex caster, that could spice things up a bit. Having a lot of fun with the game so far, it's eating up most of my freetime.

I started doing an LP for an old PS1 game called "Dragon Seeds." It's a lot of fun, kinda turn based combat with a rock paper scissors style to it. The LP videos are fun for me to rewatch as well. If you don't feel like checking it out, then at least go check out some of it's amazing OST.

InFamous: Second Son.

I got myself a PS4 mainly for New 'N' Tasty but I was interested to try InFamous ever since E3.

The game is open world, which acts as a good first impression of the PS4's graphic capability. It looks amazing. The lighting effects with the powers are especially impressive and the city looks great.

The gameplay is so fun. I love going around the city, flying over buildings, running up walls and beating the shit out of the corrupt police (called the DUPs).

The combat is solid, nothing as extreme as let's say Metal Gear Rising but it's still really well made. It's very enjoyable. you use a metal chain that is rapped around your wrist to whack people in combination with your special powers and with various combos.

The game is just fun to play. it's not that hard so it's easy to pick up and put down again. It's also pretty funny. The main character is a sarcastic douchebag who doesn't take anything seriously. He fits in very well with the gameplay.

A good first experience with the PS4 and the perfect game to really kick start that console.

FTL: Advanced Edition.

Yes, it's as good as you hoped. The Lanius kick ass, as do Chain weapons.

And best of all, you can unlock all the ships by winning with one you haven't used before; simultaneously solving the randomness of unlocks and the lack of incentive to try new ships.

Also added: Black people.

I've been having a lot of fun with FTL: AE, it's made my week (and possibly month). :)

Subset were generous to give the expansion as a freebie, but I hope their iPad sales will cover their costs. The new changes add a lot to an already amazing game - Hard mode is... Well, hard as nails. :P New systems and weapons add new challenges - Tactics which worked previously now have to be adapted and re-learned, giving fresh appeal to a game I've replayed lots of times.

One nitpick: I sorta wish the new beacon events would appear a little less frequently so that they blended in better with the vanilla events. I keep encountering them.

(E: *later* Oh right, this cosmetic mod I had installed still works if you delete the contents of the "Backup" folder in Slipstream mod manager before applying the patch to vanilla FTL: AE. More info here.)

I'm wondering if that makes things a little too easy, but then I suppose the game is challenging enough as it is. Still, I'm glad I unlocked them all before they added that. Makes me feel like I earned them.

Is there an achievement for the most killed?

Well I tried Mercenary Kings which a game on offer for free on PS4 this month, well no wonder it's free, I thought it was awful, the game is clearly going for a retro style with it's 16-bit lookalike graphics, but the gameplay is terrible, combat is not very exciting or engaging and basically the game gives you no help and has the nerve to impose a time limit, it's not a case of getting from one side of the level to the other, you are given objectives to complete and are given zero guidance on them, for example, one mission, I needed to rescue 8 hostages in 20 minutes, the map is no help either, it just shows you the area, I struck luck by walking through a door and found 2 of the hostages, so everytime I found a door on the level I would walk through it just to be spawned on a different part of the map, well I give up at that point and have no intention of ever playing it again and I'm gutted because from what I saw it looked like something that would play like Contra or Metal Slug.

There is even a trophy for rescuing the kickstarter backers, which confirmed my suspicions that it was an indie game, I get the feeling that I'll be slated though for even daring to criticise an indie game.

Well, it's not like you don't get your little glowing box for completing the unlock mission. I'm all for completionism, but if some achievements are effectively down to a diceroll rather than player skill, they shouldn't be tied to a tangible gameplay reward. Varrok had a go at me for playing on Easy so I could grind for ships faster, but as far as I'm concerned I shouldn't have to grind in the first place.

Drowning this evening's sorrows in OpenTTD.

@Phylum - OpenTTD is another of my favourites I went back to last month. It's amazing that people are still working on it 20 years after the original DOS TTD came out. Watching trains travel back and fourth over your network that you've built is like watching fish in a tank or so.

A couple of weeks ago I got bored and experimented with rail junctions and station entrances which handle heavy traffic and don't clog up. Check out the attached save file if you want (it's tiny and uses no NewGRFs).

These mods/NewGRFs (can be found on the inbuilt "NewGRF finder") go together well and are worth a look:

FIRS Replacement Industries (has 5 different economies of varying complexity, set with parameters - You'll need this cargo source/destination chart)
NUTS Unrealistic Train Set (Made for fun gameplay rather than to copy real world trains)
Av8 Aviators Aircraft Set
FISH ship set
eGRVTS vehicle set
Total Town Replacement Set

====

@MM: FTL isn't as luck based as people think, IMO - Knowing what you're doing helps. That being said, it's still very unforgiving with little margin for error and I can understand why people find that frustrating.

Guess the easier to unlock ships are a compromise for how unfair FTL is, and if that makes the game more fun for the majority of people then that's fair enough. Just I found it rewarding to somehow beat the odds after being persistent and trying different tactics.

But then I like FTL a lot more than I probably should do and perhaps I have more patience for it than a lot of people.

Also, the Better Planets and Backgrounds mod still works. I really missed it. Show the author some love on the Steam thread. :)

===

OpenTTD Savegame:

Please tell me your skillful method for increasing the spawn rate of the unlock mission events.

Seriously though, please don't patronise me. I'm not the sort to throw a tantrum because a game has the temerity to be challenging. I've beaten FTL on Normal quite enough times, thank you.

I'm not trying to be a dick here, but I never once said that all of FTL was down to dicerolls. I'm just saying that, under the old system, the ship unlocks were, and that was unfair. Diceroll achievements are random, out of the player's control, and should therefore be a target for the obsessives, rather than something you actually need to progress. The new unlock system isn't about making up for anything, or making the game easier. It's just about making the game fair; letting a committed player progress by doing just that - playing - rather than restarting after Sector 5 because they know they the event they needed wasn't on the right set of randomly selected nodes. Just a shame they couldn't extend that idea of challenge over luck to the Crystal Cruiser - that's still very much a case of right place, right time.

It's the difference between a game saying "Spin the wheel to multiply your score!" and "Spin this wheel until it lands on Red. You can't get to the next level until it does."

... Then shouldn't you be happy? Now that new ships are unlocked precisely by trying unfamiliar strategies and being persistent with ships you're not fond of?

What are you even complaining about, anyway? The unlock missions are all still there, and you've still got your little silver badges for completing them.