The Happiness thread, continued

@Rath Darkblade, @Homer Potvin is spot on. But I wanted to add a few notes, too. These games are what people call hard, but fair. Because there is always a way to win. You can over-level, summon NPCs or other players to help you, or spam magic at a boss. (Magic is hard, though. It's NOT as easy as it looks.) Like Homer said, it's about patterns and once you know enemy patterns, it becomes easier.

As for the sense of reward and accomplishment, it's on a whole other level. I have literally cried, because I finally won. It's difficult to explain, but the sense of 'OMG, I did that.' is higher than other games, because Dark Souls/ER are what I would consider more skill-based. You have basic things you can do: attack, block, dodge roll. But it's HOW you use these skills and the mastery of them that get you through the game. It's like chess.

Anyway, I am an overly competitive-gamer, so I am always challenging myself to do better than I had before. Which, may or may not be good for me, to be honest. But it's a great outlet for my need to win, rather than getting all worked up when playing trivia with family. Since I have these games, it's easier to just play with people- I don't have to win- because I beat Boss X solo.

 

@Homer Potvin, any idea what to do after Margit?? I feel lost. Ds1-3 is so much more linear.

 

No worries. I've played open-world games before (most recently the Elder Scrolls games), and I've also experienced that "thrill" of victory many, many times. Of the two Elder Scrolls games I played, I'd say Oblivion is much more difficult than Skyrim; Skyrim tends to give you more hints and quest location marks, but Skyrim also has a much bigger world and far more quests, so that's fair.

Oblivion's map is harder to read, so finding the right locations is far trickier. When you enter the Oblivion gates, the map is trickier still, there are no quest marks, and the world is much more hostile. But hey, that's what you have to expect. The hardest part of all, I found, was the Oblivion Gate outside of Bruma (towards the climax of the main quest). There are more enemies to fight, more targets to find, and also (uniquely) a ticking clock. If you don't meet all the requirements by a certain time, it's game over.

More recently, I tried playing Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which sounds familiar to how you portray Elden Ring. The game-world is incredibly hostile and difficult to master. Is that what Elden Ring is like?

 

Skyrim is great. I love it. I haven't played the others yet, though. I totally see how Oblivion is more difficult and it likely is.

Oh, I have heard of it, but haven't played Shadow of Mordor. But with a quick google, I found this thread:

They seem very different, but do share similar elements. The world of ER is more hostile than compared to Skyrim, that's true. And the skill from Mordor to ER I cannot comment upon has I haven't played 1 of 2. But it's possibly similar. By the look of the combat in a video I searched for, it looks closer to the Assassin Creed games, which is a lot of fun.

 

Here are some examples of Dark Souls 1 Combat, which is SLOWER than Elden Ring:

The first one is using the BEST weapon in the game, and O+S are a classic fight.

In this next one, you can really see how dynamic and interactive a fight is. Why it is different from a lot of other games. (Still as janky sometimes, though.)


In comparison, here is some Elden Ring Fights:



And the MOST difficult ER Boss:

 

Aha! OK. That "Knight Artorias" character is ... odd (I'm not sure why they made the whole background so dark, it makes it difficult to figure out where the "knight" is), but this Magrit the Fell person telegraphs his moves easily. You can see it coming a mile away.

These games, then, remind me of Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a LOTR game set at the same time as the War of the Ring, but in a different part of Middle-Earth. It also has "boss fights", but it's more of an RPG-action mashup: you have equipment and points for your characteristics (like Strength, Dexterity etc.), and you can interact with other characters, like an RPG. On the other hand, when it comes to combat, you have flashy 'moves' that deal more damage, and you have two other characters to help you.

Here's how the boss fights look like:





IMO, this is one of the most underrated games. It would have much better if Skyrim wasn't released just 2 weeks later.

 

The reason for the darkness is lore-related when it comes to Artorias. He's been corrupted by the Abyss. Margit is one of the easier ER bosses, that's true. Also, I forgot to mention that in the Margit fight, you CAN fall off the edges of the cliff. Or worse, get knocked off.

Every ledge in a Fromsoft game is real and will kill you. Gravity is the #1 killer of all players.

And ah, yes. That is souls-like combat. As for flashy weapons, DS1 has several and others have pretty ones as well. They are usually boss weapons, though.

 

Made some purchases today on some things I was putting off. I'm really bad at buying myself things I need because spending money is illegal. (it's not really, I'm working on it, don't worry). Having technology that works properly makes me cringe at past me and ask why I put things off for so long. But now I am fast and up to date. At least with my computer and my phone. Everything else is still having me do a google.

 

In retrospect, it's funny what I've accomplished using my basic starting weapon (Great Knife) with no upgrades, since I missed that church with Ranni and the merchant and smith station. After I got to the Roundtable, I got the Battle Axe. I'd been enjoying it for a bit before I came across the Great Épée. What a sword. I love how I can use it with a shield, even though it's so long, like a 2H. What are your favourites?

And fortunately, even though I missed Ranni and she no longer spawns, I was able to buy the summoning bell from the Roundtable merchant. This was key in my victory over Leonine Misbegotten today. I tried him solo a couple times but only got him down to about a third of health before dying. Then I tried with the wolves, which didn't help much. Then I tried it with the jellyfish, which proved to be the perfect distraction. He'd go psycho on me, but as soon as the jellyfish started spraying poison at him, he'd go after the jellyfish instead, allowing me to make some heavy hits. Felt good to win.

So far I've found the difficulty of Elden Ring to be just right. The ability to walk away when you get stuck on a boss has been a game changer. Open world was a great idea here. It definitely helps that I've already "got gud" at these games, but this is clearly far more accessible than say, Bloodborne or Demon's Souls. I'm yet to find a section that's too difficult to pass before finding a new save spot. I've come close, like down to my last flask so I gotta cheese the last few enemies with a bow, but I almost never permanently lose my souls/runes (which is what pisses me off the most with these games).

Stormveil Castle has been a little annoying. It's so so big and there are some dead ends after long slogs of fighting. I opened up several fast travel spots but then left to finish off Morne Castle today. I'll probably go back soon on my next day off.

As for the difficulty compared to other games, I love how you can't choose an easy/normal/hard mode. It's like those NES and SNES games that refused to hold your hand. At least now we can google stuff if we get stuck somewhere. I was reminded of a few Souls lessons early on:

• If something isn't working, try something else. Today I tried fighting the Impaler's Catacombs boss which includes 5 or 6 of these F-ing annoying gremlins who cause massive bleeding damage even if you block their attacks with a shield. You need to eliminate them first before focusing on the relatively easy boss, but I couldn't, even with summons. Why? Turns out the Great Épée wasn't fast enough to hit them before they could hit me. I switched back to the Battle Axe and chopped those little bastards down with relative ease. Manually switched back to the Épée to finish off the boss and that was that.
• Be patient. You can't win by mashing buttons. Three times when fighting Margit, I had him down to one last hit. Just one more successful strike and I'd defeat him. But he got me first, even though I had a full health bar. Why? Because I was desperately trying to land that final blow when he was in the middle of a 5-swing combo attack. It takes discipline. I only won after I remembered to wait for my chances to strike without being hit. Defend, dodge, defend, etc., and get your shot in when he's vulnerable.

As others have said, this is far more rewarding than the difficulty systems of other games. I play pretty much all AAA games on "hard mode," but often that only means that enemies can hit you harder, and you hit them softer. It can feel rewarding early on, like say Nightmare mode for Witcher 3, Legendary on Skyrim, and Hardcore on Fallout: New Vegas, but eventually (especially with Skyrim), you level up to the point where you're basically invincible anyway. I think probably Witcher 3 did it best. But at no point in Soulsborne do I ever feel invincible. It's something special.

 

I don't know which thread to post this to. I guess it fits best here, for now, but I'll let you know in, well, just over 10 days. So, I attended and matriculated from a certain catholic undergraduate school decades ago. How long you ask? Back before most of you were probably born. Back when as you watch stranger things and go gee that's off they did such and such back then. Well, that's how it was back in my day, so yeah. Anyhow, my alma mater was fresh off winning the national championship in college football when I started as a Freshman and they were steeped in tradition and history, and, of course, at that age, I reveled in it as much as I could, but only as an incoming Freshman. Being all mathematical and analytical like i (used to be back when I still gave a shit, which is another discussion) err was, I uttered the famous last words, "you all (existing student body there) had a lot of fun winning it, chances are near 100% that at sometime in my lifetime I'll have the honor and pleasure of seeing the team do it again, as either a student, or alum. Well.. let's just say it's sucked the fattest part of anyone's ass ever since. And that was 35 years ago and I'm getting gray hairs and dust on just about all parts of my body. In those years, this team has flirted with winning it a few times, only to build up my hopes and then literally pluck my beating heart out of my chest and then do the Mexican hat dance on it in front of millions of people. You might utter a guttural uugh at that and trust me brother, I hear ya. Take for example when we played Alabama in the National Championship game in 2013. The whole family was so excited. Old friends were reunited. Alcohol was consumed. Then they went on to get absolutely boat-raced from minute one to the ending whistle. It was humiliating. I vowed never to allow myself to go through such demoralization ever again.

In lieu of this, I developed what I come to refer as the "metal lock box strategy" for, really, anything having to do with Notre Dame Football. And funny as it sounds, I also grew up in Minneapolis, so it's something that my brother and all my friends from med school, etc. employ for the Minnesota Vikings, who as you know haven't even PLAYED in the superbowl in my entire lifetime. And that includes teams that went 15-1 and had Randy Moss, Cris Carter, etc. and were WINNING in the NFC Championships against the Atlanta Falcons (until the very end) and all they needed was the placekicker who hadn't missed a single attempt all season to chip in a 40-yard field goal with time expiring to go onto the SB. For those of you that are old enough to remember ABC Wide World of Sports on TV, the video of the ski jumper wiping out and tumbling down the side of the jump and they characterized it as "the agony of defeat", well, that was how it felt to be a Minnesota Vikings fan on that day. Good lord. But I digress, because now I have my metal lock box - titanium, really, with a diamond-plating solid steel inner layer and a composite fiber core. I store my heart in it with the understanding that I'll allow myself to watch Notre Dame play for the National Championship against probably Ohio State, where they'll get literally pummeled in front of sixty to seventy million fans, but I'll only suffer 50% of the damage and humiliation of it that I normally would, because my heart is inside that thing and I'm all set. The flip side is if we win, I only get to cheer 50% of what I normally would, which is saying something because in 55 years old now and this might be the last shot I get at it in my lifetime, which is a big deal to me since i follow recruiting and everything like a psychopathically rabid fan.

I stand here with my titanium box, in front of you, my friends, ready to face this challenge, whether it's Texas or OSU, and TrevorD WON'T SAY SHIT ABOUT IT, COME WIN OR LOSE. Thank you, and may God bless you all.

Td-

 

I mean, he's a great great football player, don't get me wrong. His miss in that game wrecked millions of fans psychologically for several decades (well, mostly me pretty much).

 

Columbus Ohio will be regardless of the outcome, lol.

 

Lame up until the ending.

 

I aggressively don't do sports, but as a former Chicagoan I'd like to point out that the Cubs went from 1908 to 2016 without winning the Snoopy Bowl or whatever it is baseball critters get for baseballing good. Really taught me not to invest any part of my mood in someone else's hobby.

 

That little miracle hung in the air for a while because within days of Cubs doing their thing, Ireland beat New Zealand for the first time in almost 100 years of trying in Soldier's Field. The Irish team faced the haka in a figure eight, the number worn by recently deceased Munster coach and Irish player Anthony (Axel) Foley and, if I remember correctly, the scoreline was an exact reversal of the Irish defeat when Axel had last played against NZ.
Don't care if you never watch sports or have no interest. That stuff still stings.

 

This seems as good a place as any to include George Carlin's famous "Football vs. Baseball" bit, which still makes me laugh, even though I've never played either sport.



I have played Association Football (or soccer to anyone from the USA), and that was rough enough. After playing it for nearly 30 years, I had to retire with more than enough injuries. Bleh.

 

It's either synchronicity or the snooping power of the internet, but the same day I read this my FB feed had a replay of Flutie's successful Hail Mary against Miami.

 

A Happy/Sad Gaming Post?

I beat Ornstein and Smough solo again. Which felt great! I learned I am very good at fighting Smough and I made it through after hours and hours of attempts/phase 2 deaths. But the sad news is, I wanted the Leo Ring. But, my dumb dex weapon was crap against Ornstein (and the Iron Golem.) So, no Leo Ring for me, but I also didn't NEED IT. I WANTED it. But at least I made it through!!! I am so happy!!!

Quality/Strength Builds Forever!!!!

 

Also, after some research, learned the Painting Guardian Sword is a little longer than a dagger. OMFG. So happy.

The advice I have for this fight is the following:
Never hit O or S more than twice. Doesn't matter what weapon you use. Hit them twice, run away. Greed killed/hurt me SO MANY TIMES.
Run zig-zag. It's harder for them to follow you around the arena.
Let them destroy the pillars. But know Ornstein second phase can attack over them. So can Smough. But it's easier for you to see them without the pillars.
Also, an Estus sip takes 2 seconds. Time accordingly.

 

Could we get a dedicated computer gaming thread? I play the occasional game here and there, but this thread has been greek to me for a few pages now.