Julius

A nearly half hour interview from IGN with Gabe Newell on the Steam Deck, well worth a watch:

Started watching the first one and thought it looked really nice - the music does sound lovely - and then that font came in. Really hope they change it for if/when this comes to consoles, because like with the Dragon Quest I - III versions on Switch, I just find it really distracting how the font isn't suitable for these games and takes up such little screen space.

I don't think I'll ever bring myself to play it, but Alex Moukala's coverage of Genshin Impact has put it's OST firmly back on my radar. Azhdaha's Battle Theme, which he covers in the first video, is S-tier. The entire introduction in first phase is this menacing build-up and the second phase - that freaking erhu followed by the electric guitar! - is absolutely awesome. Time to give down the rabbit hole and see what the rest of Yu-Peng Chen's work on the game is like!

I was talking about the release specifically but you're right that there's going to be stuff beyond that like signing-on fees, add-ons, agent fees, and his weekly salary to add on top of that. Raiola's a twit but he's great at his job and getting his players what they want. Still, compared to some of the other fees we've seen, unless Haaland gets seriously injured or ends up massively underperforming this season, he'd be worth every penny. Still think it'd be in Madrid's best interest to make sure they've got the rest of the team up to par for that too, though. Honestly, it's probably in Mbappé's best interests to hold out until he can leave on a free and potentially become the highest paid footballer in the world if/when he goes to Madrid next summer, thanks to the amount they'd be saving on his transfer fee (probably some €150 million right now with a year left on his contract). It's funny because until the last five years or so, outside of outliers like Lewandowski's move to Bayern, I didn't feel like you really saw many players, agents, or teams planning around and winding down contracts to get the best deals for all involved and making full use of the Bosman rule. Now it seems like it's being considered for a lot of moves and as a result you get players on contracts that they were never going to be worthy of (such as Aaron Ramsey at Juve).

It's been kicking around the last few weeks (and let's be honest, it's been a rumoured transfer since before he even went to Madrid), but Varane is finally going to United for the massive sum of...£34 million (rising to £42 million with add-ons). They've just got one of the best defenders of the last decade on the cheap, and he's only 28. I know there was word about him pushing for a move and wanting to experience the Premier League, especially after Zidane and then Ramos left, but that's an insanely good piece of business. Finally a United signing I'm genuinely envious and frightened of. Florentino Perez is an idiot (is this any surprise?). Letting Ramos go on a free and disrespecting him as he has other Real legends in the past (Casillas, Navas, et al), clearly not putting up any real fight to keep Varane (who, fair play to him, wanted as clean a break as possible), replacing Ramos with Alaba who isn't the same defender he once was, not really supporting Zidane who somehow got the performances out of a second string team to take them to competing for La Liga until the last day of the season and the semi-finals of the Champions League. This isn't even mentioning the mess of the last 5 years, such as keeping Bale and letting Ronaldo go. I'm getting serious 2007/08 vibes from Madrid now. Perez is hell-bent on getting Mbappé on a free next year (if not this year, though I don't see PSG allowing that) - and potentially Haaland too, who will then be available at €75 million if I'm remembering right thanks to his release clause - and seems happy to effectively nuke the squad for this coming season to free up the money to do so. Expect Madrid to go on a spending spree that'll make your nose bleed next summer in yet another Galacticos overhaul a la 2009, because the defence will need strengthening, their attack needs quality bench options, and their midfield, while still in control and very experienced, needs to slowly see some more new faces introduced beyond Valverde and a potential Odegaard return.

So I finished Great Pretender the other day, and I've kind of been sitting on my thoughts with it. I think the first two thirds of this show, the first three cases, are pretty electric. It's high energy, doesn't take itself too seriously, has excellent animation (it's Wit with Netflix's backing, so no surprise there), an awesome jazzy musical backdrop to the heist hijinks, and a ridiculously colourful artstyle, which it balances with some fun and interesting - if archetypal - characters. Also does one of my favourite things in globetrotting adventures WHERE PEOPLE ACTUALLY SPEAK THEIR NATIVE TONGUE IN THEIR COUNTRY and subtitles are thrown in, even for the English dub (which was actually really good). Imagine Lupin III meets Baccano, that's probably the most relatable way to convey its energy and vibe. Unfortunately, the final case - the final third of the show - just kind of threw it all out of the window. It was over-the-top in the worst ways, character development kind of got kicked to the curb, and it just felt like it spent too long hanging up on some moments and going out of its way to explain things. The last episode was genuinely infuriating in very predictable ways. It was almost as if they realised at the start of the last case that maybe there could be a second season, and so all consequence they'd been building up to with the final case just didn't come to pass. Such a shame. It started off for a large part being nearly flawless, but as the last case dragged on there was a chink in that armour, and then all of a sudden in the final episode it slipped further yet. On the whole I think it's a great show, but that speaks to the strength of the first three cases and not the poor pacing and annoyingly predictable final case. They just didn't stick the landing, which sucks, because this really could have been something special. One of only a few ED's I would consider unskippable, though. Seriously, who the heck is going to skip Freddie Mercury's voice covering a Platters song used for an anime ED? It's almost cheating!

Feel obligated to respond to some of these posts, as I feel a bit responsible for sparking the debate. I think my reactions to some posts and not to others probably makes it pretty clear what my thoughts on this are, but it beats posting this gif for the umpteenth time: ...who am I kidding? It's a classic. And we were probably all thinking of posting it I think the problem is that people don't need to be within your personal space (let's use the 2 metres of social distancing here for reference) when in an enclosed space for you to come into contact with the virus...or any other kind of germs. Strictly talking just about the air in an enclosed space, you've got things to account for like molecular diffusion, Brownian motion, and beyond that a whole host of other systems at play which means, without much effort, the air inside of a train carriage could easily circulate germs from one end of the carriage to the other. I do agree with you that you should keep your wits about you, try to keep to yourself, watch your own hygiene, maybe even try to find another spot if you feel it's getting a little too crowded, etc., which I try to adhere to as well, rubbing my hands down with hand sanitiser getting on the train, before I get off, when I next arrive at a location where I'll be spending some time, before and after eating, sitting down in the cinema, and so on. I just think it's a bit concerning that a very, very noticeable number of people on the train didn't even have a mask on them as far as I could tell, and they certainly weren't wearing them. I mean, just going back to the incident I described about the COVID passport protest that I witnessed: the irony was that they were showing EXACTLY that they couldn't be trusted and why we even need to consider putting such things in place. There were a few hundred people I saw protesting, taking up one of the larger pavements I've come across in Birmingham and spilling over into the streets, with barely any of them wearing masks, and huddled so tightly together that they'd make a sardine blush. As for the COVID passports themselves, I think it's fine conceptually, and a completely understandable thing to put in place. I think you're viewing it from the "glass half empty" lens if you're seeing it purely as a push for people who aren't vaccinated to go get the vaccine, because, from my perspective, it's more about keeping those who have been vaccinated safe in an environment (such as a nightclub or a football stadium) where just one person potentially spreading the virus in such a densely populated discs could have a wide-reaching impact on a great number of lives around them, as well as the other way around being true also, that it's protecting those that aren't vaccinated from larger crowds by trying to keep them away from them. You need to have a driving license to drive a car just as, for the time being, you'll need to be vaccinated (and potentially have had a recent negative test?) to enter events where the virus could cause some serious trouble: highly and densely populated, enclosed, pretty warm spaces, the perfect breeding ground out in the wild for something like this to spread like wildfire. However, the problem with the COVID passports, as @Will alluded to, is that the UK government don't have the systems in place to support such a scheme, and it'll be as half-arsed as much of their other work during this pandemic has been. And, as you rightly mention Beast, what does happen to those who can't get the vaccine due to genuine medical/religious reasons? I have no clue, and I doubt the government do too. Again, I think it comes back to it being a good idea in concept, but with our government? I don't see it being handled well at all. Yeah I fully get this, when I tried to explain to a waitress yesterday that I'd booked a table at a medium volume it was clear she had no idea what I said, so I lifted my mask away from my face to repeat what I'd said, and if she couldn't hear me then I would have asked if she was okay with me removing my mask so that she could hear me (we were a metre or two apart anyways). It's one where I feel like you have to play it by ear and just be mindful of how many people are around you and their distance from you. I mean the fact that they aren't the same is a huge part of it, though. For the COVID vaccines they used the main strand which kicked this all off as the reference, and while we've seen variants since, it's a process which can be repeated with the new variants, and heck I think some of the vaccines used elsewhere already prove somewhat effective against the new variants. That's entirely different to the flu vaccine, where the entire basis of the vaccine is an educated hunch at what will be the most popular mutation that year, and in recent years they've been pretty far off the mark. It's like trying to put a brand new bike together with the same model already put together next to you and a set of instructions to go with it vs closing your eyes and building a bike based on what you imagine a bike will look like this year based on your memories of last year's model. It's a very, very rough way to do things, which again has missed the mark as of late. I mean at this point why not just bring the electric chair back, or hand these people a noose and a chair to jump down from as they walk out of prison? If it would make it that much safer and the possibility of rehabilitation isn't an option - thankfully it is - then what purpose is there to let them walk out? Like I mentioned before, I think it's the lens you're viewing it from, and by all means you have a right to your own opinion on this, but there's an insanely massive difference for me between being ostracised due to raping someone and being left out by omission through your (not your as in you, Beast, but a general your) own actions based on your own choices. Again as I mentioned before, think it gets murky when it comes to people who due to medical reasons in particular can't get vaccinated, but other than religious beliefs and some other fringe cases -- I'm talking about healthy people who don't fall in these categories -- it's simply called consequence. You (again, a general you, I'm not singling you out) can't have your cake and eat it too. As someone who tries their best to help people when I can see that they might need it, I think this is a dangerous mindset to walk around with, just for the mental toll it would take, because you're only a hop and a jump away from being at fault for everything wrong with society. When it comes to helping others that you are in no way responsible for, I think only you can hold yourself accountable for your decisions, but I think for the average person - like myself - we'll find ourselves limited in what we can do by our time, finances, or something else. I was in a rush to get to work and so didn't get the chance to help that homeless guy? Welp, I've caused him harm. I don't know, to me, that seems like a spiral I'd rather not go down. For me, it always comes back to being the change you want to see happen. I want more people to help the homeless, and so when I get the chance to, I'll do what I can to help them. It's a cold day -- do they want a hot chocolate or a coffee? They're hungry -- do they want to come with me to get some food? But as a 22 year old in his first full-time job, there's a limit on what I can reasonably offer to help with, and so long as I try to help them, I think that's okay. I'll shorten my life, and end up getting the chance to help less people in the process, if I carry the world's problems on my shoulders. I mean, even if I did selfishly want to protect myself, my friends, and my family...I think that's a completely fair line of reasoning, and that would only be the start. It would take an ounce of empathy and awareness for those around you to then start thinking about how others might be impacted if you didn't get the vaccine. Why exactly can't it be both me wanting to take care of myself, those I know, and those I don't? Why is it a black or white "it's us or them"? Memento mori. Fear has driven men and women to some of humanity's greatest discoveries, and unfortunately others to committing some of its most heinous acts, but fear - and fear of death in particular - is one of the great equalisers. I think it's perfectly normal to feel and be motivated by fear. So long as you don't let it consume your thinking, being motivated by fear can be a great asset. I don't think there's anything remotely wrong with getting vaccinated against a deadly virus out of fear, so long as you still took the choice to be vaccinated. The risk of contracting COVID, the long-term impacts of which we probably won't fully understand for years to come? Just because immunisation puts the odds further in your favour for survival, the risk of contracting COVID is still very real. Plus, I'm still waiting on my second vaccination. Why exactly wouldn't I be worried about other people dying, especially after myself and others have lost loved ones to COVID? Like I mentioned above, it takes an ounce of empathy and awareness for others -- let's be honest, I could just say respect -- to appreciate the impact something like this could have on the lives of other people. And you know that's not how vaccines work so that third one is a bit of a silly rhetorical. I mean, forget dying, immunisation lowers the odds of you contracting an illness too, so that's a pretty big plus, surely? See, there are two different things here. Firstly: I fully respect your decision to not take the vaccine until you know more about the potential side effects, and given what you mentioned about you having side effects to similar things before, I think you're justified in being wary and waiting for more information, however long it might take. From the rest of your posts I think it's clear that even without taking the vaccine, you're aware of the situation, do your utmost to be hygienic, and are trying your damnedest without the vaccine. Unfortunately, we can't say that's been the case for everyone who hasn't had the vaccine (and to be clear this isn't me targeting anyone else in the thread, it's the impression that I get from when you look around and on social media). The other part is that someone having an abortion doesn't have a direct physical impact on the physical well-being of those around you. Someone choosing to go the abortion route, which I agree is wholeheartedly that person's decision because even if it is a bit of an ethical conundrum - at what point are you considered alive? - if they can't give that child the life that every child deserves - one with stability and something beyond simply existing, being there to offer direction as a parent should - is an entirely different premise, at least from my perspective. It's a totally different scenario if you having an abortion because there's something up with the tap water helps keep other pregnant women and their children safe. Just because there's a choice involved I don't think the two issues are remotely equatable beyond there being a personal choice for you to make, which I will respect. It's simply not my choice to make. Ask me my opinion on abortions and vaccines and I'll offer it in as well meaning a way as I can, even if our opinions differ, but otherwise it's really none of my business what you do with your body. I agree with that: it is your decision at the end of the day. That being said, choices come with consequences. I had to get some vaccines before going to the Philippines a few years ago, because of some of the bugs over there that my Western body just wouldn't be built for dealing with could have caused some serious harm, and doing so gave me peace of mind on my trip. The potential consequence of me getting ill from the vaccine while still over here far outweighed the perceived consequences of getting seriously ill while stuck in a struggling country with poor access to quality medical care. In the case of the COVID vaccine and the passports, one consequence of not getting vaccinated is not being allowed to mingle with people who have in certain scenarios. That will be there to protect both sides. Again, I'm not saying it's going to be pulled off well, but in concept I think it's the best thing to do. Given the scale and severity of the pandemic, I just think it's unrealistic to not have any pressure around an issue like this. The same goes for voluntary consent for any number of things: real life just isn't simple enough to take things as they are in a closed bubble, there are almost always other factors at play. Honestly, if I didn't take the vaccine, I wouldn't feel comfortable going out to any of these events (nightclubs, football matches, concerts) anyways, so I wouldn't feel the pressure of everything going on regarding the COVID passport. Heck, even now that I've had my first vaccine, I'm not in a rush to put myself at risk like that.

I've only caught snippets of the opening ceremony and some of the swimming highlights so far. Normally I'm pretty big on watching the Olympics, especially the swimming, but watching how the IOC have handled things and seemingly not giving Japan the chance they wanted to delay things further, coupled with the lack of crowds and just the overall lack of energy coming from it was a result, I just find myself left a bit unenthused. There's also that some of the events are at pretty awkward times for us in the UK, which is always a real shame. Will definitely try to catch the swimming highlights, though!

They also digitally removed Jeans Guy from Chapter 12 of Mando

Yeah, as much as I enjoyed the Ryloth arc, I do agree that it definitely felt like we'd seen something similar before. For me personally it depends on what the series is, but when it comes to Star Wars animated shows and I know there are going to be X number of episodes in the season, I really just want them to put their foot down and go for it. I find that I prefer arcs because we see more development for a story, character, or location in those episodes than we do in ones like these. It felt like this episode could've been in the middle of the season, and now that I think about it, it has so little connective tissue to the other episodes that it feels like it really could have slotted in anywhere else. I really just hope things pick up now, because I'm starting get the feeling that the stuff I want to see is being saved for a likely second season. Yes, I've been hoping for the exact same thing! Personally I don't mind the CG in the prequels for example, but I know many do and so I think it could also be thrown into the mix, and I think if you give the CG stuff just tweaks to bump their quality as time goes on and like you said the tech improves, almost Special Edition-style, I think it could look way better in the future. It's a tough one, because in Luke's case I genuinely think you could throw some makeup on Sebastian Stan and you'd already be pretty close, and if they do ever do a show about post-ROTJ Luke then that might be the more cost effective solution, but I guess in any cameos this route would probably be better.

I haven't been keeping up with the Olympics due to the awkward as hell times that the events are often at for us, but this gave me a good chuckle Give me more of this!

Another good episode this week, but the writing and depth of the writing has definitely started getting a bit shaky as we head towards the final few episodes, as there are definitely some episodes, like this one, where there isn't a "moral" or something to take away that we haven't already seen up to this point, it doesn't exactly drive the story forwards, and for me if you miss those, it's about getting among the weeds and focusing in on a particular character/way of life, but that doesn't exactly happen in this episode either. So it was a bit of a letdown for me, though at least we're starting to get hints at what we might see in a hypothetical season 2. See, based on what I think this episode doesn't do that I mentioned above, I do think that it could be considered "filler", but I think the problem is that there's a negative connotation around calling something "filler" that seems a little too harsh. It's not a bad episode, just nothing beyond a hint of a certain group turning up next season really happens here. I think of The Passenger from Mando and I think people are missing the point of the episode when they call that "filler", truth is that they were annoyed it didn't carry on the story as directly as the first episode of the season, which makes sense anyways because it was about setting up the conflict. It still managed to do one of the three things I think you would need to do to not be filler: it was a character-centric episode which focused on growth and interaction. But I just didn't see that in this episode of The Bad Batch, and I think for me it's a bit different at this point in the season too just because I've been expecting things to start ramping up for weeks now towards a final arc, especially with how great the preceding two episodes were. In the pacing of the overall season I think it just gets in the way and slows things down, again when we really should be starting to pick things back up, and it's not like we haven't had pretty similar episodes in structure/events/morals already this season. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it if I didn't know that the team behind this show is capable of infinitely more, and I'm personally just a bit disappointed as it feels like we've already had episodes like this where there's nothing really gained from the episode other than it raising the episode count. On the whole I've been pleasantly surprised by The Bad Batch so far, I'm holding off on further judgment until this season is over as I'm waiting to see how/if they stick the landing here. While I have enjoyed it, thinking back to the first arc of the season, I think what I really want to see from this team is not necessarily the number of shows that they're working on piling up, but short yet meaningful arcs (almost movies) put out by them instead, like the Siege of Mandalore in TCW and the opening arc to The Bad Batch, and maybe adapting some of the stuff we didn't see in The Clone Wars to animation from its written form -- such as the Son of Dathomir stuff. I think their strength is in telling concise and focused stories, I think once they have to start thinking of potential future seasons and stretching out this one to meet an episode count to get their budget, things can get shaky. It could just be first season jitters as they get used to things, though, like we saw with The Clone Wars and Rebels. Cue the Luke's academy series articles by "insiders" in 3, 2, 1... But yeah, that's awesome! While I was really glad about that scene in Mando, as soon as I saw his face I wanted to peel my eyes out, and knew someone could do better -- this guy is one of them. You know, other than maybe getting Sebastian Stan in for his face. I think deepfaking is definitely the future of this process for CG animators, rather than having to work things from scratch like we saw with Tarkin in Rogue One, which for me gave mixed results (looked fantastic in certain lighting and when static, but as soon as he started walking the uncanny valley erupted), and so I'm happy to see him onboard, crazy to think of how far this could be pushed with more people working on the process and with the right backing.

Went into Birmingham to meet up with some friends today for the first time in over a year, and while we on the whole had a great time...man were there waaaaaaaaay fewer people wearing masks that I saw than I expected. I kept mine on as much as I could apart from quieter areas where there was virtually no-one else around, when we went to eat, and in the cinema, also trying my best to keep my distance apart from my friends (who I all trust to be sensible and who I all know have had their first vaccine). While walking through the Bull Ring for a brief shortcut, on the train in and out, on the train platforms, and in some more congested corners though, I'd say there's a ballpark figure of more than 40% of people not wearing their masks where you think they should. For example, the massive pedestrian junction by the bull just outside the Bull Ring, where easily hundreds of people pass through every minute or two when it's busy, there were virtually no masks being worn or distancing actively happening. I know there's definitely some bias to what I saw today - it was my first time actually going out to meet up like this since the first lockdown started last year, and I'm sure most sensible people are still continuing to stay away from busy places like the middle of Birmingham - but this was an absolute embarrassment. If there were more people dying (not that I would want that, obviously) it would almost feel like a controlled culling of the population. The stupidity of those running our government knows no bounds. There was also a vaccine passport protest going on which we kept our distance from, walking in front of busy lanes and traffic and taking up entire pavements (even some of the wider ones, such as those between New Street and the Chinese Quarter), with almost all involved not wearing their masks, some even dragging their little kids around or hoisting them up on their shoulders. Some people seriously just aren't fit to be parents. It's disgusting. It's exhausting to even type this out to be honest. It's excruciatingly frustrating.

I've just realised that the walking human garbage that is Sugiyama would've had the say in the Dragon Quest Main Theme being used here, as if I'm remembering right he owns the rights. It's a big part of why some Dragon Quest XI reviews were so weird. So on the one hand Nintendo isn't showing up for some nebulous reason, and then on the other we've got the Main Theme composed by a history revisionist and anti-LBTQ+ supporter belting out to start and end this thing. It's funny because even though Dragon Quest has some good music and some individually very memorable tracks, I wouldn't say it's a strength of the games like it is Final Fantasy. And I think the only thing that's got it through the doors here in the first place is just how big the series and Sugiyama are in Japan, because it's not exactly a very good public-facing image otherwise having his music here.

Yeah my bad, I didn't hear the start (I've gone back to it now) and since I got into those games I've only seen it referred to as the Main Theme and never Erdrick's Theme, hence my confusion which is good because obviously it needed to be here! Agree with @Dcubed that it's a bit bizarre that there's no Nintendo music though. I can't remember, when Abe came out as Mario, was there any Mario music playing? I wonder if it's some super weird music agreement, or maybe a concern of their music getting flagged or something? And we absolutely need the squatting music from VII Remake during some powerlifting!

Tuned in just in time to hear FF's Victory Theme. Seems like such an obvious thing to do in retrospect, it's pretty awesome! Crazy that they didn't use the main DQ theme though? Because that thing basically is a national anthem. Anyone else hoping for battle music during the events? Maybe some anime opening music just before they start to build some hype?

Pre-orders up next Thursday at 18:00 BST:

EA Play Live started 5 minutes ago: Shows how low my hype is that I completely forgot. Knowing there won't be any Star Wars there probably doesn't help!

In case you needed to be more hyped:

*dramatic Hans Zimmer bwooooooomp noises*

The madness never ends. The Prancing Horse is coming to Fortnite in some weird capacity. Look forward to seeing my electric toothbrush turn up next

3 more games being added to SNES Online on 28th July: Claymates, Jelly Boy, and Bombuzal. The list of games I've never heard of on this service continues to grow. Starting to think I might need to just blast through everything on the NES and SNES apps so that I can cancel my Online subscription.

Square Enix saying that they'll consider being the Pixel Remasters to other platforms if the demand is there. You dolts, of course the demand would be there. We're still stuck waiting and hoping on Chrono Trigger coming to other platforms too! I'm curious to hear Uematsu's rearrangements at least, but man Square Enix...

Russian Subway Dogs dropping today...on the Vita?! Vita means life and all that

Super brief session today (well, I guess yesterday now!). It was probably less than an hour, but glad I did it as I felt I made some meaningful progress. So, I headed down into the basement from Andre to head towards Darkroot Garden to investigate what was up with the sealed door, but first I came to the headless metal demon I've come across many times at this point (here and elsewhere), but had yet to take on since my attempts way back when I was taking on the Moonlight Butterfly. Figured I might as well give it a go, so pulled out my Halberd+6 and...killed it. It really wasn't that bad, just getting in close and sticking right by its side, just behind it's left shoulder, and stabbing at it a few times before it would jump up or try something and I'd need to pull out my shield to block. No major threat here, got some Demon Titanite for the deed (no idea if or when I'll need this). Carrying on towards Darkroot, I kept my Halberd equipped as I figured rather than risk getting too close to the shrub freakos, I'd just poke at them from a distance, which worked really well. Two or maybe three strikes would take them out, and it wasn't long before I found myself back at the previously hidden bonfire, before unlocking the sealed door. After walking through the door and heading down some steps, I was met by a pretty dense forest, and I wasn't really sure which direction to head in, so I figured I'd edge around the perimeter and figure it out from there. As I headed to my right some guy with a greatsword tried to have at me, I tried to parry a few times but had no real luck, so I just strafed around him a bunch and backstabbed him a few times instead. Continuing on to the right from the entrance, I came to some shallow water...before the leaf guys jumped me from EVERY direction. Good thing I had the Halberd equipped, I just had to try to keep my distance and keep an eye on their moves before thrusting the Halberd forwards when some of them had lined up. One did grab onto me and munch away at me - never a pleasant sight in this game - leaving only the slightest slither of health, but I backed up, swigged some Estus, and poked the rest until they were ready to be raked. Picked up some armour precariously placed at the tip of a cliff, before I looked back and noticed there wasn't much else around, so I headed back to the door I entered this area from and instead carried on directly forwards into the thick of the forest. A guy started throwing spells my way, which my shield didn't do much good against, so I drew him away from the area to have a close quarters fight as some other guy started firing arrows over. Took out the failure of a wizard, then the arrow-holding thief, then a guy with some kind of morning star (at least that's what it looked like), and made it to the other side of the forested area. There was a guy there in front of some sort of decrepit chapel, who I started fighting with an axe and Spider Shield. I locked on and strafed and got multiple backstabs off (a few I positioned myself just right for when he stood back up), continued strafing, stepped back and... ...fell from a cliff. Whoops. Kind of lost my bearings in the heat of battle! Back at the bonfire, I decided to ignore what was to my right and instead head straight in the direction of these human NPC's. Slayed them all without much trouble, retrieved my souls, and headed towards the broken chapel-looking place. Inside I met Alvina of the Darkroot Wood, a creepy cat who told me all about how many believed Artorias' grave resided beyond that point. She also invited me to join her cult - I mean, covenant - but warned me against betraying anyone or I'd have hell to pay, and so like with pretty much offer I've got to this point, I accepted. After exhausting her dialogue options I headed down some steps and came to another forested area...with these little mushroom guys walking around. I had no idea who was and wasn't in the cult, so I just slowly followed them, but they didn't pay me much mind -- or at least the small ones didn't, the big ones tried to throw a punch my way! I continued through this forested area and saw what was clearly a door sealed in a similar way to the previous one. I looked around after getting closer and didn't see much of interest around (though I did see the multiple snake-headed water-spitting thing I saw from a distance in Darkroot Basin, is that a hydra?) so crossed the bridge over and opened the door. Beyond the door were dozens of swords dug into the ground, hilts up, like this was the sight of some battle. At the centre of them all was a giant sword and some sort of gravestone. I inched my way forwards, shield up, not knowing what to expect, darting my eyes - and the camera - left and right to avoid being caught out. I made it to the gravestone and the giant sword in one piece, before a cutscene began, which ended in... ...this giant wolf, Sif, taking up the aforementioned giant sword and wanting a bout. Given his size and the length of his weapon, I wanted to keep my distance, so kept the Halberd at hand. He swung the sword around, sweeping left, and then right, both of which I dodged with some well timed rolls, before swinging all the way around with the sword twice without stopping, which quickly took me down as I tried to dodge the first, didn't have time to react to the second, and got hit again shortly after. All without getting so much as a scratch off. I made my way back over from the bonfire, and it would seem these human NPC's must be part of Alvina's cult, as none of them paid me any mind as I made my way back to Sif (bit of a shame none of them could speak now we were seemingly on the same side, though). This time at Sif, as soon as I walked through the door, he jumped up and spun around, landing practically on top of me, and I noticed as he swung his sword around with me here, he couldn't hit me whatsoever. The camera wasn't great locked on, but I wasn't in such a bad spot, so started poking at his underbelly and heels, taking him down by about a quarter of his health. I still tried to roll through his attacks when he got some distance, though, but Lady Luck wasn't on my side and he sliced me up real bad. At least I had a bit of an inkling of how I could manage the fight though from this, attacking from underneath with my Halberd. And the third time was the charm. Same thing as before with sticking underneath him, though this time when he backed up, I simply walked towards him with my shield raised. At most he'd hit twice in quick succession, which I had enough stamina to withstand with my shield up, and even when he did his triple attack (slash, slash, jumping slash), there was enough of a gap between the second and third moves to either just walk forwards to where he would land and completely miss, or recover very briefly by putting my shield down before putting it back up again. Think I only got hit two or three times in our entire fight. He slowed up towards the end, I could tell from the rate of his slashing around waning, but I didn't pay it much mind and finished the job. Honestly, even though that fight took me a couple of attempts to die and learn from, it's probably the least stressful boss fight I've had in this game so far by a massive margin, purely because there isn't much to react to, it's either Sif predictably slashing around or jumping into a different spot to attack from. It got even less stressful on the third attempt when I realised my shield could do all the dirty work without me having to risk rolling for i-frames too. Bit of a shame I found it underwhelming, as I thought the track for the fight was another great one. Very melancholic. Anyways, made my way back on over to the bonfire, rested up, and spent some my souls on levelling up a couple more times. Decided to cut the session a bit short here - a combination of the heat and me getting hungry - but today's session felt...very different after my ordeals in Anor Londo. Very little fuss, but I also find myself with a bit less direction now for the first time (weirdly) in the game as I need to go find the golden fog door locations. Even though I've got a hunch on where some are at this point as I mentioned in my last post, I think next time I'll head on over to see if I can take on that hydra and have better luck in the Darkroot Basin than I did the last time I visited. Might try to track down that Black Knight too. Honestly, I can appreciate why you took that break (imagine you had plenty of other games in the meantime to keep you busy anyways!). If I wasn't so stubborn about focusing on one game at a time, and knowing full well that if I dropped Dark Souls here and came back to it later I'd probably end up restarting it, I think I could have quite easily dropped the game at that point. Not because I wasn't enjoying it, mind, and I'm pretty sure I died more to Stray Demon in the end, but because this game can definitely be a struggle to turn on after working all day, which was probably compounded by some of the stress I've faced in the last month. It's why this game has regrettably taken me so long to get through (by my standards of how much I normally play games per week), and why it's been put down a couple of times for 5+ days at a time. And then taking even a short break like that compounds the intimidation of returning to it even further! As for Ornstein and Smough, I think it's definitely a very memorable and difficult fight...but for me, for some of the wrong reasons. After spending some 60+ hours in these games now between Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I can definitely see From Software learning from some of their previous attempts at boss battles, and there have been some great ones (and adversely some less memorable, sure) so far. I think a lot of these boss battles so far end up on a scale comparing a good, memorable boss fight, with engaging boss design, arena and movesets...with quite frankly having to put up with some jank. Maybe this will change once my time with the game is done and dusted, but while I think it's a great idea for a boss fight, I just don't think the execution is quite there, like it wasn't with the Adjudicator from my experience in Demon's Souls. For me, any enemy that can strike you through something else - be it a wall, or a floor - in a game that makes a clear point to bounce your sword back at you when you strike a wall will go towards making me feel a little annoyed by the game, but that's more than doubled in the case of it happening in a boss fight. It's tough, but by the end of Ornstein and Smough, like I said before, I was more than ready to move on, and more relieved that I didn't have to keep beating my head against a wall rather than I was elated that I'd taken down some of the most well known bosses in the series. Pretty much exactly how I felt after the Adjudicator, though the saving grace for me here is that basically everything else except the mechanics of the fight with them - the build-up, the music, the setting, the reward just after them - is of some of the highest quality that I've experienced in my time with this series so far. Yeah, I think I learned my fair share from Demon's Souls in this particular instance as I've been sinking souls into the build I learned was best for my Knight then from the very beginning: Vitality, Strength, and Endurance. I threw some souls at Dexterity when I wanted to start using the Longbow, too, but other than that I've had a pretty keen focus on levelling up the stats I mentioned before and my weapons of choice (the Broadsword I started with, my shields, and now my Halberd too). I haven't used any pyromancy or magic yet, which is odd because when I've been attacked by either, they seem just as overpowered here as magic did in Demon's Souls! I'm not sure how much grinding I'll do in this game to be honest, I've got on with it okay so far, so unless I reach some brick wall which feels insurmountable (which seems unlikely after overcoming O&S, but well it is Dark Souls, so we'll see), I imagine I'll just keep going. It's very different to Demon's Souls in that regard where you're basically forced to grind for healing grass anyways by going to one specific Archstone, with one specific entryway being the best place to do so. Here I find myself doing essentially what I find myself doing on occasion in JRPG's, where I just suck it up and ignore the fact that grinding is an option, and see if I can figure out some way to surpass what's in front of me without needing to grind.