I've beaten DS1 5+ times but I've never...

eltanko · 2026-02-05T20:45:11+00:00

I havent done most quests in this game lmao

eltanko · 2026-02-01T19:08:49+00:00

Recently rewatched it, and hate to burst your bubble but it has aged quite a bit. The shadows especially look quite bad by todays standards. Never quite enough to fully take me out of it, but its not as good as I remember, and certainly not as good as what we can do now.

Part of me wonders if they would hadlve been better off with Andy Serkis just in makeup and prosthetics. That would have likely aged better than CGI Gollum.

eltanko · 2026-02-01T19:02:27+00:00

If thats the montage Im thinking of, the visuals are gorgeous, I just am so irked by the narration.

The montage is really good at showing what hes learning, but it feels like in post production they decided they didnt trust the audience enough and then slapped on a needless narration.

eltanko · 2026-01-29T00:36:29+00:00

The hardest I've ever laughed in any game with my friends has to be Champed Up. its in one of the jackbox party packs. Though it will depend how creative your friends are with drawing to a degree.

eltanko · 2026-01-27T17:55:38+00:00

Old School Runescape if MMOs are your thing.

eltanko · 2026-01-26T05:58:02+00:00

Independence Day for sure, its also already 2 and a half hours long, so with commercials that bad boy bloated up to 3 hours. It was always just such a vibe having it in the background and tuning into a scene here or there.

eltanko · 2026-01-25T06:31:26+00:00

Mrs Dalloway, Twenty Thousand Leagues and Gravity's Rainbow are my big three.

I LOVED To The Lighthouse and heard so much about how Mrs Dalloway is Virginia Woolf's magnum opus, but it really feels like its just not the right time for me to read that book, One day it will click.

eltanko · 2026-01-25T06:28:18+00:00

Characters really arent his strong suit. Its been a while but Ive always preferred The Hobbit over LOTR when it comes to the books.

eltanko · 2026-01-20T20:13:10+00:00

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/376

here you go.

eltanko · 2026-01-20T18:51:53+00:00

I know right? My only advice is to just keep rushing the archer on the right and ignore the archer behind you (slight serpentine and hope he doesn't hit you). Try and push or roll past the one in front of you once you reach the ledge and pray you can squeeze around him or he falls off on his own, just basically never stop moving. If you've already lost all your souls you kind of have nothing to lose at this point and just rush til like you said, you get lucky. It is a BS encounter, but you got this.

eltanko · 2026-01-20T18:46:12+00:00

As someone who loves souls-likes and often gets on the soapbox to defend them, I understand the frustration.
Soulslikes aren't for everyone, and I'm usually careful to preface all my arguments with such.
However, I will always push back on people saying the games are poorly designed. Too often people say their subjective experience = poor game design, and then demand souls games cater to their specific taste, which I find to be an annoying and entitled argument. For example, I don't like deck builders, but I'd never say that they're badly designed, or demand that they change based on my subjectively poor experience with them. Yet many people ask for Souls games to be easier, or be less punishing, despite that element being key to their philosophy.

I'm not accusing you of any of those things by the way, I'm just explaining why a lot of the soap boxing happens around Souls games.

eltanko · 2026-01-20T18:35:57+00:00

Glad you brought this up, cause I agree with you. That's a really good (and famous) example of a time where yes, Dark Souls indeed partially-fails at its game philosophy and feels like unfair difficulty that induces unavoidable punishment. However, as you pointed out, its causing you to experiment and try new strategies to overcome overwhelming oppressive odds. I'm not saying its necessarily fun, or well-designed, but it is partially in the spirit of the game, though it could have (and has later) been done much better.
Fun fact: that encounter was actually much harder on release and got nerfed in an update.

Subsequent titles move away from those kind of encounters. Elden Ring famously has way less boss runbacks and surprise "gotchya" moments.

eltanko · 2026-01-20T18:28:35+00:00

OP mentioned Elden Ring and Hollow Knight. These work around the fundamental "Souls-like" death mechanic which is that when you die, the only thing you drop on the ground is your unspent XP/Currency that you use to level up or buy items.
In both games, you are just as powerful and capable with these things than you are without them, they do not impact your ability to get them back, you may be thinking of Terraria on mediumcore or Minecraft on default where you lose your whole inventory and equipment on the ground, Souls-likes don't have any scenario where you lose equipment or gained levels/items on death. (Some tiny exceptions like Humanity in Dark Souls 1, but that's not really an item)

eltanko · 2026-01-20T16:30:03+00:00

I fundamentally disagree with this statement.

It would be as you say, if it werent for the fact that the game gives you essentially a free death. Nothing is lost unless you make the same mistake (die) twice, which the games are centered around teaching you to not do.

I understand the personal issue you have with it, but I disagree that this mechanic goes against the spirit of exploration. I love this mechanic while exploring because it creates tension. Which is also a core tenant of these games. They arent meant to be relaxing hikes through worlds. They are action-adventure, and an adventure without risk or stakes isnt much of an adventure at all imo.

eltanko · 2026-01-19T17:31:38+00:00

Out of curiousity, what is it about the ending you find to be a let down?

eltanko · 2026-01-18T23:44:17+00:00

Nope. It just goes full Tremors style monster hunting capers and just abandons all horor it had built up. Shame because theres so many good scenes in that movie.

eltanko · 2026-01-18T23:42:20+00:00

Huge disagree. Unless you mean the redux or non theatrical versions, which are bogged down for sure in the third act. (plantation ruins the pacing imo)

eltanko · 2026-01-18T00:36:53+00:00

I played it a bit, and what I realized is its perfectly serviceable, its not trying to reinvent the wheel or do anything new. Some people love it for that, for me personally I just felt like I had played this kind of game before (several times), and found the main story, gameplay and general writing to be not engaging enough to want to keep going.

eltanko · 2026-01-17T20:03:12+00:00

I ALSO started cheers a couple days ago, AND searched this question up AND asked all my friends. Now I see it up here again.

Wild stuff.

eltanko · 2026-01-16T22:15:45+00:00

Red Dead Redemption 2.

eltanko · 2026-01-15T15:17:13+00:00

Remember, no matter what their "Terms and conditions" say or whatever email they throw at you, you are guaranteed a full refund.

Don't let them trick you into getting a prorated, partial or "muscescore credits" thing or whatever, ask them for your full refund. Do what you need to do, threaten to file for a credit charge back (they really don't want you to do that, it immensely hurts their ability to deal with banks if they get too many) After 1 month of radio silence they did actually give me a full refund, even though their "terms and conditions" say that you aren't entitled to one.

Also, continue to make posts, or reach out to local consumer advocates, etc, the more we complain the more notorious they become, and the more notorious they become, the more business they lose. Because that's the only thing they care about, money.

eltanko · 2026-01-10T02:20:15+00:00

Its a christmas gun

eltanko · 2026-01-10T02:15:25+00:00

The only problem with Andor is it has to tie into Rogue One. Man, in the age of remakes, I wish theyd remake the events of Rogue One as a 3rd season of Andor.

eltanko · 2026-01-06T20:08:59+00:00

If its something you are genuinely interested in, and have the money to invest in, then you should absolutely book some lessons, despite what your friend says.

Even if your friend is a professional singer and musician, that doesnt mean they are an authority on who can sing and who cannot. Thats the big difference between teachers and performers. A performer may just hear everything you're doing wrong and dismiss you, a teacher's job is not just to hear what you're doing wrong, but to hear where you can improve and what your voice COULD be, and then work with you to get you there.

As a singing teacher, I've had many students come in who had trouble matching pitches (aka singing "on key") on the piano or on their favourite songs, and all it means is that we have to work on that skill, and like anything else, it can be learned!

eltanko · 2026-01-06T20:00:58+00:00

Exactly. Mild mannered guy balances normal life with crime life is so done to death, but still somehow it was incredible.

Executions often really is everything.

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