Top Ten Dark Souls Bosses

Just in time for Dark Souls 3 I have my first list! Here we go, I love Dark Souls (and vanilla Dark Souls 2 was pretty good (fuck SOTFS though)


10. Velstadt, The Royal Aegis

"Velstadt was always at the King's side as if he were his lord's own shadow. After the King retired to the Undead Crypt, Velstadt followed, never to return."

One of the more epic boss fights in Dark Souls 2, Velstadt has a wide range of attacks and he just looks awesome. Decent music sets the mood for this pretty cool boss fight, and what lies after him kind of makes the fight that much more worth it.







9. The Last Giant and Giant Lord

"Apparently, the trees in the Forest of Fallen Giants are the remains of the Giants from long ago. Is this really the last of them?"

In case you didn't notice, these are the same enemy, which would explain why when you first encounter The Last Giant he hates you so much. In the Memory of Jeigh, you go back in time and seemingly kill the Giant Lord, and when you encounter him in the present you put an end to his misery. This isn't a good boss fight, but the story behind it is pretty damn cool.

8. Bell Gargoyles

"The guardians of the first Bell of Awakening."

Before you ring the first Bell of Awakening, you emerge through the fog onto the rooftop of a church, only to be greeted by a gargoyle animating and flying down to stop you from ringing the bell. As you chip its health down, another gargoyle jumps down to join the fight. After finally beating the two beasts, you ascend a few ladders and make the first step towards an amazing game.

7. Darklurker

"Soul of what lurks in the Dark Chasm. The Dark Chasm of Old is the remnant of some ancient, dissipated being."

As far as I know, this is the only boss in the souls series that is locked behind a questline. A pretty difficult questline at that. It is also the only boss in a souls game that I haven't beat, so I guess I have to respect that. Getting to the Darklurker is fun, but, like I said, difficult, and is said to be one of the hardest bosses in Dark Souls 2.

6. Old Dragonslayer

"The Old Dragonslayer is reminiscent of a certain knight that appears in old legends."

Corrupted by the Abyss, Old Dragonslayer, compared to his Dark Souls counterpart, now has darker powers; though they both have similar move sets. The nostalgia of this boss fight is really what makes it memorable. Opening the doors to a towering cathedral only to be greeted by one you've almost surely bested in the past. Just awesome.

5. Chaos Witch Quelaag

Once a daughter of the Witch of Izalith, but now a chaos demon. Special beings have special souls, and Quelaag's soul contains all aspects of Chaos.

Arguably the hottest (ha that double entendre was pretty damn good, IMO) boss in Dark Souls, Quelaag was the first time I ever struggled in Dark Souls. I probably attempted to beat her for 10 hours, and when I finally beat her, the entire game clicked and I finally got Dark Souls, I understood why it was so appealing. 

4. Knight Artorias, of the Abyss

"Soul of Lord Gwyn's Knight Artorias, who was consumed by the Abyss. The legend that Artorias repelled the Abyss only told half the story. It seems that he was defeated, and his honor preserved, by some unsung hero, who is the true victor of the Abyss."

Really my favorite character of all the souls games next to Siegmeyer, Artorias is just a complete badass, one of The Four Knights of Gwyn, and simply awesome. Said to be the first person to walk the abyss, Artorias's story is tragic. He lost his life and his dog, Sif, by being consumed by the darkness of the Abyss. Oh, and to make the fight even better, you are the true victor of the Abyss.

3. Sif, the Great Grey Wolf

"Soul of Sif the Great Grey Wolf, who guards the grave of Artorias the Abysswalker."

If you met Sif in the DLC prior to fighting her, the magnitude of this boss is only heightened. Artorias's companion in life, and guard in death, all Sif wants to do is protector her former master. Wielding Artorias's giant sword, she plans on keeping the grave safe, but in the end, she submits to you. She starts limping around and it is sad as hell, honestly.

2. Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough

"Soul of Ornstein, Dragonslayer Knight who guards the cathedral in the forsaken city of Anor Londo."

"Soul of Smough the Executioner, who guards the cathedral in the forsaken city of Anor Londo."

This boss fight, from a mechanical and difficulty perspective, is the best in the series. Two completely different fighting styles and two different ways to combat them. From a story perspective, it is pretty good, too. Ornstein, captain of The Four Knights of Gwyn fights with grace, and when Smough is felled, he absorbs his power fluidly. Smough, the executioner, a ruthless fighter (and person, really, he liked executing people so much he started eating them) just wants to destroy you, and when Ornstein is defeated, he just smashes the body to absorb his power. The music to go along with this fight is pretty damn good, too.

1. Gywn, Lord of Cinder

"Soul of Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight and Cinder, who linked the First Flame. Lord Gwyn bequeathed most of his power to the Gods, and burned as cinder for the First Flame, but even so, Lord Gwyn's soul is a powerful thing indeed."

This fight is really cool, and as you can see, my favorite fight. He's not a particularly hard boss if you can parry, but just everything about the battle is awesome. The music, the setting, and the actual character are great. All of your hours of play have lead to this boss, and he is just ruthless. You defeat a literal god and choose to link the flame, or let the fire fade.

Is the PS4K Indicitave of the Future of Gaming

Sony has all but announced the PS4K, a more powerful system, and seemingly a half-step in the current console generation. The new console is rumored to boast more powerful hardware with capabilities to run games in 4K resolution and maybe even have PSVR capabilities built in. This new console is said to release by October of this year, but no dates have been solidified. But, what does this mean for the industry? What does it mean for development cycles and the games that come out? What about current PS4 owners?

Sony is seemingly trying to change that with the PS4K. Incrementally updated consoles could mean a shift in the industry as a whole, but we already see Nintendo do this with their Nintendo DS handhelds (there have been nine of them released over twelve years) and it seems to be working but are people willing to spend another $400?

As we all know, a new iPhone comes out every two years with a half step in between. Consoles come out every five to seven years and that's all we get for those five years, no hardware upgrades or anything like that (unless you're the N64 and have an expansion pack.) Yeah, we get new the iPhone every few years but do we really want to do the same for new gaming consoles every two years?

Other than more power, what does the PS4K offer to devs? Likely, the only motivation a dev will have to develop for this new system is sales and so, if the PS4K comes out, sells well, and is definitely the superior system, what is keeping the devs from completely abandoning the PS4? Is there really a point in keeping the older system, whether it be downgrading the games or just not making the games for the older system? Not that porting a game is necessarily bad, but if it turns out like Hyrule Warriors did on the 3DS, which is bad, that is not something I want to see happen on PlayStation.

It's safe to say it takes a few years for developers to get into the groove of making games for a system. Comparing GTA: IV to GTA: V, one released at the start of the PS3 life cycle and one released at the end of it; there is obviously a big difference not only graphically, but also in scope. GTA: V's map and content are much more substantial than GTA IV's. This comes from knowledge of the architecture and time. If the architecture is changing and the time is getting shorter, it makes it harder for the devs to give us quality games.

The PS4K has a really good chance of splitting the PlayStation community. About 40 million PS4s have been sold and you would imagine not all 40 million people would make the jump to this system. Gamers and the gaming industry has been used to consoles taking five to ten years to release with, usually, pretty big jumps in hardware and capabilities, when the PS4K comes out, it will need to do really well and change the industry as a whole to not be a complete flop.

A Week Of Thoughts

Basically, what I'm doing here is writing a shorter thing in this one post every day for a week and then just posting it as one thing. This will help me feel more productive and also help me write more. Because I think of writing a lot and then I just don't. Whether it's because I just don't feel like something is good enough or because I just don't get around to it. I don't know, but here we go.


Blizzard Patches Diablo 2:

Yes, you read that right, Diablo 2, released in 2000 recently got a new update that "focuses on system glitches introduced by modern operating systems" and this seemingly won't be the last update we see for this game; Blizzard is also "working to improve our cheat-detection and hack-prevention capabilities," and they're also hiring people to "maintain legacy games", so we can probably expect other games to be patched as well. Actually, as I write this, Blizzard has released a patch for Warcraft 3, and also said there is more to come for that game, as well.
Really though that's all I have to say. It's awesome Blizzard is taking time and resources to continually support nearly 20-year-old games with sequels, even. Can you name another developer that has done that? Bravo, Blizzard, bravo.


Jim Sterling Being Sued by Digital Homicide:

So, I wasn't going to write about this because I'm very obviously biased, but I want to, at least, give an opinion.
In December 2014, Jim Sterling, a pretty popular Youtuber/game critic, made a video regarding a game released on Steam called Slaughtering Grounds. This video was basically centered on how this game was the epitome of why Steam Greenlight - a system that lets indie developers submit games to the community to be sold after they are voted for - is not very curated.
The developer of this game, Digital Homicide, wasn't happy about this video and released a video themselves insulting Sterling. The conflict has only gotten worse with Digital Homicide releasing more, shitty, half-baked games and Jim Sterling continuing to make them points of topic in his series The Jimquisition.
A few days ago, Digital Homicide announced on their website that they would be suing Sterling for about $10 million for assault, libel, and slander. So I guess that's that. Rather than fixing the shit of their games, they (Digital Homicide) are throwing a tantrum and suing. I'm excited to see where this goes.
For a more in-depth, less opinionated piece, read this (thanks,  Patrick Klepek).


Stardew Valley Mini-Review:

PC - Steam

Stardew Valley is a really good game, my game of the year so far, actually. After quitting your dead-end job working for a large corporation, you inherit your grandfather's farm in Stardew Valley. The core gameplay loop involves; buying and planting vegetables, fruits, and other things; raising animals; fishing and foraging; maintaining relationships with the townspeople (if that's what you want to do, of course)  and even fighting bad guys in the mines. You can basically do whatever you want, if you want to be a suave farmer who gets all the ladies and makes beer, you can be that. If you want to be a weird, rich hermit, do that if you want to. This is a really chill, super fun game and if you are remotely interested in Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon, this is a game for you.

Thoughts and Stuff

Extended Title: Things That I Have Issues Articulating into Something That Would Necessitate a Full Post, So I'm Putting Them into One Comprehensive Post

The Division vs. Destiny: They Are Not the Same

A couple weekends ago I played in the Division beta, and it was actually pretty decent. The shooting was fun, albeit being a Third-Person shooter and the overall gameplay loop seemed like it would last a while. I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that these 2 games really aren't the same. A lot of what I've seen on this game is comparing it to Destiny; take a step back, though, and actually look at what these two games have in common. The only thing I can think of is the loot drops, otherwise, they don't really have much more in common. I think people are kind of grasping at straws trying to draw comparisons between these two games, when, in reality, they're only similar in a very barebones kind of way. It's like saying Diablo 3 and Borderlands are the same game, but really they just share a loot treadmill.

Bungie Please

Yesterday, Bungie released a weekly update, stating that a larger update, coming in the spring, will feature a significant Light increase, new gear to earn and equip, and new PvE challenges centered on replayability and fun experiences. They also announced that Destiny 2 is coming in 2017. Bungie, please, you're falling into Activision's trap of shit. I wouldn't doubt if Destiny 2 is another half-baked game that is fun, but flawed, much like Destiny was. It's taken them this long to "fix" Destiny (The Taken King was really good), but now, it's been basically radio silence since. Yeah, they've added a few things, like microtransactions, that have helped fund smaller events, like the Halloween and Valentine's Day ones, and the Sparrow Racing League. These small things aren't substantial enough to keep a player like me happy over the months we go without any new content. The point is, Destiny 2, I think, will be another disappointment, at least at the start, filled with Bungie telling us every week that they're busy fixing the issues just to be followed by more issues created by fixing the older issues. Until one day they come out and say "We've got a new expansion coming that is going to rework the entire game" and so on to viscosity. 

The community (mainly streamers and YouTubers like ProfessorBroman, KingGothalion, and Datto) is making this out to be some huge announcement that will breathe life back into the game, but really come on, we already knew this was coming, like really, we knew there was another expansion coming, we knew there was going to be a sequel, this is literally no big news. The expansion wasn't detailed past "it'll be here in the spring so GET READY" like they've done with every other thing. Shit, at this time last year we already had the Dark Below for a few months and were on the heels of The House of Wolves. Now, we're seemingly a few months out from this newest expansion and we know nothing about it. I'm preparing myself for the worst, but hoping for the best; because hell, I love Destiny, I have over 500 hours put into it, but really, I can't handle shit like this. I guess the point I'm trying to get across is that this was not a substantial "announcement", or really even an announcement at all, so don't get your hype thrusters reared and ready to go, just to be almost definitely disappointed, and if you're not initially disappointed, just wait a few months.

Assassin's Creed Is Taking a Break

"This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin’s Creed franchise. As a result, we’ve decided that there will not be a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2016. Since the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, we’ve learned a lot based on your feedback. We’ve also updated our development processes and recommitted to making Assassin’s Creed a premier open-world franchise. We’re taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we’re delivering on the promise of Assassin’s Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone’s playground." - Direct quote from the Assassin's Creed team. 

Good. This is a good thing. People often rip on annualized franchises, myself included because they always seem rushed, and Assassin's Creed is no exception, especially with Unity being as terribly buggy as it was. The team taking a step back to really work on a game and take in the community’s feedback shows that there is some heart and care in the series. I'll definitely give Assassin's Creed Reborn a try when it comes out in 2017.

Firewatch Mini Review

Firewatch is the first game of its kind that I have played. The decent story is made great by stunning graphics and fantastic dialog and is only held back by feeling a little bit on rails at times. It would be nice to have a sort of New Game Plus where you could just freely explore the Wyoming wilderness without being held back by the story of the game (though, as I said before, the story is really good). The graphics in this game are really stunning, filled with oranges and yellows, a color that, I think, is underused in gaming. The dialog in this game is some of the best I have ever heard, guiding witty exchanges and meaningful conversations contained some of the most memorable parts of the whole game. Pair that with a decent, engaging story, and you have a great game. The only gripe I have with this game isn't even huge, I just don't feel the need to play it again. 

Random Thoughts and Stuff

Extended Title: Random things that have been going on but either don't necessitate a full post or I can't fully articulate my thoughts into something that will form a full post.

WB Abandoning PC???

This week, MKXL was announced for PS4 and Xbox One and is set to release March 1, 2016. Notice anything weird about that? If you noticed it's not coming to PC, you're correct. Really, this is bullshit, especially after the game being released on PC in the state it was - riddled with bugs, and for a lot, the game wouldn't even launch, let alone be played. Come on, WB, really? PC, while not as big as the console market, still holds a large majority of "hardcore gamers", and those are the people you do not want to piss off. After Arkham Knights abandoning on PC, you'd think they'd want to make it up to PC players by at least fixing the games they release, but instead, the games just get left behind, which is despicable. Step your game up, WB.

Might No. 9 Delayed, AGAIN.

Keiji Inafune stated this week that Mighty No. 9 is being moved from its release date of Feb. 9 back to "Spring 2016"; this is the 3rd delay. For a game that is already surrounded by shit with Kickstarter, whether it be the multiple campaigns or the multiple delays, this last (hopefully) one, really is just adding insult to injury.

Star Wars: Battlefront Free Content.

There's free shit coming, costumes and maps for survival and multiplayer. That's pretty much it, EA also announced the Death Star and Mos Eisley as new maps coming with paid DLC. If they added more heroes and villains I would be interested, otherwise, meh.

FNaF World Pulled From Steam

Come on Scott Cawthon, you release your game EARLY and then pull it because it's buggy? If this isn't an ARG for a FNaF sequel, this is just stupid. But, looking at the history of these games, it is probably just some stunt; considering he allowed the game to be fully refunded despite play time.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Comes to PC

Dragon's Dogma originally released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in May 2012 and got the Dark Arisen edition in April 2013. This game is good, it has a Shadow of the Collusus mixed with Dark Souls feel and it is backed up by fun gameplay and a unique party system - basically, you choose "pawns" to accompany you, these pawns are created by other players and are chosen from an online pool. It is a decent port, supporting up to 4k resolutions and has had, at least for me, no performance issues. The only downside to this game is the low-quality textures, this game has obviously aged, but if you look passed that, there is nothing really bad about this game.

Darkest Dungeon Leaves Early Access.

Red Hook Studio's first game Darkest Dungeon, a roguelike dungeon crawler, left Early Access on January 19th. Oh man, this is a game. Fantastic narration and sounds paired with a horrific art style really make this game stand out among other "indie" titles. Brutal gameplay mechanics and punishing turn-based combat also add a great amount of depth to this great game. I really look forward to sinking many hours into exploring rotted dungeons and finding out why I'm reclaiming this estate.

The Witness Hits PS4s.

Johnathon Blow's long-awaited game, The Witness finally, after 8 years, released on PS4 January 26th. Braid, Blow's previous game, is one of the games that helped define "indie games" so, The Witness is a must play for many people. Stunning graphics and tough puzzles make up this game, and I do plan on playing it, even though I am not the biggest fan of puzzle games, I look forward to experiencing what Johnathon Blow has to offer.


That's pretty much it, you'll probably see a few more of this style post go up in slow news times like this, so look forward to them!

2016 Most Anticipated Games

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is my favorite Gamecube game, and now, with an HD remake coming to Wii U, I am obviously excited. Though this game gets a lot of hate, I believe it is one of the better games in the franchise (rating 2nd on my list, only behind Ocarina of Time). Now, as far as I know, nothing new will be added to this game, but if it is anything like the Wind Waker remake, then we're in for something good. And, if they don't change anything but the graphics, that's cool too. Twilight Princess HD will come to Wii U on Mach 4th.

Having not played the original games for more than an hour, the Rachet and Clank remake/reimaging piques my interest, as I have always been interested in them (they came out before I was really into video games, so I just never really put in the time to play them). I played a demo of R&C at CES last week and I was pretty impressed. The game looks fantastic, runs well, and plays well. One of the more promising remakes I have seen will hit the Playstation Store on April 12th.

Another game hitting stores on April 12th is Dark Souls 3. This is my most anticipated game of 2016 though I am a little scared of it. Coming off of Dark Souls 2 - a great game, just not a good sequel to Dark Souls, which is arguably my favorite game of all time - this game has a lot to prove to fans of the series. Dark Souls 2 is looked at by many as the worst of the souls games, and is definitely my least favorite (don't get me wrong, I still love it, but it is still the worst of the best).

As mad as I am at Blizzard for not letting me into the beta, this game is still in my top 3 for most anticipated 2016 game. Hero-shooters (basically, you choose a class that has a certain power or nuance that is specific to that class) are the new thing for gaming; we are seeing a lot of FPS take this approach to their games, but I think Overwatch will be the most successful hero-shooter. Why? Because come on, it's Blizzard.

I have written about this game before, and since then, the hype has just grown. I want this game in my life, I am ready to be enraptured by its endless planets and exploration. I'm ready to find out what is in the middle of the galaxy, I want to find the mysteries hidden on each of the 18 quintillion planets. If this game is disappointing I will be devastated, honestly. I know over-hyping something is bad, but, come on, it's kind of hard not to be excited for this.

Game of the Year Deliberation

So, I, uh, have been thinking about my game of the year all December, and I just can't decide on one, so, I am just gonna put words down and see if this helps me. So, welcome to my thought process, this won't follow my standard guidelines for usual post, its just gonna be a flow of words, so if you want cool pictures and bolded/italicized words, leave now, because you're not getting it now, maybe for an official post, but I don't know if that is coming (it probably will very early 2016, like in the 10's of January). I will also probably work on this for a few days, so it is going to be scattered as hell, so just be prepared. 

So when I think Game of the Year for 2015 nothing really comes to mind, though this year was a fantastic year for gaming; we got the long awaited sequels MGSV: TPP, The Witcher 3, and Fallout 4. 2 of which are way too dense, the other is just a lackluster sequel. All 3, though, are really great games, they just aren't games that are truly exceptional. The Witcher 3's world and story building are great, and MGSV's stealth and emergent gameplay are probably the best ever, but still, I have trouble staying immersed in their worlds. Something about playing for 12 hours and only making a small amount of progress makes me say, "meh, I'll go do something else".

Bloodborne is really something else. Not quite as good as Dark Souls, but it is really not terrible. I played through and beat it with a few characters and I really do love this game. But I love all soulsborne games and to me, this one just isn't as good as From can do. Don't get me wrong, from a design standpoint, this game is about as good as it gets; boss designs are great, the story is cool as hell and has a fantastic twist, and the environment design is great. The thing about this game is the simplified stat system, it leads to less build diversity (along with a smaller selection of weapons, though that isn't as big of a deal) and the fact that blood vials and bullets aren't unlimited (I sound like spoiled brat haha, but this is a legit issue) takes away from the exploration, like in Dark Souls I could be like "I'm gonna run here and see what it's like, if I die before a bonfire oh well, I'll just make sure I don't have any souls so I have nothing to lose" in Bloodborne, if you want to do that same thing, you have to be mindful of your bullets and blood vials, as if you want to get those back you'll have to grind in one way or another, and come on, I don't want to have to grind so much in such a punishing game (a little is fine, but I don't want excessive grinding).

Which brings me to Dying Light. Do You like zombies and parkour? This is your game... Maybe. Probably not, though. It is fun, but quests are meaningless and it is a damn grind fest. Add the weapon durability on to that and you got yourself a pretty okay game. It's just fine.

Speaking of mediocre, how about that Batman Arkham Knight. God damn was it mediocre. Would've maybe been good had it not been shit on the PC.

But what about the games I haven't played? Undertale, Xenoblade, and Rise of the Tomb Raider among others, (like Splatoon, which I hear is fantastic) I mean, I guess they'll just have to be left behind. As sad as I am to say that, they just didn't take precedence in what I play (I have the ability to play all of them except for RotTR, but that is coming to PC soon, so I suppose it can take a spot in my next year nominations).

Why isn't Destiny here? Well, it did release last year though I did put a load of hours into it this year, it still doesn't belong and doesn't make my Best Old Game so it is just being left out.

Speaking of Best Old Game, that absolutely goes to Super Smash Bros. Wii U, it is the most fun I have had in a game this year, and if it would've been released this year it would be my game of the year, easily.

But we are not in last year! We are in this year, and after a while of thinking, I'm sure Bloodborne is my game of the year. It is the game that I played and enjoyed the most, it is also the game with the least amount of bad, to me. There are a few gripes I have that I will talk about in my in-depth decision piece, but there are, by far, more upsides to it; and I haven't even begun the DLC.

Super Mario Maker is a very very close second place, though. So much enjoyment can be taken from that, and now, a couple months after release, most of the bad maps (my only gripe with the game) have stopped, or, at least, I have gotten used to them. Anyways, making Mario levels is something I'm sure every gamer has wanted to do at some point, and the creation tools in this game are unrivaled by any other game of the like that is out right now. Also, you can actually play levels, which is awesome, so it's not just Super Mario Maker, it is also Super Mario Player, I suppose.