I know I'm not a premo, but I've been reading this thread. (I just fucking love to talk about these games) Great to hear more of the GB guys giving the Souls games (which is without a doubt the best new IP(s) this gen) some much deserved attention. Also just stopping by to say that royal and soul arrow are OP, yes they do decline past the first part, but if Brad was to spec into magic, he would fucking destroy the game. Magic in Demon's Souls IS very much overpowered, there's a good reason spells in Dark Souls have a hard limit. I made this mistake of playing a mage my first run, and I really didn't get as much enjoyment playing as a mage cutting through the game with ease as I did playing a strictly melee based class. The FUN in the Souls series comes from the challenge, at least to me it does. People that don't enjoy challenge shouldn't bother with the games. Anyway, just my grimy 2 cents. I very much look forward to watching this and the Vinny run whenever I can spare the pocket change for premium.

I almost had a heart attack when he nearly aggro'd the smith and Stockpile Thomas. Unlike Dark there's no way to de-upset them so he nearly broke the game for himself.

That said he's surprisingly good. His natural caution is suiting him well, even if his class is a little OP (which I'm not blaming him for taking).

It's a tootin' shame that you're such a huge fan of Dark Souls yet you haven't played Demon's. It's a wonderful experience you should really give it a shot. The changes are subtle but overall it's a vastly different experience.

I don't have a PS3, but if I ever do own the console I'll pick it up. Maybe PS4 will offer it through their streaming program.

You'll be able to play the full PS3 library on the PS4 right about the same time that a friend will be able to tune into your gaming session and take control of your game to help you beat a difficult segment - meaning many, many years away from now.

Bah, I'm glad the found the armor at the end. Such a dick move by this guy. Asshole

Yeah. Way to go for a first invasion ...

Stuff like that makes it totally understandable why many players would choose to play the whole game offline or in hollow/undead form.

Which is a pity, since the multiplayer component CAN be really neat. I have to say, it was and is for me most times. But just like the Patrick-Flake-situation, I guess when you livestream chances are much higher you'll fall victim to a dick.

I'm happy they saved the stream in the end. It was so much fun till captain ass came in and broke all Brad's equipment. Breaking Brad is fun when he is playing challenging, but rewarding games and scenarios. It's not enjoyable when someone comes in just to ruin everyone's buzz.

It was a big stream of nothing.

I didn't play Demon's Souls so I can't comment on that (although I have to say: all those ghosts running around are pretty annoying and ruin the atmosphere) but I didn't really had any big problems in Dark Souls. But I also didn't play on a live stream. And I'm not some "internet celebrity" (or whatever you would call the GB crew). I'm glad Brad doesn't play Dark Souls on a live stream (on PC) cause I bet some hacker would enter his game and set his stats to 0.

@obcdexter: Actually, someone in the chat said that that person is apparently always there, camping the spot and griefing players. They might not have known about the stream at all.

I really really don't get all the stink over the invasion. If you play online that is the risk you take. Period. Its not like the guy was hacking he was using a weapon whose entire purpose IS being PVP gear. Is it a bummer? Sure, but you take your lumps and learn from the experience. I don't get why people have such disdain for the invasion stuff. It is what makes these games entirely unique.

Oh, okay. Totally possible. But even worse, if you think about it.
I want to say again that I really like the mp-component of the Souls games and would not want to play offline anymore; however, encounters like this (and if those infos on todays' invader are in fact correct, there would be plenty caused by him alone) will probably turn lots of new players away from this aspect of the games.

If anyone wants to help out with stats & synopsis like in the original post, I'll copy & paste it there when I have a few minutes. I watched the stream live but I'm too busy to work on it this week.

Yeah, and using that weapon against a complete beginner. Good job guy, be proud. Nobody cares that Brad got invaded and died, that's part of the game. Using a weapon that breaks all your stuff so you can basically spend an hour grinding just to get back into the game? Guess what, that's not unique. You can find assholes using cheap tactics in any online game. What exactly did Brad learn? That it's best to commit suicide in the Nexus to avoid assholes (which a lot of people actually do if you look at the bloodstaines)? Or that there are people out there who only want to annoy others? I'm guessing he already knew that

@abendlaender: I love that people tout the word "cheap" for things they can't beat in a video game. Admonishing other players for using something the developers put in the game because you can't beat it is dumb straight up. He entirely had the means to beat the guy. The spear attacks are incredibly telegraphed and he could have gotten to the guys back and back stabbed him.

And yeah, there are players who just camp areas and invade people. So, again if you don't want to have to deal with that you should never be online in the first place. And for the record that same exact thing happened to me multiple times when I played the game.

@mb: Here's my synopsis for episode 2:

In an exertion of daring, Floogan managed to lure away one of the red dragons, then made off with all of its treasure. He then proceeded to finish 1-1, making short work of Phalanx with Soul Arrow. After returning to the Nexus to meet the Monumental and The Maiden in Black, he set off for Stonefang Tunnel (2-1). No sooner had he met the Filthy Man than he was invaded and slain by a particularly cruel Black Phantom wielding the Scraping Spear. With his gear all broken and his spirit nearly so, Floogan wandered into The Tower of Latria (3-1) where he lucked upon a brand new set of Wizard Clothes, helping him to get back up on his feet.

Oh wow the douche spear, well played douchephantom, well played.

the reason why brad is highly mocked because back in the gamespot days he was doing Guitar Hero on expert On the Spot live..... so yes, we should continue to get hazed because he set the bar so high.

Because it was seemingly a higher level player being a big fucking tough guy to a complete newbie? He broke all of Brad's equipment and shit on the stream. Fuck that. It if was a fellow newbie then fine, but it was just some asshole.

Assholes like the one Brad encountered are the reason I'm probably gonna play DS2 in offline mode, pvp griefing with the added lag rarely makes Demon's/Dark Souls very fun for me, and not being able to "hide" from it by being hollow is a huge bummer.

What happens if you pull your ethernet cable during an invasion? If anything goes that would a valid strategy.

He couldn't have been that much higher you still have to be within 10 levels to invade. Brad has the exact boss soul needed to make that same spear which he should make because it is useful for exactly what that guy attacking him used it for PVP fights. Which is its exact purpose in the game.

I would imagine, like Dark Souls you could probably get some really good equipment at a low level. His soul level may not have been high but he's probably way more experienced on top of picking on newbies like that.

I don't condone that. It's a shitty thing. You wanna fight, then fight someone on equal footing. Not someone who just stumbled into the world for the first time.

Woah, back to back demon souls, another show tonight. I'm gonna miss all of it though, got a class that runs late on thursday evenings. Everyone rally around Brad for success tonight ;-)

One thing I really appreciate in regards to Dark Souls is that a lot of the invasions I had in beginner areas the phantom clearly saw me in beginner gear and black crystal'd out. Sometimes even dropping humanity or other helpful items for me. That's just cool guys being cool.

Then you get assholes like the one on the stream; he's not an asshole for invading, but he's definitely an asshole for using that spear on what is clearly a new player. That's just a dick thing to do, no matter how anyone wants to justify it.

I enjoyed the second episode far more than the first. Brad didn't rely on magic so much and there were quite a few funny moments.

I even liked invader guy, I don't understand everyone hating that so much. He was a dick for sure but I thought that was the purpose of these games, to have it be extremely difficult and throw shit at you the whole time. It's one of the most unique things about the series, I don't see a problem with that guy using one of the main mechanics in the game.

Upon seeing there'll be another episode tonight I might have just laughed and clapped like an amused baby.

#DailyDemons

@kishinfoulux: That isn't something that you get to pick. Even as an invader you're taking a bit of a risk. You invade and it throws you in whatever world you get thrown in to. People are acting like this guy had some vendetta or something which I almost guarantee you isn't the case. Demon's Souls simply does not fuck around. Brad will have to learn to sink or swim real quick with this game. He's going to have to learn how to PvP well if he continues to play online. That WILL be a weapon you see a lot in PvP. It has nothing to do with someone wanting to ruin the stream that is just how the Demons Souls PvP scene is. Just as people in Dark Souls PvP used to abuse the hell out of the fog ring before it was nerfed.

@demoskinos: I agree, I was surprised by the overwhelming opinion in stream chat to just up and unhook from Demon's Soul server. Complaining that what happened to Brad wasn't fair seems silly when the Demon/Dark Souls games are not about playing fair. It's about persevering, that's why gamers get such enjoyable satisfaction out of beating it. When you start to take shortcuts you lose some of that experience, and I personally think it's important to maintain that in the game.

Hes playing again today! Umbasa!

As someone who has loved Demon's Souls since a bit after it's release, that part actually bugged me. Don't get me wrong, invasion is an important part of the games, and I think the pvp can be super fun and intense(even though it's really laggy and broken in Demon's Souls), but that guy had a set up clearly designed for being a dick. I think it's awesome when it's two people who are clearly just bumbling their way through the game vinny style, but when it's your average guy and someone who clearly thought about and designed themselves for entering other people's worlds and ruining their day, it's not interesting. If he didn't break all of Brad's stuff and he wasn't healing faster than Brad could do damage I think it would have been fine. It's like when diamond level players make new accounts so they can go beat up on bronze players in an RTS. Sure, it might be compelling in some weird way for a handful of seconds, but after that it's not fun to watch, and it's definitely not fun to play.

Edit - I guess for me, it comes down to partly reliving my own frustrations with people like that(though I did vanquish my share of tough guy invaders), and partly wanting the site's content to be as entertaining as possible. It's not a huge deal, it's kinda more like thinking "well, that was shitty" and moving on.

@savage: That's a really great summary! That invasion almost broke Brad.

Yay, another episode tonight! I think it would be great if they could keep doing more than 1 a week. Tuesday-Thursday seems like a doable schedule. Bombcast is recorded on Monday and UPF is on Friday, and they don't have any set shows for the other days (from the main office, at least)..

This game should turn into an endurance run instead, I think. At least in my experience, Demon's Souls is much more an RPG compared to Dark Souls. And unless restricted to melee only, is probably the easiest of the Breaking Brad games he's done. But then, I never got as screwed over by invasions like Brad did... ^_^;;

@oldirtybearon: Seeing someone in starter gear means nothing. There are plenty of people who will do SL1 runs through the entire game in starter gear. You have no clue the skill level of someone just by the best they are wearing.

I started by just committing suicide all the time, but thought it wasn't fair that I was forced to do that, so I just played offline.

@bybeach said:

He must hate Dota 2, then.

How are you defining RPG? Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have very similar mechanics. Their stat and weapon upgrade systems are similar as well.

@demoskinos said:

If you're in a starter area and you see your target in starter gear, that is a pretty big clue as to where they are relative to you in the game. I don't understand why you have trouble seeing that.

@oldirtybearon: No,I get that. As I said THAT doesn't matter. You cannot judge someone's familiarity and skill in combat by gear alone. Like I said in my last post there are plenty of veterans of the game who will run the entire game as SL1 with starter gear. That "newbie" that you come across could just as easily be someone who has put 300 hours into the game. And will easily destroy you even with his starter gear.

I love that you gave him the name The Filthy Man

I agree that PvP is part of the game, but that invader yesterday wasn't even trying to kill Brad as much as he was trying to grief him. There is a distinction there.

@alwaysbebombing: the filthy man is the guy's actual name. It's at the top of the screen.

I just want to make it perfectly clear that I WANT brad to succeed. However thie isn't little league soccer. Everyone doesn't get a trophy and juice box for participating. People are out to win and Brad really needs to try to take the cause and effect lessons from his death and apply them.

That guy with the spear yesterday he could have easily side rolled and backstabbed the guy to death. Those spear attacks are incredibly telegraphed. Demon's Souls isn't about being fair its about persevering and adapting to the situations you're in. The sooner Brad realizes you can't play this the same as Dark Souls the sooner he will start to persevere.

Yeah, I'm sure he was hanging around the newbie area with the intent to fight players who have put 300 hours into the game... That makes a lot of sense.

@demoskinos: I don't think the problem is necessarily that the fight happened, but that the penalty was too steep. He lost his souls, gained a debt of souls toward broken equipment and a need to grind, and half his max health. Thats what he lost for losing. Compared to the comparative very little he would have gained for winning, it's clear something is wrong. However, I agree that the problem isn't the multiplayer, it's the repair mechanic thats bad.

Also, come on. "Everyone doesn't get a trophy and juice box for participating. " is a pretty dickish way to try to frame what other people think. Even if they're blaming the wrong mechanic there is something busted there.

I can't tell if that makes if worse.