I picked Sorcerer as my starting class. I heard magic didn't hit as hard, and I've never been a fan of the intimacy of using daggers. That said, I started Dark Souls II off with one so might as well do the same here. The opening tutorial parts were easy enough. Slash here. Dodge there. Backstab here. I was taught about using my weapon skill, then I hit my first wall challenge. That damn giant crystal lizard.

It took try after try to learn what to do and not to do. I was nearly heart broken when I finally got him down to a sliver, a few pixels of health, and I got greedy. I broke my rhythm and decided to stay and get a few more hits on him, because I was so close and wanted him to die. I died instead.

Why was I spending so much time on this one monster? He's not even a boss. It was a learning experience that took nearly a week to get past. I felt like this is what makes Dark Souls so frustrating and rewarding. I collected myself and reflected what I did to get so far. I had learned that patience was key and every little hit help. Chip away. I went back to the bonfire for the last round.

The last round started well, but I go hit hard early. Two flasks left. I managed to get a few hits in and dodge away for a good period of time, while switching to magic when he was out dagger range. I managed to methodically get him down past 50%, when family duties and the F1 Chinese GP called...I had to run away as fast as I could and hope he leashed back in time. I got back to the bonfire, and there the game sat for the next four hours.

When the kid finally went down for his nap and the race was over, I made a cup of coffee and went about trying to pick up where I left off in the battle I has started four hours ago. I ran back in happy to see his health below 50%. "Patience, you can do this." is what I told myself. Soon after I got hit by a jump then AOE move. One flask left.

I recovered. Dodged some more. I chipped away at his health more with a few well timed swings here and there. When he was far away, I switched to magic and hit him some more. I stuck to my plan and stayed patient. The reward was so sweet. It wasn't about the Titanite Scale any more. It was about sticking with this battle, finding myself as a player of a Sorcerer. My heart was pounding at the end, and it felt so good.

I continued on to the boss of the Cemetery of Ashes. I went into the fight was much more confidence in myself and less fear of dying on the first attempt or next few dozen. I did a few exploratory runs and composed my strategy, just dodge and Soul Arrow him to death. It died a handful of times, but Soul Arrow did enough damage that I didn't need my dagger. I took a few more tries, but I was able to beat the boss a few runs after figuring out what I needed to do. I wouldn't say the first boss was easy. I would say that I gained a lot from fighting the giant crystal lizard at the start, that prepared me well for the next challenge.

I finally entered The Firelink Shire. I had amassed over 18,000 souls and much more locked away in the souls I had in my inventory. It was time to level and move forward to the High Tower of Lothoric. I'm glad to be a Sorcerer with a fine dagger.

It's been a while, a long while since I posted any update to my previous blog entry. Since that entry life has gotten in the way with work getting busier and my wife and I having our first child. A health little boy who is very curious about the world around him and eager to run and explore it all.

In the mean time I have gone out and purchased a couple more add-on for FSX. The biggest is FTX Global. It's a full global texture update. The prices is high at $90, but very much worth it. I put it near the top of must have add-ons for FSX. The other two were Majestic Software's new Dash 8 Q400 and A2A Simulation's Civilian P-51 Mustang. Nothing comes close to the sound of a V12 Merlin engine and the realism that A2A's Accu-Sim give to this magnificent machine. Those were my gifts for Christmas, but I still have two more planes on my wish list. The PMDG Boeing 777-200 and their 777-300 variant yet to be released.

For the future I plan to continue and finish my promise to publish tips/guide to getting FSX up and pretty. With today's hardware, the CPU hungry FSX is easier to manage, but still inefficient. That is were Lockheed Martin has stepped in and taken the reins. The future of FSX could become Prepar3D.

Fly Safe.

Microsoft's brand new Flight game has been released as a free-to-play game. The game has a beautifully realized island of Hawai'i and many more new features that pilots of the Flight Simulator have been asking for. Unfortunately there is a deliberate omission from the name of the game, the word "Simulator."

The omission has gotten a lot of people in an uproar and turned away a large percentage of the users of the aging Flight Simulator series. The decision to steer the series away from the simulation roots may or may not have hurt the potential of the game, but I'd like to start a series of post that look at Flight in a different spotlight. While Flight gives you a simple and fun look at flying, there is the whole world to explore in Flight Simulator X, also referred to as FSX. I'd like to help introduce FSX to those who like to fly and flip switches. FSX is not perfect software, but as time has passed hardware has caught up and developers are expanding the code to greater levels of simulation.

The series of post that I'm going to attempt to make, I'll start off with a walk around your PC and a recommended set of software and tools that I feel will increase your experience in FSX. I'm going to look at free and pay-ware add-ons for the game. There is some great free add-ons, but sometimes you can't beat the quality or deal of a paid product. At the end, I hope that you will have a good understanding of how to get the best out of your FSX, a good setup of settings and software, and a desire to get deeper into the world you can make for yourself in Microsoft Flight Simulator X.