Oginam

Didn't have a single highlight touched by this and it really doesn't affect me in the least. I just got my partnership on Twitch a little while ago and I'm a speed runner; I just had the foresight to stick to game audio and upload stuff to youtube anyway (the Twitch VODs are shit for a number of reasons).

It doesn't affect livestreams and hopefully they will go back on the 2 hour thing and reduce the 30 minute penalty for muting to something like 5. Even better if they flag games that get hit for their own soundtracks as immune to those specific matches (like a cover in a GTA game).

Ironically or not, the day this happened I had the largest gain in my follower count ever. "shrugs"

As a more recent member of that community, both sides certainly exist. A good way to prevent burn out on one game is to just pick up and run another. It also depends on the game's development - I run Dark Souls II which is just getting it's first DLC tomorrow and the past few months have been absolutely crazy with new strategies and glitches being uncovered (hell, the theoretical fastest time is around 15 and half minutes with the world record at 17:11). So for that game there is an ongoing sense of learning and having a strong community makes it a lot of fun to run and try new ideas. If you were the only person running a game that came out ten years ago, it would be a lot more difficult to keep going - I would think.

Also, I liked Dark Souls II but felt zero need to continue playing it past NG+. I started watching speed runs for it and felt I could get some more benefit out of the game that way and now I've probably spent WAY too much time competing for world records or testing routes or whatever. Sometimes it's soul crushing, sometimes it's elating - as long as I'm having fun though, I'm gonna keep at it.

Anyone looking to get into speed running that may read this, try BioShock. Quick to learn and hard to master but is very very forgiving with quick saves/loads that work pretty well.

So Alex and Vinny Endurance Run confirmed?

Yeah, I said it.

That area isn't really late game just difficult - those salamanders are crazy. You can drop into that area if you head down the ladder next to the bonfire; just drop onto the big pile of rubbish in the lower doorway (need enough health or falling mitigation or course). I'd also suggest killing the salamanders with range before going down there and "Be wary of hole then death".

You can also get into that area by killing the salamander in the tunnel near the fire sword and jumping into that hole (though it's a pretty tricky jump).

If you really want to get over there earlier, just look up the forest of fallen giants skip/jump/shortcut. It may contain spoilers so I will do my best to give a non-spoiler description below.

@development said:

I haven't confirmed it but it seemed incredibly obvious to me that her AI tries to "hide in the dark" (basically watched her keep jumping away from me and the 2 player summons I had with me more than she actually attacked us) - so preventing players from staying locked on to her unless she is fairly close makes sense. I would imagine both her AI routines and the lock on range change when you light the room up.

@spaceinsomniac: I wish the ESRB differentiated content better within the M category. Maybe the stigma of the AO rating is too much still but I feel like the boundary of the M rating gets pushed further and further. Both Cero and Pegi have more than just T and M, not much more but it's something.

I was using fires as a way of reminding myself that I had been to an area but there aren't enough sconces in many of the levels to really allow for that. Aside from playing through a few areas with torch in hand (The Gutter, Black Gulch), I also found it really helpful in a later area to see where it is safe to walk (Shrine of Amana?). There are also some enemies that are attracted to light as well as those repulsed by it, so at least there is enemy interaction with the mechanic.

I've tried a couple times to write what I think about this and I just can't. What the fuck Kojima?

Kind of wish the ESRB would start giving out AO ratings for stuff like torture and rape.