Load Our Last Save: Load Our Last Souls: Part 08

BIIIIIGGGGGG BO!!!

C'mon guys, Patrick wasn't that annoying. Just when he spoke.

@rorie would do well to listen to patrick and STOP looking at the chat once in a while. Nobody really gives a shit what the chat has to say. I come here to listen to what YOU think about things. Stopping discussion because the chat gets rowdy is fucking dumb.

I wish Patrick was back in San Francisco

i liked mass effect 2 but my god dark souls is so much freaking better on every level.

This week has had me wishing that Patrick could be in the content more regularly. Maybe they can figure a way out to network him in. Seems like a better way to handle online multiplayer than facing up against random assholes.

Ain't nothing stealthy about it.

Anybody complaining about anybody in Giant Bomb videos is spoiled rotten.

While I agree with Patrick saying that ME1's story is the best I think that 2 and 3 are better/more fun games overall. And yes, the Mako was dope.

Vinny needs to craft the Greatsword of Artorias!

The original crew for this was less squeaky.

Listen to Rorie just not giving a fuck about puppies. I thought I knew you...

*Eagerly hits play, hears Patrick shitty joke 10 seconds in, pauses. Scrolls down to comments, mish-mash of defenders, haters, and people bitching about both*

Yep. As expected. This should be "fun".

I had no trouble with Kalameet. Beat it on second try. Manus though... at least 15 deaths.

I'm aware. My point was that Patrick could offer meaningful conversation and extend the discussion of those games because he had played each of them to great length. Conversely, Patrick was not able to contribute much Dark Souls discussion because, unlike the other participants on this video, he hasn't played much Dark Souls. He admits this early on. I wasn't being facetious, I truly do enjoy Patrick's presence on this site; I just think this game is outside of his wheelhouse right now.

@ataridc2: Mass Effect and Dark Souls are barely comparable. Both are rpg's obviously but they're nothing alike in any other aspect. It's like comparing Civilization to Starcraft.

@rockstarrunner: it would do less damage than what he has

Nice Patrick in Dark Souls video :)

I don't know, I guess urinating on it would be a pretty punk method. Micturition, that's what the kids are into these days.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it one of my all time favorites, but, yeah, the Mako sections were fun, even beating the Elder Scrolls series as ridiculous hill climbing goes, that thing could climb nearly vertical cliffs.

I learned a word today. Micturition. My life is better.

I was watching the Kalameet fight as I was fighting Kalameet for the first time today. Managed to beat him seconds before Vinny did, that was a pretty great fight. I hope he is prepared for the fight with the Father of the Abyss! Though I would say Kalameet is a bit more difficult.

OH man 40,000+ lost souls...what a bummer. Even after the fact, there is some tension knowing Vinny was playing with fire carrying around that many...and then only to have Ian and Rorie talked him out of going back...

My two cents on ME2. It got rid of the terrible Mako driving, the interminable inventory scrolling, the minute level progression (ironic to mention in this particular game comment section), while providing a more punched up combat system with varied classes (I played as 3 Infiltrators that all played differently) and an overall stronger cast of characters (even if I put the ME1 characters in my squad whenever possible)...and even with all that, I much prefer ME1. At least for me, the WHY of me investing at least 30+ hours into a game is important because any specific game system is likely done better elsewhere anyways. As an example, if I needed a better shooter than ME1, well, there are much better shooters than ME2. It's a bit of a shame that ME1 wasn't more polished, but I am much more into it's story and universe building than ME2 and that makes the difference. For me, it's the difference of being tactically superior and winning the battle (ME2) while being strategically inferior and losing the war (ME1).

Finally putting Demon's Souls into my PS3 thanks to this series!

Giant Bomb is a great site for entertainment, but this series was what pushed me to purchase a premium membership, and I'm happy I did.

It's also made me go back to Dark Souls and try finishing it myself. Currently stuck on Queelag, but I've made a ton of progress.

Patrick, I recommend Dark Arisen if you have the time. Since Bitterblack Isle is all indoors, you don't have to travel as much and there's a ton of combat. It's very limited by it being a DLC, everywhere looks the same and some of the enemies are just normal ones made huge, but I had a really good time.

(I definitely agree about Mass Effect's story, ME2 has a very filler plot. It's really weird too, working with the obvious Team Rocket villains and Shepard getting killed and ressurected so we can have a timeskip while the filler enemies set up shop. I get why people love it though, the characters are more fleshed out, the side missions don't all take place in identical locations although they are in different galaxies, the combat is more fun, it doesn't take hours to get started...)

Awesome to have Patrick back for a bit. Missed having him around with the rest of the guys. Hopefully he can come around and visit more. And of course, as always, great episode. I don't even like the Souls games, and I love this feature. Vinny can make anything work.

Cool smokers cough..

Agreed. ME1's story is my favorite in the series, but 3 had my favorite gameplay. The "best" is hard to say because 3 was made FAR better by the inclusion of its DLC, only 2 of which I really felt were "held back."

Man, listening to Scoops talk about stuff makes me just want to sit down like a child and listen. Really wish he was in more things like this where they're just shooting the shit. And Fuck, 44:50. Having never played the dlc and just now watching it, that head shot was fucking ridiculous! Only thing that would have made it better is if the announcer from Unreal just said HeadShot!

Once again, an epic, thrilling battle to help close this out.

Always fun to watch.

Agreed. Mass Effect 1 was the only one that had actual loot. Mass Effect 2 felt like Gears of War in an RPG world. People are so obsessed with the characters of Mass Effect 2 because that's all that game had going for it. You could actually open a chest in Mass Effect and get a new gun then compare the stats.

Also I would totally play Dragon Souls.

I bought this again, despite not really caring for the game when I played it the first time(was a huge fan of Demon's Souls btw, but for some reason this game didn't click with me).

My plan was to rush through to the DLC, but after a probably ill advised killing of Knight Solitaire just before the Boss where there are two dudes, I'm in pure hell. Just wretched wretched agony. Part of the issue is everyone I summon ends up being a failed summon. All I really want is the ability to jump between bonfires but shit, I feel screwed. I'm sure if I really tried I'd eventually be able to beat them myself. God damn this game, I didn't think it would be able to piss me off so much yet again.

I'm also surprised how much I've forgotten about this game since last I played it.

I love me some Patrick...but he just doesn't mesh well with this feature.

God damn the amount of nerd rage that bubbled up inside me when Ian off-handedly mentioned that Dragon's Dogma is probably better then Shadow of The Colossus. Sorry, opinions, opinions but...man.

I hope Patrick's on the next one as he joins the office again for the game of the year deliberations. Part 10, that is.

@ltsquigs you use the same dragon killing technique in BG2 that I do, except, i fI have it, I throw time stop in too before using breach & pierce. Then try finger of death and hope it works.

Patrick and Rorie are crazy, because Mass Effect 1 SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS. Ian is right. The combat is so fucking boring and clunky. The Mako missions are the worst part. So terrible. Bad frame rate and cluttered inventory. I had to force myself to play through it just to get to ME2. The second one is such a better game in every way.

Every argument you make is true; the combat is very clunky and unpolished, the Mako missions often suffer from poor frame rate and feature almost exclusively recycled area's and assets, the inventory is not intuitive to use and they hide their lack of gun variety and types by altering names.

That said, from what I can gather out of context from your post, you played the game at least a decent while after it was released. When it was first released, it was still pretty impressive with what it did. It was actually released at a time where good real time shooting was expected not to be present in a RPG. You also ignore how the first game set up pretty much everything you see back in 2 and 3. Both 2 and 3 are very light on new universe established science and story if you compare them to the first game. The first game did the majority of the species of aliens already and they made perfect sense within the game's world. The story itself and story progression was also arguably the best in the first game.

It really depends how you look at videogames. Are you the type of guy that thinks of them how you did when they were first released or do you look at them compared to how they evolve? For example, many people say the SNES is the best console ever and had the best games, but they pretty much all chose to play on current gen consoles anyway.

Either way, I think all of you are wrong. Mass Effect 3 is the best game in that series.

Yea, kind of. I played ME1 when it came out and stopped after frustration with the first Mako mission. I tried a few times after to get into it, but the combat usually turned me off. It was 2010 when I started a new save, and made myself play it. The story is ME1 is really good. It's the only redeeming factor from that game in my eyes. I was always a big fan of KOTOR, and it definitely scratched that itch for me. The ending in 1 set up what immeadiately impressed me about ME2. That is to say, the idea that the actions you make in one game have huge ramifications in the next. I'll give credit to ME1 for being the first in the series, but I can't actually consider it a better game than 2.

I actually have a hard time looking back at Mass effect, as a whole series, in the context of a "game of the generation" contender. All three games feature a universe I fell in love with. It's kind of hard to separate one from the others in that regard, but 2 will always be my favorite.

But enough about that. Now you have to tell me why you think ME3 is the best in the series. Outside of the bad ending, I wasn't a fan of what they did to the Vanguard class, which was my favorite class in ME2. I also didn't like the way side missions sort of just popped up into your log while passing people by. Then there was the whole walk up to two people arguing and hit the A button to settle the dispute. It was so detached from what I loved in the other two games. I want to be a space detective! That's some of the best parts of KOTOR and Mass Effect games. It just seemed like a lazy approach. I don't despise ME3, though. It's still a good game, but it kind of let me down from 2. I will say that I couldn't stop thinking about Mass Effect after I was done with 3. I even had dreams about it.

@trilogy: I'll say this first: ME3 is my favorite game in the series, but only by a small margin.

Vanguard was actually also my primary class throughout the entire series. By that I mean I always played it first and had the most fun playing that class. I like what they did to it in 3. In fact, it's the reason why I think 3 is the best: the combat system in 3 is leaps and bounds ahead of 2. I think that 2 was a huge improvement over the first game because it polished the gameplay. The feel and balance was much improved. But 3 made major improvements to it. You could make some combinations in 2, but that combo system is just so much better in 3.

Amplified by multiplayer. It was really, really good. It's too bad the multiplayer isn't popular, because it did some very interesting things with the combo's you could make. It had tons of different classes that they added over a year's time. Also, I see people talking about Titanfall saying that it's a clever idea to have the winning team extract at the end of a match, which is something no one has done before. Which isn't true, because ME3 did that and did it amazingly.

As for the single player, I really enjoyed the main campaign of 3. Probably as much as 2. Yeah, the ending itself wasn't great, but I think the moments leading up to the ending were really, really good. Only Anderson and Shepard making it, the Illusive Man's revelation, the realization that the Reapers tried to do good, just by poor means. I found all that story revelation stuff a lot more interesting than the 'Oh man! Collectors are actually Protheans!' stuff from 2. I also think they wrapped up the major side stories very well, like the genophage, Mordin's dilemma, Geth/Quarian war, Liara's view on the Protheans and more.

I also liked the vast array of weapons and mods you could attach to them, over the 2 weapons per category approach of 2.

Yeah, you're right that those side missions where you're just randomly listening in on people are shit. But those were also present in 2, just less frequently. I also don't like the much lower number of squad members you have in 3, but I did find them interesting. Javik was great, EDI was great, Garrus finally spoke instead of doing calibrations all the time and so on.

I don't know. In the end I think 2 has the squad members and mission set up over 3, but 3 has gameplay and story over 2 for me. All important parts, but I found 3 appealing to me a tad more than 2. Maybe just by sheer replay value and outstanding multiplayer.

@reaganstein said:

Something tells me you didn't like Patrick coming in – I didn't notice a thing he said prior to 10 minutes in.

@pyronite: one does not reason with an anti-patrick individual.

"Ah! Stop fucking talking about this thing I don't like!"
I'm sure being the first to bitch about this topic you hate is the way to stem the tide.

i just realized that when Matt Rorie freaks out and yells, it is the funniest thing ever.

"Bill Cosby is a funny dude."

He suuuure is.

Next Video: Load Our Last Souls: Part 09

Pretty sweet masturbation joke

Was that Rorie coughing and cracking his knuckles through most of this feature? Goddamn, man.

That dragon fight : FUCKING ROLL!!!!