Limited Edition art books just arrived:


They look great. Better than the test print even! :D

Don't you know that every fantasy monster is basically a pinata full of blood and golden coins? 

Inspired by Bloodborne, I've decided to play around with blood effects in Bonfire.



May need some extra tweaking, but I like the extra juiciness.

Took morning off to play around with blood effects a little.



Bloodborne made me do it! 

I think you try to put too much literal sense into it.

Imho it's just basic play on the human duality trope, with primitive urges on one side and lust for knowledge on the other; both dangerous in their own way. The game literalizes these concepts with beast/kin transformation, and Yharnam serves as a model anti-utopia exemplifying the pitfalls of these sides of human nature - like in classic cautionary allegories. It doesn't really matter how the beast plague started "scientifically"-speaking.

his weapon is absolutely a melee/cleaver trick weapon, and shares multiple modes with the trick weapons.

I think his weapon is supposed to be Kos' placenta (you can observe it's linked to him via umbilical cord). Which I always found super-cool and it could hold some interesting metaphorical meaning, if you want to look at hunters as the children of Kos.

Kos actually has a human face, though.



She's rather humanoid overall - with her face, posture, two human arms, etc. - definitely more than the other Great Ones. Now that I think of it, she's oddly similar to Doll/Maria too.

Nah, it's just the general randomness of monster AI/attack patterns.

the current gen of MBPs only has one usb port afaik.

That's only for the ultra-portable 12" MacBook (which I'm actually pretty interested in but wait for the first major update). Pros still have two USBs as well as plenty of other ports.

But yeah. I'm still using a 2010 MBP precisely because none of the newer models seemed to have that "sturdy as a tank" feel, and I move around a lot. The decision to replace the glass screen protection with a cheap plastic one was particularly stupid. I love how I can wipe my old screen with a normal cloth and some detergent without having to fear those dissolved anti-reflective coating stains. Keyboard seems better too.

Still, I'd say they generally went from "Really great, almost worth the price" to "Not really worth the price, but still best on the market".

17 inch screen is a must, I'd say. Laptops with those screens tend to have full keyboards. With at least 1440x900 as a minimum.

Imho, if you're going for a 17 inch laptop, you may as well get a normal desktop -- cheaper and more powerful, and you won't carry it around anyway. Speaking from experience, too. My PC lappy is 16 inch and it basically stays on the desk all the time. The weight (including power adapter) and size make it completely unpractical for anything other than moving it from room to room. I regret buying it.

15" seems to be the sweet spot for most people, especially as they've gotten much lighter nowadays. Personally, I use a 13-incher. It's enough for me and I really appreciate the ability to simply stuff it in my normal bag and casually carry around town.

I also second Silbereisen. Don't focus just on powerful hardware. It can actually be a detriment, as more powerful parts means more weight, more heat, and less batter life. And without the ergonomics, a desktop is always a better choice.

In general, Macbook Pros are probably still the best all-around laptops on the market, with great screens, solid build, good mobility and touchpad/keyboard that doesn't require carrying extras to be comfortable. They ARE pricey, though.

I honestly never parried him aside from some lucky random shots. Seemed too risky to me when most of his moves are relatively easy to avoid, but can lead to a one-shot combo if you mess the parry.

My tactic has been simply using a relatively fast weapon (Whirlgig or Ludwig in one-handed mode for me), dodging, and waiting for those bigger slams to sneak in a few hits. It's also good to lead him to the center of the beach, as getting cornered against a wall usually turns very badly.

Yeah, I didn't do any chalices aside from the first one. I wanted to, but the design with farming ritual materials is so dumb I decided to skip them and focus on the core game instead. Really a lot of wasted potential there.

Finished both the DLC and the main game today.

I love how it kept being challenging till the very end (well, Moon Presence and Mergo's Nurse were a bit too easy, but I was seriously over-leveled after Old Hunters + some co-op). In Dark Souls, I was able to trade hits with late game bosses and still come on top simply due to how powerful my character has become. Here, grind is much less important (aside from the dumb necessity to farm vials every now and then). Probably because armor can't be upgraded and stats hit soft caps a little sooner. I could dish out a lot of damage, but Orphan of Kos was still able to take me down in one combo and I actually had to re-try most of the late game bosses a few times. Which is how it should be.

Even common enemies in Bloodborne are much more powerful and interesting than in Souls. I've died plenty of times to stuff like those shark dudes or winter lanterns, and that never happened in Dark Souls! 90% of my death count there was simply falling into pits or PVP.


Crazy good game overall. One of those that make me wonder why do I even keep making games anymore.

I was sober when we started . But mostly I think it's as you said -- it's very poorly balanced. A single separated boss with a pre-made character can be interestingly challenging. But insert it in the game with its intertwined systems and character growth and suddenly you quickly out-pace the difficulty curve.

Agreed. I was pretty interested in this game, as it was directed by an old colleague of mine who's a kickass producer and a major Souls fan. I was even at a closed preview/testing event for the local game devs, where everyone tried to defeat the first boss with an under-leveled character, taking a shot of vodka on every death. Took me 9 shots in a row (and a moment of humiliation trying to call taxi afterwards), but I was the only guy who finally managed to win and returned home super-proud and super-hyped for the game. It seemed like a pretty faithful Souls clone, with shitty art style and some issues I thought are going to be ironed out.

Then I learned this was actually the highest point of the game.

And there's not much variety beside it.

And whatever there is, is much worse.

And then I've seen some story pieces/dialogue...


Wasted potential, imho. The world could really use a western Souls-like.

I think I died more times on Laurence than during my entire Dark Souls playthrough.

I agree with you on the lack of variety in the main game, but I think you're giving the weapons in it a hipercritical look. The saw cleaver is great and has good range, the axe has good charged r2 in its two forms, the tonitrus is great in arcane builds, the flamethrower is viable against beasts with good arcane, the reiterspellach (whatever) can parry and has thrust, the canon is op, the beast claws are pretty cool and the burial blade is good for ng+

Yeah, but that's what I mean. They are cool and have some fun gimmicks, but are either extremely limited in their move set (like Tonitrus) or simply underwhelming damage wise (like Hunter's Axe) compared to their top-tier counterparts. DLC introduces weapons that are both cool and very powerful/viable even outside of very specific situations.

Winter solstice is tonight, which seems like the perfect moment to send the finished game to pre-order owners.

Excitement. Anxiety. Cool movie-style posters. 

They can climb ladders, actually. Or at least the weapon wielding ones do. But it's moot anyway, as I won't leave any of those bastards alive!

Also, the DLC really helped with the weapon diversity. That was one of my gripes with the main game. It had a lot of technically interesting trick weapons, but most were either underwhelming or focused on just one gimmick without a mixed enough move set. You could try a few, but would end up with Ludwig, Chikage or Blades of Mercy anyway. DLC weapons are definitely more Ludwig than Stake Driver. Especially lowing the Whirlgig Saw. One of the most fun melee weapons in games period.

Hunter's Nightmare was fine for me. High amount of NPC hunters was a little surprising at first, and there are some funnily devilish fragments (like those turrets or two super-sized executioners near Ludwig), but most I found were just for show. Or maybe it's because they look difficult, so I was on my edge and played carefully.

With those bobbleheads, I tend to rush in out of lack of patience. I mean, there's so many of them, and they die in two hits, so why should I wait, right? And then it becomes clear I should. But hey, I died, so I'm even more impatient now, so I rush in up the stairs to quickly clear them in a few swipes and... you know the rest.