It’s hard for me to concentrate lately, what with all of the life things going on. I played some Dark Souls last night, farming some souls to get my Vitality up. When I first played the game on Switch, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t understand how Hollowing worked, or Kindling, or even really stats in general. I kind of plowed through, never spending my souls, losing them all, having tough times on boss fights.
Eventually, you learn how to play the game, and it becomes more fun. The levels are all interconnected, too, leading to the feeling of the world slowly but surely opening up, becoming less intense as it becomes more dense. I don’t know, it might be one of the best games that I’ve ever played.
I took a hiatus from gaming for oh, I don’t know, fifteen years or so. My PS2 broke right after I beat Metal Gear Solid 2, and ever since then I just haven’t fucked with it, except for a brief time in 2006 or so when I played through Silent Hill 2 and 3.
I think that playing these difficult games have helped to make my life better. I look forward to the hour or two of time I have blocked off at the end of the day to cut on the system, drink a few Topo Chicos, and explore. I like building up my character, finding rings, fighting monsters. It’s something to unwind.
This makes me think to myself, Damn dude, you should probably be reading or writing or something. But you need downtime. You have to rest and reset your mind. After a day of working on edits and perusing Twitter, I’ve seen pretty much everything I need to see. I’m done with words, at that point. So the video games are nice.
Yesterday I was in an area called Firelink Shrine, and I was going to ride an elevator up to Undead Burg. I fell off the elevator and ended up at the bottom of a pit. I thought that I was stuck. Then, a crack of light. I wandered down a short dark tunnel and out into an area with four chests, each of them full of cool items and power-ups. More than beating the bosses, this was the coolest moment of the game for me. You’re stumbling around in the dark, and you find something amazing completely by accident. It’s not a replicable experience in anything other than real life, I guess.
I would highly recommend these games as a good way to pass the time. They’re difficult-ish, but not really as bad as they’re made out to be. There’s just a learning curve. Once you know what you’re doing, the challenges become things that you can surmount, leading to the good feelings, rinse and repeat.
I’m not sure if I’m all that interested in other games. I lost track of Red Dead and GTA V after a few weeks. They were easy, I was whipping through them quick. I need something a little more tough.
It beats getting drunk.
Broken River Blog 