video games – Gamer Peak

Martyr Logarius: An Unskilled Guide

When discussing “what is the hardest boss in Bloodborne?”, you cannot expect the same answer from everyone. If you miss a trick with an ‘easier’ boss, then it will feel harder to you. If someone confidentially claims one boss is hardest, players around them will be quick to agree/offer up who they think is hardest/explain why that boss isn’t actually hard at all.

For a long time, Martyr Logarius was my hardest boss. By the end of the first playthrough, I had not completed the Chalice Dungeons and DLC, and he remained at the top of my list. He was the only one I doubted I could beat on my next playthrough.

Even when I beat him once, I was not confident. By the end of my second win, I knew how I’d beaten him, and I think I can get you there too.

As always, if I can do it so can you!

Amygdala: An Unskilled Guide

When my attempts on a Soulsborne boss reach the double digits, I like many, scan the wiki articles for what I might need to do differently. For the most part, these are only so helpful, because my level skill limits how I might implement the friendly advice.

In the case of Amygdala, I actually needed to ignore the guidance I first read, because it was making things more difficult than it needed to be. As with most bosses, I found a clumsy, simple, brute force method that works. It won’t work every time, in this case, but it’ll get you there eventually.

Father Gascoigne – An Unskilled Guide

Hopefully, this is boss number 2 for your first playthrough of Bloodborne. If not, I highly recommend seeking out the Cleric Beast first. It’s not just because he’s easier (whether a Souls boss is easy often depends on the player, but CB definitely feels more like a training boss). It’s also because a win before Father Gascoigne will give you a well-needed confidence boost.

Gascoigne is a tough boss this early into proceedings, and has turned a lot of players away from continuing the game. But with a bit of confidence, and advice from this clumsy, bumbling gamer, and you can win even if it doesn’t seem likely.

If I can do it, so can you.

Cleric Beast – An Unskilled Guide

If you’ve found this monster, it is either your very first Bloodborne boss, or you’ve found after meeting and/or beating Father Gascoigne. If it’s the latter, hopefully this encounter will be less stressful for you.

Gascoigne is the real test of whether you want to play this game. The Cleric Beast is (a little bit) easier to train your skills on.

As with most things in Bloodborne, this will not be easy, but the Cleric Beast is very manageable, and with a little bit of preparation and planning he can be beaten.

If I can do it, so can you.

Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Mackled Malaclaw

When bird poops on you, it’s good luck. If a cat crosses your path, that’s bad luck. Rabbits bring good or bad luck depending on where you grew up.

Most animals are burdened by a superstition. Even lobsters. Apparently eating them at New Years is unfortunate. Being bitten by one, however, brings neither goods luck nor bad. Though I suppose if you are being bitten by a lobster you’re unlucky enough already.

In the Harry Potter universe, a bite from the lobster-like beast known as the Mackled Malaclaw, brings lots of bad luck. For an entire week.

Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Imp & Pixie

In Dungeons & Dragons, size isn’t everything, but it is important.

Whether a creature is ‘tiny’, ‘large’ or ‘gargantuan’, size has a mechanical affect. A human-sized sword will usually to one die-worth of damage, whereas a giant is going to hit you with at least three dice loads of damage. Health depends on how many ‘hit dice’ a character has, but the size of a creature changes the dice you are rolling. A regular spider will have d4s, whilst a giant spider gets the eight-sided guys.

Size often informs the other stats a creature has. A small creature is likely to have a much lower Strength Score. There’s no defined rule in-game, but there’s a logic to it. A mouse, try as they might, is not going to win a tug-of-war against an elephant. Larger creatures are going to be naturally stronger because of their sheer mass.

All of these leads me to this point: building monster stats for the Imps and Pixies of the Potterverse required some careful thought.

Late Review: The Last of Us

Most people can simply enjoy what they do. I nitpick, poke fun at things I enjoy and appreciate them even more so, whilst others are quite content to be content. Yet there are those vocal few that find it difficult to just have fun.

There are those that like to take the adversarial stance. The more a game, a movie or a show is popularised, the more likely they are to find fault with it. On the other side, some people cannot enjoy something if they know critics find fault with it. You can usually find these two groups bickering about their most/least favourite thing online, whilst everyone else enjoys that thing without issue.

The Last of Us is a hill on which many people have squabbled. I’ve heard the words “prefect game” and “total garbage”. It cannot be both of these things, and its really neither. No game is without issues, and something so popular must have merit…

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Late Review: Final Fantasy VII Remake

I recently replayed Final Fantasy X, and when I was nearing the end I made a comment to a non-gamer friend that I might play Final Fantasy X-2 again.

They immediately had questions:

Why is it called ‘Ten Two’? Why not call it ‘Eleven’?
Why is only one of the numbers in Roman numerals? Were they worried people would see ‘X-II’ and think they had skipped a game?
Why is it written as “X-2”? Looks like ‘ten minus two’. Is it secretly Final Fantasy 8?

I didn’t have the heart to break it to them that there are actually three Final Fantasy XIIIs. With all the other spin-offs, prequels and pseudo-sequels out there, I honestly don’t know how many Final Fantasy games are out there myself.

And now we have Remakes in the mix.

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Late Review: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

“It’s like Dark Souls.” That was how Fallen Order was first introduced to me. I’ve heard the comparison made with other games, so I didn’t really react. Since diving into the game, there’s definitely truth to the statement, but it overlooks a lot of other games Fallen Order resembles.

This game is what happens when someone asks “what do people like in games?” and then puts all the answers into one game. There are elements of Fallen Order that are very Dark Souls. There are platforming, wall-scaling moments reminiscent of Uncharted. Metroid influences are everywhere in the level design and progression. Enemies light up when they are about to attack à la Batman. It has the additional story-through-collectables from, well, every modern game.

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Late Review: Subnautica

I am not a particularly adventurous person. For example, I would never, ever go skydiving. I have however, been swimming in the ocean once. I can’t say I entirely enjoyed the experience. I’m glad I did it, and it was a great experience, but I wasn’t ever completely happy about being there.

That’s because the ocean is a scary place. Floating in an expanse of seemingly endless water, knowingly surrounded by life that can move much faster and more gracefully than you that may, at any time, want to investigate your level of tastiness, creates a very daunting atmosphere.

Of course, I could leave the ocean at any time. I wasn’t trapped there. Whilst Earth’s oceans do contain dangerous sea creatures, I was no where near exploding fish or leviathans the length of two football pitches. I also didn’t have to arrive at the ocean on a crashing space ship. All these things would make the ocean much more terrifying, and part of the reason why Subnautica is such a fascinating game.

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