MetalCaveman

Super cool boss the first 5 times, starts to get annoying after that, and by the 20th time I was just like "SHUT UP, I ALREADY KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!"

Related to status effects, you WANT bleed, as I just learned having switched quickly to a bloodlord build to deal with a certain boss. Dexterity and arcane is what you want to level up for a beast bleed build. Magic does seem to be easy mode once more, to a certain degree: Press button Fire glowy thing at enemy Enemy goes ow! Enemy dies Strength can also deal hilarious amounts of damage, but it's harder to pull off and some of the talismans and other buffs required take some time to get, that said, before switching to shield mode, I was easily dealing with certain bosses simply by applying a couple of buffs and rushing a jump attack. Still, for a first build, magic or bleed are best. Later you get a fair amount of items that allow you to respec so you can experiment more with different builds.

That's the main thing really, you can easily head elsewhere if you're having trouble in a particular area, in fact, you can skip the entire first main dungeon and come back later, it doesn't prevent you from exploring further areas. My other recommendation, level up vigor, whatever else you're putting points into, vigor is always useful, more vigor = more hp. Also, spirit summons, learn them, collect them, use them, love them, they're awesome tools, some can easily turn the tide in your favour, some can tank hardcore allowing you to do damage, some can even solo certain bosses. Find one that suits your play style and work with that, exploring dungeons gives you the materials needed to upgrade them after you've talked to a certain NPC. Some minor spoilers for an early boss, otherwise a really helpful way to start and some of the basics of combat:

Didn't some US general or something recently mentioned that GRU has a ton of operatives in Mexico? That's a fun thing to think about.

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*In the Halo announcer voice* Point taken. Though this was more of a criticism at how the Estrada Doctrine keeps being invoked by the government, and though it states that we "don't praise anyone, don't criticize anyone and, in times of conflict, we don't make moves that may seem like we're taking sides" they follow it with two actions that go directly against it, apologies if I didn't word it correctly.

150 Hours into Elden Ring and I think I've finally found my build. After spending 20 minutes trying to complete a certain parkour section (20 mins doesn't sound like much, but when each run is 20-40 seconds, it feels like an eternity lol) I got a giant shield, when upgraded and paired with the shield boost talisman, it blocks every physical attack without issue, and even without draining stamina at all. Add the shield charge ash of war and the talisman that increases non-physical defence and I'm now an impenetrable wall that can constantly charge against enemies dealing a fair bit of damage. Certain things, like poison, bleed, etc, still affect you, but it's pretty fun to just run around with a giant shield. My weapon history: club -> knight greatsword -> THE GREATSWORD -> Gravitational Greatswords of DOOM -> Giant Hammer -> Other more different Giant Hammer -> Shield

Mexico: The Estrada Doctrine states we should not judge or intervene in other country's affairs as that would violate their sovereignty. Also Mexico: *After accusing the European Parliament of being warmongering sheep for supplying weapons to Ukraine* Here's a friendship committee with... RUSSIA!!! https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-lifestyle-mexico-europe-friendships-6e59bf618d045f937fb0bf5412afc734

Oh good, they nerfed the mimic!!! Fuck me then. Edit: Interesting, they added an NPC and more stuff to some character quests. Edit again: https://www.bandainamcoent.com/news/elden-ring-patch-notes-v1-03 Also no, that NPC still says the same thing, guess there's more stuff to do before they move on. Also, a neat change, smithing stones cost a ton less now! \m/ \m/

I'm more than a 100 hours in and judging from my map and that I keep finding underground areas, I'd say I'm nowhere near the end lol. Love the hell out of this game though, still some ways to go but it's pretty clear that it's one of the best games I've ever played, if not THE BEST game I've played. I've found that my strength build slaps most bosses, only ones I've had trouble with so far were which crumbled to dust when I switched to a great hammer and because the timing on those attacks was messing me up lol, it was either 1-2----------------------3 or 123456789-----10-----------------------------------------11.

School trip 1 getting animated, plus, that chapter when Tadano caught a cold. It's going to be great, I can't wait! \m/ \m/

Russia struck a military base in Ukraine, about 20KM away from Poland, so... What happens if there's an attack that accidentally* hits Poland, or any other neighbouring country? Given the tension levels, would there be discussions and sanctions or would it be taken as a direct attack? *Trying to give the benefit of the doubt and say that there could be a miscalculation of some sort. In other news: The European Parliament talked about the situation here in regards to journalists being killed, along with mentioning the attacks against the press that the president often engages in. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220304IPR24806/human-rights-breaches-in-myanmar-mexico-and-nagorno-karabakh https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0078_EN.html The response, written by the president himself (according to... well, the president himself): https://www.gob.mx/presidencia/prensa/comunicado-del-gobierno-de-la-republica-al-parlamento-europeo?state=published Calling the European Parliament sheep, manipulated by the "corrupt group" that opposes the Fourth Reich Transformation, accusing them of fostering war by sending weapons to other countries (I wonder what country he's talking about? lol). In short, AMLO did what he does best, throw a tantrum and try to make everything about him, painting himself as the sole hero that stands against an evil faceless empire that orchestrates an international conspiracy responsible for everything bad that happens in our country.

Exoprimal might be the closest to a new Dino Crisis game we'll ever get lol. Kinda worried about it being "team based" and hoping it'll be fully playable solo, but we'll see.

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"This sounds just like reggaeton!"... I mean, yeah, sure, if that's the only type of music you've ever listened to I can see how you'd reach that conclusion.

April 6th, probably the 21st for the Netflix release?

Even now, there are some countries still hesitant on imposing more severe sanctions. How much more does Russia and Putin need to do before some countries decide "OK, now THAT'S too far"?

Elden Ring launch trailer:

Remnant From the Ashes One hell of an anticlimactic ending, had too look up whether or not that was the actual ending or if I had missed some bosses or secret quests, nah, that is really the ending. The DLC is supposed to add more to it, but not really in the mood to check it out right now. In general, it was quite a ride, my initial impressions were that this was a neat souls-like with guns, a fun take on the genre, then I learned that areas are procedurally generated, and that explained why certain areas looked the same (literally, had the exact same building appear twice in the first area lol). Around this point, my weapons didn't feel like they were doing much damage even though I had upgraded them a fair bit, and I learned about the annoying scaling system this game has, where essentially enemies are always one level above your highest upgraded gear, in your inventory, so if you have a +5 rifle and it's not equipped because you found a +2 shotgun... good luck, every enemy is going to be scaled to that +5 rifle. This also takes into account your armour, so yeah, things can be pretty annoying. At this point I was kinda getting ready to drop Remnant, the desert world having the most boring design didn't help, what stopped me is that I ran into a dungeon that looked really cool, sorta reminded me of the Necromongers from Riddick, really tough area, with swarming enemies that explode on death, but the aesthetic and combat kept me going, at the end, the reward was more than worth it, a rifle that shoots radioactive beams, add to that the fire shot mod and this thing melted enemies and bosses alike, a huge change from the more normal weapons I had before it. This thing made the game fun again, up until it vaporized the last boss, which probably contributed to how underwhelming it was. This thing is even better than some boss weapons, specially because you can change the mod attached to it, boss weapons have specific mods that can't be replaced. Even then, that weapon appears only in a specific dungeon, which may not even appear in your world given the procedurally generated element, the fact that this really cool weapon is restricted in such a way kinda sours the whole thing. Another issue I had is with upgrades, in spite of pushing for a balanced upgrade path, keeping everything at about the same level, there's a severe lack of resources, specially if you go for boss weapons, which require an extra item on top of the usual iron. Overall, there's a fun game here, and I'd love to see more games like this, not only souls-likes, but just games that combine this kind of fantasy (with a touch of sci-fi) stuff and normal third person shooter mechanics, without going full Destiny space-wizards lol. However, the issues it has make it hard to recommend, although chances are, some/most of you will already have it, as it was given for free in the Epic store lol.

NEW AMON AMARTH!!! HELL YEAH!!! \m/ \m/