Demon's Souls... Again.

This guy rates a 3 out of ten on the Bad-Mother-Fucker-Meter (compared to the other bosses)

I suddenly feel this blog is turning into a Demon's Souls rant board. Still no luck on conquering the Tower of Latria in full. Though I've progressed further, I'm once again stuck on a boss; Maneater. Couldn't find pictures of him but, on my Bad-Mother-Fucker-Meter, he rates a 9, easily outdoing the Tower Knight (pictured above). Now Soul Level 45, I can also run around Stonefang Tunnel with little to no worries... until I met up with Flamelurker who is another boss. He fucked me up good as I had no idea how to defeat him much like Maneater. Maneater actually wouldn't pose a problem I don't think if the 2nd one didn't show up, totally ruining your strategy. So now I find myself farming for souls and grass to level up more.

Yeah... he spits fire too.

Another problem I face constantly... The game is so immersive I always forget to repair my character's armor and weapons. While fighting Maneater... my sword and axe broke. While fighting Flamelurker my fucking armor broke, the whole set! So now I can't afford to repair this armor because it costs almost 8,000 souls per piece. Multiply that by 4... I'd rather level my guy or upgrade my weapons that drop that. For now I'll stick with my assassin armor.

*sigh*

I'm a geek. Can't wait to get home so I can play it more.

Demon's Souls Devouring My Soul...

Japanese Box Art...

This picture gives you an idea of how you'll feel playing this game.

Beaten down. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Hopeless. Submission.

I don't know... I think I'm 10-15 hours into the game and my character is level 37 (Soul Level 37). I haven't played a game this hard since Ghosts N' Goblins and at the same time, I haven't played a game as addicting since I played World of Warcraft about 2 years ago. I cannot stop playing it. WOW was an easy addiction to break as it simply came down to me saying; "Why the fuck am I paying to play a freaking game???" Another reason why I didn't like the 360 and the reason I own a PS3. Free online? I'm there dude. Anyways... but this game... Demon's Souls... My progress is going good... or was. Now I'm stuck yet again but on a different board. At first, I was stuck in world one, Boletarian Palace then finally defeated the 2nd boss; Tower Knight. This guy was huge but not as difficult as it would seem. Your character is as big as his feet. So after hacking away at his ankles I whooped him (after he whooped me 3 times in a row).

Currently I'm back and forth trying to get through two other worlds, Stonefang Tunnel a Tower Latria. Stonefang Tunnel turned out to be a lost cause for me. My guy is powerful enough but not when I'm outnumbered. Problem is there is a way to beat them, just haven't figured out how. So then I ventured to the Tower of Latria and had a lot more success as I battled my way to the 1st boss, Fool's Idol. She was relatively easy... the real difficulty kicks in once you beat her. Incapable of doing anything, your character is abducted by gargoyles and flown high atop a tower. This part is a joke and I don't mean stupid, its fucking hard. Talk about having the deck stacked against you. The gargoyles themselves aren't hard to beat, its when you get to the swamp below that the BS kicks in. The fucking scorpion looking slugs that are roughly 5 times your size. Again... Its a matter of where you move. Move too close then you have to worry about TWO... But last night I timed my movement correctly and fought back and forth with one of these scorpion-ish-slugs. I probably could have had him but... once again, I find myself rolling in too close of proximity with another one of those things and ended up losing 15,000+ souls.

Frustratingly difficult yet... I can't stop playing it. I feel like a junky and Demon's Souls is there as my free fix whenever the urge strikes me (which is often). To make matters worse, Atlus, the game's publisher, decided that since the weekend was Halloween, they made it harder. Within the game, each world has a world tendency, when you start the game its neutral, then depending on certain circumstances, they change from white to black... Well.. Atlus put the game world in pure black world tendency... You die from two hits or less now instead of three. Enemies aren't dropping shit and everything is just more frustrating. Can't wait to play it tonight, I'm hoping since Halloween is freaking over, that it'll put my WT back to normal so I can beat these damn scorpion-slugs!

Because Nobody Asked For It!!!

This is always fun as my top 5's usually change over the course of time. There are so many talented and great guitarist that its quite hard picking out the who's who of the all time greats.

5.

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie is getting old but he somehow manages to still play like he's in his twenties. Here's a guy you go to to pump up a crowd with a wicked fast solo. There's no question that Eddie is the all time king of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Don't believe me? Listen to 'Eruption'... The song is STUNNING. It gives you goosebumps listening to it... People still talk about it today as if it were just released... Just imagine how people reacted when it came out in 1978!

4.

Randy Rhoads

"Let's hear that..."

This one is a no brainer. Randy was not only fast as hell on the fret board his talent is nearly unmatchable. You feel the emotion in his riffs/solos. He is what made Ozzy what he is today. If it wasn't for Randy Rhoads, 'Crazy Train' would have never become what it is today (the staple of ALL Ozzy shows). Just imagine how different and better Ozzy's career would have been had he lived. Or... imagine if Ozzy never met Randy Rhoads... Think about that! I only wish that Randy had a solo album with jusy him and an acoustic guitar. Imagine an album full of 'Dee' like tunes. I can't imagine that... It would be fucking tear inducing.

3.

Dimebag

DUN! DUN DUN DUN DUN! DUN DUN DUN DUN!!! RE! SPECT! WALK!

Let's all take a moment to thank that piece of shit fucking douche bag for killing this man. Better yet, let's find his grave and piss all over the fucking thing. Pfff... Fucking marines (no offense marines, but this one was a fucking fuck and I'm glad he killed himself)... When you think Dimebag... all you can think of is; "What if"... What if Pantera reunited? Probably wouldn't have happened but still. What. If? Just randomly pick a solo of his from ANY song and you can hear everything you need to know about this legend. When he wasn't melting your face off with one of his sick solos, he was pounding your fucking eardrums with a heavy as fuck riff that just kicked major ass.

2.

David Gilmour

The voice and guitar of Pink Floyd. 'Nuff said. He may not be as fast as Clapton, he may not technically be as good as Randy Rhoads but... He beats the previous three here in everything else. You can strip away the lyrics to any song he plays on and his guitar would do the talking/singing. I'm completely convinced David Gilmour can join the shittiest of shit bands and he'd transform them into a monster. You could make a guitar out of a fucking trash can and he could play it better than 99% of guitarists today can play their own guitar. Even at the age of 63, Gilmour is better than ANY guitarist playing today. Talk about the sad state of music. As Eddie Van Halen is the master of hammer-ons/offs, Gilmour can bend a string/note better than anyone. His sound is so unique that his notes practically talk and tell you; "Hi! I'm David Gilmour."

1.

Jimi Hendrix

Has any other guitarist influenced so many different people in such a wide variety of musical genres? No. Just give 'Are You Experienced' a listen... then give rap a listen.. Seriously, I'm not tossing rap under the bus. In that song the skipping and muddled sound of a record skipping/scratching is so apparent in rap (or hip hop, whatever you may call it) that is just screams greatness. Then of course the countless other people he influenced on guitar. Across the board Jimi's style is more sloppy than anything compared to say Steve Vai or Jimmy Page but you can't deny his talent. He's great. How many people can turn the Star Spangled Banner into his own theme song? How many people can turn the Star Spangled Banner into their own song? Three of the best examples of his guitar greatness can be heard in; 'Red House', 'Burning of the Midnight Lamp' and 'Little Wing'. Jimi has been my favorite guitarist for a long, long time and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

UFC Fighters... Vs. The Rest of the World... Vs. Me.

Back in the day I was a pretty big fan of MMA in general, from the no-budget UFC days to Japan's Pride organization to other promotions. While the UFC has obviously evolved into a real sport and not some street fighting level of sloppy brawlers/fighters I have a problem with it. Of course nowadays my interest in MMA has declined severely mostly because of the fighters themselves. Not to take away from their talent in whatever fighting style they do but their overall attitude. Even their presence bothers me. Dana White comes to mind (I know, he doesn't count as a fighter but he is what comes to mind when I hear UFC)... I don't know what it is but it seems that every fighter in the UFC has a personality equivalent to a bucket of mud. They're just there... and unfortunately, you know they're there.

For example... Whenever Dana White talks you want to smack him. If I didn't know any better, he was sucking off each guy on his roster. Dana... we get it, your roster is full of bad mother fuckers. I swear whenever he talks that's the only thing that comes out of his mouth, 'UFC fighters are the best of the best in the whole wide world" yadda yadda yadda. To top that there's the fighters themselves. Okay... post match interviews, they're pumped I know so they scream and yell into the microphone how great they are, their adrenaline takes over. Beyond the post match celebrations, the fighters still seem like they left their brains in the "octagon", or at home for that matter. I remember reading an interview with Chuck Liddell. The magazine was conducting it at his home and after they ask him about his job (fighting), they dabble in all sorts of things like hobbies and whatnot. He answered each one as if they were promotional questions for an upcoming event. It isn't just the "Iceman" either, its every single UFC fighter.

All they talk about is 'I'm the best!' or "I workout 15 hours a day brother!" or "When I'm in the gym, I'm in the zone baby! Its all business!!! RAH!!"... Ugh... I think as much as UFC has made MMA famous, I also think it hurt the business as a whole. Go and watch a show from Japan or something, the fighters will win a match but afterward its all about respect and being humble. You know, the attitude that its a privilege of sorts, something like that. They don't run around the ring grunting like wild animals and flexing. In the UFC even when they do interviews away from the "octagon" they have this attitude that they're sole purpose in life is to be intimidating and having 'fun' to them is "being the greatest championship fighter who ever stepped into the octagon". Fun to them wearing skin tight clothes to show all the definition on their physiques.

Their 'I'm better then the next guy' attitude is ridiculous. In other countries, an organization's promoter isn't a windup set of chattering teeth that goes on and on and on. I'm so sick of the "most people don't have what it takes to be inside the octagon". I'm sure there are plenty of people who have what it takes I think its the matter of not wanting to punch/kick or get punch/kicked as a job regardless of getting paid. Most MMA guys end up getting hooked on pain killers and blowing their fortune (see WWE also). To top everything else off, they have Brock Lesnar (I don't care if I spelled it incorrectly or not) as the champion! As a marketing gimmick that will fill more seats, lets hire a wrestler that just so happens to be 3 feet taller and 200 pounds heavier than the entire roster of fighters. Of course he's the champion! Who the fuck is going to topple him? He's fucking huge. Dumb but huge. Much like the rest.

These are reasons why I can no longer tolerate the UFC and MMA to an extent. UFC has ruined everything for me when it comes to MMA.

[/Clock Killing]

Demon's Soul (PS3)

One of the best action/adventure/RPGs of all time.

Remember back in the NES days, the games that seemed to purposely torture you? Take for example, Megaman (any)... There's a game that was difficult to begin with but then the developers decided; 'hey! since the game is so hard, why don't we make the player restart the level once he dies! YEAH! GREAT IDEA!" Bastards... Or there were other games that did something else as bad... You collect a ton of money by killing bad guys... but once you die, thats it! You lose them! Those old school gaming days of the NES were absolute horror.

Demon's Souls is like a homage 'next-gen' game to those old school games. There's one thing you need to know and accept about Demon's Souls. Your going to die. Often. I don't care how good you are or say you are. You will die. Demon's Souls is brutally unforgiving and relentless but never, ever frustrating. Doesn't make sense does it? Its true though! This game is extremely addictive and very, very fun to play. But again... be prepared to die often. I'll keep repeating that because its true. You were meant to die anywhere and everywhere. By any and all things. So if you play it, don't expect to run-n-gun it John McClane style like Die Hard because it won't work.

In Demon's Souls you have to think before you act. I'm not even done the game yet, I've put in about 5 or 6 hours and I haven't even beaten the 2nd boss. I can't seem to get over this one bridge without getting my ass handed to me. So... there has to be a way! Right? Of course! There's always a way, its finding the way that will lead you to your death numerous times. Reading all of the reviews I tried to keep track of my total deaths... I lost count. Like I said, it happens often. Too often for some. This fucking game is hard core. Demon's Souls is the equivalent to Gunnery SGT Hartmen in Full Metal Jacket... It will break you the fuck down over and over and over again until your better. At one point you'll slam your controller down and curse at your tv. You'll curse everyone but you'll keep coming back to play it more! There are games that are so difficult and so frustratingly cheap that you simply trade it the fuck in because you grew to hate it. While Demon's Souls is difficult and frustrating (at times), it never seems cheap. 99% of the times you die, its because you you fucked up. You either didn't time your hits right or vice versa, or you didn't keep an eye on your stamina, magic... Hell it could be because your sword is too fucking big to swing around in a tunnel! There are hundreds of ways to die and it all stems from player error.

Also, the game is always online and while your playing you can see other players playing, they look like a ghost. You can't interact with them, but you can leave pre-loaded text messages to help or hinder their journey. You can invade someone else's game or someone can invade yours. While I haven't tried this aspect of the game yet, it sounds fun and interesting. There are no banks in this game to save your money. In fact there is no money. The game's currency are souls you collect by killing enemies. With those souls you use them to level up your character. But there's a catch! You can carry as many souls as you want, the problem is that you get so immersed in the game and forget the most important part! Your going to die!!!! And when that happens you restart the level and you LOSE the souls (you don't lose your equipment though). You can however get those souls back... you just have to find the spot where you died, your "bloodstain". If you make it back to your bloodstain your better off backtracking to the start of the level and warp to the Nexus (the in-game place to upgrade, kinda like a limbo of sorts). But here's the kicker... If you die while trying to find that bloodstain? They're gone forever and a new blood stain appears for you.

Brutal. Unforgiving. Difficult. Relentless. Evil. Addictive. FUN.

Oh... this is only for the PS3... Remember those guys that made the King's Field (I spent many moons playing those damn games!) games back in the day? Same developers.

Phillies Celebration Last Night...

So the Phillies winning last night made it the first time in franchise history winning back-to-back pennants... In turn we get back-to-back celebrations in the streets. Here in Roxborough, was pretty mild. We were loud but not too rowdy... at least not as bad as last year I think. Anyways...

Obviously 9 out of 10 were piss drunk screaming and hollering, and thats fine with me. Last year I was piss drunk jumping up and down and screaming my head off until I had a headache. This year however I didn't jump and scream. Okay I screamed a couple times, mostly though I was just watching everyone else. I also wasn't drunk. I drank maybe 6 or 7 beers the whole night, give or take.

The main thing in common with this year and last year is the drunks who start jumping, running, punching, kicking and moonsaulting cars. Of course, I say to myself, well if the driver is letting his car get pummeled by a slew of drunks then who cares. Like this one guy at the corner of Ridge and Lyceum... He starts screeching his wheels, its smoking and screaming and everyone cheers him on. Then some guy comes barreling over jumps n the hood, jumps up and down on it, then proceeds to run on the windshield, roof and trunk before staggering off the rear bumper and banging into people and parked cars. WTF? Again... the driver laughs and does nothing.

I have to ask, why would anyone let anyone ding up their ride like that? Sports championships or not, if some fucker jumped up on our car, or punched it I'd be swinging on someone! Fuck THAT!

Last year was worse though... Mirrors ripped off of moving cars etc etc etc...

So this morning I'm watching the news and see all the morons. The one guy climbing a utility pole or maybe it was a tree, he's climbing it while someone is launching a Roman Candle at him! ASSHOLE. Then the other goon on the street light, again, people begin throwing shit at him.

The best though... fucking classic! I loved it! The video showed a taxi stopped at a red light. So some drunken idiot jumps up on it going wild laughing and smiling!!! So the light turns green and taxi starts driving.... and the guy loses his balance and plummets to the street! LMFAO!!! Awesome. I'd like to shake the hand of the taxi driver for that one. The fucking guy deserved it. Its great too because he has a hard time getting up even with his friends helping him.

Anyways... Witnessing these celebrations the past 2 years are fun and are moments we'll never forget... but there's always some fucking fool seeking attention, trying to impress and trying to be super cool acting like fucking idiots. So when(if) we beat the Yankees for back to back World Series titles, you can count on more of these jack offs causing mayhem.

[/Clock Killing]

Paranormal Activity...

SPOILERS at the end...

Simply put: This movie kicked ass. This movie has been hyped since its release a couple weeks ago and while I was excited to see it, I didn't let all of the praise hype me too much. So I went just expecting to be entertained, and I was. The movie is about Katie and Micah, a couple that have been together for three years. She experiences paranormal activity all the time while her boyfriend Micah is a typical guy. By that I mean, Katie will see or hear something and he'll say; 'Oh cool! I want to see something!'... Not word for word but... we're (us guys) like that. So Katie believes obviously and Micah is not a complete skeptic but close enough to make jokes about it to which Katie doesn't find amusing.

I thought this film was pretty scary while a friend of mine laughed through the whole thing and said it was garbage. To each his own! I think I'll like it even more the next time I see it. Anyways... If you've seen the trailer, expect that throughout the entire film as Micah buys a camera to see if he can catch these happenings Katie experiences. He either carries the camera around or places it stationary in a corner and whatnot while they sleep etc etc... The first five minutes may cause headaches because of the shaky nature, but it is not anywhere near as bad as the hyper epileptic camera that was in Blair Witch.

The suspense in this movie is unbelievable! Its almost nonstop, edge of your seat! Finally Micah slowly begins to believe de to the things his camera picks up over night or the shit he hears while awake but still, he doesn't hesitate to act macho or joke about it. He really doesn't take it seriously, much like anyone really. I know if my wife told me stuff like that, I'd be like; 'oh I know...' then roll my eyes. Turns out... this isn't a ghost haunting their house... Its been following her... and it isn't a ghost. Its a demon. Yeah... sounds corny I know but still... It works.

The only spoiler I'll post is the ending because apparently the ending I saw over the weekend is different from the ending it had at a couple film festivals a month or so ago.

The ending we (my wife and I) saw was,

SPOILERS !!!!!!!!!

after possessed, Katie throws Micah into the camera. Seems he's already dead. Then she crawls to his body, smells it then looks at the camera and her face distorts and she lunges at the camera. The end credits are this: blah blah blah, the police discovered Micah's body and Katie is no where to be found.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!

I liked it but the ending that was screened was almost the same but instead of her face changing and jumping to the camera, she simply stand in front of it and slits her own throat.

Then supposedly there's even MORE endings that were filmed and screened at time or another, remember, this film was made in 2007! I have no fucking clue how this has sat around for 2+ years...