Author: Matthew Roys

Early help for Dark Souls 3

Matthew Roys Guide , , , , , , ,

Many Souls veterans forget how hard it is for people who have never played the series before to get started. As such, this is a quick guide to help early players get a few cool items that will help them at the start of the game.

The first bonfire from Firelink Shrine on the High Wall is where you need to be. Head down the steps to your left towards the scary looking dragon. Kill the Undead swordsman then run towards the steps leading down. Kill the guy with the lantern before he can finish his scream/call as this causes several of the docile hollows to attack you. With him dead you can butcher the innocent bystanders as they cower in fear Nasty I know, but think of the souls.

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Dark Souls 3: Bonfire Journals #1.

Matthew Roys Bonfire Journals, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

As a writer and gamer, the idea of writing the personal journey of my character through a game is something that I find interesting. Dark Souls is the perfect kind of game for this as your character is a blank slate, the paths are branching and the narrative is non-intrusive. So I am finally giving it a shot. This is the first part of my adventure through DS3. It goes up to the first boss battle of the game. I would have liked to have gone further but in 30 minutes of play I crashed to desktop eight times. Yeah. Enjoy.

Entry 1:

Life. It takes death to understand it. Disjointed memories form together into a vague semblance of the past and create shadowy shapes that is my personal history. But none of it makes sense. I awoke in a craggy graveyard with only fleeting impressions of who I even was. The only thing that I was sure of was that I was clad in leather armour and had a shield and scimitar at my side. They feel natural in my grasp like extensions of my arms. I can only assume that they are mine.

Alone without identity. This is true loneliness, without even your own memories or personality to keep your ragged thoughts company. Who am I? Where am I? Where should I go? These questions settled upon me like crows. Without any clear direction though I could only sit with my shallow mind or move forward and hope. Hope… Continue reading →

Dark Souls 3 Bonfire Crash.

Matthew Roys News , , , , ,

The much anticipated Dark Souls 3 finally got its world wide release last night (UK time) and, despite being a mechanically solid and fun game, has managed to disappoint fans the world over due to an already known bug that causes the game to crash when the player approaches any bonfire. If you are familiar with the Souls games then you will probably realise just how game breaking this is.

The annoying part of this is that the bug has been known for weeks now due to the excessive amount of journalists and streamers who got the game early, not to mention the Japanese release. Everybody assumed that this bug would be fixed by the international release but apparently it hasn’t. Continue reading →

An Interview with Miracle of Sound.

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This week I had the pleasure of getting to speak with a talented musician best known by his Youtube moniker of miracleofsound. In reality he is an Irishman by the name of Gavin Dunne and he writes, performs, sings and mixes songs inspired mostly by video games. His channel has been active for over five years now and has reached the lofty heights of 100 million views.

Gav

I contacted Gav and he graciously accepted my request for a short interview where I got to ask him ten questions to explore his music and the importance of games.  Continue reading →

Dark Souls Theory: Seath the Puppet Master of Anor Londo?

Matthew Roys Opinions , , , , , ,

Most people have reached the consensus that Gwyndolin is the master of Anor Londo and is the one who pulls all of the strings from behind the scenes. There is plenty of evidence to support this but it just does not add up in my head.

Firstly, would Gwyn have really left Gwyndolin in charge of his capital? There are no statues of Gwyndolin and nor is there anything to suggest that Gwyn valued him. We know that Gwyndolin was always trying to please his father so we can assume that Gwyn looked down upon him because of his feminine nature. He is not a great warrior like his father and older brother and nor does he inspire awe or trust like his sister. He was, for all intents and purposes, an outcast hidden away in the shadows. Would Gwyn really leave his city to an unproven pariah? Gwyn seems to respect strength and prowess and Seath certainly proved himself by betraying the dragons and fighting against them. He was made a Duke for his services. Would steward be too large a step up after Gwyn’s departure. The fact that he was a duke shows he had Gwyn’s respect and his land consisted of the Duke’s Archives, either within Anor Londo or at its border. A duke could easily fill the role of the lord if the need arose. Plus let’s not forget that Gwyn did not pass on any fragments of the Lord Soul that we know of to his children. Instead he gave them to Seath and the Four Kings. Continue reading →

Xcom 2 Review

Matthew Roys Review , ,

Xcom 2 is a turn based strategy game about human resistance fighters trying to overthrow the aliens who now control Earth.

If you played the first of the new Xcom games Enemy Unknown or its expansion Enemy Within and did not like them then you will not like this one any more. Lots of little things have changed but the visuals and mechanics are still very much in the same vain as the previous game. It is improved in most ways but nothing is different enough to sway opinions on the series.

If you did enjoy the previous Xcom then chances are that you will enjoy this one too. This review is more for the people who have never played an Xcom game or were left on the fence about their feelings towards them. Continue reading →

The Failures of Fable and how it could have Survived.

Matthew Roys Opinions, Uncategorized , , ,

Since the unfortunate news this month that Lionhead Studios is being closed and Fable Legends has been cancelled, it got me thinking about the Fable series as a whole and where it went wrong. I was a huge fan of the original Fable and even though it under delivered on Peter Molyneux’s promises, (go figure), it is still to this day in my top ten games.

So where did it all go wrong? Fable 1, (and its expansion The Lost Chapters), was a great game but does not hold up so well today in its mechanics. As such I can understand why people who didn’t play it originally would not like it. All the same though, it approached the RPG genre in a refreshing way. It was more of a fairytale setting than the more common high fantasy and relied heavily on its strong sense of British humour. It was also able to create the perfect balance between having a character that players can role-play to their whims while having a strong story, something that even modern games like Fallout 4 struggled with. There was revenge to be had and mysteries about your family to discover while the daunting villain of Jack of Blades always loomed on the horizon. Continue reading →

Three Things That The Elder Scrolls VI Needs to Succeed.

Matthew Roys Opinions , , , , ,

Fallout 4 has just released to mixed reviews and people are already turning their sights toward the inevitable Elder Scrolls VI. Keep in mind that we are unlikely to hear anything about the next instalment in the award winning franchise until 2017 at the earliest as there is still the matter of Fallout 4 DLC to be released, not to mention other big Bethesda games like DOOM and Dishonoured 2.

That being said though, it is a safe assumption that The Elder Scrolls VI is being worked on as I type this. In this article I will be looking at ways  in which a sequel to 2011’s Skyrim could surpass its predecessors.

As I said at the start, Fallout 4 was released with conflicting opinions among gamers. Many were disappointed and underwhelmed by what the game had to offer. I felt that the game was solid enough but should have been so much more. I felt this even more strongly with Skyrim. At least Fallout 4 added mechanics like armour pieces and settlement creation. Skyrim only reduced mechanics from previous games. We were given less armour, less weapons and less skills. A game that was toted as the ultimate RPG offered little in the way of actual role-playing. Most playthroughs ended with you wearing the same armour, using the same weapon and being the leader of every group in the country. There is no diversity or variety that you would expect from an Elder Scrolls game. Continue reading →

Top 10 Reasons Why Everybody Should Give Dark Souls a Chance

Matthew Roys Top 10 , ,

With Dark Souls 3 and the Bloodborne expansion on the horizon  I thought I would take the time to tell folk why they should at least attempt to play Dark Souls (the first preferably). It is no secret that I am a big fan of the game so these are my top 10 reasons why you should give it a chance.

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Opinion – Games and Anger

Matthew Roys Opinions , , , , ,

Games can make us angry. Whether it is rage quitting, breaking a controller, punching an inanimate object or screaming at the screen, most people who play games will have some experience with the frustration that games can bring out in players. They are competitive and they are challenging. That adrenaline that fills us in a boss battle or a really close multiplayer map is an example of how they affect us emotionally and can trigger chemical reactions within us.

Of late though it feels like gamers have being getting angrier and more violent. We all know of kids screaming insults and swears into the microphone in multiplayer matches, the death threats sent to developers, reviewers and competitive major league players and the new trend of ‘swatting’ (notifying authorities of terrorism to bring armed swat forces to game streamers’ houses). Then there is the ever present perception of gamers as unstable outcasts who are one breakdown away from shooting up a school. Continue reading →