Video Games Blog
Joker in Injustice 2? How did he come back to life?
Posted by Pascal C.
The Joker has been added to the official character roster. It does not come as to much of a surprise considering he is the most popular villain in the batman universe but, his role in the story of injustice 2 does bring questions. The joker was killed by superman in Injustice 2 so it is a little confusing on why he is still in the story mode. Sure with supernatural characters like doctor fate and futuristic characters like Braniac that question could be answered with resurrection or time travel but it is still fun to think about the possibilities that the Nethrealm team comes up with.
The joker’s game play was shown and he seems to play pretty much identical to the past Injustice 1 joker aside from a more flashier super move. What does seem new and cool is the number of costume changes that the joker has access to. Injustice 2 is focusing more time on customization with the characters and the joker has the best costume options so far.
Who is Ganesha?-Smite review
Post by: Darrell Keller
Smite has created something extremely unique with this character. A Hindu god that doesn’t get any kills (assuming no-one is around). In my opinion, this is extremely weird because the game has always encouraged every character to get as many kills as possible, but now we’re faced with a God that basically does the opposite.
So how did Smite compensate to help this character that gets next to no kills every game? They made him freaking awesome. If Kuzenbo was an angry meat shield, Ganesha is an floating can of CC. Ganesha can’t get any kills, but what he can do is effectively disrupt the enemy team and shield his own team from tons of the damage the other team would put out as well as doing some pretty great damage himself. His kit doesn’t do too many favors for his damage, but, if we consider how long he can stay in lane, he has the potential to put out some major pain. So, before we go into how to go about doing that, let’s look at his abilities.
Passive: Good Fortune [Buff]: Whenever Ganesha gets a killing blow, the nearest allied God receives the credit and instead, Ganesha receives assist gold. In addition, he gains +20’ radius for assists, and the time is increased where he can gain an assist goes up by 5 seconds.
1: Turn of Fate [Line, Buff, Damage]: Ganesha unleashes a powerful curse that deals damage [90/150/210/270/330 (+55% of your magical power)] and goes through all enemies. For each enemy he hits [up to 5], allied units within 55’ receive bonus Damage [2% per stack, 3 second duration].
You’re gonna wanna upgrade this first. Look at all the utility!
2: Ohm [Cone, CC, Buff]: Ganesha assumes the Lotus Position while hovering in the air, and chants the sacred sound, Ohm. He is slowed, but can move in all directions. The cone in front of him is a silence, and the remainder of the area around him is a buff to allies, increasing Physical Protections [20/30/40/50/60]. As long as they are in the cone, they remain silenced.
Get this one second, it turns you into a buffed CC spraycan.
3: Remove Obstacles [Dash, CC]: Ganesha charges forward, and hooks the first enemy he comes into contact with using his goad. He drops a vicious combo, before ending it with an uppercut, knocking the enemy up into the air! While he’s dashing, he moves straight through all enemy deployables. You cannot hinder him!
4: Dharmic Pillars [Ground Target, CC, Debuff]: Ganesha summons the Four Great Pillars of Righteousness to imprison his foes. Enemies who pass through the barrier are slowed [20/25/30/35/40%] take Damage [95/135/175/215/255 (+40% of your magical power)] and receive Reduced Protections [15/25/35/45/55] for 3 seconds.
Combo this with your 3.
MUST USE ITEMS
Watchers gift. Get this early game for the measly price of 800 to become a beast. This starter item was practically made for Ganesha, and brings his early game to a whole new level.
Mystical mail. This item, when paired with your spray can ability, will make you a can of pain. You can now run into the enemy spray them down and watch them struggle to get away without their abilities. It’s great, and it might even up your damage about 30% (from personal testing)
Final thoughts
This god was really fun, I stopped focusing on my kill feed and got to hone my other basic smite skills, like teamwork and synergy. I felt like I was doing a great job even when I just picked him up, so, at least to me, he was very intuitive and easy to play. I would recommend this God to any new player to the game, just so they get good teamwork habits. 10/10 very balanced god
Ranking the Dark Souls 3 Bosses – Hard to Soul-Crushing Part 5
Author: Liam Riker
Hey guys. So after Part 4 in this series, where I literally just covered one boss, Halflight, Spear of the Church, from the new “The Ringed City” DLC, I though I’d get things back on track with this post. I’ll be covering two more bosses in this post, who come in at #15 and #14 on my countdown. For the rest of this series, the breakdown will go as follows: Part 6 will cover the bosses ranked #13-#11; Part 7 will cover the bosses ranked #10-#6; and lastly, Part 8 will conclude my Dark Souls 3 Boss Countdown series with the Top 5 hardest bosses in the game and accompanying DLC’s.
Just a reminder, this is a completely opinionated series of posts. This is just how I personally rank all the bosses in Dark Souls 3 from my experiences with the game, and I’d love to hear from any of ya’ll if you have a different ranked list than mine!
So without further ado, let’s jump right into the countdown with the boss that comes in at #15.
*Potential Spoilers Below*
15. Champion’s Gravetender and Gravetender Greatwolf
The Champion’s Gravetender and Gravetender Greatwolf is a boss fight that the player will encounter near the “Depths of the Painting” location in the “Ashes of Ariandel” DLC, which came out late last year. This boss fight, while not particularly difficult, is definitely one of my favorite boss fights in the game due to it’s incredibly cool (no pun intended) design and FANTASTIC ost! The fight still can be pretty punishing still, especially in it’s 2nd phase, and thus is worthy of holding spot #15 on my boss countdown. Before I go into a bit more detail on this boss, check out the boss’s ost here, to see just exactly what I’m gawking over. It’s by far my most favorite boss ost in the game!
When you first enter the massive boss room for the Champion’s Gravetender and Gravetender Greatwolf boss fight, you must navigate through this wide-open and gorgeous frozen field of flowers, till you reach the ruins near the back of this area. Upon reaching the ruins, you see a figure seated next to what looks like a grave accompanied by one of the numerous wolves the player will have encountered inside the Painted World of Ariandel. The figure proceeds to stand up, turns to face you and the 1st phase of this boss fight begins.
In this 1st phase, if the player is able to take care of the Champion’s Gravetender’s three wolf friends relatively quickly, this phase should go by rather smoothly, as the Champion’s Gravetender, leaves himself open after every lunging and jumping attack for punishment. While the weapon art for the Valorheart shield the Champion’s Gravetender wields can be startling and thus punishing, if the player plays too aggressively, the Champion’s Gravetender feels no more difficult than any of the numerous NPC’s the player has had to fight up to this point of the game. That is until the player brings his health to the halfway point, at which point the Champion’s Gravetender will motion his sword to the sky and the 2nd phase begins.
Enter the Gravetender Greatwolf, who pounces down from somewhere above the frozen field of flowers. This beauty should be a familiar site to the player, since they’ll likely have encountered phantom like versions of the Greatwolf on two separate occasions on their way to the Champion’s Gravetender boss fight. The Gravetender Greatwolf has a full boss-sized health bar of it’s own this time and will fight alongside the Champion’s Gravetender for the rest of this fight, and boy does this bad boy have a mean bite.
For the 2nd phase, the best strategy would be for the player to quickly finish off the remaining health of the Champion’s Gravetender, before the Greatwolf, has much time to protect it’s master. Once the Champion’s Gravetender has been taken care of, the player can focus all of their attention on the Greatwolf, who’s a heck of a challenging adversary due to the nature of how agile and powerful he is. The Greatwolf has good combo game and is able to roll catch the player fairly easily with one of these combos of bites, and doesn’t leave the player with many openings, as he’ll often throw in a move where he’ll bite at the player then make a spinning leap backwards to avoid being hit if the player dodged his bite. However, the Greatwolf’s most dangerous move by far, is when a whirlwind of snow begins to circle around him and he swiftly charges at the player two times. If the player doesn’t dodge the first of the two charges, there’s a good chance he’ll get caught in the second, at which point, it’s plausible that the Greatwolf can kill the player, even from full health, depending on their build.
As if this wasn’t already challenging enough, this boss fight technically has a 3rd phase, which occurs after the Gravetender Greatwolf’s health bar is brought down halfway. At this point the Greatwolf gives out a loud howl and his eyes start glowing red. While his move-set hasn’t changed all that much for this final phase, the Greatwolf will be far more agile, throwing in that move where he charges at the player in a whirlwind of snow more often, and will also deal more damage to the player. The Greatwolf does throw in one new move that’s particularly nasty, where he’ll charge up briefly and then proceed to breathe a stream of frost as he gradually sweeps his head from left to right. This move is very reminiscent of the move Vordt of the Boreal Valley (#21 on my countdown) uses in his 2nd phase, however, the Greatwolf’s version comes out way quicker than Vordt’s, giving the player very little time to find cover and deals ALOT more frostbite damage. If the player gets frostbitten from this move, their mobility will be decreased, which will spell nearly certain death for them for the remainder of the fight. Pretty nasty am I right!?
While the 2nd (and technical 3rd) phase of this boss fight are quite challenging, it’s still a very manageable fight, that will likely take the player only a handful of tries before they are able to get past it. While a lot of people were disappointed with the lack of any considerable difficulty with this boss fight, being that they’d come to expect only the most challenging of boss fights from a Dark Souls game DLC, I personally feel that this fight is fantastic. While it might not be the most challenging, it has such a cinematic feel to it, and sets itself apart from any other boss in the game. The mystery behind the Champion’s Gravetender: like whose grave is he watching over? And how does he have some sort of pact with the wolves of this world, including the towering Greatwolf?; far make up for the relative easiness of the fight. And, in case I didn’t emphasize it enough, the ost for this fight is amazing!
If you want to see a play through of this wonderfully unique and captivating boss fight, click here.
14. Abyss Watchers
Coming in at # 14 on my Dark Souls 3 Boss Countdown, is the second of the Lords of Cinder on my countdown and the first the player actually encounters in the game, after navigating through the hell that is the Farron Keep swamp. The Abyss Watchers, a fan favorite boss of Dark Souls 3 and even the entire Souls series, while not the most challenging of boss fights, is still a very high hurdle the player will have to overcome, especially considering how early on in the game the player gains access to this fight. It’ll likely be the first “holy fuck” moment of Dark Souls 3 for most players.
Perhaps one of the greatest things about this fight, is how rich the lore is for the Abyss Watchers, and how tragic their story is. While fighting tragic bosses is a very common theme throughout the Dark Souls series, with Dark Souls 3 being no exception, this is the first boss in the game where the tragicness of the boss is made evident to the player.
The introductory cinematic for this boss fight spells out the craziness and tragicness of the Abyss Watchers, as you walk into the boss room where two of them are fighting one another, until one is able to make, what appears to be, the finishing blow. The prevailing Abyss Watcher proceeds to rip his sword out of his fellow member of Farron’s Undead Legion, and then turns ominously to face the player, whose finally gained his attention. A brief summary of the lore behind the Abyss Watchers, is that they were all members of Farron’s Undead Legion, who were sworn enemies of the Abyss, and followers of the Wolf Blood Master (who according to many is undoubtedly the character Artorias from the original Dark Souls). But after sharing the blood of the Wolf Blood Master, their souls were linked together into one, hence why they are in a constant purgatory like state, constantly fighting and “killing” one another. Halfway through the 1st phase of the boss fight, an Abyss Watcher rises from the ground with red eyes and proceeds to fight the two Abyss Watchers you’re fighting, the red eyes being a constant symbol throughout the game that the being has been consumed by the Abyss.
Well that’s enough of the lore, let’s get to why I ranked this fight above all the others I’ve covered thus far.
The 1st phase of the fight begins with the player fighting the main Abyss Watcher, who’s in possession of their cumulative souls, and who slew his brethren in the introductory cinematic. The Abyss Watcher has a particularly nasty move set, with combos, that will catch the player with the anticipation in-between each move of the combo, quick attacks with a handheld dagger, to prevent the player from being able to hack away at him for too long, and several sliding and slamming attacks with the Abyss Watcher’s Greatsword that close the distance quickly and punish the player if they ever try to flee carelessly.
However, the fight doesn’t really get serious until a second Abyss Watcher rises in the boss room and starts chasing and attacking the player along with the main Abyss Watcher. This second Abyss Watcher has a mini health bar of it’s own, independent of the main boss’s health bar, so the player should still focus their attention on the Abyss Watcher they were fighting at the start of the boss battle. This is much easier said than done though, as both Abyss Watchers are relentless, cover eachother’s backs, and provide very few openings for the player to attack them. Fighting both Abyss Watchers at the same time is extremely difficult, but luckily the boss fight lends the player some aid before things look too bleak. A third Abyss Watcher rises in the room, this one with red glowing eyes, who’s clearly been corrupted by the Abyss. Since the Abyss Watchers are sworn enemies of the Abyss, both the main Abyss Watcher and especially the second Abyss Watcher with the mini health bar, will be drawn to kill this red-eyed Abyss Watcher, instead of just focusing on you.
The red-eyed, corrupted Abyss Watcher will also focus the other two Abyss Watchers, however, it still can attack you and definitely will if you get too close to it while it’s fighting off the two other Abyss Watchers. In order to get through this 1st phase of the boss fight (yes this is all STILL the 1st phase of the fight :P), the player will need to utilize the corrupted Abyss Watcher to the best of their ability, since taking on both Abyss Watchers at the same time will almost certainly end up killing the player. The other options are for the player to either focus the secondary Abyss Watcher, take care of his small health pool and then focus the main Abyss Watcher, or draw enough separation between the two Abyss Watchers to go at the main Abyss Watcher’s boss-level health pool. Luckily the Abyss Watchers are able to be staggered, so getting in a number of attacks on them is manageable, so long as the player is able to find an appropriate opening, and with the assistance of the corrupted Abyss Watcher, this 1st phase really isn’t as bad as I may be making it out to be.
However, the 2nd phase of the Abyss Watchers boss fight is a completely different story.
The grueling 2nd phase of the Abyss Watchers boss fight has no gimmick, no way to cheese the fight, nor ally to help the player with the fight. The 2nd phase requires pure skill on the part of the player to get past it. After the main Abyss Watcher’s health bar has been brought down all the way to zero, there’s a cut to another cinematic, where blood from all of the dead Abyss Watchers littered across the boss room raises into the air and flows into the body of the Abyss Watcher you just took down. The Abyss Watcher rises, his greatsword now covered in flame, the player knows shit’s about to get real.
Even more so than in the 1st phase of the fight, the Abyss Watcher is relentless as HELL! Giving the player barely any openings to attack, while at the same time feigning that he’s done with a combo to trick the player into approaching him only to get punished severely by the final devastating hit of the combo. On top of this, every one of his swings with his flaming greatsword now is followed immediately by a flurry of flames, to catch the player if they don’t dodge the initial attack perfectly. The attacks he uses to close the distance between himself and the player are all especially nasty too, one of which consisting of a lunging stab, a swift sliding attack that leaves a trail of fire behind it, and a leaping spinning attack that’s sure to catch even the most adept dodgers. For this 2nd phase, the player will just have to buckle down, stay focused, and above all be patient! The greed for a third or fourth attack against the Abyss Watcher will almost certainly end with the player dying.
Once the player gets a good idea of the boss’s patterns and move set, the 2nd phase is certainly a very manageable one, but this process of learning the 2nd phase’s patterns, especially when the player will have to first get past the 1st phase which is, by no means, a slouch of a phase, will likely take a number of tries. This will definitely be the most difficult boss fight for the player for where they’re currently at in the game (unless they were feeling especially gutsy and attempted the Dancer of the Boreal Valley WAY before they should’ve) and will prove to be a very memorably difficult boss fight for the player’s entire experience with Dark Souls 3.
Like the Gravetender Greatwolf boss fight, the Abyss Watchers boss fight also has a fantastic ost! If you’d like to hear the ost and also check out the riveting cutscenes and gameplay of this fight, click here.
Alright, well that’s all for this section of my boss countdown! As you can tell, we’re finally getting to some of the actually difficult bosses in Dark Souls 3, bosses that are worthy and characteristic of the “Dark Souls” name. We’re not quite to the soul-crushing bosses, but trust me, we’re getting close.
Check back next time, as I cover bosses ranked #13-#11 on my countdown. Thanks for your time and your support! Please feel free to like this post and leave any thoughts or opinions in the comments.
Nintendo Switch – The Soulless Console
Author: Blake Biehle
I love my Nintendo Switch, but does anyone else agree with me when I say that the Nintendo Switch has by far the least amount of personality of any Nintendo Console? Most of this post will be nitpicking, but I believe it’s important to point out. I want it to feel like a NINTENDO console and not anything but.
First of all, when you first boot up the Nintendo Switch, you’ll notice that it is DEAD silent. There is no home theme music to be heard! I’m not sure if this will be added in the future, but I sure hope it is. I used to always leave my consoles on so I could just relax to Nintendo’s charming jams. They were always just so Nintendo-like. Speaking of a lack of jams, when you open the Nintendo Switch eShop, once again, the dead silence is back with a vengeance. For whatever reason, Nintendo has not even added any shopping music. With the home menu, I could understand. Maybe some people don’t want to listen to music when they just want to launch their game and go. But when you are SHOPPING, music NEEDS to be a necessity. How can you remove the shopping theme Nintendo? You’ve been known to add such charming music to your menu’s and I miss them! The Nintendo Switch even hides the mii app. You can’t access it immediately from the home menu, you have to look in the options to access it. The switch quite literally has no apps for you to enjoy, no news channel, or miiverse, nothing. It just seems so empty. I’m sure Nintendo is working on fixing this, but it still was rather disappointing, at least for me, considering I actually loved looking around on all of their apps. It made it feel like I was a part of the Nintendo community.
My theory for this lack of a soul, would be that they wanted to ship this console out on time for Breath of the Wild. This was a smart move if that is so, because honestly, not too many people bought it for the Wii U. I know there was a decent amount, but the main appeal for that game was the fact that it was being sold at launch for a new console.
Do you guys feel the same way about the Switch’s lack of character? Leave a comment if you agree or disagree below!
Super Smash Brothers WILL be on the Switch… right?
Author: Blake Biehle
Super Smash Brothers for the Switch with all included DLC from both the Wii U and the 3DS versions. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? All stages from both games, and maybe some new characters could be added to the roster (Ice Climbers or maybe even Wolf). This is my biggest wish to Nintendo. Honestly, it would be foolish NOT to do something along these lines. This is an instant GOLD MINE for Nintendo. It makes perfect sense to me, and I truly believe that we will hear an announcement on some similar scale at Nintendo’s E3 direct. I have my reasons to believe this too, which I will state below.
Let’s go over the facts shall we. First of all, Super Smash Brothers has been one of Nintendo’s best-selling games of all time. For every single iteration, Super Smash Brothers was always considered to be one of the most sold games for their consoles. Not only that, but the latest iteration for the Wii u is, at least in my opinion, the best in the series due to its extremely polished gameplay and huge and entertaining cast of characters. It would be a complete waste for Nintendo NOT to port it to the Switch! I love my Wii U, but let’s be real, it was a pitiful thing to call a console. It suffered for a lot of reasons I won’t go into, but if this game was brought to the Switch, I believe Nintendo would make a massive profit.
My final reason to believe that Super Smash Brothers for the Switch will happen is none other than the game that was just released, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This game is quite literally a copy and paste of Mario Kart 8 but with more polish, new game modes, maps, and characters. This is my strongest reason to believe that Super Smash Brothers for the Switch will happen. Why wouldn’t SSB get the same treatment as Mario Kart 8? It did almost as well in terms of sales!
Anyway, I hope I lifted your spirits a little bit. I’m sure a LOT of us are disappointed that Super Smash Brothers is not available for the Nintendo Switch YET. Do you guys feel the same as I do? Do you think I’m crazy? Let me know in the comments below!
Pro Overwatch Player uses Eye Tracker
Post by- Darrell Keller
Pro Overwatch player and youtuber “Unit Lost” decided to use a Eye Tracker on his past few games after seeing a reddit user post his own eye scanner video. Unit Lost is a Grandmaster level player that has predicted many of the overwatch updates before they happened, and has discussed some of the problems that some characters had before they got patched. Because of this he has a big influence in the Overwatch community. That being said, will this video encourage other serious Overwatch players to use eye scanners as well? Maybe, but the average Overwatch player wouldn’t care enough about the game to get an eye tracker and would probably just take unit lost’s word for it and follow the advice given in his video.
Unit lost or “stylosa” suggests that people should check the kill feed to see who is doing good work on both teams, focus straight ahead on the enemy and using your peripherals to find the next enemy. He also checks his own stats to see if he’s doing work, and if he isn’t he’d know to switch.
I personally thought this was incredibly interesting just to see how skilled people play a video game and how they use the layout of the game to their advantage. And I hope to see more videos like this from him.
Ranking the Dark Souls 3 Bosses – Hard to Soul-Crushing Part 4 – Halflight, Spear of the Church
Author: Liam Riker
Hey guys! The time has come to continue my Dark Souls 3 Boss Countdown. I’ve been playing a lot of the recently released “The Ringed City” DLC lately, which in my opinion has been a very satisfying and impressive concluding chapter to Dark Souls 3 and ultimately, the Dark Souls trilogy as a whole. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been able to fight all four of the bosses in the DLC area (still haven’t beaten the final boss though), so I’d be able to include them all in this countdown as planned. Perfect timing too, since one of those four bosses just so happens to fill the next spot in my countdown. Since I have a lot to say about this particular boss, I’ve decided to just dedicate a whole blog post to it, and continue the rest of my countdown on the next post in this series.
So without further ado, let’s get this ball rolling with number 16 on the countdown.
*Potential Spoilers Below*
16. Halflight, Spear of the Church
Coming in at #16, is the first boss I’ve covered from Dark Souls 3‘s “The Ringed City” DLC, Halflight, Spear of the Church. The Spear of the Church boss fight is likely the hardest of the boss fights in my countdown to rank, as it’s a different fight nearly every time you face it, unless you happen to be in Offline Mode. The fight is also the most unique of all the bosses in my countdown and one of the reasons why it’s quickly become one of my new favorite bosses in the game. However, although the fight has high variability, once the player understands how the boss fight works, it can become fairly easy, even when up against the most skilled of the Spears of the Church. Thus, why the Spear of the Church boss fight comes in at only #16 on my countdown.
Before the player even opens the doors to the church, where the boss fight takes place in, they are greeted by the intimidating voice of Judicator Argo, warning the player that they must turn back now, in accordance to the King’s Decree that no one shall disturb the slumber of Princess Filianore. After proceeding through those church doors you were just told not to open, you are greeted by the incredibly towering presence of Judicator Argo at the opposite end of the church.
Judicator Argo proceeds to scold you on your foolishness and claims that he will deliver justice to you. During this time, when Judicator Argo is monologuing about how you will pay for disrespecting the King’s Decree, the player is given a considerable opening, to hack away at his relatively small health pool. The player should either take advantage of this opening, or hang back and wait for Argo to finish monologuing, after which he’ll summon a Painting Guardian and shortly after that, the true boss of this fight, the Spear of the Church.
Depending on whether or not you’re in online mode or not, you’ll either get a randomly selected player who’s aligned themselves with the Spears of the Church covenant as the boss, or the NPC Halflight, who according to Dark Souls lore, is the last recorded Spear of the Church. (Halflight pictured above as the featured image for this boss) In case you didn’t catch that, yes the boss fight has the potential to be just another player online, explaining why ranking this boss fight is particularly difficult.
While you may be lucky and get a player who is relatively unskilled at the game, or whose build is extremely advantageous for your’s, there’s an equally likely chance that you’ll get a player whose build is a hard counter to your’s or a veteran of the Souls series. If you don’t want to rely on chance, you can always do the fight in offline mode, but even then, Halflight is no pushover, with his Frayed Blade katana and White Birch bow. To see how the boss fight looks when Halflight is summoned as the Spear of the Church click here.
If the player was just fighting the Spear of the Church mano a mano, this boss fight would likely be near the bottom of my countdown as one of the easiest fights in the game. But, as I mentioned earlier, Judicator Argo first summons a Painting Guardian, a rather nasty NPC, who wields a fast Painting Guardian Curved Sword that’s able to land combos on the player easily and unlimited Church Guardian Shivs, illusory throwing knives that deal magic damage, forcing the player to either play agilely or aggressively. The Painting Guardian can also use a miracle to heal the Spear of the Church, prolonging the fight, if the player doesn’t act fast enough to interrupt the casting of the miracle. When the player brings the Spear of the Church’s health down to the halfway point, another Painting Guardian is summoned, and if the player hasn’t eliminated the other Painting Guardian by this point, they are going to be in a world of hurt! Even though the Painting Guardians don’t deal a lot of damage, they have the capability to easily stun and stagger the player with their move set, preventing the player from getting to the actual boss and making it possible for the player to be combo’d to death.
Putting all of this into consideration, most of the difficulty in the Spear of the Church boss fight comes from the chance of getting a highly skilled player summoned through the Spears of the Church covenant, or from letting the fight prolong for too long and not taking care of the Painting Guardians fast enough. As many have attested, fighting a skilled Dark Souls player online in PvP, can be more difficult than fighting even the hardest of bosses in the game. So, due to the unpredictable nature of this boss fight, and how there is high potential, especially at later levels, to have a particularly skilled player summoned as the Spear of the Church, I’ve decided that slot #16 is a fair ranking of this very unique boss.
I absolutely love the concept of this fight, and while I’ve heard from some of my friends who have played the predecessor to the Dark Souls series, Demon Souls, that there is a similarly conceptualized boss fight in that game, I still find the concept of the Spear of the Church fight to be incredibly creative and exceptional in it’s singularity. “The Ringed City” DLC has included a system, where the player is able to reset the boss fight over and over again, at the cost of souls, as a way of engaging in this unique boss fight experience multiple times, and as a way to farm Filianore’s Spear Ornaments, which the player can turn in to upgrade their ranking in the Spears of the Church covenant.
As you could’ve guessed, as a member of the Spears of the Church covenant, which you can join after defeating an incredibly difficult boss in this DLC, Darkeater Midir (I’ll be covering him way later in my countdown), you will occasionally be summoned to fight as the Spear of the Church against a player who has dared to disturb Princess Filianore’s slumber. And there is nothing quite as badass as being summoned to be a boss in a game like Dark Souls 3!
Well that’s all for this post ya’ll. I will try and get the next episode in my Dark Souls 3 Boss Countdown series out to you guys as soon as possible, where I’ll go into depth on the next set of bosses in my countdown as usual. Thanks for taking the time to read one of my posts and for dropping in to visit The Gamer’s Smorgasbord! Until next time!
The Nintendo Direct on 4/12
Author: Blake Biehle
As many of you know, Nintendo streamed a new Nintendo Direct earlier this month on April 12th. This direct conveyed an abundant amount of information in just 35 minutes. Quite a few surprises in there as well.
First, I’ll start with the 3DS info. I’ll simply name the games that I am most excited for because the list is huge. My most anticipated games from the list of 3DS games that they showed us are Pikmin 3DS (there has never been a mobile pikmin game before so that’ll be exciting!), Monster Hunter Stories (A game that allows you to capture and train monsters in order to battle others in turn based combat), an update to Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valencia (Very excited for the new Fire Emblem game!), And lastly we have the new Kirby game, Kirby’s Blowout Blast.
Now I’ll move onto the Switch information. This is the information I was most excited about from the Nintendo Direct. One of my most anticipated games for the Switch was Arms, and they left a hefty amount of details for that game in this direct. For one, they announced a new character Min Min, a girl who has noodles for arms (I love her). Not only did they introduce a new character, but also mentioned new abilities that can be used throughout every Arms match. Every character has their own unique ability they can use in a fighting match. They also announced a 2 v 2 battle mode, which before was unheard of! Lastly, they finally announced a release date, June 16th! Sooner than I expected for sure.
The other game that they showed off that I’m sure many of us were excited about is Splatoon 2. With this demonstration, they showed off a new game mode called Salmon Run, which looks like a multiplayer co-op horde mode. This mode looks really addicting and I can’t wait to see what they add the new mode.
That concludes all of the big information that was provided for the Nintendo Direct on 4/12. What did you guys think of the Direct? Did I leave out any information that you were excited about? Leave comments below!
Why I’m bummed Z-Moves replaced Mega Evolutions
Author: Blake Biehle
Before I begin, let me explain that I thoroughly enjoyed the Pokemon Sun and Moon series. It was ingenious of Nintendo to mix up the Pokemon formula quite drastically. It kept the series feeling fresh, even with its 7th generation. However, one feature I am still bummed about that they scrapped, was mega evolutions. I’m sure they had their reasons, primarily the fact that Z-moves were being introduced, but it would have been very cool if they could somehow include mega evolutions into it all. I’m not sure if this is a popular opinion, but I believe that mega evolutions have much more potential for creativity and strategy than Z-moves. Z-moves just seem like an overpowered cool move that you can use on your opponent at any given time. I know that there is strategy implemented with them, like when you should use which specific Z-move on your team against a specific opponent, but in my eyes, it is rather underwhelming. It is a singular move. With mega evolutions, some Pokemon that were previously considered unusable, became competitively viable! It also gave them a brand new transformation, and sometimes your type would change depending on the mega evolution. I thought mega evolutions were a fun mechanic, and I’ll always be a little bummed that Pokemon Sun and Moon will never offer new mega evolutions. Hopefully in future iterations of the games they’ll see a return.
Anyway, that’s my opinion on Mega Evolutions and their replacement, Z-moves. Do you agree with what I had to say? Do you disagree? Why? Leave a comment below!
What makes Kirby so dang enjoyable? (part 2)
Author: Blake Biehle
This is part 2 of me breaking down why Kirby games are so dang enjoyable. If you want to read part 1, click here. Alright, let’s continue!
Reason number three for why Kirby games are so enjoyable, at least in my opinion, would be the fact that there is a wide variety of moves for each special power of Kirby’s. This reasoning does not go for all traditional Kirby games, but a large majority of them allow Kirby to use more than one move with any special ability. It is this wide variety that I adore with Kirby games. It just adds a whole new aspect to how you can play the game. There is a lot of discovering what moves work best around which enemies, and creates a lot of replayability.
And last but not least, we have my final reason for why Kirby games are so dang enjoyable. Now this reason might be due to the fact that I have an extremely short attention span, but it is a strong reason nonetheless in my eyes. Kirby games are EXTREMELY fast paced! There is no tutorial, you just drop in and go. Not only do they just drop you in, but the Kirby levels are usually pretty short. This is in order to keep the experience from getting stale with long drawn out levels. I absolutely adore the fast pace of Kirby games. I am always constantly entertained with these games and they always leave a smile on my face. The OST also enhances this fast pace and upbeat gameplay. Kirby OSTs are always filled with very energetic and catchy tunes that you can’t NOT hum to. These are the kind of songs that will haunt your dreams at night due to the catchiness so watch out. The OST further amplifies that sense of quick pace though because it just adds to the energy released throughout the game.
Well, that concludes my reasons for what makes Kirby games so dang enjoyable. Hope you liked it! Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below!
The gamer's Smorgasbord 