Shane's Mondays Musings - 4/11

Here we are, another Monday, and that means another installment of Shane's Mondays Musings! Should that "Monday" be plural? Who knows, and so cares?

Last week I introduced this new weekly mini-post, where I talk about video games for as long as I can in my 20 minute break at work. Well, we're back at it again (also, as you'll come to find out, little-to-no-editing). It's April 11. Tomorrow is April 12. Do you guys know what they means?

Come on. You do.

DARK SOULS 3!

I'm grabbing it at midnight tonight, because finally, unlike with Dark Souls II and Bloodborne, my local Gamestop is having a midnight release. I'm not usually huge on midnight releases, because I have too damn of a hard time staying awake, but I've gone to a few. My wife and I got Arkham City (back in 2011 I believe?) at midnight, and we also got Dead Space 2. We were actually just talking about this last night. There is done debate as to whether or not we also got Portal 2.

So I'm buying it tonight, and I'm gonna do the installs and BS day one patches, and I'm hoping that won't take too long. I work a 12 hour shift today, from 5am to 5:30pm, so I woke up at 4:20 this morning. It's gonna be tough to stay up and play any significant amount of the game, but I'm gonna try my best dammit!

I've read two more reviews, and both were positive. GameSpot gave it an 8/10, and GameRant gave it a 4/5. Both praised the level design (mostly), the enemy/boss designs, and the great combat. Both did mention as negatives some of the subpar boss battles. Still seems like there is more than enough good ones to make up for it.

At this point, there isn't a whole lot more to say. I'm gonna just let the game do the talking. I'm very, very, excited, and I am giddy at the thought of diving into a brand new Souls world. I think I'll end this here. Look for a new Solo Soulscast, all about my first few hours with Dark Souls 3, sometime Tuesday, April 12 (god willing. Maybe Wednesday is less realistic). At any rate, happy Dark Souls-ing everyone!

The "I Love You" Show Episode 1 (of 1???) - Bedtime Never Comes feat. Kara

PLEASE GO TO BED

Sometimes, toddlers don't go to bed...

Shane's Mondays Musings - 4/4

This is a new weekly post I'm going to do. Simply put, during my first break at work ever Monday morning (7:30am, Eastern time), I'm gonna take 15 minutes to post a short, off-the-cuff, barely edited post about any new video game stuff going on. Whatever I can type (on my phone), and edit, in 15 minutes is what gets published. Let's get started, shall we?

Yes, we shall!

Why isn't it April 12 yet? I'm chomping at the bit for Dark Souls 3. Just read IGN's review, and they gave it a 9.5 out of 10, which is what I think they've given probably every Souls game. And for good reason. The only two problems they had were some underwhelming boss fights (don't worry, still lots of good ones) and the damn frame rate dipping. Why can't FromSoft figure that out? I'm sure it won't be a big deal, but it's getting frustrating.

I started this post at 7:51, so I only have about three minutes left. From what IGN said, the game has awesome, multi-faceted weapons, stunning visuals, great areas, interesting NPCs, lots of content (side quests, etc), and the combat is better then ever, thanks to the weapon arts abilities. Also they say dual wielding is more possible than ever.

Okay, this was super short, but that's the point. Check back next Monday for another Shane's Mondays Musings.

Solo Soulscast Episode 3 - Gabbin' 'Bout Demon's Souls

Solo Soulscast Episode 3 - Gabbin' 'Bout Demon's Souls

 

Score one for consistency! Welcome one and all to episode 3 of the Solo Soulscast, which is out a week after episode 2! How do you like that? Within, you can join me on a journey of self-discovery, intrigue, wonder, and nostalgic merriment as I talk about (with myself) Demon's Souls. No specific subject, and I did't even have any notes prepared. I was sort of experimenting with a stream of conscious kind of deal. I think it went well, and it was a lot of fun to record. But then again, tt's always fun to talk Souls. Some broad topics you can expect to hear include my history with the game, how I bought it (was it straight cash? Was a plastic card of some kind used? Tune in to find out!), and just a general discussion of what the game means to me personally, and how it paved the way for an even larger love and appreciation for RPGs. But enough text-based rambling here. Get inside and listen to word-based rambling in episode 3 of the Solo Soulscast. As always, thanks for listening!

Also, please note, as with last week's episode, I recorded some pretty rough video footage of the game to accompany the podcast. This was specifically for YouTube. These will be released as normal audio-only podcasts on my blog (one day, one day...). Soon I should be able to record gameplay in a much more professional manner. This here was just to include a video so it wasn't a static image on YouTube. The video, and its crappy quality, are not the focal points here. At any rate, I just started a new game in Demon's Souls and just played for about 30 minutes. Enjoy!


INTRO (and OUTRO) MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
 Big Horns Intro 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Solo Soulscast Episode 2 - Dark Souls Platinum

Solo Soulscast Episode 2 - Dark Souls Platinum

**NOTE: Original YouTube description**

Welcome one, welcome all to the newly (sort of) revitalized (kind of) Solo Soulscast! This is episode 2. Wowza. You might remember a few months ago I made episode 1, and in it I talked about some pre-Bloodborne Old Hunters DLC patch notes. I had intended at the time to continue to release an episode every week. I had recorded episode 2, which was all about that Old Hunters DLC. I never released it because I didn't like it enough. I didn't have fun with it. If it's not fun, I don't wanna do it, essentially. Time has passed, and I decided to give it another go. This actual episode 2 came out much better, and hey, it was fun! In it, I talk about my quest to achieve the most amazing thing a person can achieve in this life: a virtual trophy for completing all the meaningless tasks in a game. Yup, I'm talking about getting the Dark Souls Platinum Trophy. Enjoy, and look for episode 3 next week (with any luck!)




INTRO (and OUTRO) MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
 Big Horns Intro 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Solo Soulscast Episode 1 - Bloodborne Patch

HOWDY! 

Guys! Guys! GUYS!

I'm back!

I've been on hiatus from my blog for a very long time now. I haven't updated in a quite some time. Well, I'm back.

But, what does that mean exactly?

Let me tell you.

Okay, enough giant spaces. What it means, at least for the immediate future, is you can find my podcast, the Solo Soulscast, right here! On THIS very blog. I've been uploading them to Youtube (link to my YouTube HERE), but I've always wanted, since day one, to have them available as audio-only actual podcasts. And now, I've gotten off my lazy ass, and I've done it! I'm hosting them on archive.org, and I'm going to have an embedded link below. So you can listen to them without having to go to YouTube. At some point, I'd like to have them as downloadable links, so they could be downloaded and be listened to anytime, but you gotta crawl before you can walk. So, enjoy the audio-only Solo Soulscast! Episode 1 below (which used to be only available on my cohort Adam's great video game blog, bluegamer.net). Please be patient, as it may take a few weeks to get the back catalouge up on my blog. Finally, I will be uploading additional content that is more than just my podcasts. Stay tuned, gals and girls!


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     Hey there everybody! Here is the highly-sought-after episode 1 of the Solo Soulscast. For those of you not in the know, the Solo Soulscast was the once-semi-regular-but-now-completely-regular offshot of the Soulscast, a Demon's/Dark Souls/Bloodborne podcast hosted by one Adam Blue, and myself, Shane Norton. That went on indefinite hiatus, and I decided I was not even close to done talking about the Souls series, so I decided to continue on myself. So I started the Solo Soulscast, where I talk, just by myself, about everything and anything that has to do with the Souls series (and again, that's Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, Bloodborne, (and soon to be Dark Souls III), and Souls-inspired games, like Lords of the Fallen and Salt and Sanctuary). I had been just uploading them to my personal YouTube, but now finally they are available on my resurrected blog (as of this writing, March 31, the blog is still undergoing a fine tuning).

     Episode 1 of the Solo Soulscast has me talking about a pre-Old Hunters DLC patch for Bloodborne. I realize that a podcast about something that came out in November being re-released in April is not very timely, but I don't care. Just listen and enjoy people!


INTRO (and OUTRO) MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
 Big Horns Intro 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/