all made up with nowhere to go

Anyone for a list post?

1. I just had a four day migraine, because why not, I guess! I've had them before, but not for years! I had a three day one about a month ago, and now this one! I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a five day one, but we'll see, I suppose.

2. Aoife and Ian are nearly at the end of Demon's Souls! I didn't realise it was such a short game! (although I suppose they've not done everything? Ian is basically being GPS for Aoife, so she's not exploring, or really getting lost).

I thought I might like to play the original, but when I watched them fight the Dragon God, it gave me such flipping anxiety, I was all, NOPE! (what's worse is, I watched it twice, because I missed some of the stream when it was live, and I still had massive anxiety! even though I knew what was coming!)

3. Talking of FromSoft games giving me anxiety, although I have the Greater Soul Arrow spell now, and can probably take out the one butcher miniboss in three hits, I think I am going to leave Dark Souls alone for now. I am demonstrably not having fun (which is why I play games: for fun), so I think I will try something else. As usual, I don't know what, although possibly something handheld, as I like to cuddle up in my chair and, as I've probably said before, the sofa is uncomfortable (but that's where the TV and my non-handheld consoles are).

I have FFV Advance to finish, and I've picked up a bunch of DS/3DS games recently, so maybe one of those? IDK!!

4. I started listening to all the Bowie albums I own, in order. There's 27, and I'm missing six* (eight, if you count both Tin Machine albums, which nobody does, right?** ;) ) I did this, in part, because I tend to gravitate towards Outside, if I want a full album, or the Best of Bowie if not. And it's been a good while since I listened to any of them right through (Outside aside, as it were).

I unknowingly started this challenge(?) on the 14th of November, which was the 51st anniversary of Space Oddity being released! So that was an interesting coincidence!

*Lodger, Tonight, Never Let Me Down, Reality, The Next Day, and Blackstar.

**I have not heard any Tin Machine stuff, so I am perfectly willing to listen to them with an open mind, but I know the Fandom at Large™ does not approve, hence the winky face.

5. I keep finding artists on youtube who are young enough to be my children, and who all keep making me wish I could have drawn as well as they can when I was their ages (most recently: a 21 year old and a 19 year old). I occasionally don't think I can draw as well as them now, either, but I know that that is me feeling insecure about my art because that's how I've been feeling for a flipping decade now! (I'm working on it, but it's taking its sweet time).

6. There is no number six!

Here's my unpopular Dark Souls opinion: the game isn't hard, it's gimmicky.

It plays pretty much like any other game, and it's the gimmicky nonsense that makes it "hard". Also that whole "oooh if you die versus even a normal enemy it's because you made a mistake!" makes me mad.

And it's not like I haven't played difficult games before. I like Megaten games, ffs! And they are difficult, or hard, but they feel WAY fairer than Dark Souls does. (Don't come at me with your "hard but fair" nonsense in defence. Because nope. I'm not having it).

(I honestly think the vocal part of the fandom being really shitty about the game to other people is what annoys me the most. Related: oh jeez am I glad I'm playing in offline mode).

Anyway, I beat the Taurus Demon and now I'm at the Bell Gargoyles and I must be doing okay, because I can get the first one down to half health a lot of the time. Then I die, because I forgot that what you need to do is circle strafe it in order to get hits in and kill it. (According to people online, the Bell Gargoyles are your test to see whether you're "good enough". Welp, me and my Scimitar +4 must be doing something right then :d )

I also got the Drake Sword, which is "cheating", if you believe some people online, but then again, I think breathing is cheating according to some sections of the fandom*. (I jest, but also: this has to be one of the most toxic fandoms I've ever poked my head into).

Relatedly, I started watching Aoife and Zoe on Eurogamer playing Dark Souls II, but it's possible that that might not continue as Eurogamer go off video views - anything that gets less than 10K views isn't considered productive, so is put aside. A good example of this is Ian's Demon's Souls playthrough, which I also started watching** - I'd been stacking up the videos so I could binge them and...there's only three on the channel because the third one (from two weeks ago) only has 8K views (at the time of writing). Luckily, Ian's decided to stream it on his personal channel, which he was doing last night, so at least I might get to see all of that?

(A second hand copy of Demon's Souls verges from "okay?" (£15) to "patently ridiculous" (nearly £1K) in price, and I don't have a PS5 or the money to play the remaster, so a Let's Play will have to suffice!)

~

*Ugh, gods, I've just remembered the comments on Luke's Bloodborne streams where he'd said he'd done some farming and levelling offline, and they accused him of cheating! Like, how is doing an incredibly dull and boring to watch task cheating?? I...I don't understand! (I also don't think the person who said it was even joking, which...yuck).

**I said to lassarina in a comment on her most recent What Are You Playing Wednesday post that Dark Souls, at least, is my new obsession, and I was kind of joking, but also I think I am kind of not now! And it's all that Luke Westaway's fault! If he hadn't streamed Bloodborne, I wouldn't even be here!