Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Dark Souls. The big story is about how Brett is a monster, but we also dig into setting goals for yourself. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Brett 154h, Level 160 Tim 39.5h, Level low 50s

Issues covered: squeezing the Dark Orb, Drunk Souls, having more options as you level, having multiple hammers, the fire centipede, liking feeling really nimble, fighting death skullops, entering the painted world and going back to the Asylum, the curiosity killing the cat, Gwynever and Gwyndolin, Timmy bringing twilight to Anor Londo, murdering a fire keeper, wanting to uncover the mysteries, usability in exposing ethical choices in other games, signposting choices, digging into the Catacombs, Patches the cleric-hater, not knowing if you should go places yet, having things you want to do, using simple systems to recontextualize sections or skills, dealing with curse resistance, farming humanity, black knights and going on a black knight murder spree, avoiding an enemy for hours and hours and turning the tides, setting goals for yourself, #consequences, lack of quest log, designing to require the Internet, egg vermifuge removes parasitic egg from body, the importance of discovery, using humanity where it's dropped, "I may have died 28 times but at least I learned something," the uncanny valley of player performance, gameplay as escape from the limitations of reality, accepting film as reality, sports games emulating tv presentation, usability and difficulty, the value of figuring out how things work, accessibility and difficulty.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Artimage, Mass Effect, God of War, The Matrix, The Walking Dead, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Mario (series), Peter, mysterydip, Michael Abbott/The Brainy Gamer, Johnny "Pockets," Shakespeare, James Joyce, Microsoft, David Cronenberg, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Notes: Brett's "rendering bug" is actually a reflection of the sky dome, but it doesn't read that way on his PS3

The Higgins Armory did in fact close in 2014, but the collection lives on in the Worcester Museum of Art

Links: How players behave (h/t mysterydip)

Next time: Brett finishes?

Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]