Making it so you have to go back to town to level up is an odd choice. There's no real change in challenge, if you get to one bonfire you can easily get to Majula to level up, but you're treated to some downtime and load screens. It also ruins that "in over your head" feeling that you'd get in certain parts of Dark…

I have a love-hate relationship with how games handle tutorial messages these days. The AssCreed series and GTAV in particular come to mind. The game never seems to stop telling you what buttons to press in any given situation, but it's presented in such a way that it's unobtrusive and easy to ignore. The bad part is…

One game that comes to mind is Kirby Superstar. The game is broken into several smaller "games" and before each "game," you are asked if you've played that game before. If you say no, you are treated to a tutorial explaining the basics of that particular game. If you say yes, you are treated to an entirely different…

It's better than FFXIII, in which the first 10-20 hours (8 chapters [OUT OF 12]) feel like an extended tutorial.

A related plug, but we've set up a thread for Dark Souls 2 on Gameological's Steam discussion board, here. Stop by to share your latest discoveries, woes, and general musings!

There are definitely still a lot of inventive monsters, but I feel like there are fewer of them and that the majority of enemies you'll face are mostly just Hollows. I'm also a bit underwhelmed by the bosses in this regard, too many gimmickless humanoids.

I'm having a much easier time with the jump mechanic as it is bound to L3. I used it to trick so many Turtle Knights into falling to their deaths in a specific portion of the Forest. It's also invaluable in that pit.

I had that same reaction when learning that the game wasn't as compact as Dark Souls. As a consolation prize, you can see most of the areas that you'll visit off in the distance from Majula. However, I think the scaling is a bit messed up, though. There is no way that Heide's Flame Tower is THAT far away when I walk…

I appreciate that shields have more thought put into them. It was trivial to find a good 100% block shield in Dark Souls, and every build could use them more or less.

I didn't fight the Pursuer until I had already gotten to the Lost Bastille by other means and he was pretty easy. I remember him kicking my ass in his surprise appearance, but he almost never hit me in his actual battle. The key was pretty much just get up in his face and circle strafe him until he goes to attack and…

Yes, thank that kind soul who linked the fires.

I found the Darkwraiths covenant on my first playthrough because I didn't know anything special would happen if you brought the Lordvessel to Frampt, which made the Four Kings my only option to progress at that point. So I would argue that on a first playthrough it is impossible to find the Darkwraiths if you DO know…

Lack of boobs, I'd presume.

I think I liked Sticker Star for one reason: it showcased exactly what NOT to do to the franchise.

Searching for Bigfoot/Leatherface/UFOs in San Andreas is made all the more maddening by all the creepy unexplained stuff in that game, like all the abandoned ghost cars.

Doug being alive is practically the storytelling equivalent of Zoe getting thrown in front of train. The show led us to believe one thing with respect to the next season, but due to fan reactions and such decided to completely throw that story in front of a train. So I'm guessing the idea is that people wouldn't put…

I just wonder how many seasons this is going to be. Going from Whip to Vice President to President in two seasons doesn't really leave a lot of room for growth, unless the series from here on is just going to be Frank desperately trying to cover his ass from the things he's done in the past (and the things he's yet to…

With respect to Frank's personal cost, if I had to guess, I'd figure that Claire is going to get murdered sometime next season. The abortion death threat subplot was a little too omnipresent for it to not have any lasting implications.

Yeah, I've not heard much about this game, but making it an action RPG with a timer similar to Majora's Mask's seems like an interesting choice. I wonder how easy it is to just do all the sidequests, or if you'll be almost required to spend all your energy to extend time.

If you go into Bravely Default Bankruptcy, your character should have all of their action debt resolved, but the character is controlled by a (not entirely useful) AI for the rest of the battle.