Those are some interesting recommendations!

I don't think I've heard of any of them before (maybe some screenshots from Still Wakes the Deep?).

Is the fighting gameplay in the The Sinking City any good or is this more about the world?

When I finally want to play something other than Soulslikes again, I will definitely look at these games.

It's been quite a while since I played a Point-and-Click games. But the next time I feel the itch, I will definitely look at The Drifter. The artwork really is incredible; I just looked through the steam page gain and this looks fantastic.

Withering Rooms is a solo dev game!?! That doesn't look a solo dev game… That looks like a small team Unity game. But yeah, it's a solo dev and they seem to be developing a spiritual successor/sequel to Withering Rooms.
I think I saw this speedrun years ago.

More strictly in the Soulslike genre.

The Merger of action gameplay and eldritch vibes is something I really enjoy. I wouldn’t for example be as interested in a Point-and-Click game with lovecraftian aspects or not really more interested than in any other types of Point-and-Click games.

The Drifter

That artwork is beautiful!

Withering Rooms?

I think I saw a speedrun of this game a while back? It didn’t look that interesting then. But maybe it’s worth another look. I’m bookmarking it.

Need? No…

Want? Heck yeah!

For me, Bloodborne is not about story or setting. For me, it’s about gameplay and vibe. In a sequel, Yharnam doesn't even need to be mentioned. I just need this eldritch nightmare vibe, this wrongness; the feeling you get when Amygdala looms over the chapel. Oh, and also gameplay: fast gameplay with unique weapons and gun parry? I want more of that. Many people connect Bloodborne with a pseudo-Victorian setting, but for me that’s not essential. A sequel could be in an epic fantasy setting or a steampunk setting or, and this would be my favorite, a sci-fi setting. I love Lovecraftian stuff in a sci-fi setting. Imagine an Amygdala hanging on the side of a spaceship! Or an energy blaster in place of a flintlock pistol.

For me, the more difficult question would be which unlikely sequel would I want more: Bloodborne 2 or Elden Ring 2?

No Soulslike, no video games for me this weekend. I’m traveling and visiting family.

I’m also not sure what I’m gonna play next weekend. I just completed two RL1 playthroughs in Elden Ring back to back and I’m think I should play something different then Elden Ring next. Maybe a playthrough of DS2 or DS3? Or I’m leaving the 3rd dimension behind and finally play a 2d Soulslike?

Clock doesn’t stop when the game closes in any speedrun category that would do it on purpose.

Yes, it does. Souls speedruns are timed by in-game time and in-game time pauses when you are outside of gameplay. Doesn't matter if it is a force quit out or a normal quit out or even a loading screen, the timer pauses.

Speedrunners show the IGT at the end of the run and they use SoulSplitter a LiveSplit plugin.

Here is DS1 Any% Force Quit World Record and, as you can see, the timer pauses.

Here is the Former Zips World Record in Elden Ring and the timer pauses during load screens and quit-outs.

Might be difficult for streaming/live events if it messes with the OBS setup. Having to reconfigure after relaunching takes more time, too.

They usually capture the desktop in OBS instead of the game window (you can see the desktop in the DS1 run). Runs with Force-quits have also been done at GDQ with little problems.

It would make sense to disallow it just for parity with console players.

Souls speedrunners aren't really interested in parity with console players. Most (95%) don't run on console. For some games "Console" is a different category like with Elden Ring or there are only 3 runs on console in place 100+ like with DS1.

Also you can force close on console. For Playstation it's PS-Button + "Close Application".

For most categories it's disallowed (I think) because it's an out of game action, it's not using the game mechanics, but the operating system. That's at least the reason stated for Elden Ring speedruns. I couldn't quickly find a stated reason on the Souls speedrun wiki for the other games.

Thanks.

Oh, I also totally forgot to thank you for doing this again!

I hope people get games they enjoy :)

Lies of P, which I got in the last giveaway, I enjoyed immensely!

The player character!

• Little? Absolutely, almost everything humanoid or not is bigger than them.
• Horrible? You are regularly committing war crimes. So definitely.
• Man? Well, sometimes… Maybe needs a coffin or a mirror.
• Boss? When I'm going in a Boss arena with 80 Int. Yeah, in that case the player character is definitely the Boss.

DS1: You got your own private cell in the asylum. Oscar chooses you specifically. So maybe you were extra dangerous before you've gone hollow? But also I've seen lots of "I play Dark Souls for the first time videos"; the player character doesn't seem to have much combat prowess in those. So maybe the player character only learns combat in Lordran?

DS2: You had a long, long journey since you've become cursed. So maybe you've picked up some skills on the way. Going from your happy family life to combat capable warrior.

DS3: See @YewEyeOwe31@lemmy.world answer. "Ash seeketh embers."

Bloodborne: On the one hand you've been chosen by Messengers to be a Hunter or at least for the dream. On the other, the Bloodborne player character feels more like a chosen one from the get go then the other Souls games, where you eventuallym due to your actions in game, become the chosen one. You already know about Paleblood (Moon Presence). You've come from outside, specifically seek out the Blood and you get a summon to Cain Hurst. (Were you a Noble before? You kinda look like one.) So you probably already had combat experience. Maybe not against beasts but you slaughter people just fine.

ER: "Arise now, ye Tarnished. Ye dead, who yet live." Not all tarnished were warriors, but a whole lot were Godfrey's lot. The percentage of combat capable tarnished is probably very high. So maybe you were one of the combat capable ones? (The "Hero" Origin is probably related to Hoarah Loux) I think, Elden Ring is the most vague. You had grace and then you lost it and now you get a bit back. Elden Ring leans more heavily on the "Origins" as Classes are called here and of course a Samurai can fight. It literally says in their description "A capable fighter". But the reason a naked person with a club can fight? No idea… Well, I'm off to bash Margit's brains out with a club.

I really thought this was going to be more of a creeping death situation for discs on the Playstation. Disc player for the PS6 only as an addon, none at all for the PS7; winding down production near the end of the PS6's lifetime and shutting it down in the first half of the PS7's lifetime. I didn't expect such a "bold" proclamation. But they have a near monopoly in the console market (Nintendo is still relevant but serves a somewhat different market; Xbox makes themself more irrelevant day by day). The consumers can't really protest… Do you want to buy a new console? Well, these are the conditions: only digital games, online gaming access costs money, and … I don't know some other rent-seeking scheme…

I "own" most of my Souls games on Playstation digitally. I bought them that way because it was convenient; I had the console, which cost me a marvelous 0€ (or years of family IT service), and 20€ Bloodborne GOTY seemed like fun. The sad thing is that from the very beginning I never really expected to own them like my many books. I knew that it could be revoked at any moment, close my Playstation account for some spurious reasons, deactivate my games via the internet because of some licensing or some other reason to spite me. What was I going to do in that case? Litigate with what time? With what money? And on the grounds of what laws? But still, it was convenient in the moment.

We need consumer protection in the media landscape, especially in video gaming. I really hope that we will get some, but I'm pessimistic… Stop Killing Games was stopped by the EU Commission due to such blatant lies by lobbyists. And quite frankly, Stop Killing Games is such a milquetoast, basic thing in terms of consumer protections. We actually need much more than that.

My mind paints such a grim potential future for video gaming… You know Nintendo is gonna follow Sony in the digital only sooner or later, just like they did with paying for shitty online service. Also, you know Gabe Newell is not gonna live forever, and one day you are gonna read the headline: "Steam IPO expected to hit…". In a decade or two… maybe you will only be able to rent games, always online; you have to pay a yearly few and -- okay enough about that grim future; it's making me sad.

I do still have hope, mostly because of piracy ☠︎. Someone will always share the newest media; sharing is caring. It's almost as if sharing (media) is an intrinsic human quality… As stupid as game encryption gets, someone will always crack it. Denuvo got cracked via Hypervisor, which is not elegant, but it works. "Proper" cracks of all sorts of games still continue; voices38 makes proper Denuvo cracks, no Hypervisor required. Also, GOG games get shared all around easily, and they don't seem to be going bankrupt. I had some sort of further point here; ah well, media, and especially games, will always be available even if the industry goes in a darker direction.

(Thanks for reading my rambling…)

I'm still addicted to Elden Ring. I started yet another RL1 run. This time with another restriction: I'm keeping every base stat (Vigor, Strength, Endurance, etc.) at 10, with no boosting of these base stats. It's sometimes known as "True Level 1" or "RL1 on stat boosting". This severely limits the weapon selection. Makes you super squishy and nerfs your damage output even more.

It's going well for now… I sped through the linear path to Farum Azula. Morgott was far too easy, seriously - Fromsoft he has too low HP, and Fire Giant was way harder, since I needed to fight him hitless to have enough damage output using the Red-Feathered Branchsword (it's like the Red Tearstone Ring). For now I'm having fun, and I think Any% is going to be manageable, but DLC and Malenia are going to be rough…