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[Lumination]

Who is Jeff Green? No, seriously. I'd like some context when I watch. Thanks.

Edit: I know who he is, but why is he important? I don't mean that in an jerkish way.

 

[nbthedude]

Who is Jeff Green? No, seriously. I'd like some context when I watch. Thanks.

Edit: I know who he is, but why is he important? I don't mean that in an jerkish way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Green_(writer)

That wiki does not mention that he is awesome and funny and kind of hot (when he isn't intentionally making really goofy faces, as he frequently does).

 

[John Caboose]

More Black Dragon plays Dark Souls this afternoon:

Jeff Green ‏@Greenspeak 7m

Off to center myself and achieve inner peace at yoga. Then I'm gonna come back and rip shit up in part 2 of my Dark Souls PC livestream.

Deathness awaits.

 

[SeventhSon]

Jeff has a youtube channel for hosting his stream replays: http://www.youtube.com/user/Greenspeakachu

 

[SeventhSon]

Jeff is Live! http://www.twitch.tv/greenspeak#5510

 

[Thorgi]

Jeff is pretty adorable.

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

and very quiet

 

[JDSN]

Im loving this episode of tech-impaired gramps.

 

[Sober]

I like how we can't hear Jeff but he keeps talking to us.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Will check it out later tonight. Jeff is instant watch, even for a really old guy.

 

[JDSN]

I like how we can't hear Jeff but he keeps talking to us.

And writes notes on paper, completely ignoring the chat.

 

[Jintor]

cheers gwhitta for the cap

 

[Gary Whitta]

What the fuck am I watching.

 

[Sentenza]

Oh well, he still is terrible but at least he's learning, one step at the time.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

He looks like he's constantly perplexed

 

[noobasuar]

This is so good.

 

[FartOfWar]

Jeff won't talk to me so I'm making my own BF4 twitch NSFW http://i.imgur.com/WvQZfHZ.jpg

 

[John Caboose]

Jeff won't talk to me so I'm making my own BF4 twitch NSFW http://i.imgur.com/WvQZfHZ.jpg

wtf Shawn...

 

[Diggler]

Awesome progress today Jeff! Really fun to watch.

Some random tips;

- Always wonder around with your shield up
- Lock-on to every single battle, rather than attack and hope the game aims for you (it won't)
- Go through your loot, you may have better gear, especially armor
- Perhaps put on some lighter armor. It's worth losing a little protection to have faster dodges
- Managing stamina is a key part of the game. During battle do one or two strikes at a time, back off, let your green bar recharge, move in again, etc. Blocking is key, but also remember it stops your stamina recharging, so there's a rhythm of blocking most of the time, but releasing for the odd second here and there just to recharge
- Especially in these early parts, keep downing flasks between fights. Keep above 75% health
- Don't worry about parrying any time soon, but definitely master dodging as soon as poss. It's pretty much needed to beat any of the bosses

 

[Ysiadmihi]

- Perhaps put on some lighter armor. It's worth losing a little protection to have faster dodges

Agreed, but keep in mind that lighter armor comes with less poise. If you get hit by an enemy while trying to run past them with low poise, you'll get stopped dead. Granted, you can just keep running afterward but it's something to consider.

 

[Diggler]

Oh and some more advanced bits of info that the game is terrible about explaining;

- You are a zombie (hollowed) most of the time, but going to a bonfire and selecting "Reverse Hollowing" will make you human, at least until you die again. The benefit of being human is you can summon other players and play co-op by touching the white messages on the floor, which is fun and makes the game basically "normal" difficulty. But the downside is you can also be "invaded" by evil players at random too, which is a form of quickfire spontaneous PvP (though fun and tense)

- You can only "reverse hollowing" if you have humanity points spare - this is the big number in the top left of the screen that most likely says 0 most of the time. Kill a boss or use a "humanity" item for it to go up. I believe winning in PvP gets you a point too.

- You can also use spare humanity points to "kindle" a bonfire which I think you did tonight. It means anytime you use that bonfire from now on you'll get 10 flask refills out of it instead of the usual 5, so try and kindle as many of the fires as you can find. Later, when you get another item, you can kindle them beyond 10

 

[Cassius]

I need to try this game at some point.

Jeff won't talk to me so I'm making my own BF4 twitch NSFW http://i.imgur.com/WvQZfHZ.jpg

HAHA, that chat box. =D

 

[Phreaker]

At 18 min in after being beaten down twice and he gets 2 seconds to read all that text. I am laughing so hard.

 

[mattiewheels]

Jeff, you seriously need to petition FROM to let you narrate the opening of Dark Souls 2.

In his Time magazine reviewer voice. I can still hear it.

Hey Jeff, whatever your future endeavor is good luck! Hope it involves hearing you on a new podcast.

 

[Sentenza]

I need to try this game at some point.

Wrong. You really need to put it immediately on top of the list of games you are going to play.

 

[nbthedude]

Awesome progress today Jeff! Really fun to watch.

Some random tips;

- Always wonder around with your shield up
- Lock-on to every single battle, rather than attack and hope the game aims for you (it won't)
- Go through your loot, you may have better gear, especially armor
- Perhaps put on some lighter armor. It's worth losing a little protection to have faster dodges
- Managing stamina is a key part of the game. During battle do one or two strikes at a time, back off, let your green bar recharge, move in again, etc. Blocking is key, but also remember it stops your stamina recharging, so there's a rhythm of blocking most of the time, but releasing for the odd second here and there just to recharge
- Especially in these early parts, keep downing flasks between fights. Keep above 75% health
- Don't worry about parrying any time soon, but definitely master dodging as soon as poss. It's pretty much needed to beat any of the bosses

These are really good succinct tips, especially the bolded ones. Except you mean "wander" not "wonder." Sorry, being any English prof obligates me to that.

Don't feel bad, Jeff. Dark Souls does not explain itself very thoroughly (maybe not even as much as it should--that's debatable based on your philosophy of game design). In a lot of ways it is desogned as a communal game so don't feel bad about getting tips.

However, you are definitely getting a lot better. I was proud to see by the end of the stream you were backing off and blocking regularly, even locking on to most enemies. There was obvious, huge progress from the first stream.

This stream is fantastic. It is like the Rocky 1 of videogame streams: a real underdog story. Jeff vs. Dark Souls is awesome. And you picked a really good challenging game because Dark Souls does not rely on lightening fast reflexes. The challenge comes much more from patience, observation, and strategy. It is tough, but not Ninja Gaiden "I have reflexes of a deity" tough. It just requires adjusting your approach and trying to constantly out game the game. Just time out for a minute or two to read the chat every 10-15 minutes rather than trying to furiously glance at a few fly by statements. They will give you all the help you need when you take a "breather" between attempts.

 

[shadowkat]

This was great. Best wall attacker ever.

 

[UrbanRats]

Good second episode.
I'm confident you'll surpass the Taurus Demon soon, however i question the validity of heavy armor.

Fast movement and roll > Any sort of minor defense boost that armor can give you.

 

[nbthedude]

Good second episode.
I'm confident you'll surpass the Taurus Demon soon, however i question the validity of heavy armor.

Fast movement and roll > Any sort of minor defense boost that armor can give you.

Yeah, he has blocking, locking on, and basic attacks all down pretty well. There are only a few things that are really holding him back:

-heavy armor leading to slow movement/quick loss of stamina
-going for broke with smashing the attack button.

If he would just get into the habit of getting one or two hits in then backing off, blocking, getting endurance back before attacking again, he'd have less trouble. Most of his deaths seem to be because he runs out of stamina and cant keep attacking, or dodge or block, and gets clobbered as a result.

Jeff, watch that green stamina bar. It almost as important as health. When it gets low, back off, play defensive and let it recharge. Early on you can only hit a few times before you deplete your stamina. And without stamina you cant block or attack effectively. In fact, if you run out of stamina, you cant block at all. When you block, the enemies take off stamina imstead of health. You have to play defensively just as much as offensively in Dark Souls. Just trying to smash all the enemies before they smash you back is a bad habit to get in. But pretty much every videogame before Dark Souls has trained you to play this way, so I get it. It is kind of a gamer intuition you have to overcome. Dark Souls is less of an reaction based action game and more of a thinking man's action RPG. That is part of why it is great.

Leveling up endurance helps with both of these problems though. It makes your green bar bigger and it increases your weight capacity. So you can always just grind your way to higher END stats if you need to. And it is good practice too. Grinding is more fun in Dark Souls than most games because it isn't as mindless.

I think he is still stuck thinking of it as an action game where he has to hit a bunch real fast, which is a good way to get yourself killed frequently in Darksouls.

 

[Buttonbasher]

These streams are so great. Jeff Green is the man. I'm so glad he's doing these.

Keep up the great work Jeff!

 

[JeffGreen]

You guys are awesome--thank you seriously for the tips. . Yeah, you're right, I still have an action game mentality about it but the dim candle started flickering above my head more today that I needed to be patient and take it slow. But the reflex to button mash is still there.

I started the stream as a goof, but now I think it has sucked me in enough to actually want to beat it
.

 

[nbthedude]

You guys are awesome--thank you seriously for the tips. . Yeah, you're right, I still have an action game mentality about it but the dim candle started flickering above my head more today that I needed to be patient and take it slow. But the reflex to button mash is still there.

I started the stream as a goof, but now I think it has sucked me in enough to actually want to beat it
.

I honestly got a warm and fuzzy feeling when you said you had a "surprise" and I then realized you started two other characters and practiced off stream. I know it is incredibly dorky that I had that reaction, but I am too old to care at this point.

Also one other really tiny tip: when you want to drop attack, start falling first, then hit the attack button during your fall.

I wont say Dark Souls is ever a cake walk, but I think most people would agree the learning curve is way steeper at the beginning than any other point.

 

[LOZLINK]

You guys are awesome--thank you seriously for the tips. . Yeah, you're right, I still have an action game mentality about it but the dim candle started flickering above my head more today that I needed to be patient and take it slow. But the reflex to button mash is still there.

I started the stream as a goof, but now I think it has sucked me in enough to actually want to beat it
.

Dark Souls does do that heh

 

[fallagin]

Jeff won't talk to me so I'm making my own BF4 twitch NSFW http://i.imgur.com/WvQZfHZ.jpg

SMH. That is nsfw brah.

 

[nbthedude]

In his Time magazine reviewer voice. I can still hear it.

Hey Jeff, whatever your future endeavor is good luck! Hope it involves hearing you on a new podcast.

He was on Idle Thumbs this week. If you don't already listen to Idle Thumbs you should start. It is the successor to GFWL in terms of quality, funny, and intelligent gaming conversation.

 

[John Rabbit]

I started the stream as a goof, but now I think it has sucked me in enough to actually want to beat it
.

i feel like this is how most people's experience with either Souls game went.

"i just played it to see what the big deal was, now i can't stop thinking about it."

 

[Team Filler]

You were doing much better by the end of the second stream, Jeff, and I promise that you will find yourself much less frustrated with combat once you get the gist of parrying and backstabbing. My suggestion would be to maybe watch a quick video of what the parry+riposte and backstab actions look like ingame, so you can see the timing of it. This video is not short, and has fair few spoilers, but it's well-done and very informative.

On a more general note, I feel the two Souls games (Demon's/Dark) are among those rare titles where 90% of the people that really play it for more than a little bit will always have that glorious moment of epiphany, where after all the deaths and growing frustration, something clicks hard and doesn't let go of you for a very long time. I realize the following statement is a common one here on GAF, but I believe it is absolutely true: Dark Souls ruined many other games for me (trying to play Skyrim afterwards felt tedious and unrewarding).

 

[fallagin]

Finally getting around to watching the last stream. Jeff does not give a single fuck

I was actually a bit shocked when he started fucking up the merchant :lol

 

[John Caboose]

Finally getting around to watching the last stream. Jeff does not give a single fuck

I was actually a bit shocked when he started fucking up the merchant :lol

It's not that surprising considering the amount of non-hostile/friendly NPCs he has killed in Black Mesa so far.

 

[UrbanRats]

Also, even though it's kind of too late now, as someone who sucks at the game (even though i finished it a couple of times) i think Warrior (and the obvious, Pyromancer) is a better noob friendly starting class.
The warrior is basically the Knight but doesn't have as heavy an armor, so it gets you out of that mentality of heaving the biggest armor always on.

I'm telling you, once i got rid of the "fat roll" (the slow roll you get for having >50% of burden equipped) it went from night to day for me.
I did like half the game with the fat roll and i wish i knew sooner how aggravating it is.

Enemies are going to kill you with a couple of hits no matter what armor you have, anyway, It's best to learn how to not get hit in the first place, using evasion and blocking.

 

[nbthedude]

You were doing much better by the end of the second stream, Jeff, and I promise that you will find yourself much less frustrated with combat once you get the gist of parrying and backstabbing. My suggestion would be to maybe watch a quick video of what the parry+riposte and backstab actions look like ingame, so you can see the timing of it. This video is not short, and has fair few spoilers, but it's well-done and very informative.

On a more general note, I feel the two Souls games (Demon's/Dark) are among those rare titles where 90% of the people that really play it for more than a little bit will always have that glorious moment of epiphany, where after all the deaths and growing frustration, something clicks hard and doesn't let go of you for a very long time. I realize the following statement is a common one here on GAF, but I believe it is absolutely true: Dark Souls ruined many other games for me (trying to play Skyrim afterwards felt tedious and unrewarding).

Eh, parrying and back stabbing are not ever essential. And there is plenty of time to learn them later. It is fun to just practice them on the weaker sword zombies, but no need to overwhelm him with something that isn't in any way essential and is mostly flashy fun stuff.

Just learning the basic pacing of circle strafing and backing off to manage stamina are way more important.

 

[nbthedude]

Did Jeff ever mention when he was streaming again today or did I miss it?

 

[Seandor]

Is he playing with M + KB? Has anyone mentioned that this game is way better with a controller?

Edit: My bad, should've watched more of the video! Love it, by the way. Dark Souls is one of my favorite games.

 

[SeventhSon]

Jeff is live with more Dark Souls http://www.twitch.tv/greenspeak#4838

 

[UrbanRats]

Jeff is live with more Dark Souls http://www.twitch.tv/greenspeak#4838

YES!

 

[meltingparappa]

Jeff is a champion for playing KB/M, kicking people as much as he can, and blindly following the advice of the chat.

On their advice, he just went down and fought the black knight in the undead burg. It went about as well as you'd expect.

Edit: apparently him effectively using the kick was more or less done by accident. Hah.

 

[Helmholtz]

Jeff is awesome, liking the stream quite a bit. I really hope he gets on a quality podcast again sometime soon. Just such a funny personality.
Edit: Holy shit at that failed plunge against the boss, ahahaha

 

[meltingparappa]

Gotta keep bumping this thread because this stream has nonstop laughs.

He now has given himself a goal of trying to REACH the boss a second time within a half hour. That diminishing goal post is Dark Souls in a nutshell.

Edit: Ah, now he's trapped in the cycle of making less and less progress from impatience and frustration.

Edit 2: OH MY GOD HE DID IT.

 

[shadowkat]

Jeff is the best. Loving the stream.

 

[Fjordson]

Ohh wish I hadn't missed this topic until last night. This is great.