As I may have mentioned from time to time, I am terrible at playing things in a timely fashion – I’m generally waiting for sales, I get distracted easily by shiny objects, sometimes the brain squirrels just tell me to go run back and forth on power lines.

BUT.

I finally DID start The Old Hunters tonight.  And, unsurprisingly, it’s really good.  After all of the running around in crowded chalice dungeons as I worked on the last few trophies from the base game, it feels SO nice to be back out under the open (if nightmarish) sky again.

Also I killed a couple of things.

I understand that the last boss of the DLC is a right bastard, and that there’s an optional boss as well, so that will probably represent another night or two of learning when to dodge.  Then I’ll be done with Bloodborne, which would be a much more sad thought if there wasn’t a Dark Souls III expansion coming out this week.

Of course, THAT is going to be the end for Souls unless From decides to keep milking the cow.   With games selling 3+ million copies, you kind of have to assume they’re going to go back to it sooner or later.

The funny thing about the chalice dungeons – specifically, the “Defiled Chalice” dungeon, which is three levels of sheer frustration – is that they are actually straight-up HARD, in a way that the Souls games generally aren’t.  They have this vastly overblown reputation for being Real Man’s Gaming For Manly Men, but there’s nothing preventing you from getting co-op help from other people online or just leveling up and shoving points into vitality until you can soak boss hits.  They are pretty much the fairest games I’ve played in my memory.

The Defiled Chalice is not fair.  It is here to kill you.  You don’t need to go there to finish the game, you don’t need to go there to get any items, there is no reason in the world you need to go in there unless you are trying to be a trophy hound, and it treats trophy hounds like meat.  Before I’d played any of the Souls games, it is what I thought the entire series was going to be like.

And, even after 50+ deaths to the very first boss in the Defiled Chalice, I would STILL say it’s worth doing.  Maybe not if you have a habit of throwing or snapping controllers, though.