Information & inspiration for designers, illustrators, coders and general oddballs. A visual and written diary of creative ventures, tips and tutorials!
Here are a selection of photo's take on Wimbledon Common from the other day. These pictures were taken on my point and snap camera.
Woods on Wimbledon Common
Dirt Track and Puddle From Wimbledon Common
Back of the Windmill
Wet Soil Photo
Mud Track From Common
Clearing On Wimbledon Common
Getting cloudy On Wimbledon Common
These photo were take to share some of pretty scenes you may see on Wimbledon Common on a weekend. Even though it started to cloud over these are some nice pictures. And to think this is within the M25.
I
mentioned that I would write a follow up to the first part of playing
Dark Souls and I finally have managed to get around to it. If you
haven't read the first part you can look here >. To wrap it up
quickly Dark Souls is a challenging, fascinating action adventure RPG
where you can create a character and put them against creatures of
your worst nightmares...
Welcome to Dark Souls...
Basic
Dark Souls Items
Dark Souls Items Sheet - Artwork Copyright FromSoftware
Titanite
A
very valuable commodity in Dark Souls. Titanite can be used to
upgrade weapons and armour. Although upgrading armour with Titanite
in Dark Souls 3 is no longer applicable.
Souls These
are the equivalent of currency. Use souls to level up or purchase
items. Souls can be found be either killing enemies or found on
perished hollows.
Homeward
Bone Great
for getting you out of tight spots. I would advise having these
equipped. You never know what lurks beyond the grey mist. Estus
Flasks Are
essential unless you have a huge health bar – and trust me, going
for a straight up large amount of HP isn’t necessary the best
decision when you start playing. Estus is flame, its warmth and above
all else is basically health potions. You can upgrade the amount of
Estus you carry or how potent each drink is in replenishing health.
‘Flame…
precious flame’
Magic’s I
have to admit that I didn’t use too many spells/miracles in my
players build. Maybe If I was to play through again maybe I should
create a Hexer? Throughout Dark Souls you will come across numerous
spells that the player can cast to heal, protect or destroy.
Pyromancy In
the world of Dark souls you can cast pyromancies. These are lesser
spells which a non-wizard or spell caster can use.
Throughout
the souls games there are many items you can pick up, wear, use or
cast in the game. Writing everything here would spoil too much. And
there is nothing like the pre-internet days of discovering something
apparently hidden. If you are adamant that you want to look for some
special items you can follow a website such as this.
Bonfires
You
will find a small comfort from the warm glow of your bonfire. These
are sanctuaries from which you are protected by the terrors that lie
in the deep gloom. They are also save points!
SPOILERS
–
Inhabitants
Phantoms,
merchants, vagabonds and lone wonderers... these are the characters
you may meet on your journey. NPC’s
Through
the Dark Souls games you will stumble upon rogues, renegades
crestfallen travellers, and many others which will either mean to
harm the player or help along the way. Generally speaking its
favourable to have the NPC’s at your side. You will often come to
notice that NPC’s will gather at the central hub of all 3 games so
the player can access them easy to either purchase supplies, weapons
and various pieces of equipment.
The
peculiar characters of DS world will come across as little ethereal
and strange, many seam to laugh for no apparent reason – maybe they
are mad, maybe the game is laughing as it knows at the torture of
some of the stupidly hard challenges that await. They know some you
don't. I'm watching you Pate.
Solaire
A fanatic and bizarre sun worshiper that you come across in Dark
souls, He is in the first level just after defeating the Taurus
demon. "You
really are fond of chatting with me, aren't you? If I didn't know
better, I'd think you had feelings for me! Ha ha ha!" Pate I
found out that The voice actor for pate was none other than - Peter
Serafinowicz, the
actor from Shaun of Dead. Pate is a shifty character that you come
across in Dark Souls, so keep your wits about you. He looks a bit
like a roman Legionary. Crestafallen
night The
Crestfallen knight is a general down and out misery in Dark souls, he
is in the first installment and basically sits around wallowing. The
Crestfallen knight is easy to distinguish, he will be sat near the
bonfire, being a melt. Andrei The
humble and generally upbeat blacksmith, he makes me feel reassured…
maybe its because of the westcounty accent. Andrei will sell and
reinforce weapons.
“Tink – Tink - Tink” Lucatiel She
is one of many characters in Dark souls 2. She is a good summon from
memory, although starts to become a little absent minded as time goes
along. You will recognise Lucatiel by her attire – She has the
appearance of a musketeer
Bonfire
Women
(Fire Keepers)
2 and 3. These ethereal characters will help the
player to level up throughout the games.
Old
Ladies of Dark Souls 2
These
3 characters are met early on in the Dark Souls 2. These cynical old
crones are former Firekeepers and they are tended to by a servant
called Milibeth. You can meet the Old Ladies intro here...
"Like
a moth to a flame, your wings will burn in anguish.”
Design
and Feel The
world(s) of Dark Souls is a large and solemn place, inhabited by the
lost, the crestfallen, the mad and... you. FromSoftware have done a
great sculpting both a enjoyable adventure story steeped in ambiguous
lore and a sword-swing, monster slaying RPG.
Secrets
What
I love about the souls games are the secrets, the mysteries and the
easter eggs – there are entire hidden zones in games which can be
discovered by pressing, knocking on or falling into walls or objects.
I won’t ruin the game for you, all I can recommend is that you
start knocking on some walls! There are many. I have to confess,
I didn’t discover enough in dark souls 1. And it has been a while
since I played.
Monsters The
monsters, the demons and even the your standard combatants have had
so much attention to detail paid them it's almost a shame to rush the
game. The designs of the characters capture elements of historical
realism which just add the the authenticity to the Dark Souls
worlds.. These monsters feel as old and as genuine as their
environment.
These nightmarish monsters pull you deeper into
the yawning darkness to join the other lost souls, the countless
1000's which never completed their journey.
The
Environment Dark
souls feels like something out of a dark ages. The souls realm is a
place of medieval purgatory where misery and total hopelessness
emanates from every cornerstone, archway and tree the player crosses
on their path. On of may favourite environments is the Majula.
Perhaps this peaceful place reminded me of where I grew up, its
peaceful and beautiful but bleak at times. The Untended Graves is
also another favourite of mine.
Other Gaming Bits
Did
you know!
They have made a table board and card games of the Dark Souls
games?
You can buy them from Steamforge Games online or from smaller
online retailers. Some of
these games may come to this website in the future – Board Games
Apparently
in dark souls 1 there is a forbidden boss that was removed from the
game in late stages of the development – he was called the Undead
King Jar-Eel
Devil in the level details : From software love
to pack in insane amounts of detail, so much so if you can access the
game from your PC you can explore the world and distant structures –
apparently. When playing the Dark Souls game in Lothric you can also
see some of the lower level detail of the roofs if you look off the
ramparts.
