MrGabr

I haven't played Dark Souls specifically, but in Hollow Knight (+Silksong), Elden Ring, Lies of P, and Sekiro, I usually felt like if I really hit a wall, I could just explore another path for a while until I hit a wall there, then repeat until I ended up coming back to the first path, whereupon my stronger abilities gave me the forgiveness I needed to beat the first boss within a few tries.

Sometimes I did hit a wall of a boss with nowhere else to go, and I did have to git gud, but I've found that those tend to be more interesting and fun to learn than side bosses are. But I usually enjoy that process. If you don't, I do feel there's no reason to not get a "give me a gun" option like in Another Crab's Treasure (or mod one in yourself). I never understood people policing the fun of single player games.

^a notable exception to my enjoyment of learning bosses would be that bitchass wizard frog in Silksong from Bilewater he deserved the cheese I used^

VeggieTales is giving them too much credit - there's good moral lessons in there! (And the creator said all the botanically-fruit male veggies are canonically trans??)

ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air for saying Kirk's killer was right-wing and that they're trying to use Kirk's death for political points.

Full story Machinima style series are rare, but if you just want heavy editing and a somewhat coherent plot as opposed to nearly unedited gameplay, Alpharad and LarsBurrito might work. Alpharad heavily edits his videos and usually writes a script to go over the gameplay that does a good job pulling a story out of the footage. LarsBurrito does a similar style, but also often does themed playthroughs where he writes the script to flavor the playthrough to fit whatever character he's roleplaying as.

If you want actual story but are ok with significantly less editing, Mianite is a series I rewatch every once in a while in a similar way you describe. The scripted story doesn't really start picking up until a significant way through season 1, but there is still enough conflict between the different players to make it more than just a Let's Play.

Indeed. The sources I've read seem to lay blame with games not usually patenting mechanics (which apparently is all patent officers look at for prior art, not other games), meaning it needs active challenging to be thrown out.

PocketPair is based in Japan, which is where the previous, more directly problematic patents have been filed mid-litigation. While there is clearly prior art for the US patent, it isn't quite as comically broad as the Japan ones, and since Japan doesn't seem to care about prior art, those remain the most concerning to me.

In the US, yes. In Japan, it would appear such a concept does not exist.

Yeah but not raw milk straight from the udder (unless you enjoy salmonella), letting it dribble down your chin and get in your beard (unless that's what does it for you I guess, you do you)

My main gripe with TLJ is that the editing is a total mess. Multiple scenes lose continuity between shots. The most egregious example is the milk scene, which in addition to being gross and unnecessary, was clearly jammed in between two shots meant to be continuous. Rey and Luke start walking down a skinny peninsula, no space cow in sight, then hard cut to space cow and Luke milking it, then hard cut back to the end of the peninsula and Luke setting down his stuff.

I found one for NieR: Automata at a used bookstore that has maps, a ton of concept art, and a short story.

Race condition

Ahem, don't you mean AAAA

There are thousands upon thousands of indie games with neither of those mechanics...