Xbox One/Series X: Elden Ring

After rave reviews and impressive videos, screenshots, and Game of the Year hype I decided to try this game out especially seeing it was on sale. Having beaten Dark Souls II about 6 years previously I felt right at home with the combat but the world around was a whole new experience. Massive world and incredible visuals. The most gigantic and terrifying bosses you have ever seen. It's all a dream come true for serious gamers. As soon as I started with the character creation all I could think of was how I was going to regret it later. Afterall you know that in a souls game you want to explore and experiment before taking a character too seriously. You want to create the ultimate build or end up in the dog house. This is all part of the fun. No longer are we playing ... MoreAfter rave reviews and impressive videos, screenshots, and Game of the Year hype I decided to try this game out especially seeing it was on sale. Having beaten Dark Souls II about 6 years previously I felt right at home with the combat but the world around was a whole new experience. Massive world and incredible visuals. The most gigantic and terrifying bosses you have ever seen. It's all a dream come true for serious gamers. As soon as I started with the character creation all I could think of was how I was going to regret it later. Afterall you know that in a souls game you want to explore and experiment before taking a character too seriously. You want to create the ultimate build or end up in the dog house. This is all part of the fun. No longer are we playing Adventure on the Atari 2600 where your character is a block. Did not take long to see my face kicked in and my ego bruised just in the first few minutes. I'm having a blast. The open world, gameplay, and everything you wanted in a souls game that could make it perfect.Being a gamer for over 40 decades this is an exciting time to be alive. I was expecting a good souls game and instead I am witnessing the ultimate gaming experience. From Ultima to Baldurs Gate to Final Fantasy VII to Morrowind to every RPG I have ever played I think this is the most mind blowing experience yet!

For people new to the genre of Soulsbornering, I would say this is the best place to start; never has a FromSoft game been so friendly to the user experience, WITHOUT compromising on the core appeals of the game in challenge and variety.For people who are already familiar with the series, Elden Ring has a lot of the DNA from Dark Souls 3 in how it's constructed, except this game does what is present in DS3 in a much better manner.Spells actually hit hard, all of the different diciplines feel usable, and all of them are given a greater amount of mechanically interesting spells, even if some are a bit fiddly.The open world design of 1 and 2 has returned like a rubberbanding kart-racer, and the world of Elden Ring has the freeform spark of 1 and 2 again, but with ... MoreFor people new to the genre of Soulsbornering, I would say this is the best place to start; never has a FromSoft game been so friendly to the user experience, WITHOUT compromising on the core appeals of the game in challenge and variety.For people who are already familiar with the series, Elden Ring has a lot of the DNA from Dark Souls 3 in how it's constructed, except this game does what is present in DS3 in a much better manner.Spells actually hit hard, all of the different diciplines feel usable, and all of them are given a greater amount of mechanically interesting spells, even if some are a bit fiddly.The open world design of 1 and 2 has returned like a rubberbanding kart-racer, and the world of Elden Ring has the freeform spark of 1 and 2 again, but with the emphasis on visual fidelity that 3, BB and Sekiro brought to the table. I would say this has both the sharpest visuals of the series, and some of the most striking aesthetics as well.Jumping and crouching has made the level designers at FromSoft froth at the mouth with Artistic Rage and the exploration has improved significantly as a result. Whilst not every corner and divot in the map has something to behold as a reward, they do their darnedest to seem like it. Ways to get around the map feel much more freeform in both the macro of field traversal and the micro of dungeon-crawling.These abilities enhance combat as well by allowing for extra moves that you can perform with every weapon, which is always a good thing. Another combat enhancement comes in the form of Posture, courtesy of Sekiro development experience; hit someone in general enough, or hard enough, and they'll be posture-broken, allowing for riposte and counter damage opportunities. Damn near everyone is vulnerable to a bad back.Ashes of War, formerly Weapon Arts, add special abilities to your weapon, and can be applied freely, at any time or place, to the majority of weapons. Most importantly, you actually might want to use them this time! They don't suck! In fact, they've been treated as nicely as the magic options, allowing for tons of mechanical variance, AND simultaneously serve to infuse your weapons with elements and scaling. Tasty.Horse. Goat-horse, rather. For a first shot at horseback combat, I feel like FromSoft just got it nearly completely right in one. Nimble, manoeuvrable, speedy, has a double jump, has a separate health pool that is healed both by his horse-berries AND your flask, and most importantly he believes in your merits. Completely serious, he would probably actively cheer you on in combat if not for being a goat-horse.There are so many good qualities about ER that make it something I'll always come back to, like 1 and 2 (I don't hate 3, but I replay it the same way I replay Mass Effect 1: mainly out of respect for the series rather than it being uniquely good at something). Even the character creation feels like it's been improved, making good looking characters of any sort is really easy, if a little unintuitive by FromSoft tradition.I will say that the one gripe that I will not let slide is the armour. FromSoft games are well-known to some degree as having armour that operates somewhat equally as fashion as well as protection. Looking good above all else is the name of the game, and Elden Eing is no slouch in this legacy. However, like DS3, Elden Ring has also forgotten that armour is meant to provide protection. Sure, it technically does provide damage reduction, but if you go back to DS1, heavy armours in that game make you genuinely feel like you're hewn from stone and as resilient as the earth itself. Here, and in DS3, you get roughly the same experience with heavy and light armours: Flinch City, wtch your footing.This wouldn't be so bad if the damage reduction was substantial, or proportional to the damage dealt across the game. It is not. If you aren't using heavy armour by the endgame areas, you're going to feel severely disadvantaged. Even then, enemies do so much damage at that point that heavy armours don't feel as tanky as they should be. If you roll like a champion, this doesn't really affect you, but then why have heavy armour if you're only meant to roll, right?DS1 and 2 had some dresses and robes as an option for armour, yet I don't have complaints with how the armor holds up in those games. You know the biggest reason? Upgrades. You could upgrade your armour. That meant light armours could have comparable defence to heavier armours, at least their less upgraded forms. That's good! It's part of the fun that you can invest into your dumb loincloth so that it deflects hits like it was a steel plate. It also meant heavy armour would become super powerful in the same vein.Despite my gripes with FromSoft and their decision to remove positive complexity from armour, that is a minor gripe about an otherwise gorgeous and delicious cake. One of the strawberries atop tastes funky, but it won't give you food poisoning. Please dig in.

Another explosive entry into the 'Souls-borne' series of games from From Software: Elden Ring pits the player against an immense open world filled with many foes to fell and friends to aid you in your quest to discover the cryptic past of the lands you roam and become more powerful. The world is massive. Every time you feel you've covered a good amount of ground and begin to think "damn, this is big", you'll discover more lands to trek across and dungeons to delve. Gameplay will be largely familiar to people returning from other From Soft titles but with some Quality of Life improvements and intricacies to keep things fresh. Enemies are numerous and threatening but will at times reward the player with replenishing their healing items so one needn't rest so often ... MoreAnother explosive entry into the 'Souls-borne' series of games from From Software: Elden Ring pits the player against an immense open world filled with many foes to fell and friends to aid you in your quest to discover the cryptic past of the lands you roam and become more powerful. The world is massive. Every time you feel you've covered a good amount of ground and begin to think "damn, this is big", you'll discover more lands to trek across and dungeons to delve. Gameplay will be largely familiar to people returning from other From Soft titles but with some Quality of Life improvements and intricacies to keep things fresh. Enemies are numerous and threatening but will at times reward the player with replenishing their healing items so one needn't rest so often while busy exploring. Bosses are, as would be expected, exceptionally well designed. Things will hit like a truck and the game will not hold your hand but the payoff for overcoming each obstacle becomes all the more rewarding.That all said, I want to love this game but the unfortunate programming holding it in the shambled state that it's in (as of writing) holds me back greatly from recommending it more. Many players, myself included, experience a tremendous amount of crashes/lag/stuttering that makes playing the game a very frustrating experience and not just from the difficulty. In my own experience, I can have instances of being able to play for a few hours without much issue, but other times I may only be able to walk about for 5 or so minutes before experiencing a crash. No error code or any help for troubleshooting the cause. Many are quick to point the finger at the unforunate use of Easy Anticheat as the DRM but it seems inconclusive where the real fault of these many issues lies.If you're lucky enough to find few problems with the game in the current state, all the more power to you, but consider yourself lucky as there are many who have been vocal about the poor programming that makes even keeping the game running a bigger challenge than actually playing it. If in future these issues subside with patches addressing them, I'd be happy to rate the game higher and recommend it more. In the meantime, however, I still plan to enjoy the game when I can, it's just a matter of how much the game will work with me on that.

Starting with what I did NOT like. I cleared most of the bosses in the game and they ended up getting repetitive, some bosses feel like they were used at least 5 if not more times. Open world in general isn't something I really care about so I didn't like that very much either. I found myself wandering around finding nothing and having no idea where to go. At least previous games you only had so many paths so this wasn't an issue. Horse was meh. It was neat to be able to climb up things, but a ladder would have been just fine. Also to me it controlled horribly and even in situations where I was probably supposed to use the horse in a fight I found myself avoiding it.What I did like. The main bosses and the first time you encountered bosses was usually a great ... MoreStarting with what I did NOT like. I cleared most of the bosses in the game and they ended up getting repetitive, some bosses feel like they were used at least 5 if not more times. Open world in general isn't something I really care about so I didn't like that very much either. I found myself wandering around finding nothing and having no idea where to go. At least previous games you only had so many paths so this wasn't an issue. Horse was meh. It was neat to be able to climb up things, but a ladder would have been just fine. Also to me it controlled horribly and even in situations where I was probably supposed to use the horse in a fight I found myself avoiding it.What I did like. The main bosses and the first time you encountered bosses was usually a great experience. Having played DS1 and DS3 it was expected that I would get destroyed on my first attempts at a boss, but steadily saw myself improve. Toward the end of the game I was really in the swing of things and most bosses only took about 5 tries, but they were always fun to see. This actually does bring up a negative, I one shot multiple bosses so the whole experience of improving was gone, not to mention missing some of the crazy fights I saw other people do. I understand not being able to repeat bosses, but for me one shotting a boss is actually pretty disappointing knowing you won't be able to see the whole fight unless you play ng+ or start a new character.

Best game I've played in years!

Honestly didn't expect much out of Elden Ring besides more Souls gameplay. Boy was I blown away. You start off with an improved character creator. Not too different than DS3 or Bloodborne's, but at the same time small improvements add up to a much nicer looking design and more realistic looking faces. And while the class options are all largely the same as DS3's, they all look and feel new and unique with their creative designs (special mention for the Prisoner). Getting into the actual game, the basic gameplay largely is "new Dark Souls", with a variety of quality of life changes. The world really is stunning; when you first witness it emerging from the cave it looks vast, and that view is only the tip of the iceberg. While the graphics are about as detailed as any ... MoreHonestly didn't expect much out of Elden Ring besides more Souls gameplay. Boy was I blown away. You start off with an improved character creator. Not too different than DS3 or Bloodborne's, but at the same time small improvements add up to a much nicer looking design and more realistic looking faces. And while the class options are all largely the same as DS3's, they all look and feel new and unique with their creative designs (special mention for the Prisoner). Getting into the actual game, the basic gameplay largely is "new Dark Souls", with a variety of quality of life changes. The world really is stunning; when you first witness it emerging from the cave it looks vast, and that view is only the tip of the iceberg. While the graphics are about as detailed as any other Fromsoft game, it looks simply amazing due to the vibrant lighting and generally meticulous world design. The combat, central to these games, is as great as you'd expect and even has some improvements. It's now much easier and more viable to infuse your weapon with various damage types, and you can simultaneously change its weapon skill to match your playstyle. Due to the open world, one can tackle dungeons in the order they choose, and can also often progress to new subcontinents in multiple ways. This helps players put off harder encounters until later, which is helpful with some of the bosses being absurdly difficult.

Best purchase I ever made on a game.

Straight to the point for why this isn't a 5 star.The only thing NOT thought out was a pre setting for controls if purchased for a PC. I didn't really care because I opted to connect one of my extra Xbox controllers to my PC, but OH BOY was this a puzzle in itself to configure without it. it was pretty confusing trying to find which buttons were suppose to do what initially, especially since the game opted for Controller input rather than PC buttons input, It was way too odd and unexpected, reason: well I bought it for PC. I can see why people left negative reviews for this issue, and also because they were never able to "Get Good" but anything less than 3 just doesn't make sense for any excuse they would come up with.Now the Real ReviewThis game is the BEST ... MoreStraight to the point for why this isn't a 5 star.The only thing NOT thought out was a pre setting for controls if purchased for a PC. I didn't really care because I opted to connect one of my extra Xbox controllers to my PC, but OH BOY was this a puzzle in itself to configure without it. it was pretty confusing trying to find which buttons were suppose to do what initially, especially since the game opted for Controller input rather than PC buttons input, It was way too odd and unexpected, reason: well I bought it for PC. I can see why people left negative reviews for this issue, and also because they were never able to "Get Good" but anything less than 3 just doesn't make sense for any excuse they would come up with.Now the Real ReviewThis game is the BEST Souls Game I have ever played, I have played them all. the most recent "Darksouls 3: I have 600 hours +" currently on 340 hours on Elden Ring and I do not regret it. one thing everyone needs to keep in mind when playing is to take into consideration the level caps. once you pass a tier you might come across more difficult invasions. I really hope they release DLC's for this game. Hopefully One for ever ending, for the sake of their stories, that would be insane! I would buy all of them. Funny story actually Pre ordered this game on steam, was so busy with work that I forgot, re purchased it on Best Buy and gave the code away to someone else after I realized I bought it twice.

Elden Ring is bad, actually

I don't understand the hype. This is a bad game—and that's not something I'd say lightly. I don't just mean it's not perfect for me, personally, although I realize the gritty aesthetic is part of what some people like; it straight-up comes across unfinished! In the few hours I played, these qualities stood out:1. This game HATES the player. It doesn't even try to hide its antagonism—and, no, I don't mean difficulty. Every bit of text serves to do anything BUT help, from the startup message harassing you for not quitting the game properly to the grumpy tone of the admonishment you have to read through every time you start the game without an active PlayStation Plus subscription.2. Utter lack of narrative. There is no clear purpose to undertake, nor any reason to ... MoreI don't understand the hype. This is a bad game—and that's not something I'd say lightly. I don't just mean it's not perfect for me, personally, although I realize the gritty aesthetic is part of what some people like; it straight-up comes across unfinished! In the few hours I played, these qualities stood out:1. This game HATES the player. It doesn't even try to hide its antagonism—and, no, I don't mean difficulty. Every bit of text serves to do anything BUT help, from the startup message harassing you for not quitting the game properly to the grumpy tone of the admonishment you have to read through every time you start the game without an active PlayStation Plus subscription.2. Utter lack of narrative. There is no clear purpose to undertake, nor any reason to relate to the protagonist. You get an ancient-history cut scene to start, and are told to "seek the ring." That's it. I'm fine with having no map markers or other basic QOL features that have become ubiquitous to make games feel less like work, but NOTHING here compels the player to play, other than that they can push buttons and watch corresponding effects on screen, as if that should be entirely enough.3. Every facet is noticeably sloppy. For example, the background music loop of the first area audibly ends and restarts abrasively. They could've smoothed that out, but NAH. That type of blatant disregard for quality everywhere: graphics, audio, "narrative," mechanics, etc.. This is what I mean about the game seeming unfinished. For $70, all these elements together seem to laugh in the player's face. Gotcha!I probably would've ignored it entirely if a friend didn't talk me into getting a copy. But now I'm out that money, salty, unfulfilled, and THAT, to me, is the only compelling aspect of Elden Ring. What a letdown!

Frustrating, confusing and annoying!

I got to level 140 with the best armour in the game and still got 1- shotted by every enemy in the last areas of the game. I spent hundreds of hours grinding through, repeating the same task over and over again to collect runes, of which you must spend hundreds of thousands in the late game to level up, only to get killed by some tiny stone gargoyle. The soul crushing thing is, the enemies level up to your level. So even when you "get good" as the fans say, you are still no match for the baddies.The story is interesting, if you Google it, because you would have no idea whats going on if you didn't. There are no quests to follow unless you happen to stumble across an almost invisible NPC out in the wilderness who will tell you something cryptic, which is actually a ... MoreI got to level 140 with the best armour in the game and still got 1- shotted by every enemy in the last areas of the game. I spent hundreds of hours grinding through, repeating the same task over and over again to collect runes, of which you must spend hundreds of thousands in the late game to level up, only to get killed by some tiny stone gargoyle. The soul crushing thing is, the enemies level up to your level. So even when you "get good" as the fans say, you are still no match for the baddies.The story is interesting, if you Google it, because you would have no idea whats going on if you didn't. There are no quests to follow unless you happen to stumble across an almost invisible NPC out in the wilderness who will tell you something cryptic, which is actually a quest, but what they say isn't saved anywhere. There's no quest log. You literally have to make notes or Google everything to even know what to do. It's so annoying.The bosses are quite enjoyable though. You feel like all your hours of grinding have actually paid off when you face one.There's only 1 safe area in the game so there's no relaxing roaming around looking for loot like in most RPGs. You will be sprinting around on your horse trying to grab whatever you can before getting killed by giant birds or immensely powerful feral dogs and rats.It's a stressful, horrible game that tried too hard to be the most difficult game ever made and succeeded.

Game of The Year for sure

What can I say about Elden Ri g that people haven't already said. It's epic, mysterious, challenging and absolutely engrossing. There's always a way to overcome the challenges and enemies in this masterpiece of a game. There are so many weapon types, builds options and statehies you can find that there really isn't a wrong way to play or a set playstyle you have need to stick to. Out of the Fromsoft games I've played, this is the most versatile and gives players the most freedom to find their way through The Lands Between. If you're put off by the reputation for Soulsborne games being really hsrd, try this anyway. I'd also suggest if you enjoy it, pick up the other From games because they're amazing and the challenges are hard, but not unfair, there's always a way ... MoreWhat can I say about Elden Ri g that people haven't already said. It's epic, mysterious, challenging and absolutely engrossing. There's always a way to overcome the challenges and enemies in this masterpiece of a game. There are so many weapon types, builds options and statehies you can find that there really isn't a wrong way to play or a set playstyle you have need to stick to. Out of the Fromsoft games I've played, this is the most versatile and gives players the most freedom to find their way through The Lands Between. If you're put off by the reputation for Soulsborne games being really hsrd, try this anyway. I'd also suggest if you enjoy it, pick up the other From games because they're amazing and the challenges are hard, but not unfair, there's always a way to overcome and people are actually really helpful in the community, so don't get put off by the 'git gud' stuff. Anyway, the characters in Elden Ring are so well done and the lore is so deep. Miyazaki and co do environmental storytelling like nobodies business.

One of the best games of all time

FROM Software has shown how open world games should be done in creating yet another masterpiece. Not since the legend of Zelda breath of the wild has an open world video game inspired curiosity and wonderment like this. You never know what you will see next and the map keeps going and going. Entire massive areas could be skipped if you aren’t careful. Scouring the map is rewarded as there is an abundance of content unlike any other game. Everything is immaculate: the level design, the enemy design, the art, the music, the feel of combat. There are a million ways to play with different weapons, armor sets, magical abilities. You really make this game your own, and everybody’s experience will be a little different. George RR Martin’s world building creates an engaging ... MoreFROM Software has shown how open world games should be done in creating yet another masterpiece. Not since the legend of Zelda breath of the wild has an open world video game inspired curiosity and wonderment like this. You never know what you will see next and the map keeps going and going. Entire massive areas could be skipped if you aren’t careful. Scouring the map is rewarded as there is an abundance of content unlike any other game. Everything is immaculate: the level design, the enemy design, the art, the music, the feel of combat. There are a million ways to play with different weapons, armor sets, magical abilities. You really make this game your own, and everybody’s experience will be a little different. George RR Martin’s world building creates an engaging story with history that can be felt. When you play this game, you are transported into his and Miyazaki’s imagination, and can easily be lost for hours. Elden ring is loaded to the brim with secrets and discovery that will make you feel more rewarded than any other video game. The learning curve is steep but breaking through that difficulty or frustration is oh so satisfying. While still very challenging, this game is more accessible than other Souls like games in that you don’t have to face every enemy at a given time. You can simply explore elsewhere and come back even stronger and easily whup the foul beast that was giving you trouble earlier. The plenitude of magic in this game also provides an easier route to tackling some of the more difficult foes in the game. If you’re even slightly curious, give this game a shot because there’s nothing else like it.