Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin

Utnayan said:

This is actually a real deal. Elden Ring catharsis. The game is just SO mind blowingly good with everything, it is IMPOSSIBLE to go back to other games. And it isn't just one thing, it's a combination of TRUE open world exploration, atmosphere, mystery, game play, variations, coop, etc - with every bullet point firing on all cylinders.

Coupled with the sad fact that we all know we will never see a game of this caliber for a LONG time as everyone else will go back to the POI Map of fake exploration, and mediocre everything else surrounding it not taking any solid chances in the name of "We have had 45 meetings today on how a door should open and alert the player how the door opens"....

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It's been genuinely hard to sit down and try to complete Horizon FW. I got 20 hours in before ER came out and consumed me, and now I'm trying to go back to finish it... we'll see if I ever succeed.


-edit- My interest WAS piqued by a 6 minute gameplay vid of Steelrising. It's a very obvious FromSoft clone, but it looked like it had potential.

Utnayan said:

This is actually a real deal. Elden Ring catharsis. The game is just SO mind blowingly good with everything, it is IMPOSSIBLE to go back to other games. And it isn't just one thing, it's a combination of TRUE open world exploration, atmosphere, mystery, game play, variations, coop, etc - with every bullet point firing on all cylinders.

Coupled with the sad fact that we all know we will never see a game of this caliber for a LONG time as everyone else will go back to the POI Map of fake exploration, and mediocre everything else surrounding it not taking any solid chances in the name of "We have had 45 meetings today on how a door should open and alert the player how the door opens"....

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This take is too cynical, IMO. Other open world RPGs will learn from ER and we'll get better games as a result.

ER is a fantastic game with a ton of effort put into details but the open-world "exploration" in these games is largely an illusion. This illusion is dispelled is largely dispelled with maps and POIs that make the amusement park obvious and games would benefit from them being removed, even if it means players miss out on a ton of content. I couldn't get through AC:Origins because it felt like such a flat POI checklist and I bet I would've gotten further if they dropped or diminished that.

Tuco said:

This take is too cynical, IMO. Other open world RPGs will learn from ER and we'll get better games as a result.

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I would hope. But we all know how this goes. 1) I doubt anyone has the development talent to think this far out of the box with map design and having it sync together like it does in ER - or worse, talent is there and management tightens the screws and doesn't allow them to do it. 2) It's all based on revenue and money and risk. Most aren't going to take the risks when they have solid revenue based on an IP. IE: Valhalla - which is a shit show compared to this for obvious reasons, hit over 1 billion in revenue training a bunch of monkeys to hamstring together a plethora of check box POI's in more or less an incohesive mess - but they shaved costs tremendously and made more on this game than any other AC game in arguably one of the worse of the franchise since Unity. So apples to apples, why would Ubi ever do anything different until they get hit in the pocket book. Same goes for just about everyone else.

Utnayan said:

I would hope. But we all know how this goes. 1) I doubt anyone has the development talent to think this far out of the box with map design and having it sync together like it does in ER - or worse, talent is there and management tightens the screws and doesn't allow them to do it. 2) It's all based on revenue and money and risk. Most aren't going to take the risks when they have solid revenue based on an IP. IE: Valhalla - which is a shit show compared to this for obvious reasons, hit over 1 billion in revenue training a bunch of monkeys to hamstring together a plethora of check box POI's in more or less an incohesive mess - but they shaved costs tremendously and made more on this game than any other AC game in arguably one of the worse of the franchise since Unity. So apples to apples, why would Ubi ever do anything different until they get hit in the pocket book. Same goes for just about everyone else.

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AC and Ubisoft are easy punching bags, but I think ER's success is illuminating for just about everyone creating an open world game from Outward to Elder Scrolls. It demonstrates the merit of difficulty, unexpected power curves and sparse GUI. Ubisoft doesn't need to make an ER clone to capitalize on that, they just need to tweak a few things to introduce those concepts.

Beat Malenia and took about 3 tries. Used cold ugi (+25) and rivers (+10). Just kept on her and stunning her and when she'd get out for a bit just did it all over again. Almost had her the first time but she destroyed me in phase two with about 30% of her health left. Went ham on the Mimic and gained most of it back. He died and then she went for dessert on me.

Went ahead and beat the get after that but hated the final boss. Died to that more than anything else. Get a few shots in then it'd rain it's holy/light thing on top of me, which I can't see thanks to the camera placement, and one shot me. Chasing it around was frustrating then having to do the run up to the 'door' and cut scenes was annoying. I may choose to go and platinum (did Ranni's ending) but not any time soon.

Aazrael said:

Just hit my first boss that smashed me 30+ times and used me as toiletpaper. Finally got the bitch down with a lucky stagger at the very end after my Mimic was a bloody pool on the floor. I hate these chaotic guys that fly everywhere.

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I got him on the third attempt but I'm sure it was mostly luck. Mimic was able to take the hits and I'd come in attack and run away. My health bar looked like your pic when I was done. First two times I rolled off the edge and died because I didn't even realize there was a edge to the arena.

Aazrael said:

Any other bosses that drops that kind of runes? I skipped the dragons in the Crumbling zone as I felt stressed as hell just by running for my life there with the fucking birds and skeletons everywhere.

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A couple of dragons in end zones/end of quest lines drop in excess of 100k in NG, as does the final boss of the Ranni questline, but nothing I have seen drops close to what Mogh did.

Tuco said:

AC and Ubisoft are easy punching bags, but I think ER's success is illuminating for just about everyone creating an open world game from Outward to Elder Scrolls. It demonstrates the merit of difficulty, unexpected power curves and sparse GUI. Ubisoft doesn't need to make an ER clone to capitalize on that, they just need to tweak a few things to introduce those concepts.

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So who specifically is capable of that? I can think of no other studio with the potential, genuinely

My main play is on PS5, but the wife and I have been cooping on the PS4 and experienced two bugs. First, the first time you try the Academy boss as co-op, the first phase bugs as impossible, but that is supposedly fixed. Second, the Radahn Comet cutscene after the battle crashed the host each time, which mainly fucked us out of some lore dialog. No real issues aside from that, although I have to say the load times on the PS4 (even pros with SSD drives in them) is glacial compared to the PS5.

Right now we are stuck on the fucking Gargoyle pair, because my wife's personal shield (as she calls my melee guy) does not have any decent strike weapons built up in his arsenal and the wife refuses to learn how to block with a shield ever. That fight is extremely unfun, mostly due to them being immune to everything and shitting out that poison cloud constantly in Phase 2. I think I cheesed it with Golden Halberd by first play, but I cannot fully recall.