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100 hours in, Elden Ring is a beautiful, ugly masterpiece: it’s like someone asked “Hey, what if Skyrim was actually good?"

i was gonna get elden ring but relised its like dark souls and i hate hard games

That's a pretty amazing bargain! Luckily, they exceeded their goal and then some.
I'm enjoying the heck out of Celeste and look forward to diving into Marginalia, Rusty Lake Hotel, and as a sucker for the whole vaporwave/mallsoft/etc. aesthetic, Self-Checkout Unlimited.

Oh, and it is hard...believe me!

Exactly this. Really well said, and spot on.

My most recent experience in the game is an absolutely massive, fortress-like area named Stormveil Castle. A sprawling labyrinth of passages, secrets and towering verticality. I have spent a good 5 hours in this place so far, and although I now know where the final boss is, and have access to it, there are still a couple of sections I have yet to explore and clear. I have taken down a couple of mini-bosses, and the initial boss that blocks the way into this place, but man, there are a couple of random wandering mobs that are just handing me my ass. Fully decked out, shiny knights with impenetrable defense and a nasty move set. I will get them...I will!

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The more I read about Elden Ring the more I realize I just kinda hate video games these days. Like not hating on the game because it looks amazing. But I just don’t have the patience, fortitude, and interest to devote to video games anymore.

With that said, I am still clocking a few hours in Halo: Infinite every week. Kinda hate the open world aspect because it’s so freaking repetitive, but I would have already beat the game weeks ago if it was like the previous installments so in that regard I am digging it. Anything to drag out a few more hours on the battle rifle is OK by me.

I died more times playing 30 hours of Elden Ring than the 134 hours I clocked on Odyssey. In fact, on Odyssey the only bosses I died more than twice before beating were the two legenary boars (which were seriously unbalanced to the rest of the game, which felt like a theme park ride).

Elden Ring is a real game instead of the ancient greece theme park ride that Odyssey is: it is something you really have to focus to beat. Elden Ring is also a real RPG: it does not have level scaling and you have to be careful doing you build.

I died more times to a certain cave bandid than to a Dragon boss. It is really unpredictable how you can die since big enemies make you take them seriously but even now, at level 50, a couple of mid-range soldiers can still easily kill me.

My worst time, however, is dying inside a dark cave by failling into holes. I lost 12,000 runes because I feel into a hole and then I feel into another hole trying to get my runes back. Then I thought "screw it" and I didn't try to go back to that cave to get the runes.

Agree on all points. The pseudo-RPG, micro-transaction driven grind-fest that AC games have become is really disheartening, and I am glad to see a title come into the room like a wrecking ball to challenge that particular gaming paradigm. It shows that a game can be successful as it's good, and stays focused on the stuff that players crave. I also think that once games adopt microtransactions centered around convenience, it becomes in the company's/developer's best interest to design their games to be an inconvenient and grindy experience if you aren't using microtransactions.

I do see other games doing it right out there still, like Ghost of Tsushima or the Horizon stuff, but man, Fromsoft has brought their occasionally troll-level player experience to the forefront of the discussion, even if just for a little while. I, for one, am glad to see it.

One could always dust off the ole Genesis/Mega Drive and pop in Phantasy Star II/III for some serious dungeon crawling! It was either last year or the year before I restarted that and found the dungeons don't seem as long now with my current age. I can here the world music now.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

i rememberd playing bloodborne that was hardest game i played then dark souls so i gave up playing hard games

I see it more as a return to the roots. Elder Ring reminds me of the original Fallout. Fallout was technically open world RPG game, it didn't have level scaling, your build mattered a lot, there was build-in no quest list, the game was super hard if you did not know what you were doing. Elder Ring is not "hard," it is just that you have to learn how to play it (after I learned to properly improve my weapons my experience became much easier) while you play it.

Bethesta games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 that pionnered this genre of "theme park" pseudo-RPGs that are more like animated movies you play rather than games. I think Odyssey is basically super-refined version of that with stealth elements added in (I have not played the other AC games). I greatly enjoy these kinds of games but Elder Ring is the actual hardcore computer RPG gaming experience.

For my terrible sins, I still follow the hypnotising train wreck that is Star Citizen.

Have a WIP video...



It is still beautiful. And still oh so very broken.

(There is so much more to say about this deranged crowd-funded boondoggle, but I reckon that about sums it up )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

that game is weird lol

Enjoying the landscape and locale shifts in Cyberpunk...

One minute you're in what looks like a future-Japan suburb, nosing past a boxy car on the crown of a curving hill, surrounded by boxy 3-story homes. The next minute you're sliding your stolen hatchback under a curving bridge and entering a club in some abandoned sewers. Then staggering out, with your mission complete, into the hazy light of dawn...







It's still essentially future-GTA. With its massive world, and 'screw fast-travel I'm driving' appeals, shifting daytime & weather cycles, and endless array of characters and distractions. Just with bonus Witcher-style consta-levelling. But honestly, I'm fine with all of it

Just finished up Elden Ring yesterday, It's definitely One of The Games :') yup

Joking aside, the standard storyline/ending obviously way much shorter; even for an intermediate like me, with some cheesing, cooping, grinding and near to correct build; but yes you miss a lot way then. Getting all (known) ending in one playthrough is very satisfying.

In the end like some other RPG I'd played, I end up doing quite a lot of sidetracking--exploring for items/drops, catching quests, and dozen of coop. For most of the mid to late game, I was kinda over-leveled. Tho' It did not guarantee (souls game after all), obviously, it makes things way of easier, especially when detour to earlier areas. Especially when you play as a mage!!
But Malenia boss still obliterated the hell out of me. I'm glad I'm keeping the toughest for the last. Dozen of death before I respec to bleed build and in change, it turns out me and my mimic summon was enough to obliterate her in one try lol. So ironic.

There's a lot to say about this game, there are so many things to try and find but I get slowdown for now. These three weeks were intense already.

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In today’s Cyberpunk lesson I learned that I am not prepared for a cyber-psychotic sacrifice-gone-wrong to run at me with bladed legs and arms…

(A bunch of low grade tech I’d plugged into my body flared and sparked in various last-ditch attempts to keep me alive. Time slowed and visuals glitched as I parried blades with various inappropriate objects)

(I became the sacrificial lamb )

And then hiked myself onto a roof and tried everything I had until something worked. (It turns out 'all the grenades', and whatever tech hacks I could stab, just about did it. Plus all my ammo…)

All the other 'moderately dangerous' detective cases now seem nice

(On the plus side I stole a cop car, and it seems no cops mind me driving it around while looking like a leather-and-tin-clad pimp )

did they fixed the bugs and glitches etc? im thinking to get it for my ps5 hopefully they upgraded the game for the next gen

It’s pretty stable on my 1080 in PCVR. Just daft cosmetic bugs like NPCs climbing invisible things occasionally, but no worse than GTA. Seems fine. Not sure on console though.

oh okay well thank you for telling me cause lucky i didnt bought it yet im still waiting for them to fix it

I am around 30-ish hours into Elden Ring at this point, maybe 35. It's tough to tell, because I tend to set the controller down at various times to do things around the house or get Stelly some lunch or what have you. Anyway, I can only play on the weekends, and I got another session or two in this past weekend!

I am now through Stormveil Castle and have explored some of the Liurnia of The Lakes area, completing a couple of the side dungeons there, as well. Stormveil was hands-down one of my favorite areas in a video game in recent memory. Towering in scale, challenging, and well-designed, I had a blast running through it. Both the boss at the beginning and the final boss were engaging and pulse-pounding encounters. The final boss had a great souls-like curve of me getting completely owned the first couple of times, with a nice curve up to victory as I mastered his various move set for each phase. When I finally got him down, it was that rush of elation I only get from these games.

By the way, I am playing my entire first playthrough with no co-op and no spirit summons. I will certainly go back and do some co-op on stuff I have already cleared solo as I go along, though.

The spirit summons are a brilliant addition, btw. I have no use for them, but wow, what an idea to give more casual gamers a leg up in difficult encounters - not everyone wants to be punished by a game the way I do! A set of various summonable helpers with different abilities and attributes that are completely optional. Seems like someone would have thought of this sooner, instead of leaning into mechanics like a difficulty slider...e

Awesome game, and I can already see another massive castle in the distance, this time with elegant spires and smooth lines, as opposed to the brutalist fortress I just escaped.



"Now cometh the age of the stars. A thousand year voyage under the wisdom of the moon. Here beginneth the chill night that encompasses all, reaching the great beyond. Into fear, doubt, and loneliness, as the path stretcheth into darkness" - Elden Ring

Spending my Sunday trying different weapons~builds with some sparing time with Malenia.
--kinda bit spoily--
Unfortunately, I didn't back up the point before I luckily beat her, so coop was the option. She is still tough to beat though, since the game triple the boss health bar with threesome, and obviously the more option for her annoying regen hits. Like there is no point using a shield against her.


That's to say after a couple of times respec, the bleed build was still at the forefront I believe. PVP crowd may be annoyed with L2 spammers of River of Blood but for bosses like Malenia, just grabs it before the dev nerf it. Another option for bleed still does, as long as it is fast and quick. I try dual whips 24+ a couple of times, which fast and provide some distance, scale it to blood and we almost got her if not for getting caught through the second phase.
The other option is to focus on something that likely will stun lock or stagger her. Strength build has the chance, especially when like two or even three players. Alone? maybe power stance with buff; for like one-shot build I still haven't heard people use it for her. Other builds still do with keeping heavy attack, jump heavy attack, anything that keeps her trembling and dizzy. A range like magic can be reliable but you can't easily laser her solo like other bosses. Definitely want another reliable close combatant to keep her occupied. Strength-int may do but personally didn't see much of these users went far in coop. Well, that 's maybe we coop after all xD. They also nerf the hoarfrost stomp, so the int build may seek other ice option/exploits.
For something like faith/holy, I don't think it will have any impact on her. I try some and just ended up charging my weapon R2.
Also almost got her one with lightning build--which technically, just a dex build?, kinda different from the previous souls game.
Still, speaking for her special move the timing is critical. Speaking for myself I still find it hard to evade it even when I know the trick already. Add the more persons and you got the twist and drama xD; like which one does her chasing with that move, I can't see her hand moves ******** stop spamming something that reduces the visibility!
That to say the session is always fun, even when 99 percent of it ended up failing to help the host; there is a lot of funny stuff to laugh about speaking this kind of game, as intense as it could be. Like when Malenia pulls the Move, it's like we just understand each other "you're on your own bruh." There were also a lot of hosts (maybe their earlier encounter) just rushed when Malenia start her second phase rot bomb; or like when the other was so fast and I still charging and missed many attacks. Not to say my connection that make her and another player like glitching, but to the point, it is like a twisting horror when suddenly you getting caught with a warm surprise XD.
God, in the end i wish has some spare of dedication to the craft like this man. I may not be obsessed to stand along with the git gud crowd, but it will feel fun if at least in my life I can parry Malenia once, twice, lol.