Gaming Elden Ring - Fromsoftware

30-50hours, 30-50fps (if we are lucky).

But dammit, if I'm not excited for more souls!

Got a new character ready (spiked fists/quickstep will never get old) been playing through the souls games in preparation (still think DS1 is the best of the lot) and I'm ready to press start and get my arse handed to me like I've never played a From game before.

Can't wait!
 
Re-installed a couple weeks ago to see what state my save was in...it was corrupted. Said I'd spent a few hours getting back in the flow of it. Just hit level 140. Forgot how absolutely amazing this game is. Now can't wait. Also, where'd my weekends go!?
 
Trying to get into this again after finishing the other From Software games.

Just beat the Godskin Apostle at the divine tower. Somehow I fecked up my build meaning I couldn’t take any hits without instantly dying(Also I’m old and now shite at video games). Anyways if only took 4 fecking hours!

The game is very good but the combat system is the weakest compared to other dark souls type games.
 
Missmikkaa was at the DLC launch event yesterday, I didn't watch too much for spoilers but there was a boss fight that looked rather interesting.

She brought out the famous dance mat and after trying to teach someone how to do it, ended up beating Godrick with it no sweat :lol:
 
Sweet Square said:
Trying to get into this again after finishing the other From Software games.

Just beat the Godskin Apostle at the divine tower. Somehow I fecked up my build meaning I couldn’t take any hits without instantly dying(Also I’m old and now shite at video games). Anyways if only took 4 fecking hours!

The game is very good but the combat system is the weakest compared to other dark souls type games.
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In what way?
 
quadrant said:
In what way?
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A lot of bosses animations change far too quickly which makes punishing them at times impossible and avoiding their attacks just as impossible. Plus bosses can have really long attack patterns.

All of which leads to a feeling like your watching enemies doing a elaborate dance rather than a taking part in a actual fight. Or if you want to fight the bosses then it becomes a slug fest where your trading damage and healing repeatedly.

Although tbh it probably doesn’t help my Elden Ring experience that my favourite From Software games are Bloodborne and Sekiro.
 
Sweet Square said:
A lot of bosses animations change far too quickly which makes punishing them at times impossible and avoiding their attacks just as impossible. Plus bosses can have really long attack patterns.

All of which leads to a feeling like your watching enemies doing a elaborate dance rather than a taking part in a actual fight. Or if you want to fight the bosses then it becomes a slug fest where your trading damage and healing repeatedly.

Although tbh it probably doesn’t help my Elden Ring experience that my favourite From Software games are Bloodborne and Sekiro.
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It's well known they changed animations and added in input reading late in development to fake the difficulty when it became apparent the balance was well off.

I still think ER is a cracking game and they did a very good job of the balancing overall, but it's definitely the weakest of their games when it comes to gameplay (especially the boss fights). Well, maybe on the DS2 level, but that one is more about the disappointing level design rather than the combat.

That being said, dual whips or spiked fists + quickstep are huge fun to play though.
 
Redlambs said:
It's well known they changed animations and added in input reading late in development to fake the difficulty when it became apparent the balance was well off.
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Thanks had no idea they did this. Definitely does feel like it.
Redlambs said:
I still think ER is a cracking game and they did a very good job of the balancing overall, but it's definitely the weakest of their games when it comes to gameplay (especially the boss fights). Well, maybe on the DS2 level, but that one is more about the disappointing level design rather than the combat.
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Yeah definitely agree. It’s really fun game and I’m enjoying my time playing it. Honestly just exploring the world is a nice way to kill an hour.
Redlambs said:
That being said, dual whips or spiked fists + quickstep are huge fun to play though.
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I’m currently doing a claw + quickstep build. Causes a lot of blood loss meaning I end up ripping up apart bosses which has great.
 
I replayed the game 3 months back, but went to new game+ shortly before dropping it again. Now I have to play it again :lol:
 
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Sweet Square said:
I’m currently doing a claw + quickstep build. Causes a lot of blood loss meaning I end up ripping up apart bosses which has great.
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Never really got on with the claws, I think I have about 4 different sets of them. Though I do remember picking up those lightning spike things at some point which I liked for a while.

The fist (spiked or not) weapons feel like a boxing match, and quickstep is great for fun plays. Don't bother with the other variant, bloodhound step or something? That's for defensive iFrame cowards ;)
 
Sweet Square said:
A lot of bosses animations change far too quickly which makes punishing them at times impossible and avoiding their attacks just as impossible. Plus bosses can have really long attack patterns.

All of which leads to a feeling like your watching enemies doing a elaborate dance rather than a taking part in a actual fight. Or if you want to fight the bosses then it becomes a slug fest where your trading damage and healing repeatedly.

Although tbh it probably doesn’t help my Elden Ring experience that my favourite From Software games are Bloodborne and Sekiro.
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Yeah I'd agree with that, though I wouldn't use the word weak necessarily, but its not their most balanced by a long way. To be fair, you can learn all the boss patterns, there's only a very few moves that are downright unfair, no more than most of their other games. And the counter point is that you can have ridiculously powerful characters in this game, far more so than the Souls titles. There was a lot of furore when the game came out about the difficulty of the bosses, before people had got their head around how powerful you can make your build. However in making both you and the boss super powerful, you lose a lot of the finesse of Sekiro. It ends up a lot more anime than the previous games.
 
I started with a new character a week ago and I'm still trying to get used to playing with a Samurai build ( high dex, no shield, high vigor, light equipment, some arcane for the blood loss stuff) and despite completing and loving bloodborne I feel so vulnerable without a shield.
 
Apparently it's more than half the size of original game. One reviewer commented that they were still making new discoveries in their 65-hour playthrough. That's your game of the year, ladies and gentlemen.
 
KiD MoYeS said:
Apparently it's more than half the size of original game. One reviewer commented that they were still making new discoveries in their 65-hour playthrough. That's your game of the year, ladies and gentlemen.
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I already played rebirth.
 
95 Metacritic :lol: . did anyone expect anything else really? Really looking forward to this.
 
Massive Spanner said:
95 on metacritic @Solius
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giphy.webp
 
I don’t know of any other studio that does such high quality DLC on their games as much as FromSoft do. It used to be Blizzard’s forte 20 years ago when it was all about ‘expansion packs’.

I will be checking this out. I have a save where I’m suitably levelled to fight Mohg and can get to his area of the map.
 
Chairman Steve said:
I don’t know of any other studio that does such high quality DLC on their games as much as FromSoft do. It used to be Blizzard’s forte 20 years ago when it was all about ‘expansion packs’.

I will be checking this out. I have a save where I’m suitably levelled to fight Mohg and can get to his area of the map.
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This isn’t a DLC though. It’s an expansion. You can’t call something that’s €40 and over two years in the making a dlc.
 
Am I missing something in having no idea what to do? Is there much of a story and/or main quest line?
 
From Washington Post's review

I entered this world with a Level 713 character, the maximum level of power attained over two years and hundreds of hours. The first enemy I fought was a man wearing nothing but underwear. I hit him with my most powerful attack, and he barely flinched. He punched me twice (hand-to-hand arts are just one of eight new weapon types), and I died.
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:lol: I'm nowhere near ready for this
 
Eurogamer with their customary outlier review. They've really established themselves as the contrarian website. No idea who they're writing for anymore, except lovers of visual novels.
 
fergosaurus said:
From Washington Post's review

:lol: I'm nowhere near ready for this
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I believe the DLC has a unique levelling up system that only applies to the DLC zone, so the base character you go in with doesn't really determine the difficulty of the DLC. Not exactly sure how it works, but from the previews a few weeks ago it sounds like you get to level up when you beat a boss.

Redlambs said:
We are all going Kung-Fu fighting right?
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Bone-fist enjoyers assemble
 
parkthebuslads said:
Am I missing something in having no idea what to do? Is there much of a story and/or main quest line?
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There isn't really. Soulsborne aficionados will tell you to read 800 item descriptions to piece together a very loosely-woven narrative.

Throughout all the Soulsborne games there is only a smattering of cool characters with interesting stories. Solaire, Siegmeyer/Siegward, Lucatiel, Patches, Eileen, Ranni, maybe a few others.

Play the game, if you find a character you like and want to see more of, then you'll need to Google it because trying to do a Soulsborne NPC questline blind is like juggling water.
 
quadrant said:
Bone-fist enjoyers assemble
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Oh we shall!

It'll be interesting to see how the levelling works. I'm well under-levelled for the norm at the end game of Elden Ring, so I was hoping for some real difficulty. A fresh perspective on that side of the game could actually be one of the best things they've added with this dlc.
 
Redlambs said:
It'll be interesting to see how the levelling works. I'm well under-levelled for the norm at the end game of Elden Ring, so I was hoping for some real difficulty. A fresh perspective on that side of the game could actually be one of the best things they've added with this dlc.
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Difficulty balancing is one of the few major criticisms I have about Elden Ring. First time round I managed to play the areas in the wrong order (which the game kind of encourages) and ended up going back to early areas hugely overlevelled and stomped through them. Its a problem that comes with a very open game and they still handled it better than something like Skyrim. Still, there's room for improvement, so its one of the things Im keen to see what they've done.
 
quadrant said:
Difficulty balancing is one of the few major criticisms I have about Elden Ring. First time round I managed to play the areas in the wrong order (which the game kind of encourages) and ended up going back to early areas hugely overlevelled and stomped through them. Its a problem that comes with a very open game and they still handled it better than something like Skyrim. Still, there's room for improvement, so its one of the things Im keen to see what they've done.
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Yep. As I've said before, it's a problem literally from the start of the game as they lead players straight to the castle and once you've beat those two bosses the whole area to the south is wasted.

A change to the system can be great, but it still will be tough to balance. As a lot of players, especially among those that ER introduced to From games, just want the ability to over level and walk through the game. Hopefully it's much better thought out than the late changes to the "ai" of bosses they did in the base game.

I'm actually super excited though. I'm going to punch some feckers right in the face, though since I've just done a whole run with mostly fists and kept myself reasonably under-levelled I'm really hoping the new fighting style adds something new and isn't just about bare fists with similar move sets.

(BTW I'm aware people do know more about this stuff because of that launch event, but I've deliberately stayed away from as much of it as possible).
 
Chairman Steve said:
I don’t know of any other studio that does such high quality DLC on their games as much as FromSoft do. It used to be Blizzard’s forte 20 years ago when it was all about ‘expansion packs’.

I will be checking this out. I have a save where I’m suitably levelled to fight Mohg and can get to his area of the map.
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ProjektRed take home the bacon for expansions.

Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is the greatest DLC.
Phantom Liberty is superb too.
Witcher 3: Hearts of stone rivals Blood and Wine.

They give you brilliant narrative, vibrant open worlds, compelling side and main quests, significant amounts of world building and lore, and interesting characters and well-thought themes.
 
The final pre-DLC patch landed with a surprise for the main game
its now possible to fight elden beast while riding torrent
 
I'm about halfway through a second playthrough with a samurai character and I just can't get used to life without a shield. Will definietly be going back to my first character (faith/strength build)

Witcher 3 DLC is the king of expansions/DLCs with Cyberpunk probably being second and Bloodborne not far behind. Will be interesting to see if this gets anywhere near those games, i'm betting it will.
 
quadrant said:
The final pre-DLC patch landed with a surprise for the main game
its now possible to fight elden beast while riding torrent
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Good, the arena fights are definitely the worst parts of the game for annoyance.


Irwin99 said:
I'm about halfway through a second playthrough with a samurai character and I just can't get used to life without a shield. Will definietly be going back to my first character (faith/strength build)
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I only ever use shields for parrying, my last 2 runs none at all (apart from occasionally wearing a stamina recovery one on my back). But then I do use Quickstep above all else, so that compensates a fair amount.

But there's no hard and fast rules about what you should/shouldn't use so just go with what is most fun/playable for you.
 
Whoa that first boss is ridiculously tough (for me anyway) .

Blackgaol knight- had to cheese the fecker with Angel wing spam but i died at least 20 times

Fun DLC so far. It's just more Elden Ring and that's not a bad thing.
 
Irwin99 said:
Whoa that first boss is ridiculously tough (for me anyway) .

Blackgaol knight- had to cheese the fecker with Angel wing spam but i died at least 20 times

Fun DLC so far. It's just more Elden Ring and that's not a bad thing.
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Just started, got into a fight with some mostly naked dude :lol:

Shades of DS3.

BTW did you have to beat Mohg again? Mine had respawned. Luckily it was only about a six weeks ago I last played and I've been playing DS1 in between, so I just about remembered enough to scrape through it.
 
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