Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

sigh. there is a better than average chance I might buy it after I finish horizon zero Dawn. But I'm not sure I've ever paid full price for any (not Nintendo) game, and I've got an epic backlog. Plus, a giant non-incremental progress open world game would probably drive my family crazy. Where is Dad? He's in the basement again, duh

i guess it's time to choose what's more important. elden ring, or your family.

i want to remind you that this game has already been rated a 10.0

at least youre not in the basement of the local bar! where theres another bar guess, it could just have two stories, or maybe its a restaurant that has a bar in the basement

that sounds nice, having a nice protein and carbs eating session upstairs, maybe pour out the poopsock, then head downstairs to grab a beer and play some elden ring

its like cheers except in the back room instead of pool theres console gaming

it's the white lodge to the cryptopawnshop's black lodge

WHAT'SA it gonna TAAAAAAAAAAAKE?

sorry, spud infinity just came on and i'm the world's undisputed #1 fan of the song, so

― dig your way out of the shit with a gold magic shovel! (Karl Malone), Monday, February 28, 2022 4:42 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha I'd left the album playing when I popped to the shop next door and was reading this thread as I walked back in the door to this song as I read this

you guys aren't kidding about that elevator ride, wow

ended up at siofra after choosing to explore rather than proceed through stormveil and it's really worth pushing through, the final boss fight down there is beautiful

Oh fr? I started exploring down there, but the insane ghost archers made me say "mmm, maybe later". I was able to beat Margit after doing the Weeping Peninsula and some more leveling/upgrading, so I think it's time for Stormveil.

Also I opened a chest and was taken to a tower far away, where I killed a giant lava golem and got an hp-regenerating talisman.

Speaking of, yes you can do a visceral/crit attack on big enemies after stunning them, although it's not always the head. I couldn't figure it out at first with that giant, but he had a glowing spot on his chest that worked.

did anyone participate in the open beta or follow it much? i'm curious how much of the map was open before launch day

there was no open beta

there was a closed beta, which i think is what he's referring to
https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-fromsoftware-varre-npc-dark-souls-bloodborne-1848589678

yep whoops, don't know why i added "open" on there.

also, i think most of my deaths come when i think i'm holding my shield up with L1, but in fact I am drawing my bow

It was a lot of Limgrave, and you could fight Margit.

Found a bridge with multiple giant lava golem where they kept hitting each other and knocking each other down so I could stab them in their hearts, it was hilarious.

restarted with vagabond rather than bandit and by god it’s so much easier. mounted combat? just get your halberd on and you’re done.

retraced most of my steps - tho there’s a shack to the north in limgrave i can’t find again. also got absolutely hammered by some reincarnating ghouls of some sort while lost in the mist in the woods. but made my way up through storm pass without any problems. well charged up and backstabbed my way back down anyway.

just took out leonine! very good times with the videogames these last few days

You can kill those reincarnated ghouls for good by hitting them as they’re reincarnating (they’re a remains glow blue). Same goes for Skellies.

Also wow Jordan you killed that night? I got one shot and got the hell out of there. Might go back and give him a go

This game is pretty amazing

okay, the fire golem wasn't actually that difficult. the ol' bloodborene strategy of hug the body, dish out hits, rolls even further into the body when he does his easily telegraphed move. Just cashed in Goldrick's great soul (still going to be using DS lingo until I master the new Elden Ring lore) for the grafted dragon head and it's balls fun. Very happy with my str/faith build, been swinging my scythe and black fireballing my way to the position of Elden Lord with a skip in my step. favourite part of this being open world is I feel like I have the time to try out so many different play styles/weapons. Plan to spend the next hour shield blocking before punching monsters in the face with a fiery dragon head. what more could you want from a video game?

Very glad they incorporated parts of Bloodborne's lovecraftian monster design. The massive squid balls on the beach, old mate boss cutting his arm off, the disgusting great tree monster. Realising my most desired from soft game would be this, except with Dante's inferno-esque lore in a bloodborne tone. Open world hell exploring would be amazing and feels like it would fit perfectly into the fromsoft repertoire. This raises the question, where do fromsoft go after this? I don't know if Elden Ring 2 as a straight rehash would hit the same with critics as much as this one (which isn't to say I wouldn't play the hell out of it). They've done fantasy, they've done horror. Based on video game tropes I am highly looking forward to the Elden ring: SPACETRAVEL expansion coming out at the start of this year.

Also I am so impressed at this game from a workload perspective. In awe at how much time and attention would have to be put in. Must have been a crazy increase in budget from their previous titles

it's time for them to make a new armored core

Man, bummed I’ve got a packed week and probably won’t be able to fire this back up until the weekend. Will have to live vicariously through you all.

Same! I beat Godrick btw, now I have a surfeit of different places to explore.

I think I explored too much. Stomped Goldrick first time because I’m level 46 lol

i have no idea where godrick is, and i'm level 33

I went all over the bloody world last night and I know I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Just kept going and going until I got OP'd by some sneak attackers. Lost a lot of Runes. There are also far fewer waypoints as you get further out. Still stuck on Margaret though - I get him down to second phase and then his glowy hammer just mooshes me. I'm probably around level 19 or something I think. The coolest thing about this game is that grinding doesn't really have to feel like grinding since you're generally exploring the world at the same time as killing random enemies and fauna; feeling the place out, trying not to You Died.

Ha, I have a friend playing this who has dedicated himself to riding about the entire world without actually doing anything yet, just picking things up, getting maps, and seeing the sites. I've toyed around with that approach but feel less overwhelmed when I'm doing the slow, thorough exploration approach (even though I'm clearly missing tons of shit, such as most of those stairways that lead to an underground treasure room from overworld ruins).

So I've been trying to figure out what the boss combat is trying to teach me. It definitely punishes you if try to just stay close to the boss and dodge through attacks, since many bosses have these extremely fast attacks that are basically un-dodgeable. Although maybe that's telling me I should be using a shield, lol. I've had the best luck keeping middle distance and using the big jump attacks or charged attacks/ash of war moves after avoiding a combo. Not to mention coming back later if I'm not getting close to getting them.

In the Souls games it always felt like you could avoid ever getting hit by bosses if you knew their moveset and could read them. Here it doesn't quite feel like that -- I wonder if the fact that you have additional options to approaching bosses (spirit summons, coming back overleveled, etc) means that taking some damage is inevitable, or if I just haven't quite gotten the hang of the new combat systems yet.

(and I'm not saying that I'm actually trying to beat bosses without getting hit or anything, just to play it like Elden Ring and not like Dark Souls)

my dex build is based on running in, jump attack, maybe get off a twinblade combo, then retreat and wait for another opening. supported of course by my good friend Ghostly Jellyfish

Are you lot playing online or offline? I find online a bit off-putting to be honest. Too many messages and the ghosts distract me

bloodstains next to an elevator shaft are too funny to pass up imo

Sorting out the troll vs useful messages is its own metagame.

(but yeah, there are a ton of messages right now, there will probably be fewer later on)

I can’t get the What stains to work for some reason. I wonder if it’s some sort of a glitch specific to my play through

are What stains blood stains? i would call them How stains, haha. :) anyway, if so, i'm having the same problem - i often click on blood stains, and i only see the manner of death maybe 1 out of 10

I feel like that's always been weird in these games, idk why.

Watching Saint Riot's stream where he decided to do his playthrough without using fast travel, got transported to *redacted* very soon after he started playing, and resolved to simply walk back (before even getting the horse!).

Hoosteins

went and said hi to margit, and have decided actually i will pop round later after all if it’s all the same.

v much enjoying the “errant knight” feel to this. esp with the sense of the ruling powers’ soldiers patrolling the land and keeping some semblance of order. sounds odd to say but you get a feel of the politics of the place.

Loved coming across a ruined chapel of Marika through the mist as well, and getting buffeted about up on Stormhill. discovery feels like discovery and as has been pointed out, so nice to not have people giving you bloody quests etc.

on the boss battles agreed that rolling isn’t really working for me - doesn’t just feel like mis-timing. wondering whether it’s expecting a more flexible use of weapon arts, jumps and jump attacks, dodges etc. sekiro was v v good at training you and i don’t really feel i’ve quite got the measure of it yet.

sense of the ruling powers’ soldiers patrolling the land and keeping some semblance of order. sounds odd to say but you get a feel of the politics of the place.

oh this, i definitely feel this too, at least in this early portion of the game. the witcher 3 kind of had that feel too, but there was sooooooo much expository text (and experiential too) that it was unmissable. it's much more subtle here in E.R. (season 1, with george clooney) and the better for it imo

I found some sort of mirror hidden in a bush and it transported me so far away. Also: the elevator. This game is enormous!

My only regret is I am not going to finish nearly the amount of games I wanted to this month :( Goodbye DKC:TP, NSMB:U and MGSV

I like acronyms

Yep I’ve got GT7 arriving tomorrow but fuck knows when I’ll get around to it. After meeting Margit and having similar feelings to Fizzles I went galloping round the castle walls, found an old dead guy and took his grape (which turned out to be an eyeball I need to give to a blind maiden?), then kept riding and somehow ended up in Lake of Liurnia which seems to be absolutely enormous, I’m totally lost and loving it.

Ha, I plan on playing this for years to come.

I like this - I went back and fought the dragon with halfway similar tactics, except I was still attacking his ankles, running away on the horse to avoid firebreathing attacks, running in with the horse, repeat (when I should have been bold enough to attack the head).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_18aBpTIY64

I am going to have to put this on pause so that I don’t fuck up my work. Not happy about this. It’s too good.

Is there any chance this will play on a nearly ten years old non gaming rig? I'm definitely not buying a new console or pc for it and it's not like I have any time to play games or have played any games in the last 6+ years thanks to kids and even if I can play it I will probably resent both the little time I have to play it and the loss of the other things I would be doing if I weren't playing it. But I want to play it.

No. The required minimum specs are quite high (it doesn't run well for people with top of the line PCs at the moment but even if patched you'd not stand much of a chance of getting anything workable. You'd be better off getting a 2nd hand ps4 if it was enough of a draw to play it

god i'm terrible at this game. i have been fighting the Fire Thief for about an hour straight, could have killed him within the first few tries, and many times after that. i guess it doesn't help that i keep getting one-hit killed. might be a little further out than i should be

Oh interesting, did you already beat Godrick? Or did you circumvent Stormveil entirely? I heard that was possible, although I haven't looked for the route.

Circumvented stormveil! it was easy, you can just go right around the back and then down the cliffs. I'm so close to beating this dude, and I would like any fire-based item he has, but my attacks are really weak and i don't have any good counter-magic, so i'm trying to pull off this very long tedious fight with zero mistakes

dark souls style, basically. i should probably switch it up