Elden Ring

[thinkitty]

Sunk about 3 hours into the PS5 version and am enjoying it immensely. I don't know if the gameplay will expand as the game progresses but so far it plays like an open world Dark Souls with a plethora of tweaks, refinements and revisions to the Souls series' tried and tested mechanics. The story so far seems equally mysterious as that portrayed in the Souls games too.

Playing the game in performance mode, it seems to run at around 45fps which is a little disappointing. Not tried Resolution Quality Mode. Supposedly the only way of achieving 60fps right now is by playing the PS4 version on the PS5 console. I'm a little underwhelmed with the graphics too if I'm honest. Again - I am playing in Performance Mode, but the textures and models are very last gen; and with HDR enabled, the visuals are a little washed out. I actually think Dark Souls III is a better looking game and the Demon's Souls remake puts it to shame. Technical issues aside however, the imagination in the design and artistic direction of the world and its inhabitants is fantastic, and the orchestral soundtrack is stunningly emotive.

Annoyingly, there's no option to disable online messages. I like playing these games completely blind (I purposely avoided playing the Elden Ring network test and have shunned all previews and reviews) and even though you don't have to read the online messages, they still give things away when you see so many messages beside the same wall. I also find these games more immersive when the worlds are stripped clean of all glowing messages and player ghosts. I've taken to changing the network settings in the PS5 dashboard which fixes the issue but it's a chore doing so every time. There is an option to disable online play, so those who want to avoid invasions but still read messages are catered for.

Still, complaints aside, I am enjoying it and the positives do far outweigh the negatives. It's an incredibly immersive, satisfying and rewarding experience and I'm confident the performance issues will be ironed out in time.

[Tobal]

Playing on XSX, didn't bother changing the default graphic mode but it's clear it dips between 40-60 when it gets busy.

the old lesson of getting to greedy got me... just got torrent and got into a good 1 v 1 battle vs the thing that appears just after, just 2 more hits and it would be dead... whiffed twice on my horse standing right next to it (instead of jousting for single hits for 10 or 15mins to get to that point) and then it clobbered my horse, me and then hit me again before i could recover, good time to go to bed

I like the added stealth, it's simple line of sight and they don't react to bodies on the floor but it allows for new tactics when going for the backstabs and good addition for those bad at combat and the special skills allow you to do some big damage melee attacks for the cost of some magic points.

Some of the reviews i saw moaned about the aimlessness, but it clearly tells you the grace lights (bonfires) point in the suggested direction you should probably take (and it's very clear on the overworld map). And if you're new to the Formsouls series make sure to exhaust options when speaking to npcs.

[briareos_kerensky]

Went for the PC version, not having either PS5 or XBX...I was scared about the game performance after reading impressions and watching videos, but I was pleasantly surprised that with patch 1.02, the game runs between 30 and 60fps dependign on how large the area is at 4K with everything set to high, no AA, and no motion blur (because I don't like it) on a 3900X, 32GB of RAM, and a vanilla 2080.
I might drop to 1440p depending on how the later areas are, but at the very least during boss fights the game seems to behave constantly with no frame drops.

As for the game...damn it's strange to have a dedicated jump button. A lot to take in: item crafting, item gathering, the open world, horseback fighting, stealth, the usual series of NPCs and bosses with strange names, fast travel to locations without resting at the bonfire (or whatever it's called here)...I think it'll take a while to get used to everything. Stealth seems not to care if you are wearing an armour or not, my knight easily backstabbed a lot of people without too many problems.

Just one stooopid question: how do you twohand weapons? For the love of me I cannot find the button and the controls menu doesn't list that in the list.

[Tobal]

Just one stooopid question: how do you twohand weapons? For the love of me I cannot find the button and the controls menu doesn't list that in the list.

Y button(also the quick pouch button for spirits when held down, and they've been equipped on the top menu screen, right hand side) on a xbox controller then LB or RB depending on which weapon slot you want to 2 hand. Still trying to figure out how i changed from right to left slots equipment on my horse... not been able to repeat that.

Found my first 'you're getting teleported here trap' and hours later just found my first underground entrance... i think it's just a big as the over ground.

Also one or two more things... spell slots are rare items and not stat progression, wasted a few level ups doing that. Pots are reusable for crafting so anything bought/found will be back in your inventory as a pot to craft again after you've throw it.

[briareos_kerensky]

Y button(also the quick pouch button for spirits when held down, and they've been equipped on the top menu screen, right hand side) on a xbox controller then LB or RB depending on which weapon slot you want to 2 hand. Still trying to figure out how i changed from right to left slots equipment on my horse... not been able to repeat that.

Ah, OK. Didn't think it was a combination.

[nonny]

Similar impressions from me. Playing on Series X using VRR it's very smooth but my TV losses so much brightness with that enabled I've ditched it. Yes it's somewhere around 45-55fps most of the time but it doesn't impact gameplay. On Series S I've tried it on a 1440p monitor with freesync and it seems smooth apart from very occasional dips.

Gameplay wise it feels very much like Dark Souls but with some nice refinements and expansion in combat options.

Similarly I got torrent and went on to almost best that first boss encounter then failed 20 times in a row and decided to give up and go wandering. That was the best choice and it's nice to just try something new and build your character up before heading back in.

So far I've completed one dungeon not far from the first church and a cave as well. I've also had an immense encounter on the beach and found a few interesting items...

I've reached level 20 and really just gotten started but it already feels epic in scale. There's just a level of detail across the entire world that makes it feel very authentic as a fantasy location. The day and night cycle and weather really add to that authenticity... It is dark souls in an open world, but my goodness that world is gorgeous.

[briareos_kerensky]

How to do you reach the beach?
After defeating

->Open Spoiler<-

the mariner in the village past the stormy area (and getting a stamina talisman in a cave within the ruins)

I decided to get back to starting area and also found

->Open Spoiler<-

a witch that gave me a bell to summon spirits (costs FP)...I got spirit "scrolls" from an NPC encounter and the boss fight mentioned earlier but I was wondering why I couldn't use them

...oh well, explore and learn

[BIG EDD]

Picked this up yesterday but waiting to complete Horizon West on PS5. Game looks excellent

[Tobal]

No online today for me on xbox, wouldn't log in to the servers which seems to be a From software problem for all releases.

After opening my first gargoyle statue i found at the starting area i was rewarded with a hellish trapfest, i explored one of the 2 paths which got me to a boss that i have no chance of beating right now once it goes into 2nd phase, i wasn't in the mood for going through half a dungeon to reach the hidden split i found and died in... one to come back to.

After that i've been making my way through the massive stormveil castle, platforming on all sort of tiny ledges, reaching the Big Boss of the area... tough going so far, best i've done at level 27 is get his HP to nearly half way so i've yet to see what horrible 2nd phase he has.

[hudson]

How to do you reach the beach?
After defeating

->Open Spoiler<-

the mariner in the village past the stormy area (and getting a stamina talisman in a cave within the ruins)

I decided to get back to starting area and also found

->Open Spoiler<-

a witch that gave me a bell to summon spirits (costs FP)...I got spirit "scrolls" from an NPC encounter and the boss fight mentioned earlier but I was wondering why I couldn't use them

...oh well, explore and learn

There are restricted areas for spirits. You can tell if you're in an unrestricted area as there will be a light blue arch-like icon on the mid-left side of the HUD.

[nonny]

Glad I'm not the only one finding it a challenge!

So when I said I've done a dungeon and a cave:

->Open Spoiler<-

I've done that stormveil dungeon I think it was called with all the gargoyles and the cat-like statue boss battle. That was tough but I found the statue was fairly predictable and I'd already had the wolf summon thing from Renna.

Then if you follow that same hill region round toward the stormgate ruins there's a cave near where some soldiers are at a campfire. In there are a load of wolves and a really tough boss battle against a two-handed sword guy who is mental. Beat him first try with just a slither of health remaining and you get a fire talisman.

As for the beach:

->Open Spoiler<-

From the very first entrance if you head east there's an incline going down to the beach which is blocked by a big Ogre similar to the one at the Stormveil gates. You have to bear that guy to get past which took me 2-3 attempts now I'm level 20.

Then down on the beach there's this huge crazy squid/worm thing and it destroyed me but off in the top corner of the beach there's some shimmering white light similar to the grace lights and I can't see what it's trying to indicate...? There's also more at the other end of the beach but it would involve running for your life to get up there.

I'm not going to bother with stormveil castle just yet. I watched a gamespot "starting guide" video where they outlined a few other areas East along the path from Stormveil with low-level dungeons and other areas... So I'm going to do them first and loop back.

[briareos_kerensky]

There are restricted areas for spirits. You can tell if you're in an unrestricted area as there will be a light blue arch-like icon on the mid-left side of the HUD.

->Open Spoiler<-

Yep, but the blue arch never appeared in unrestricted areas before I got the bell.

[hudson]

Hmm, did you equip the

->Open Spoiler<-

spirit scroll to you quick use? I equip mine to the quick pouch where you hold triangle/Y button. You don't equip the bell

.

[briareos_kerensky]

->Open Spoiler<-

The bell doesn't need to be equipped, just the scroll.

[hudson]

Yeah, that's what I said. Not sure what else to say. You still can't use spirits?