Elden Ring

[Spang]

If Dark Souls and Skyrim had a baby, it would be Elden Ring. Who else is playing the game of the year?

[Winnow]

Played about 30 minutes and quit. I hate dark souls type games. Feels more like work than fun for me at least.

[Funkmasterr]

If Dark Souls and Skyrim had a baby, it would be Elden Ring. Who else is playing the game of the year?

Skyrim is maybe the most over rated game of all time. Elden Ring though is awesome - I haven't been this hooked on a game in probably 20 years!

[Spang]

Skyrim was a vast, open-world game that allowed you to get wrecked early on by enemies you had no business interacting with. That’s where the similarity ends.

[Aslanna]

Anything "Soulslike" I stay away from. And from what I understand, when it comes to difficulty, this is very much Soulslike.

That's a pass from me.

[Spang]

Anything "Soulslike" I stay away from. And from what I understand, when it comes to difficulty, this is very much Soulslike.

That's a pass from me.

This is definitely a SoulsBourne-style game. But Elden Ring is open-world with a map and a compass, unlike previous From Software games. It’s easier to summon other people to help you. There’s more checkpoints. It can still be frustrating, but highly rewarding. And the difficulty is part of the experience.

[Spang]

After more than 100 hours of gameplay, I can safely say that Elden Ring lives up to the hype. Being able to go anywhere while not really knowing where to go was overwhelming at first. But after some exploring, I began to figure things out.

With a proper spirit summon and some sorcery, Elden Ring is often easier than other SoulsBorne titles.

I’m nearing the end of my first playthrough and looking forward to NG+.

Pro Tip: You can add up to five group passwords and receive a five percent rune buff for a short time when ever someone in any of those groups defeats a shardbearer boss or becomes Lord. I’m probably buffed 95 percent of the time. It’s not much, but it’s honest.

[Funkmasterr]

Nice! Yeah I finished my first playthrough and got the platinum a week or so back. I messed around with helping people with a few of the more difficult boss fights, and did my fair share of invading. I will likely go back before long here and start ng+ as well.

I felt that a few of the fights towards the end (Malenia, Malaketh) started to lean a little too hard on mechanics I thought were cheap (health siphon, super fast/super long one shot combos, etc), but on the whole it was great. Definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

[Aslanna]

I'm glad people are enjoying it but I'm starting to get a bit tired of hearing about Elden Ring this and Elden Ring that on basically every gaming site/podcast I visit every single day/week.

Not directed at this thread but it's been over 5 weeks now.. stfu about it already, people!

But hey, at least it's not Wordle, the previous "stfu already" game I couldn't seem to escape hearing about.

[Spang]

Nice! Yeah I finished my first playthrough and got the platinum a week or so back. I messed around with helping people with a few of the more difficult boss fights, and did my fair share of invading. I will likely go back before long here and start ng+ as well.

I felt that a few of the fights towards the end (Malenia, Malaketh) started to lean a little too hard on mechanics I thought were cheap (health siphon, super fast/super long one shot combos, etc), but on the whole it was great. Definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

I just beat Malaketh. The combo immediately after the cutscene would kill me every time. I had to summon some cooperators to take the agro off me while I tossed my meatballs at him.

I think some of the weapons are overpowered in PVP. That coupled with AFK hosts make PVP not fun for me. I only did the three invasions required for that one quest then hung up my cleats.

[Funkmasterr]

Nice, congrats! That's a tough one. I've helped people with that fight and Malenia the most as they seem to give people the most trouble. When I fought Malaketh, I stunlocked him so bad he didn't even go into his second phase

Yeah there are definitely still balance issues with PVP. First of all, I don't like that you can only invade groups of more than one - I get the impression they did this to try and find a middle ground between the PVP scene and casual audience that generally doesn't like being invaded. The thing is, the pvp scene is what gives these games legs and I don't really think the compromise worked anyhow. It's turning people that like PVP away from it, and the people that don't like PVP still bitch about being invaded, even though they will generally have a huge advantage.

But also weapon/ability balance like you say. When people are using one of a couple of builds really commonly in PVP, there's an issue. And you see a lot of moonveil spam, madness/deathblight (borderline exploits), and bleed builds. It seems like they're making more of an effort to balance this stuff than they generally do though, likely because of how much better it's sold. So I guess we'll see where it goes.

[Spang]

I wish I didn’t have to kill Radagan after every time the Elden Beast wrecked me, but last night, with the help of a highly-skilled cooperator, and after more than 150 hours of gameplay (speed gamer I am not), the credits rolled. I went with Ranni’s ending this time around. I also realized that I missed an entire legacy dungeon, because I never met Malenia. I’ll be tying up as many loose ends as possible before jumping into NG+.

[Funkmasterr]

Grats! Yeah I had to look up how to get to the area Malenia is in, it's not easy to bump into. That area (and boss) are the toughest in the game, IMO - just so to help set your expectations properly.

[Spang]

I made it to the snowy region where I think this legacy dungeon may be. Even the walking mausoleum is hard! Also, it’s broken. It won’t duplicate shit for me!

[Winnow]

Yesterday, YouTuber and speedrunner MitChriz beat Elden Ring in just 12 minutes and 32 seconds, setting what appears to be a new record in the “any% unrestricted” speedrunning category for the game.

You people are poky!

[Funkmasterr]

Yep, you found it! That place is rough, there are a lot of roaming mini bosses/tough enemies in the snowy area, then the legacy dungeon too. I didn't try using that mausoleum due to how much of a pain it was. I just skirted around it to get to a nearby dungeon.

[Spang]

Malenia figured out how to beat me in her first attempt, but I eventually got her on my umpteenth attempt with the help of two cooperators!

453,600 runes!

[Funkmasterr]

Nice! Yeah you start to get a ton of runes towards the end - I had to get creative about spending them so they didn't all go to waste, I am not leveling above 150 because I want to stick around the "meta".

[Spang]

With 13.4 million copies sold, Elden Ring is officially mainstream. It has shipped up to half of the lifetime sales of the entire Dark Souls trilogy.

I’m currently in my third playthrough and still enjoying it.

[Spang]

I just completed my fourth playthrough! This time I went with the Dung Eater ending. Just two more endings to go. This game is still so good!

[Spang]

It’s official: Game of the Year!

[Funkmasterr]

Well deserved, I'd say. I'm still playing through God Of War, and it's great, but it's no Elden Ring.

[Spang]

I recently started playing the GoW remaster. Not sure why I’ve slept on that franchise, but I’m enjoying it.

And I just finished my 7th playthrough of Elden Ring.

[Spang]

I think the Let me solo her guy just killed Malenia for me! If it was an imitator, they still got the job done!

[Spang]

NG+ 21 in the books! I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this game!

[Funkmasterr]

Holy shit, you're a maniac! I only did one completionist play-through, but I plan to get back to it again at some point.

[Spang]

Make that 22!

It gets more trivial after subsequent playthroughs. Plus, I don’t really play anything else.

[Spang]

DLC trailer just dropped! June 21st!

[Spang]

Has a DLC ever won Game of the Year?

[Aslanna]

If so it shouldn't have since it's not a game but DLC.

[Spang]

Shadow of the Erdtree is as big as a game.

[Winnow]

Shadow of the Erdtree is as big as a game.

Alaska is bigger than most countries. It's never won country of the year. It also was an expansion.

[Aslanna]

Shadow of the Erdtree is as big as a game.

It's still a DLC. If you want it to win then have them create a "Best DLC" category since it's not a game. A game you can play on its own and not something that requires the original game to play.

[Spang]

Shadow of the Erdtree is as big as a game.

It's still a DLC. If you want it to win then have them create a "Best DLC" category since it's not a game. A game you can play on its own and not something that requires the original game to play.

It’s Less that I want it to win, and more that I think it will. Has a DLC ever won game of the year before?