Elden Ring (DLC Announced!)

[Juggs]

Also some of the endgame boss fights are kind of terrible imo. The Elden Beast is unbelievably tedious, with a boring arena, stupid attacks like the stars, and having to chase it's fat ass down without Torrent was a slog. Malenia attacking 8,0000000 x in a quarter of a second. Dragon Xashfafhusnfdfanjdgo (the one in the big tower) who whips out that laser thing where you just pray to the RNG Gods to not get 1 hit right there at the end. Fire Giant was great spectacle, but good God the actual fight is boring tedious dog shit. Godskin Duo was dogshit as well, having to fight two enemies you've already seen several times by then, that clearly weren't designed to be fought together like Ornstien / Smough from DS1, and was there to trick souls players into thinking it's a good fight like "Oh yeah I remember the fat guy and skinny guy in that room with all the pillars!! I loved Dark Souls!" (insert soyjack). To be clear, I don't think the game is too hard, I just think it is obviously designed around mimic use, which is fine. Maybe if I did a magic build I'd feel different, I dont know. I based my build around Bloodhound Fang, which was a very fun weapon to use, and felt very strong as well.

On a more positive note, Margit / Morgot, Godrick, and Renalla (despite being a gimmick fight kind of) were all very fun. I loved Radahn too, my jaw hit the floor when he came back through the atmosphere, and I was very impressed with how Limgrave was changed after the fight. The dungeons were fun to clear the first time too, as well as the world bosses, until you had to fight Mad Pumpkin Head / Misbegotten / cat statue thing, Tree sentinal, Nights Cavalry etc ect a billion times, and the worst offender of 13 fucking identical Erdtree Avatars.

The quests are also shit. Talk to NPC, google where NPC will be next, talk to them again, rinse and repeat. Ranni's quest was fun because of all the cool places and bosses you can see (Astel would have been a really cool fight if even he wasn't a fucking copy / paste), and Blaidd is a cool character. It's so obvious they want us to do these quests, so just give us a quest log, because I don't know a single sane person with a full time job who would do Ranni's quest without a youtube guide.

Still like the game quite a bit though, my gripes in such a huge game being summed up in one rant post speaks to how much I like it. 8/10

Idk, I beat Malenia on my 3rd attempt. And the Dragon and Radagon/Elden Beast on my 2nd try. Completely solo (meaning no spirit summons either), and at lvl 138.

I will say the multi bosses are poorly done in Elden Ring for sure. They clearly were designed to be solo bosses that were just put together in one boss area. And every single dual boss feels that same way. They both just are nonstop aggro like they would be if there was just one of them, and that goes for every single multi enemy boss fight. So I absolutely will agree with that.

The reusing of bosses and a lot of the dungeons or caves being pretty much the same was also fairly disappointing. Like, they really didn’t need to do that. The game is already insanely long, adding 200 optional dungeons/caves that all are very similar to one another with their never really being anything unique except for a couple of the loot you find in there was for sure a bit redundant. I feel the same way about the cookbook things, the items that were were essentially recipes to allow you to craft items. Quite a few of them only allowed you to craft 1 new item. And there’s no way you’re finding them all on a regular playthrough naturally, you HAVE to look them up since there’s so many of them in such an insanely large area. They could have cut both the # of cookbooks and the number of dungeons in half and it, imo, would have been way better. After awhile of doing the SAME EXACT thing, it absolutely DOES become tedious and repetitive.

And as someone who loves both the PvE and PvP in FromSoft games, I typically stick around playing for a few years due to the PvP. And while I do enjoy the PvP, there’s a lot of super broken aspects that still haven’t been addressed. Mainly the gamebreaking glitches, but also the absolutely broken mechanics like Bloodhound’S Step need to be nerfed massively. And with BHS, it’s not just broken in PvP, it’s the reason I was able to beat those hard bosses in just a few tries. The fact that they haven’t even thought about touching BHS is worrisome to me on the longevity of this games PvP.

I still play it though. Just made my 3rd character recently, but definitely not playing it anywhere near as much as I used to. I WAS playing it pretty much anytime I had freetime. Now, I REALLY have to be in the mood to play it, which isn’t good. Because when I AM in the mood to play it, I can get bored fairly easily because of that fact.

Essentially just waiting on the new balance patches as well as the DLC ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Idk, I beat Malenia on my 3rd attempt. And the Dragon and Radagon/Elden Beast on my 2nd try. Completely solo (meaning no spirit summons either), and at lvl 138.

I will say the multi bosses are poorly done in Elden Ring for sure. They clearly were designed to be solo bosses that were just put together in one boss area. And every single dual boss feels that same way. They both just are nonstop aggro like they would be if there was just one of them, and that goes for every single multi enemy boss fight. So I absolutely will agree with that.

The reusing of bosses and a lot of the dungeons or caves being pretty much the same was also fairly disappointing. Like, they really didn’t need to do that. The game is already insanely long, adding 200 optional dungeons/caves that all are very similar to one another with their never really being anything unique except for a couple of the loot you find in there was for sure a bit redundant. I feel the same way about the cookbook things, the items that were were essentially recipes to allow you to craft items. Quite a few of them only allowed you to craft 1 new item. And there’s no way you’re finding them all on a regular playthrough naturally, you HAVE to look them up since there’s so many of them in such an insanely large area. They could have cut both the # of cookbooks and the number of dungeons in half and it, imo, would have been way better. After awhile of doing the SAME EXACT thing, it absolutely DOES become tedious and repetitive.

And as someone who loves both the PvE and PvP in FromSoft games, I typically stick around playing for a few years due to the PvP. And while I do enjoy the PvP, there’s a lot of super broken aspects that still haven’t been addressed. Mainly the gamebreaking glitches, but also the absolutely broken mechanics like Bloodhound’S Step need to be nerfed massively. And with BHS, it’s not just broken in PvP, it’s the reason I was able to beat those hard bosses in just a few tries. The fact that they haven’t even thought about touching BHS is worrisome to me on the longevity of this games PvP.

I still play it though. Just made my 3rd character recently, but definitely not playing it anywhere near as much as I used to. I WAS playing it pretty much anytime I had freetime. Now, I REALLY have to be in the mood to play it, which isn’t good. Because when I AM in the mood to play it, I can get bored fairly easily because of that fact.

Essentially just waiting on the new balance patches as well as the DLC ¯\(ツ)/¯

I definitely don’t think the game is too hard, I think Sekiro is harder for sure, but it feels more cheap than Sekrio. I think it’s an issue of quality vs quantity. Too much of a good thing. Like discovering Astel for the first time was very cool and unexpected, but fighting a clone of him? Not cool, and unexpected in a bad way. If the open world were like half the size and the game had more legit dungeons then I would be more up on it. Like there is so much empty space in Lurnia. Limgrave is definitely the best part of the map from an exploratory standpoint which makes since why the game makes such a great first impression. A smaller world with more quality dungeons and smaller overall runtime would have made it more enjoyable for me. I now have no desire to play again because before you even finish the game you feel like you’re replaying stuff

 

[Juggs]

In the most recent patch (1.06), it drastically improved the game, especially when it comes to multiplayer and PvP! They finally nerfed BHS! Rivers of Blood was also nerfed. Which, I didn’t necessarily think RoB needed to be nerfed, BUT, with how many people used it, it definitely helps with balance and variety it being nerfed. It’s still a viable weapon, it’s just not super braindead easy/OP. They also finally got rid of the helmet swap glitch, which has been a plague on the game since release. Along with a bunch of other bug fixes and some balance changes. Oh and another big gameplay change is they added a longer roll to the “light roll” aka the “light load” roll. Which is actually more of a significant change than they probably thought it was going to be.

Aside from that, the biggest change was adding “Wex Dust” to the game. Which was a mod in previous Souls game that allowed you to invade anywhere on the map from one location. It works very similarly in Elden Ring. As long as you’ve been to that area, you can invade someone’s world in that area. And it doesn’t reset if you go to NG+. Meaning all the areas you’ve ever been to, you can invade in. When you use an invasion item, it gives you two options. To search “nearby” or “near and far”. And of course, the “near and far” option is what allows you to invade everywhere in the lands between that you’ve explored. Meaning, you can use the invasion item in Limgrave, and invade someone who is in Caelid, Mountaintops of Giants, Haligtree, Deeproot Depths, etc etc. It helps TREMENDOUSLY with PvP activity. Because a big issue with Elden Ring is that the game is so massive. So there could technically be thousands of players you are able to invade at your level at that particular time, but before this update, you HAD to be invading in the exact same area that they were in. I sometimes would wait for 10-15 minutes before getting an invasion. But normally I would go to different areas and if I didn’t get an instant invasion, I’d try somewhere else. Now, the longest I wait for an invasion with any of my characters (levels 60, 75 and 138), is like a minute or so max! I’m also going to finally make a “mage” character. It’s gonna be based around Moonveil and the Carian Slicer spell. And I’m also gonna pump up my Endurance so I can have decent armor but still able to light roll. That’s how much better the light roll is now!

Elden Ring just got infinitely better with this patch!!

 

[Juggs]

I’m still playing this game, mainly PvP’ing. Invading is where the real fun is at, but I duel occasionally as well. Been messing around with several different builds. The PvP has improved DRASTICALLY since release. It’s currently in its best state that it has been imo. That said, there’s of course still some issues, it’s never going to be perfect.

Anyway, I have several invasions up on my YouTube. The most recent one is showing off this Dex build that does pretty good damage. Check it out!

 

[Trustful_Whale]

People still camping with bazookas or nah?

 

[Jynks]

Do people seriously play without invasions turned off?

 

[Marinjuana]

Do people seriously play without invasions turned off?

Right now, there's probably 14 people on the PVP server for the old school hack of EverQuest. Takes hours to get experience and you lose a bunch when you die, even if a high level player kills you..

masochists!

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Do people seriously play without invasions turned off?

The seamless co-op mod is pretty fire.

 

[Juggs]

Do people seriously play without invasions turned off?

The only way you can play without invasions is if you play solo. If you want invasions while playing solo, you have to use an item called the “Taunter’s Tongue”. Now, if you summon players, you can’t avoid being invaded. It’s kind of a way to balance out how big of an advantage summoning players gives you. It doesn’t REALLY balance it out, it more is just a consequence of summoning other players to help you. Because fighting players 1v2 is already a pretty significant disadvantage, so trying to fight a 1v3 is that much more difficult. It’s even worse if you invade gankers who are purposely not going through and trying to progress through the “level”/game, and are literally just waiting on invaders so they can 3v1 them.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

PvPers gon' be feasting now.

 

[Juggs]

PvPers gon' be feasting now.

Yup, currently downloading it as I type this. It’s actually a bit bigger than I thought, 1.242 GB’s. Which isn’t massive, but again, just bigger than I thought but I guess it makes sense.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

What a perfect new bug for a pvp centric patch where equipping a thrust weapon in the offhand gives its crouch poke attack to whatever you have in the main hand, lmao.

 

[Darth-Nero]

GAME OF THE YEARRRRR!!!

 

[Saboteur-6]

Should of been God of War Ragnorak

 

[Law Hero]

Glad this won over Ragnarok. What a disappointment.

Now where's my Bloodborne 2?

 

[Saboteur-6]

Glad this won over Ragnarok. What a disappointment.

Now where's my Bloodborne 2?

Nah Elden Ring was the disappointment for me. Way overrated now that the dust has settled. Wait why am I having this convo on TYM...

 

[Juggs]

Glad Elden Ring won Game of the Year. Even though there were other good nominees, Elden Ring was far and away the best game released of probably the past decade or so, so it’s a no brainer that it’d win 2022 GotY!

Not necessarily disappointed with no PvE DLC announced since we just got free PvP DLC. But, based on all the rumors, I WAS expecting an announcement. But I assume what people thought was ER DLC announcement was the new Armored Core game announcement.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

But I assume what people thought was ER DLC announcement was the new Armored Core game announcement.

Miyazaki straight up said (via his translator) there's more they want to do for Elden Ring during his acceptance speech and that the award is more encouragement to do so... right before a random kid crashed it at the end lol.
We're gettin more for sure.

 

[Rude]

Bill Clinton

 

[Marinjuana]

As much as I like this game, it didn't quite fulfill the hype for me. But it's still very good and from a company that long didn't get enough props for their great games.

That said, I don't even know what game would be worthy for GOTY compared to it. Maybe FFVII? Just sheer levels of noise, nothing stood out much compared to Elden Ring from my perspective

 

[Juggs]

Miyazaki straight up said (via his translator) there's more they want to do for Elden Ring during his acceptance speech and that the award is more encouragement to do so... right before a random kid crashed it at the end lol.
We're gettin more for sure.

Oh yeah, we already know we’re getting PvE DLC. I was saying that people were expecting an official announcement trailer at the Game Awards but instead it was the new Armored Core announcement trailer.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Well deserved. I preferred God of War's combat (which was awesome!), and appreciated the great performance compared to Elden Ring, but all the forced walking scenes, awful Atreus sections, Kratos getting cucked out of his own game, and overall pretentious vibe brought it down. Elden Ring at least is 99% actual gameplay, even if I have some issues with the game design.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Glad Elden Ring won Game of the Year. Even though there were other good nominees, Elden Ring was far and away the best game released of probably the past decade or so, so it’s a no brainer that it’d win 2022 GotY!

Not necessarily disappointed with no PvE DLC announced since we just got free PvP DLC. But, based on all the rumors, I WAS expecting an announcement. But I assume what people thought was ER DLC announcement was the new Armored Core game announcement.

Disagree of being the past decade, but it is definitely the best this year, and I'm glad it introduced me to a new type of game I enjoy. I'm glad people are enjoying a game like this that has no microtransactions, tons of (although repetitive) substantial content, and is overall the type of game we need more of. Might move the industry in a good direction.

 

[Law Hero]

Disagree of being the past decade, but it is definitely the best this year, and I'm glad it introduced me to a new type of game I enjoy. I'm glad people are enjoying a game like this that has no microtransactions, tons of (although repetitive) substantial content, and is overall the type of game we need more of. Might move the industry in a good direction.

Elden Ring and God of War are both pretty good examples of complete games that don't rely on microtransactions, obviously cut DLC, tacked-on multiplayer, or many of the other greedy bad habits that most modern games are subjected to.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Elden Ring and God of War are both pretty good examples of complete games that don't rely on microtransactions, obviously cut DLC, tacked-on multiplayer, or many of the other greedy bad habits that most modern games are subjected to.

Being so brutally disappointed with how fucking terrible Callisto Protocol and Gotham Knights are made me really appreciate Elden Ring. And GOW despite my issues with it. Shit, even Modern Warfare 2 despite less content than Cod 19 is good.
Elden Ring definitely deserves it, it’s the type of game you might choose if you could only play one game for a year type of thing.