The Dead Texan

Meanwhile I'm nearing 40 hours into Elden Ring and I'm not sure if I'll bother playing any other game ever again.

 

At this point FromSoft easily has all of my Top 5 all-time faves. I clearly like their style, but I still hesitate to recommend them to certain friends. I know it's not going to click for everyone. But they sure do work for me, and what I love about them goes well beyond combat. The exploration, the meticulous level design, the complete lack of hand-holding (this is huge), the deceptively complex lore, the character building and true role-playing, and most of all, of course, the fashion!

 

Spoiler

I'm about 55 hours in and can say it's the greatest game they've ever made. I hold Bloodborne in the absolute highest regard, but Elden Ring manages to top it in every conceivable way. I prefer the Lovecraftian themes and enemies in Bloodborne a lot more than typical fantasy settings, but can forgive all that for crafting the most robust game world I've ever traversed. I damn near cried when I first hopped on Torrent and looked over the ridge to the sea because it reminded me of the first time I did the same on the PS2 in Shadow of the Colossus. 

I really don't want to make any more over the top claims, but it's a game that's perpetually rewarding for just about anyone. I wouldn't say it's free of handholding, though. If anything this might be the easiest game to pick up and play because of the world map + fast travel, the ash summons, the guiding lights, the refilling of flasks for mob wipes, stakes of marika respawns, no real penalty for dying outside of rune loss, very VERY generous i-frames for rolls and general QOL stuff. Don't get me wrong, the difficult portions are still a pain in the ass (looking at you, Crucible Knight) but it's about as welcoming as Souls games get. 

My only real complaints with the game are the obvious technical shortcomings of the PC port. I have pretty beefy PC specs and still get those nasty stutters if I'm near mountains and sometimes my game will randomly freeze when being summoned for multiplayer. Have to end task to get it to close. Doesn't happen very often, but it's still a shitty thing to deal with. 

Spoiler

Modern Deus Ex never lived up to the original … in fact, I don’t think any game in the series has been as good as the original Deus Ex. Would love to see an all-in remake of Deus Ex with the same level of depth and choice. Seems like they don’t make games like that anymore … I find myself bored with so many modern games because they seem so shallow compared to some older PC games.

Diving back into Cyberpunk sometime this week, but first impressions weren’t good when I broke down and played it a few months ago. Wasn’t even the glitches that were the issue, it was the same feeling of rushed development, lack of depth and cut corners.

Total tangent, but I wonder if Starfield will scratch the Skyrim itch. That’s one of the few games that competed with Deus Ex for depth, choice and immersion in modern games.

Human Revolution was fine. Nothing incredible, but was a decent play. Boss battles were garbage, but at least those got patched eventually. Original Deus Ex had a vision and its scope and world building are unrivaled in a lot of ways. 

The less said about Skyrim and modern Fallout the better. 

Green Man has Elden Ring for $49 if anyone is interested. 

How about that FFVII remake cost kek

I'd be upset if the game wasn't straight up garbage. How they managed to take a third of the original game and have it be both bloated with meaningless shit and completely devoid of actual content is beyond me. Modern gaming is a sight to behold sometimes. 

Total bullshit that Final Fantasy beat out Fortnite for best ongoing game … Fortnite has been killing it lately, most innovative game of its type …

How is it innovative to keep ripping off Apex?