Topic: Elden Ring Hype Thread

My hype for this game dropped like 4% when I saw that horse jump over the mountain.

Mountain jumping horses are quite common where I'm from.

I've seen some of the gameplay uploaded by the nextlander guys and have to say it looks pretty amazing from what I've seen. Interesting that there might be checkpoints other than "bonfires". I went from I'm sure I'll play it but I might wait a couple of months for updates etc to where is best place to preorder 🙈

@Jimmer-jammer Writers often tend to be alcoholics, so I reckon King would drink the other two under the table in that hypothetical scenario.

@LieuetenantFatman Welcome back! I hadn't seen you on here for a while, you say mountain-jumping horses are quite common where your from, where is that exactly? Are you excited for the game based on the 15-minute preview and closed network test videos on Youtube? Have you watched them at all? If so, what are your thoughts, and if not what are your thoughts/anticipations based on what you've seen/read so far?

@nessisonett I still have my doubts, especially after reading this: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/after-10-hours-with-elden-ring-im-...

Do you think that the addition of the open-world (I know they had to change it up and add something new, so I'm not complaining in that regard, but...) will just entail a lot of mindless riding around from A until you eventually find locations B-Z? (All sparsely spread out across the open-world)

Note: I appreciate that there is a guiding-light system involved for the main quest-line, and a map. So that mitigates what I have said, but I still think you may end up spending too much time riding from location to location on your horse.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’ll need to check it out for myself. Unfortunately the only slot I’ll have the time to play the beta in is between 11AM and 2PM on Sunday!

@TheBrandedSwordsman
Thanks! I took a little time away from video games but slowly drifting back to it. Found I needed to mix things up a bit for my mental health. I've watched about 5 minutes or so of footage for this, didn't want to spoil it too much. It looks like a grand adventure. Definitely has a Dark Souls 4 vibe about it but that's fine by me.

@LieutenantFatman I imagine you were spending more time reading to mix things up a bit? (I noticed the 'books' quotation on your profile) All the best with your mental health, my friend.

Not seen this myself, but these guys know what they are talking about.

@JohnnyShoulder yeah fextra and vaati are pretty much the David Attenborough’s of the FromSoft-i-verse.

70h of a preview? O_o

@colonelkilgore They certainly are butt. I will be diving in once I've played the game a bit. Can't wait.

@JohnnyShoulder whoa dude… 🤬 racist much?!?! (🤫 🐑❤️)

@TheBrandedSwordsman
Thanks, very kind of you. Yes, reading, painting and some table top games have helped a lot. Hard to beat a good book.

Honestly getting quite excited for this now. I've watched about ten minutes of footage and that was enough to confirm to myself that I'm buying it, as if I didn't know that already.

@colonelkilgore No I've never been in a race car before...

@JohnnyShoulder okay, okay… try to calm down on your, clear mastery of the comedic arts there bud, I almost spilt my Welsh rarebit!

Well after seeing some gameplay and reading a couple of preview pieces I've completely succumbed to the hype train and preordered! Shooting magic bolts on horseback just has to be tried. From a consumer perspective, there seems to be a real faith in the product, they seem keen to put it in as many hands as possible a couple of months before release. I rarely buy games at launch but can't wait to see what this is like on ps5!

Played the demo for Elden Ring. The frame rate is expectedly woeful with the game actually properly stuttering during a boss fight, which is impressive given the graphics are fairly disappointing too, with some of the worst anti-aliasing I’ve seen in a long time. Of course, the gameplay is more important here and on that side of things, it’s essentially Dark Souls 3 with an unbelievably janky jump button. I can’t tell if it would be a good thing or not to never make you rely on the jumping. On the one hand, it feels horrible and platforming sections would just not feel good at all. But then I can’t exactly find much of a conceivable use for the jumping unless they make you use it specifically for some areas. Coming off Sekiro, which actually had alright movement, it’s a bit disappointing. The horse is just a fast version of the playable character, feels nothing like riding a horse other than giving you left and right sided attacks. So yeah, that’s the negatives out the way, slightly more than I was hoping for.

Mobs are decent though, some good variation in the opening areas and interesting combinations. Nice to see proper ballista enemies back. The open world is very much a split for me. A lot of it is utterly pointless fodder for you to ride through and ignore. However, I really like the clearly designed areas with treasure chests. It feels a lot like Mortal Shell, a game I thought had lots of potential but was let down by the combat and checkpoints. One massive positive I can say for Elden Ring is that the checkpointing is both generous and feels very very fair. I quite like being able to equip a magic attack as part of a big stabby sword as well despite never bothering with magic in these games. Infinite stamina outside of combat is a godsend too. A boss that I won’t spoil is bloody hard too but feels like the main game with my own build up would make it a good one.

So yeah, a very mixed bag but it’s a network test and perhaps that’s to be expected. Technical side of things it’s a mess, could be fixed by February. Gameplay wise, it’s built on solid foundations but with a couple of somewhat dubious additions that look better in trailers than they actually feel to play. I’ll play the full game especially since it’s priced reasonably.