Elden Ring

Elden Ring has quickly become 2022's greatest pop-cultural phenomenon; in these unpredictable times it's games like this (let alone immersive narrative experiences) that give us new appreciation for fantasy storytelling as a whole.

Elden Ring has everything: horseback travel, fast-travel, interesting characters encouraging you to keep digging into the world to know more about its history, punchy swordplay, scale and scope to remember, and boss-battles that leave you feeling extra fulfilled when you've won after God-knows-how-many-attempts. The fantasy genre has always been ripe for video games to explore thanks to their emphasis on exploration and overcoming challenges, and Elden Ring feels like it's a summation of everything JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin (obviously), Zelda, Skyrim and the Souls games (Bloodborne too) to make up an experience that's something else.

This is an example of gaming and storytelling coming hand-in-hand where the progression of the player progresses the story in turn. Elden Ring is challenging yet rewarding, expansive yet not too overwhelming in its scope, hard yet adaptable, and fun yet immersive that the world ceases to be fake in the eyes (and minds) of the player.

Elden Ring gets 5/5 stars. It's a great time to be had for gamers everywhere.

This is sold as a DLC? It has more content than most $70 AAA games.

• New weapon types, loads of new weapons
• New soundtrack (which is incredible of course)
• New skills, armours, items, crafting, tons of new enemies and bosses and I could go on but I don't want to waste your time because you Must play it.

The game is very challenging but as you go through the DLC, you will get stronger and stronger.

The locations are mind blowing which shouldn't be a surprise because it's Fromsoftware we're talking about but I found myself taking screenshots after every steps almost..

One recommendation I would have for all of you. Please do yourself a favour and do not watch any videos, guides or tips on it. Go in blind, explore and experience everything yourself and you will gain something from this masterpiece that will stay with you for a lifetime.

Have fun and enjoy. I am speechless.

I know the massive appeal for Souls games is their complexity, and I even understand why people enjoy this. I'll be honest, for me, it's mostly the same. I love that I actually have to work at getting better at the game and learning a boss's moves instead of just spamming them to death, but there's one thing I don't love. It's what made me rate it with a 9 instead of a 10.

I don't like how there's no quest log. You basically just have to either memorize every encounter with a questgiver, or do the quest immediately and even then, you still have to pay very close attention to know what to do. This is something I could've done without. I understand the mindset of Souls fans. I know people love this, but as someone who's new to FromSoftware games, it's a bit annoying.

I think they've done a really good job at welcoming newcomers to the SoulsBorne games with Elden Ring, but what would have made it perfect is to give us an option to toggle objectives and quest logs on or off. That way, the Souls fanbase would be pleased as well as the newcomers like me, who want to complete everything. This map and game is huge and overwhelming enough without constantly having to look things up on my phone.

That's really the only problem I have with the game though. The combat, the aesthetic, the music, world/boss design and weapon/gear design are all top notch. This game is definitely going to be a GOTY contender!

What can I say. Mr. Miyazaki does what he is good at (I mean the genre). And rightly so, a person should do what he has no equal in. I'm not a fan of video games, I'm more of a film critic than a gamer. But one day a friend gave me four discs, one was written Bloodborne. I completely began to live the game Bloodborne, after that I studied All the games in the Souls series. Elden Ring is waiting for the same thing, I don't want to throw on and praise this next * MASTERPIECE. (No matter what you draw beautiful pictures in front of you in advance) I'll just say that my rating is 10 out of 10. That's it. This game should be for everyone who looks to the future. Good luck and enjoy your game...

We don't want anymore hand holdy games. This is what we have all been waiting for. Done with Assassin's Creed and Far Cry's "honey-do-list" style of game maps. Old and boring. Elden ring is by far the most amazing game I've ever played. Truly open world and free roaming. They've also implemented so many ease of life things with making the game very challenging. Mind blowing. If they release DLC or add on to it I will be stoked. High-Five guys you nailed it! My only couple critiques are, too much crafting stuff, even though you can get by without all of it. Also could use some more Katanas, bows and weapons for the Samauri. Been rocking his starting weapon for quite some time lol.