Elden Ring - February 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX SERIES S/X)

[TruePowerSlave]

The performance is laughable especially for a game that doesn't look next gen in any way. Playing the PS4 version on PS5 is probably the best due to the locked 60 fps but that just tells you how badly optimized the game is.

Any review that doesn't shit on the game because of the performance is simply being dishonest.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Yeah I have bloodborne as part of free games but haven’t loaded it yet. Maybe I’ll check it out first.

Honestly I might be in the former group so it might not be for me. Just deciding if it’s worth the monetary plunge. I’m also old and suck at video games now. Even if this is all about pattern recognition. I’d love a demo but I’m on console so that’s a no sadly.

 

[Dolemite]

The performance is laughable especially for a game that doesn't look next gen in any way. Playing the PS4 version on PS5 is probably the best due to the locked 60 fps but that just tells you how badly optimized the game is.

Any review that doesn't shit on the game because of the performance is simply being dishonest.

I shit on it for a different reason. And yes you’re on the mark about the performance.

 

[pistolpete11]

Yeah I have bloodborne as part of free games but haven’t loaded it yet. Maybe I’ll check it out first.

Honestly I might be in the former group so it might not be for me. Just deciding if it’s worth the monetary plunge. I’m also old and suck at video games now. Even if this is all about pattern recognition. I’d love a demo but I’m on console so that’s a no sadly.

Give Bloodborne a shot. You've got nothing to lose.

I was in your shoes almost exactly a year ago. I skipped the whole PS4 generation and before that basically only played NHL and CoD on PS3. I'd have to go back to the original Xbox for any single player game. I played a bunch of the PS+ games when I got a PS5, but was too intimidated by Bloodborne and its reputation until I finally took the plunge. There were definitely moments early on where I thought it wasn't for me, but just keep going. You'll get the hang of it. And if you're really stuck and it's between quitting or using a guide, just use the damn guide . Now, Bloodborne and Sekiro are probably my top 2 favorite games (haven't played the Souls series yet).

But I mean...also...different strokes for different folks. I don't like a lot of the open world games people rave about. Red Dead Redemption 2 gets talked about as one of the best games ever, but I found it utterly boring.

 

[pistolpete11]

I shit on it for a different reason. And yes you’re on the mark about the performance.

You're the same guy who raves about Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, right?

 

[Dolemite]

You're the same guy who raves about Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, right?

And you’re the guy who doesn’t play games and bases their opinion on what other people say about games.

 

[MMC]

This game run ok on the Xbox One or should I wait until I get the Series X later in the year?

 

[pistolpete11]

And you’re the guy who doesn’t play games and bases their opinion on what other people say about games.

I'll take that as a 'yes'.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Really like the game up to now.

The open world is designed like a massive Dark Souls area which you're free to explore, which is really cool.

That said, the issues I've had up to now:

1. The difficulty up to now isn't as well balanced as Dark Souls/Bloodborne. It might just be that I've played nearly 200 hours of soulsborne this year though.
2. I don't agree with people saying this is "more than just big Dark Souls 4". I'm just a few hours in, but to be honest this feels very much open world/big Dark Souls 4 up to now. I will update on this as I go further along however.
3. I've seen people say they're turned off by open world games. I would take this into consideration before buying the game if anyone has open world fatigue.
4. There are bugs and performance issues. I've noticed some specific areas of the game have frame drops that seem like bugs moreso than a hardware issue. This is almost expected in non Nintendo open world RPG. That being said, performance has been good outside of small glitches. I'm running a RTX3070 however.

I feel like From games' biggest strength has been the level design. Does going to a more open world detract from that?

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I'll take that as a 'yes'.

For what it's worth, that poster declared he was a bigger Canucks fan than me without knowing anything about me. He also blamed the team's current struggles on Brian Burke (hasn't been employed by the organization since 2004) despite Benning being a total dumb ass and doing a lot of damage. He seems like an attention-seeking contrarian so I wouldn't give his opinion any weight.

 

[Mikeaveli]

A few thoughts so far...

1. The combat feels exactly like Dark Souls. Which is a very good thing.

2. I definitely prefer the more constrained level design of the previous games, but there seem to be enough dungeon areas in the game to keep things relatively focused instead of just having a massive open world.

3. The performance on PC is pretty terrible. Aside from the annoying traversal stutter that is seen in many open world games, the game also sometimes drops into the 30s and 40s for no real reason. This is at 1440p on a 5900X and 3080. A game like this should be running at 144 FPS with no drops.

Overall there are some annoyances but I'm enjoying myself so far.

 

[JaegerDice]

The mystery and obfuscation are part of what I love about Souls and Souls-like games, but holy shit.

Spoiler

The fact that you can completely miss the Witch that gives you the bell for summons is stupid. It's just bad design. That is a core mechanic of the game going forward and they don't do f*** all to tell you that massive gameplay element is only available if you go back to the church at night to find the witch. Honestly, there are times From Software veers straight into trolling territory.

 

[Dolemite]

I'll take that as a 'yes'.

As in yes you don't play any of the games? You don't. That much is clear. Keep digging that dumb hole deeper that you're digging right now.

 

[syz]

First thing I did post-tutorial area was beat a boss with 1 hp left and 0 heals. He dropped a thing I can't use for like 20 levels. Definitely a From game.

 

[Static]

How are you supposed to use ashes? I have them equipped, but they're greyed out.

Do you have the summoning bell?

 

[Tonneau]

The mystery and obfuscation are part of what I love about Souls and Souls-like games, but holy shit.

Spoiler

The fact that you can completely miss the Witch that gives you the bell for summons is stupid. It's just bad design. That is a core mechanic of the game going forward and they don't do f*** all to tell you that massive gameplay element is only available if you go back to the church at night to find the witch. Honestly, there are times From Software veers straight into trolling territory.

Calm down. You can still get it later.

 

[Andrei79]

As in yes you don't play any of the games? You don't. That much is clear. Keep digging that dumb hole deeper that you're digging right now.

Reading this poster, I now know why this game has so many "Try Fingers, but hole" messages.

 

[Andrei79]

1. Well balanced how? It may have been because Bloodborne was my first FromSoft game, but I thought that was really difficult at the beginning. You've got to get through that town, there's that ogre banging on the door, the 2 werewolves on the bridge, and if you don't make the correct turns, you won't get to the shortcut and have to do it all over again. Not to repeat myself too many times, but I also felt Bloodborne front loaded their most difficult bosses. I would say the opposite and that Bloodborne wasn't well balanced.

2. That's not too surprising to me actually. I know they added jumping, stealth, a horse, a map, etc., but from the footage I've seen, it looks like a Souls game.

3. Oh boy.


By the way, what class did you start with? I think I'm with @Soldier13Fox and will use some sort of strength and faith hybrid.

I'll give you a more thorough answer soon. But,I think I should have waited a bit before making that post. I'm noticing a few things are done by design. I'll need more time with the game.

That said, do not get this game on PC under any circumstance.

On my RTX 3070, it runs "ok", but suffers from unacceptable stutters, namely during one particular early game boss on a horse.

On my gaming laptop, with a RTX3060 (which is about an RTX2070), it's completely unplayable. Like, I can't even move and this laptop could handle Sekiro and Jedi Fallen Order at max settings no problem.

Update: well apparently, for some obscure reason, the game was launching on my integrated card rather than my dedicated GPU. It seems many people have had this issue on gaming laptops.

 

[Tw1ster]

I’ve never been one to notice little hiccups or performance issues, so my PS5 run has felt flawless to me. Constantly in awe of the art direction and how smooth it seems to run. Obviously if I stop to focus on it I’m sure I’ll notice the issues but so far it’s been great. I understand the frustration with the PC versions and I hope they figure it out soon

 

[PeteWorrell]

Just all the more reason to never pre-order games even when it comes from a good company like FromSoftware. Games are launched with bugs and poor performances because people will buy it anyway and they can maybe patch things later. I can guarantee that testers have pointed out most of the issues before launch only to be shut down because there is no time to fix them because it has to be released. All about the money in the end.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Played for a few hours yesterday to reorient myself to a Souls game. Need to level up a bit to go to take on the first major boss. A lot to do in what is really a very small part of the map.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Okay after about 6 hours I broke down and looked up where a new staff could be found in the early game. I had only found swords and flails so far and didn't want to spend stones upgrading my default stuff. I just looked up the general area and it still took my an hour of searching but I finally found it. I still feel guilty about looking for help though, don't think I'll do it much in the future. I find it really satisfying to try and figure everything out on your own, even with the obvious frustrations.

Still haven't really found any new good armor besides a gold helmet I'm rocking.

 

[pistolpete11]

I’ve never been one to notice little hiccups or performance issues, so my PS5 run has felt flawless to me. Constantly in awe of the art direction and how smooth it seems to run. Obviously if I stop to focus on it I’m sure I’ll notice the issues but so far it’s been great. I understand the frustration with the PC versions and I hope they figure it out soon

Same. I've only played around an hour so far on PS5 and haven't noticed anything, but like you I probably wouldn't. When people start to talk about frame rates and stuff my eyes start to gloss over . If it affects gameplay, that's obviously different, but otherwise, it's just not that important to me.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

The 10/10 reviews are ridiculous. The game looks dated and runs poorly on any system. The only exception is playing the PS4 version on a PS5 but it looks like a game released 6 years ago and even that is being generous.

Stopped playing until its patched, hopefully it does get fixed at some point.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Btw for humble bundle subscribers this game is 15% off