Making music (and having two young kids) had gradually pushed me out of gaming until the point where I only occasionally played Mario Kart with my daughter.
End of last year, I got a series S and gamepass and have been playing quite a few games.
Vampire survivors has definitely taken the top spot in terms of hours played
Elden ring is a masterpiece. After trying (and quitting) all previous From software games this might be the one I finish eventually, although I haven’t played in a bit and it feels like it’s going to be a challenge to pick it up again.
I just pre ordered Zelda and will also pick up the Metroid Prime remake (still have to finish dread)
That will probably keep me occupied for the rest of this year, but i will probably try a lot of indie games and bigger titles (Wo Long) along the way because of Gamepass.
I downloaded Atomic Heart from Gamepass on Tuesday, took 16 hours due to the full size day one update, played(forced myself through) about an hour or two hated it and uninstalled with zero remorse. I suppose if sexy robots and shiny surfaces make a good game then its great but for me it was pure style over substance, it doesn’t even need political controversy to be bad, its just a thin veneer and not much more, the kind of game that looks fantastic in a screen grab but falls apart once you play it.
I have it downloaded and fully predict it will be deleted within 30 minutes. Not because of any controversy, more just because I’m still finding it brutally difficult to get sucked in by any game that isn’t Elden Ring…
I keep thinking about buying Elden Ring, it looks amazing but I have a problem with frustrating games these days and as a digital download I wouldn’t get my money back if it turned out to be too hard, would you recommend it for a new to the genre player?.
Elden Ring is phenomenal, it’s hard but never unfair. Friend of mine hadn’t played any FromSoftware games before Elden Ring (and refused every time I urged him to lol), for similar reasons, but he did take the leap with Elden Ring and we both agree it’s a generational experience, an absolute masterpiece – plus he loved the gameplay and made it to the end, so there you go
I’m new to the genre and found it hard and frustrating for awhile. But, it is %1000 worth dealing with the initial frustration. As @hausland pointed out, it is a generational masterpiece and absolutely worth the time investment.
I think the first boss of the game is the hardest because he is easy to get to before you are prepared for him. Just run around exploring some more, level up and get better equipment, and he will get pretty easy.
I found Rykert the snake fire boss challenging but he drops my favorite weapon in the game. Starscourge was challenging as well. I only use cheat engine to give myself more health since I’d die constantly and never finish the game. Even with that it’s a challenge with lots of puzzles and quest lines to explore and complete.
It really is a very good game.
So much fun designing automated environments to trap bosses.
The electrical system of the game is one of the best of this type of game.
I haven’t tried the mods because in 1440p it’s not necessary but obviously its aesthetics can be modernized.
I did not care for Elden Ring. I felt the game progression to enemy difficulty parity was way off, in that you’d then have to be super quick and competent to read and manage their patterns or grind a lot. I am not the former and I loathe the latter. The world design itself is truly a thing of beauty, but imo cramped with enemies - never a lot of time to breathe-, and, again going back to enemy difficulty, didn’t allow you to explore much cause you’d just get murdered immediately.
Loved Breath of the Wild and Hollow Knight (which some claim is harder, but I never once felt it was unfair with where you are in the game), but I think ER was just too much game for me. I spent 100+ hours and got maybe only a quarter of the way through. Not worth it.
I got my ass kicked by Elden Ring for the first few days, its my first entry into that kind of combat etc… it sucked. But then I took care to get better at fighting and the game became absolutely amazing. Using a ps4 controller instead of a mouse/keyboard helped too haha
The fact that a fairly standard low-level enemy can kill you makes it that much more satisfying when you’re attacked by a 200ft dragon and come out on top as the winner. Because you fucking earned it.
Its worth learning, Elden Ring is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played, and I hated it for the first few hours because I was having a similar experience as you described.
