Springbok
Karen
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Seems like that will work with Xbone only this week - hasn't worked for me for PS5 and PC looks like a global release!
Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin
- Thread starter jooka
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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I have found that unless you are abusing MLGS cheese (my favorite), spear and shield was the biggest easy mode in the game. Granted, no piece weapon got up to the ridiculousness of a maxed out Wing Tipped Spear from Demons Souls, but if your timing sucks and you just want to choo choo your way through hoplite was the easiest way to go. Spears all had big reach, you could block while attacking, and counter poke damage from them was massive. They were all generally fast, too, so you could twitch play with them if desired. They steadily nerfed them in later games, but they remained strong all the way through DS3 (especially ones without sideways swings in their moveset). Annecdotal, but I recently plowed through Demons Souls again and then went back to replay DS2, using spears and halberds exclusively, and it was arguably the easiest I ever remember one of these games being (granted the BKH comes early and is broke dick in DS2). The window of timing for fuckups was incredibly generous, even compared to a broadsword or club. Plus the block while attacking aspect pretty much randomly results in parries that you were not even trying for.
Having said all that, FROM likes to shake up weapon balance slightly every game with two major exceptions. MLGS will nearly always be the best weapon for a caster and daggers/rapiers will suck in boss fights but rape face in PVP. I expect other weapon setups to be shaken up a bit, especially axes as they seem pretty hyped on showing them off in the preview videos. The biggest thing I am curious about is how much they address arrow cheese which has always made certain boss fights laughably trivial. I forgot how much of Demons Souls you could straight up gimp by abusing bow and arrow (like over half the boss fights).
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Interesting, I didn't really know spear was so easy in previous games, I just liked it because it's rare in gaming and really, because it makes sense as a weapon to fight giant monsters. I mean, if I had to fight a grizzly bear with any weapon, it'll be a spear. I think that's what happened in the Edge? I forget...
The anxiety around build choice before a release of an unknown game is so familiar to us. Will previously strong specs be strong in this game? Will a souls-like vet pick axe because surely they've made it OP in this game to compensate only to find it's trash tier again and feel chagrined?
I don't care too much, it's just a singleplayer game, but I also hope the game has respec or strong replayability (I never replayed a souls-game after beating it).
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Sucks, if I wanted to play PS5 version early sounds like I'd have to region change and rebuy the game in the NZ store, oh well Midnight it is!
Springbok
Karen
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Yup, Playstation is nigh on impossible to region cheat on launches - unlike the Xbox (which is simply changing the region in the settings). Impossible for PC as well, but that release is early enough
On PC it was possible on Steam before. Can't remember what game I did it for, but I did change it to NZ or somesuch. But the hassle was immense and not worth it because it changed the entire payment thing to NZ, and there was a 14 day lockout of changing it back after that. That made me unable to buy anything since of course my actual payment info isn't NZ. But they did have it available (and I assume still do) since people do move to different countries. It just wasn't something you could change to then swap back.
PC or console doesn't matter for this release for my timezone. It's midnight for both PC and console. Which is the same release time as the PC version in the different timezones in the US. So looks like they took midnight on the 25th, CET (Central European Time) as the base timeslot and did the PC release worldwide based on that. Consoles do get it later in some areas, but not mine so yay!
Zindan
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Wait, did I see that right that I can begin my playthrough at 5pm CST on the 24th??
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Well, you don't have to do it. I only invaded like a handful of times across all Souls games.
Souls PVP is shit. It's amusing... for a little while I guess?
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You can invade other people without them wanting it yeah.
It can at time lessen the enjoyment of the game since you can be griefed by being invaded at difficult places. Assume that is even more so now that it is open world with lots of bosses there. Peeve did a whole thing in the network test where he invaded people in the middle of fighting the first open world boss you encounter.
That said, they also have mechanics in place to help you, like people of the blue covenant, who if they wear their covenants ring, gets auto summoned to help people who get invaded. They're the blue spirits, invading are red. This is in souls games though, but assume there will be something similar in Elden Ring.
Or you can turn it offline and not have invasions (and lose multiplayer text messages, and also lose the ability to summon help if you need it).
I remember trying to coop Bloodborne with a friend, who doesn't like the difficulty of the bosses so much and banging his head against the wall, but does like the themes, fantasy and exploration. Flat out quit when we got to the section where there all these bell ringing ladies are (some of them hidden) which caused constant invasions. Not being able to progress or have to change your play (from taking your time exploring and such) due to invasions was not fun for him at all. And I can see that.
I'd actually love a setting to where I could coop Elden Ring with him at the same time as turning off all invasions from other players. We've done coop in games since we were kids, but he isn't touching a souls game again. He hated invasions and is now under the impression that only asshats PvP in those games out to ruin other peoples enjoyment. And hard to say that many aren't. At times when I get invaded I go into "lets go!" mode, but a lot of time time I don't want it, and they wait until I start getting attacked by something else to start fighting. That is something I've always hated and never thought was a good mechanic. That PvP invasions are counted as an "enemy" and don't npc aggro enemies. That whole part is just a "how can we make PvPers able to grief and annoy even more!" design decision.
That said, I don't think I've ever done offline mode. It just feels "wrong". But, depending on just how griefable it now becomes as there are so many bosses in open world (PvPers despawned if you entered boss rooms in the souls games), I might change that for Elden Ring. (Feel bad for PC players if they get the "hackers" again though which instantly destroys all your gear or drops items which break your game)
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Jozu
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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I really think every gamer is just different. People who really respect a game, tend to get the most out of it, from my experience anyway. Almost 50% of the games I loved playing, were games that could have been un-enjoyable if I didnt respect the ruleset of how the game was meant to be played. So many times people dont even give a game a fair shake, as their expectations or limited time, or 1,000 other reasons prevent them from actually experiencing what the game has to offer.
I guess a lot of it comes down to ease of entry and payoff and gratification vs the grind/effort. Although some people do enjoy just griefing and being assholes.
I guess a lot of it comes down to ease of entry and payoff and gratification vs the grind/effort. Although some people do enjoy just griefing and being assholes.
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Springbok
Karen
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So reviewers have copies of the game, and from what I’m hearing MANY are saying there’s no way they’ll have full review ready by embargo lift as the game is too massive to fully beat/explore in time. Several saying it’s roughly the length or more of all DSouls games combined.…
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kroenen
Regimen Morum
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spronk
FPS noob
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I would take all that with a grain of salt, the producer has said multiple times the main story is 30 hours. Its hard to believe he would undersell it like that for no real reason.
Anyways reviewers have had the game for a week now and the embargo is up in 2 days (wed) so we'll get definitive answers by then. Digital Foundry also won't publish its analysis until the day 1 patch hits, which may not be until thu/fri.
Anyways reviewers have had the game for a week now and the embargo is up in 2 days (wed) so we'll get definitive answers by then. Digital Foundry also won't publish its analysis until the day 1 patch hits, which may not be until thu/fri.
Rajaah
Honorable Member
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Looks like it comes out on PC a few hours before console.
Elden Ring : Global Release Timings
Take a look at Elden Ring's global release timings! Pre-load available 48H prior to these times on Steam and Playstation and available now for Xbox.en.bandainamcoent.eu
I'm curious to see how fast people beat this game after launch. Like when will the first screenshot of the end be posted, probably by
Zaide
?Not sure if I'm gonna plow through it all weekend or play it slowly over the next month or so, myself. Probably the latter, but not really by choice, because I've got too much RL stuff going on.
Count me in on people who like 2H str builds. I haven't really DONE one yet though. Whenever Bloodborne gets remastered, that's 100% what I'm doing, str and Hunter Axe -> Whirligig Saw.
Yeh, I'm going with a female wretch who can run around scantily-clad for a while. Probably doing the aforementioned two-hander build. This series isn't exactly known for having remotely attractive female characters (aside from the Demon remake which totally fixes this) so it's good to see that feature in ER.
True, but there are some factors to consider which might cause it to be accurate
- He said in an interview it is 30 hours, with dozens (plural) of extra side content
- Is the 30 hours beelining the most optimal path?
- Is the 30 hours winning against every boss and hardly any deaths?
- Skyrims main story is around 18-25 hours? Nobody would claim that game only has that much content, even without mods. I played that for around 90 hours when it first came out and got tired of it 7 or 8 main quest paths into it? 4 hours of the main story? Rest was "side content"
- Network test. For people who had access to the entire thing for the 72 hour trial, they said that it had around 8-12 hours of content if you did everything and knew where to go, but exploring it took longer. We now know there is more added to the zone which wasn't in the original test. Meaning that it could possibly be that of those 10 hours, maybe 1/10th or less was "main story" if you just followed the glowing embers to the "bonfires" which leads you to the main gates of the castle, and oneshot the boss and get the key to the place where the test ended. That takes around 30 minutes to an hour? They also said you could run past the castle, so it might not even be main story? (though I would assume all legacy dungeons are tied to it).
It's hard to gauge a game like this on time spent though, because it'll take someone like Peeve, Oro or Elajjaz far less time to progress than me. For who does it take 30 hours? There are no difficulty sliders in this game. That might also be why it is taking gaming journalists so long, every single outlet that did a preview after the network test said that the release version was harder than the test.
Also, the Fextralife video which talked about size.... I don't think 30 hours will be close for most people. Especially me which has OCD with exploring everything in open world games while at the same having ADHD being on a quest to do one thing and see something on the horizon and going "ohh, what's that!". And while going to that, get distracted by something else again. Main quests are the last thing I do in pretty much every game. Map tells me to go one way, I go the other way. There might be treasure!
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