Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Ste Pickford]

A lot of people say that they get stuck on a boss, and then the next day come back and kill it first attempt.

 

I presume that ratings for messages get queued if I'm offline when they get rated?  At any rate, I've noticed quite a lot of times I've started playing and I get the 'message rated' message once or twice within the first five minutes, then only very rarely for the rest of the session.

If they really get queued like this, then right at the beginning of a play session is the best time to try a tricky boss as there's more chance of getting a lucky, free, random heal during the fight.

[Qazimod]

My nephew (11) has been dropped off to visit, and he’s been asking me if I have any games for my PS5 yet. Elden Ring is my first, so I took it as an opportunity to let him loose in the early areas with my endgame character as he performed one-shot kills on the fodder enemies. I found some of the area’s (now trivial) giants for him, showed him some other weapons and warped around to the mountains.

He thought it was kind of fun, but I think I was more enthusiastic overall. Not exactly Bean Dad Uncle, just “yeah we can play Astro’s Playroom in a minute just let me show you this other cool area…”  

[Girth Certificate]

proper pumped Radahn with my magic dude. Well easy.

[fattakin]

Just beat the EB! I have 100 hours on the clock. First ever FROM game and fell for the atmosphere and level design.  After playing shite like Ghost Recon Breakpoint and their identikit models and Assassins Creed Valhalla with its endless missions and icons I fell in love the with the HUD and the lack of everything.  Loved hearing about how to do things on here and playing co-op with mates, every session in those first 20 hours were fraught and hilarious. Was more than happy to just google when stuck / follow quest lines than have spam on the screen. Next week I'll press on to the Haigtree!

[MrCarrot]

3 hours ago, Parappa said:

I am not sure.. I have eventually found Altus and it seems to start off pretty easy and then I used my invite to

  Hide contents

Volcano Manor

and sod that.  Those stretchy worms are a right pain in the ass and there are loads of other enemies around that I seem under skilled for.  

 

I am about L70 I think with about 80 hours on the clock but I am not really sure where to go next.  I finished Rennala last but attempted to go somewhere top left of the map and got owned. I have explored pretty much everywhere except Cailed so perhaps time to head back there.  

 

The bottom part of Caelid should definitely be do-able around that level. I went and did Radahn and the stuff that beating him unlocks around the same point, and I'm only now getting back to (I think) getting to Volcano Manor, now that I'm just over level 100.

[Alex W.]

I’ve reached this incredible panorama at the back of a castle which I think is meant to be the start of the game proper? Damn pretty.

 

So I went back around the front of the castle and decided to try fighting some enemies for a change. There’s a boss in there!

[Girth Certificate]

The Real Elden Ring Starts Here, There, Everywhere

 

 

 

 

[therearerules]

Playing through a second time, and I've fought two bosses and completed one dungeon I completely missed the first time around, as well as got a hwole load of new NPC dialogue. Bearing in mind I put in a thorough 120 hours or so previously that's insane.

[Alex W.]

Oh wait I just remembered what that NPC said about a spider.

 

I might skip the castle.

[therearerules]

Also, wanted to sum up what I love about these games, and especially this, and that's every small thing feels incredibly large. What I mean is, every small encounter, every journey, no matter how insignificant ultimately feels like an epic adventure. At the start when the maps so small that feels truer than ever.

Getting past that initial tree senital outside the start tomb to the small church just beyond, that you can easily see- an epic stealth shuffle through the hedges.

Getting from that church over the hill, then through that ruin to the next grace, an epic masterclass in when to sneak and when to attack.

and even after the tutorial or opneing bit, many hours in, it's the same. Travelling down the road in Caelid to the next grace is this epic horror show. Any time there's more than one enemy, or even just a hard enemy, I have to think about what I'm doing, what the terrain is, and how I'm going to attack it. And then there's that flourish of a flasks refilling as if to mark the end of that particular adventure.

And every bit of scenery feels both completely natural and purposefully planned. It's masterful and only accentuates this.

[robdood]

2 hours ago, Ste Pickford said:

A lot of people say that they get stuck on a boss, and then the next day come back and kill it first attempt.

 

I presume that ratings for messages get queued if I'm offline when they get rated?  At any rate, I've noticed quite a lot of times I've started playing and I get the 'message rated' message once or twice within the first five minutes, then only very rarely for the rest of the session.

If they really get queued like this, then right at the beginning of a play session is the best time to try a tricky boss as there's more chance of getting a lucky, free, random heal during the fight.

Ha, interesting theory. I have no idea how they really work, but I'd always assumed your messages are only online when you are. There are no 'servers' for these games, everythings peer to peer, or so I thought! 

 

I definitely seem to get more up votes when I've just launched the game tho! 

[carlospie]

5 hours ago, cassidy said:

Just beat the EB after 9 days of trying. 

 

Just finished my first From Game.  I'm so fucking chuffed. 

 

What a game and what an experience. 

The real dark souls starts here 

[Alex W.]

1 hour ago, therearerules said:

Also, wanted to sum up what I love about these games, and especially this, and that's every small thing feels incredibly large. What I mean is, every small encounter, every journey, no matter how insignificant ultimately feels like an epic adventure. At the start when the maps so small that feels truer than ever.

Getting past that initial tree senital outside the start tomb to the small church just beyond, that you can easily see- an epic stealth shuffle through the hedges.

Getting from that church over the hill, then through that ruin to the next grace, an epic masterclass in when to sneak and when to attack.

and even after the tutorial or opneing bit, many hours in, it's the same. Travelling down the road in Caelid to the next grace is this epic horror show. Any time there's more than one enemy, or even just a hard enemy, I have to think about what I'm doing, what the terrain is, and how I'm going to attack it. And then there's that flourish of a flasks refilling as if to mark the end of that particular adventure.

And every bit of scenery feels both completely natural and purposefully planned. It's masterful and only accentuates this.

I was thinking about this today, how there hasn’t been an game since MGSV that made incidental encounters so completely engaging. Zelda often means to do this but it didn’t push back hard enough for me to feel the texture of it.

[Captain Kelsten]

5 hours ago, cassidy said:

Just beat the EB after 9 days of trying. 

 

Just finished my first From Game.  I'm so fucking chuffed. 

 

What a game and what an experience. 

[englishbob]

Some more obliqueness I stumbled across today - leaving this here if it helps anyone

 

Spoiler

 

 

[K]

The same thing happens at the Warmaster’s shack at night. 

[englishbob]

There's quite a lot you miss at night - I wonder if there is a list - I found another boss in the snow wastelands or whatever its called

[joemul]

22 minutes ago, K said:

The same thing happens at the Warmaster’s shack at night. 

And the church with the giant turtle in

[K]

Whoa, I’m learning all sorts of stuff today. 

[Anne Summers]

3 hours ago, robdood said:

Ha, interesting theory. I have no idea how they really work, but I'd always assumed your messages are only online when you are.  

Is this right ? I've often wondered about this but never known whether it's definitively true or not. Sometimes messages seem to be there from session to session, so I'm not sure. 

 

[Lovelyman]

There has to be some persistence else they would be flicking in and out all the time as people log in and out. 

[Mitchell]

 

[Jamie John]

All hail Bloody Ron, Elden Lord!

 

Spoiler

 

I got back from holiday yesterday, getting as far as the Red Wolf of Radagon before I left, and just finished the game about an hour ago. It took me about six hours in total to get to the end, which is a *tad* shorter than the 130 hours it took me the first time around. I mainlined everything, not going anywhere near Radahn, V Manor or any optional areas, except for one.

 

My route and bosses killed:

Spoiler

• Limgrave: Margit & Godrick 
• Raya Lucaria: Red Wolf and Rennala
• (Fort Haight and Fort Faroth to get the two Dectus Medallions)
• Atlus Plateau: Draconic Tree Sentinel, Godfrey Ghost & Margott
• Mountaintops of the Giants: Fire Giant
• CFA: Godskin Duo & Maliketh
• (Leyndell Sewers: Mini Mohg, so I could get down to the Three Fingers for the Frenzied Flame ending)
• Ashen Leyndell: Ofnir, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux & Radagon/Elden Beast

 

I solo'd each boss - no ashes or summons this time - and didn't use any ranged attacks or shields and two-handed my weapon throughout every fight. That sounds more impressive than it actually is because, really, just mashing Corpse Piler was sufficient until I got to the final three bosses, who I actually had to learn. Even then, however, there was nothing here as difficult as DS3's DLC bosses, or Sekiro (granted, however, I was using a fairly broken build).

 

HL and the big R at the end gave me the most trouble - the former doesn't give you much room to breathe while the latter is resistant to bleed. EB, once I got to it, wasn't too bad, excepting its infamous holy beehive bullshit, but it went down pretty easily in the end. Getting from boss to boss was also fairly simple - once you know where you're going you can just run or gallop past everything, more or less, and I used a couple of skips and some tricky platforming to get past big chunks of Leyndell and CGA. Saying that, those mother-twatting

Spoiler

birds 

 

in CFA still managed to gank me a few times.

 

Anyway, I save-scummed the two endings that I missed, so...

 

 

 

Feels good man (although why it's saying I have an extra achievement that doesn't exist, I'm not sure).

 

That's me done now, for sure this time. I'd half thought about going back for the big bads I missed out on, but no - time to go cold turkey. After nearly two months, the disc is coming out of the drive and I'm going to play something else.

 

Below are some short boss clips for anyone who's interested, but big endgame spoilers ahoy. (Apologies for the audio delay - blame Xbox's crappy video capture.)

 

Rennala:

Spoiler

This isn't that interesting, but I just thought it was funny how I was able to get to her second stage immediately after she falls.

 

 

 

Morgott:

Spoiler

First time. Mash, mash mash!

 

 

 

GS D:

Spoiler

No idea what happened here, but I'll take it! Not sure if it's a glitch or whether I proc'd bleed at the exact right moment as one of them was respawning. First attempt.

 

 

 

GOtA-K:

Spoiler

Poor Ofnir.

 

 

 

HL:

Spoiler

This was Bloody Ron's first real test. I tried for about 45 minutes last night before bed and then couldn't sleep. Had another go quickly this morning, with the sound off this time, and predictably got him first go. Nice and clean(ish), and a great finisher. Getting nekkid was the key.

 

 

 

EB:

Spoiler

Goodnight, sweet prince.

 

 

 

It's been said before, but this is a good computer game.

[Uncle Nasty]

Great stuff @Jamie John, all of that just makes me want to play it all over again.

[Lovelyman]

Got tiche then killed fire giant. 

[Jamie John]

10 hours ago, Uncle Nasty said:

Great stuff @Jamie John, all of that just makes me want to play it all over again.

 

I was a bit hesitant as well, but it's amazing how comparatively quickly you can race through the game. There are lots of fun builds to try out. If I ever do go back then it'll be pure mage, as I didn't cast one sorcery in either of my playthroughs.

[The Bag]

Is there a multiplayer group password for rllmuk?

[Triple A]

Yes, rllmuk

[dug]

I had evidence of how Elden Ring has crossed over into the mainstream (well, mainstream for games, anyway) the other day at a barbecue. A mate of mine who plays a lot of games was there. He had tried Demon's Souls back on the PS3 but bounced off it, so he hadn't played any From games since. But after hearing the fuss about ER, he gave it a go and now it's one of his top 3 games of all time.

 

I wonder what the sales figures are now. I know they announced sales of over 12m after it had been out for a couple of weeks, but how many has it sold now? Are From an AAA studio now?

[Talvalin]

39 minutes ago, dug said:

Are From an AAA studio now?

 

How are AAA studios defined? By their sales figures, their size or some combination of the two?