Official Elden Ring Thread

[JujuFish]

I can't fathom playing a single player game for thousands of hours.

 

[MoragaBlue]

I can't fathom playing a single player game for thousands of hours.

Looking over my Steam, ER is far & away the most hours I've registered in a game. Lies of P's only at around 100 and Wukong at around 90. Both throughly completed.

For me, what makes ER so great is that I'm looking forward to playing it again from start to finish on 60 FPS via a PS5 Pro on my big TV. Just not sure I wanna pay $700 for the privilege and, of course, buying the game & DLC for the PS.

 

[JujuFish]

Looking over my Steam, ER is far & away the most hours I've registered in a game. Lies of P's only at around 100 and Wukong at around 90. Both throughly completed.

For me, what makes ER so great is that I'm looking forward to playing it again from start to finish on 60 FPS via a PS5 Pro on my big TV. Just not sure I wanna pay $700 for the privilege and, of course, buying the game & DLC for the PS.

My most played game on Steam is Team Fortress 2, at 400 hours. For single player, it's Stardew Valley at 178. Dark Souls 1-3 plus Elden Ring all combine for 392. Lies of P was 48 hours, which includes getting all the achievements.

 

[MoragaBlue]

You know, Lies of P really surprised me on how really good the game is and how much I really enjoyed playing--loved the Belle Epoque theme. The time just flew by in that game, and I'm starting to get the itch to play it again, say, on the PS5 Pro. No idea who won game of the year, but, IMHO, it should have been Lies of P.

On my list now are the Dark Soul games, Bloodborne and Nioh2.

PS - By the way, there seems to be a general consensus that Dark Souls 2 should be avoided?

 

[JujuFish]

By the way, there seems to be a general consensus that Dark Souls 2 should be avoided?

No way. Being the least best doesn't mean it isn't good. Just make sure you level up adaptability.

 

[jpiniero]

Been fighting PCR. It is... not going well.

I guess I could level up Vigor some more. Because an extra 6 HP is definitely going to help when he does 900 damage on a single hit.

 

[MoragaBlue]

I'm assuming the AOE attacks in phase 2?

A potential easier way to deal with it is using the Black Knight's shield upgraded to 100% holy damage negation; this way, just block all the holy damage stuff. The rest, is just repetition on the dodge timing.

If you don't mind it, you could combine the shield with a thrusting weapon, and just block & poke him. There's the thrusting sword which inflicts scarlet rot, which many have had success while utilizing the shield & poke method.

 

[sze5003]

The thing is the developers choose the fps so it's up to them if they will patch the games to higher framerate. I literally watched a gaming podcast where they had some devs on there saying they could make a game run at 2 fps if they wanted to and throw all kinds of assets in there to make it look good if that's what they choose to do.

Fromsoft doesn't seem to care much about performance. I played elden ring on PS5 in performance mode but I remember the PC version had issues running smoothly as well when it launched. I never finished it but if I were to pick it up now I'd have no idea what to do lol.

The only game where to get into it I had to follow a walkthrough YouTube series otherwise I was just not enjoying it because I would wonder off randomly, get killed or kill the enemy finally and then wander off again and feel like I made zero progress. Once I followed along with the YouTube series I really started enjoying it.

 

[MoragaBlue]

Because of pandemic driven shortage, I wasn't able to finally play ER until about version 1.07? So, it had been out probably about 10 months and most of the performance issues early on were already patched. Though, it's still not perfect, at least not for me. At 4K with RT off and everything maxed (running i5 12600KF OC'ed & 3080 12GB OC'ed), I generally get 60 FPS for about 90% of the game? The notable exception were some boss fights, e.g., Godrick's flaming dragon head spam.

The DLC had some areas where the FPS dips, the area where you approach the Shadow Castle & PCR's Star Wars light show. Other than that, I think it's mostly 60 FPS, and I assume should I upgrade to the AMD 7800X3D & 4080, I'll get 60 FPS with RT on and max settings, at least for most of the gameplay. If the PS5 Pro is incapable of improving ER, then I'll wait until they actually have a game I'd like to play, and Wolverine is the only one. I'm not a GTA fan and none of their live service titles interest me in the least.

 

[jpiniero]

I gave in and downloaded the patch... and I still can't beat him

It's still hard because it's tough to get hits in without taking damage, and the damage is still very high.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I can't fathom playing a single player game for thousands of hours.

I mean I can't fathom playing a live service game for half an hour.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

So has performance improved much since the release of Shadow of the Erdtree? Especially on PC. I have been putting off playing this because the base game was so awesome at 1800p60 on my RX 6700 XT, with the occasional drops into the 50s but that's still high enough that FreeSync makes them not noticeable unless I have a frame counter turned on. But I heard the 6700 XT struggled with even 1080p60 at Erdtree's launch.

 

[MoragaBlue]

I mean I can't fathom playing a live service game for half an hour.

I've never played a "live service" game, and never will. I played Starcraft, but I avoided WOW, Fortnite, and whatever. With very few exceptions, I will never go along with the whatever "as service" thing. Even my music, I just buy it on iTunes or wherever.

 

[jpiniero]

Hey so I beat PCR. Only change I made was to upgrade Endurance so I could wear Moore's armor (some of it anyway). Still took a couple tries but I got it done.

Is... there no official ending? No credits? Just that one cutscene?

I think the only thing left that I could do is to defeat the Fire Giants or whatever they are called.

 

[MoragaBlue]

Is... there no official ending? No credits? Just that one cutscene?

Congrats on your victory!

No cutscene or closure to the DLC portion. That's it. After the fight, I tried to stroll up to where Miki was and couldn't reach it. So, unless you want to traverse unexplored areas, Shadows is finished.

 

[jpiniero]

Now that I thought about it, the Bloodborne DLC also suddenly ends too.

 

[Oyeve]

Congrats on your victory!

No cutscene or closure to the DLC portion. That's it. After the fight, I tried to stroll up to where Miki was and couldn't reach it. So, unless you want to traverse unexplored areas, Shadows is finished.

You can retrace your steps as some npcs dropped stuff after they are dead.

 

[MoragaBlue]

Assuming I can secure one of the PS5 Pros, my first game will be a new ER & DLC playthrough on my big TV. I'm so looking forward to it, and it's been some time since I've paid the Sword of Miquella a visit.

 

[Majcric]

And Malenia finally goes down. I probably should have just used my mimic. ( probably took 10-15 hours.

Now its Radagon and Elden beast and that annoying cutscene over and over again.

On a side note, it’s crazy how much harder Malenia and Radagon/ Elden beast are in comparison to the other bosses. A league of their own. I probably wont be good enough to play the DLC.

 

[MoragaBlue]

And Malenia finally goes down. I probably should have just used my mimic. ( probably took 10-15 hours.

Now its Radagon and Elden beast and that annoying cutscene over and over again.

On a side note, it’s crazy how much harder Malenia and Radagon/ Elden beast are in comparison to the other bosses. A league of their own. I probably wont be good enough to play the DLC.

In my view, Malenia is the most challenging boss fight in base ER. Radagon while not exactly a cake walk, doesn't have anything equivalent to the Waterfowl Dance, which just utterly destroys you, unless you know the specific timing & technique to avoid the attack.

If I recall, a few things work well with Malenia. Using the Barricade Shield neutralizes the WF Dance. The Bloodhound's Quick Step will allow you to retreat quickly enough to avoid most the of WFD allowing you to dodge relatively easy the final combo. Throwing a frozen pot will stop the move. Finally, at her height, run below her and circle to cause her to miss, and then dodge & dodge.

As to the DLC, if you're playing a non-OP build and plan to fight Mano on Mano with a normal weapon, it's very challenging, but also very fun and rewarding. I find the point where you engage in a prolonged dance with the boss to be the epitome of Fromsoft's boss design, e.g., Rellana & Bayle. For that alone, IMHO, the DLC deserves GOTY, because I've yet to encounter any other game with bosses so refined, nuanced, and rewarding when it comes to engaging in the dance. The music that accompanies the Rellana duel is just perfect and the fight a true masterpiece. I'd highly recommend fighting Rellana "fair" before utilizing the other tools at your disposal. It's really fun and I suspect most will find the challenge rewarding.

PS - Elden Beast is pretty easy once you practice how to avoid its AOE. Unlock, sprint away, and double jump the rings. Then, reengage, and it'll go down.