elden ring
My husband, T, and I watch exactly 1 streamer of video games, and that's Vinny from Vinesauce. I like his humor and the fact that he isn't, like, super great at video games, and that he doesn't (always) play meme shit or whatever. Anyway--neither T nor I are huge gamers. We're relentlessly casual, have a small collection of titles (mostly Nintendo or old PS1/PS2), and don't pay for anything like Playstation Plus or whatever. But Vinny seemed to be doing OK at Elden Ring, and T and I love fantasy games (the amount of hours we've both put into Skyrim is embarrassing), so T picked the title up on a whim.
And boy howdy it is fun. It's brutal as hell! But it never feels unfair--I typically die when I throw caution to the wind and attack an enemy/enemies without really pausing to consider how to approach a given challenge. But I never feel like the game was being overly cruel.
My favorite aspect is how varied the enemies' designs are. Even if something hands my ass to me in two rapid slashes, I mainly am just happy to experience something new in the game. I also love the environments and the moods of each part of the Lands Between--exploring this game is a treat. Despite how genuinely crappy the world must be to live in, it's at least very pretty to look at, and the architecture of castles is cool. The crafting system also hits a nice balance for me--I hate overly-complicated crafting systems, but this one feels purposeful and well-considered.
This evening I spent a lot of time exploring underground areas I had only dipped my toes into before, and managed to take on and defeat two separate Dragonkin Knights on my first tries attacking them. Is that actually impressive? I have no clue. But I felt pretty satisfied!
I know I'm two years late to this game, but I'm glad I waited; for open world games, I like the option of consulting guides and maps, and the internet has these in droves.
My only concern is that playing has been a huge distraction from other work I need to do, but that'd be a problem for me no matter what! Ah, well.
- Marc