Elden Ring

[Alex79]

Came back to this recently. I think I'm fairly near the end at 98 hours in or so. Currently stuck on the Fire Giant on the Mountaintops Of The Giants. I've been using the Mimic Tear but still haven't beat him. I read there's an NPC summon somewhere in the arena too but not found it yet. I really want to try to finish it before the CaR show later this year.

[markfm007]

Fairly near the end is about right. I've popped some Fire Giant tips below in a spoiler tag, if you want a bit of help but not a full guide. I'd also be happy to help if you're on Playstation, I have an end game character I've been using for summons.

Spoiler: show

There's a bracelet on his ankle that breaking will lead to him taking more damage. First phase I found it easiest to get under his ankles, slash a bit, being careful to keep an eye on him stomping or slamming his shield. Second phase I fought on horseback, shot him with spells and running in for charging slashes. Don't think I used spirit ashes or summons. They might be better in the second phase when he's shooting stuff at you. I also ground out a bunch of levels to up my vigor when I got there, as he was hitting me really hard.

[Alex79]

Thanks - I beat him! I made my way up to the forge but then went back as I'd not been to Castle Sol yet and I need the medallion there to access the area underneath Caelid. Home straight now though I think!

[caponeadam]

Before EldenRing, my only experience was several hours of the DemonSouls Remake on PS5 where I eventually got stuck on a boss. I would go to this area with skeletons that was supposed to the 'the' place to return to and level up. I eventually gave up doing the same bit over and over.

I put in over 150 hours into EldenRing and completed it. There were two reasons;

A) The open world nature of it made it feel like there were always multiple interestingly different areas to level up, it no longer felt like grinding as I kept finding new places where I would naturally level up through exploration.

B) This is probably the case for all Souls games but I eventually gave up trying to figure out the game myself and purposely seeked help/tips/walkthroughs etc. I eventually learned that this is a part of the Souls experience, there are often some very obscure and absurd methods to obtain higher quality gear.

I think Elden Ring could have been my ticket to finally get onboard the Souls train. I just hope they don't return to the linear designs of the past.

[Alex79]

B) This is probably the case for all Souls games but I eventually gave up trying to figure out the game myself and purposely seeked help/tips/walkthroughs etc. I eventually learned that this is a part of the Souls experience, there are often some very obscure and absurd methods to obtain higher quality gear.

100% this. I've started every From game blind, but eventually with every single one of them played with a guide literally in front of me. It's half the fun for me.

As for Elden Ring, I'm so close now I think. Just reached the forge volcano thing on top of the Mountaintops Of The Giants but took a detour to visit some underground palace that has a pretty neat farming spot in front of it so I'm grinding at least ten levels before moving on.

[Alex79]

Aaah I really want to get this finished before the show! Just reached the penultimate boss yesterday, the Godfrey Elden Lord one who transforms in to some beast thing after. I think it's the final boss after that one? The Black Blade chap was a bit of a sticking point, took me about 5 tries to get him done.

UPDATE: Last boss! I'm on the very last boss... I can get to the Elden Beast part of the fight with most my flasks remaining but only got him down to one third health so far before dying. He looks like he should be easy... But it's not.

I mean this is just crazy... No damage, level one character. Not for me...

https://youtu.be/9qrkhm2V0FQ?si=2xEnxd9IhyRU5TWt

[Alex79]

I fucking did it, woohoo! Two years and finally finished! What a game. Still think it's too big, but what a game.

[Wuqinglong]

Elden Ring was the first "Souls-like" game I managed to complete, not for lack of trying though. I had attempted to finish Dark Souls 4-5 times prior to Elden Ring's release and each time I pushed a little father but I always ended up putting the game down due to the dark atmosphere making me feel slightly depressed. This is odd as I play plenty of other games with arguably darker more oppressive atmospheres and never had this reaction. Whatever the reason for this, when it came to Elden Ring I didn't have this issue at all. I plunged in and wrapped up the game doing nearly every boss over the course of a few weeks.

The experience was relatively friction-less in spite of my limited experience with the FromSoftware design methodology. I don't know if this is because this is an "easy" entry or they just found the right balance of accessibility while keeping the feeling of challenge and danger from feeling watered down or otherwise reduced in some capacity. Whatever they did it was a success and I have many friends who are still playing the game to this day with more characters than even they can remember.

3 Word Review: Open, Not Empty

[Caligulas Horse]

I've been looking forward to this episode almost as much as the DLC lol.

3 word review: Edge, lord ahead

[Caligulas Horse]

So, who's ready for the DLC release tomorrow?

I've taken the day off work tomorrow and I have the weekend completely free to sink my teeth into it. The review scores are promising!

I've not read too much of the finer details, but I did see that exploration is apparently even more rewarding, with a lot more verticality than the main game.

Ahhhhh, I'm hyped

Besides the DLC, the latest patch has some really cool updates. Players can now use Torrent in the Elden Beast fight and they've added a tab for recently acquired items, two things which drew (minor) criticism on the podcast and from the community generally.

It's great to see them taking feedback on board and making adjustments like this.

You can see the full list here https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comm ... f_changes/

[ratsoalbion]

Yep, all pre-installed and ready.

Good work from From on the QOL tweaks - shame the performance of the PS5 client is still so poor.
I considered converting my save and playing SotE on the PS5 client, but then I loaded it up and went, "Nah".

Extra foliage density in no way compensates for the terrible performance for me. I will absolutely continue with near 60fps locked on the PS4 build (running on PS5).

It's not about being an fps snob, it's that the game overall simply looks and plays worse to me.

It's a shame because the PS5 textures are a fair bit nicer, and the world looks prettier... As long as you don't touch the controller.

[Caligulas Horse]

Yeah, that is disappointing.

I'm planning to finally upgrade to the PS5 soon and I was looking forward to trying Elden Ring out when I did. I'd actually be curious to see if I notice the difference, as I'm generally not very good at picking up that stuff, at least not consciously.

[ratsoalbion]

Yes, as always, horses for courses. If it's not an issue then it's not an issue.

[markfm007]

Very much looking forward to it! Feels like we're getting a mini sequel of sorts to Elden Ring. I haven't booked time off work but I have pre-ordered, which is rare for me. It'll be ready to go when I'm done. Nice of England to play today so I don't have to pause my play time

I'm on PS5 version, you do see some dips especially in the open world, but I haven't found it too bad. I'd transfer my save file to PS4 if that were possible though, for the sake of a locked 60fps. Recent items tab is definitely a plus too. You could sort by acquired but only by section, so it became a bit cumbersome if you don't know what you got.

[ratsoalbion]

Also:

https://www.eurogamer.net/elden-rings-b ... lden-beast

Good move, imo!

[Cornelius_Smiff]

Loving the DLC so far. There is a massive imbalance for me though in terms of how hard I am hitting and how hard the enemy is hitting.

They hit like trucks, but so do I. It led to an interesting first 20 minutes or so where I was steamrolling field enemies such as the soldiers with a single hit of my Ash of War (rocking double Katanas with Unsheathe) and thinking they were weak. I later found out they can in fact easily two shot me if I am not careful.

I think I must have a very good build to deal damage but not so much in damage negation and I am getting the actual difficulty of the DLC via the enemies hitting so hard.

First two main bosses down, very cool fights but again very hard hitting.

[ratsoalbion]

Not dissimilar to my experience.

[Cornelius_Smiff]

I think we can all agree that visually this is a stunning piece of game design. It nails the mood perfectly and much like the base game, it all looks like a wonderful painting.