Game of the Year (So Far)

[Chrkeller]

HoloDust said:

victor83fernandes said:

Elden ring is better than any souls game. Not only its full open world, but the graphics and details is way better, and its the most beautiful open world I've ever seen, graphics are even better than forbidden west and that's saying a lot, Elden Ring is the only game so far that looks current gen to me on ps5, and I have also a PC with better specs than the PS5.

The design of the world, the fast loadings, the graphics, art style, pace, enemies, imagination, sense of exploration and wonder, everything is just right. Before this one, my favourite was demon souls remake, I just cant understand how they improve the graphics while making it full open world now, that's a big achievement for Elden ring.

Lets not even talk the older souls like bloodborne that just look absolutely horrible, it didn't even get a ps4 pro update and its not open world, its not even 60fps which is critical on a game of this type.

Elden Ring in HDR, especially when the rain is falling, is a sight to behold, most beautiful game I've ever seen after 32 years of gaming, after hundreds of games.

I really do not understand your comment about elden ring being far from perfect, if this is far from perfect then no game ever made is even close to being great.

Surely perfect is impossible to achieve, nothing can ever be perfect, but this is the closest I've ever see.

I also do not understand what you mean with the souls experience, this has the souls experience, its just open world but the rest is the same, you get the same blocking with a shield and counters and difficulty and each enemy being different, its all souls here, did you actually played Elden Ring or are you just commenting after watching some videos?

Honestly, I find ER's graphics to be, technically speaking, nowhere near the top - lucky for me, I don't give a rats arse about that, what I care for is beautiful art, which ER is full of. Actually, I find From's games to be a perfect example of what matters when you're budget restricted, and that is great level design, art and gameplay, even if they still have stiff animations from a decade ago.

Yes, I've played and finished ER, I logged somewhere around 165+ hours (plus one frozen shoulder as a result of it). For me, Souls experience was always about exploration and terrific level design (with serviceable combat that doesn't; get in the way of it) - ER has both, but IMO, actual Souls have a lot more of those intricate levels where you suddenly realize "oh, so this leads to there again". I liked ER a lot, I just felt it was missing a bit more of that, although it had some fantastic "levels" - this is what I’ve meant by THE Souls experience, and why I would take any Souls over ER for exactly that.

As for the open world aspect, I find it to be great - a lot of people were doubting Souls could be transitioned well to open world, I was always very certain that it would translate very well, even before there was any mention of ER, given that there were some old games that had great topographical design that Souls would fit perfectly in. But the thing is, with such a marvellous topography in ER, I couldn't shake off the constant feeling that, while I'm enjoying the hell out of the game, I'm missing it being a full-fledged RPG. I had to remind myself, it's Souls, and that they specifically said when they announced ER that it would be too much of a design step up from Souls for them to make right away a game that has towns and other common RPG stuff, but I still had this longing for THAT game.

So when I say far from perfect - I could go on about open world RPGs that are to come in some not so distant future with some sort of AI acting as GMs (one is already being made by some of the original creators of TES II: Daggerfall), or what potential From Software's open world game can be in the future (which will, IMO, easily overshadow ER), or just stick to flaws in ER as open world Souls - but I won't do any of that, since it would take too long. All in all, ER is a phenomenal game, great transition to open world structure and spectacular design success for From Software - hopefully it won't be too long before next Souls, whatever it is, comes out.

I agree 100%.  Graphically ER was disappointing.  On the ps5 it had significant pop in and tons of stutter, especially during invasions.  Forbidden West looks and run far better.

Souls is my second favorite series, second only to Zelda.

Souls 3>BB>Demon>Souls>Elden>Souls 2

Fully realize my opinion will be unpopular, but I thought ER was competing strongly with Souls 2 for worst in the series.