Cool! So far I'm feeling like this is a suspense story and it's working pretty well for me. So far I'm feeling like the dialogue in general is better than is typical for this genre and that makes a lot of the difference in keeping me engaged. Sometimes with choose-your-own-adventure type games, I honestly lose the ability to suspend my disbelief, but not so here as yet, and the plot thus far seems very fast-moving in a way keeps you paying attention and it combines well into an immersive whole. Not being one to shy away from darker plot turns, I think I'm up for some. Looking forward to seeing where things go from here now!

Elden Ring - it's far from perfect, and while I'd take any Souls over it for THE Souls experience, it is a great game that brought Souls to the open world, without sacrificing (too much) of its core design principles.

Played a few more games since my first post. GotY is still triangle for me.

My sister is playing it and every few days messages me telling me how great it is. (She had to get over that it wasn't a direct FFTactics clone and its own thing but once she did she is LOVING it)

It is a really good game.  Very distinct characters, with very distinct pros/cons on the battle field.  The decisions have massive impact on how the story plays out.  Difficulty was spot on as well.  Not too hard but far from easy, it was just right.  

I'd probably still get my arse whupped, though. I've always sucked at Tactical RPGs. I couldn't even beat Advance Wars and could barely manage FF Tactics Advance/A2. 

I think Stanley deserves it, but I know ER is going to get it so very easily.

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?

Exactly my thoughts. Since breath of the wild that I haven't been so into a game like elden ring, it feels fresh, different, new, and by far the best most beautiful open world I've ever seen. Talking open worlds, as I see it, ghost of tsushima was a boring, by the book assassins creed with no innovation, and obviously last gen. Far Cry 6 was a disappointment, worse than the previous ones. Forbidden west is excellent, one of my top 3 games this generation, but its just a slightly improved zero dawn, graphics even were similar to zero dawn on PC/PS4 pro. HDR did not even impressed me no where near what Elden Ring did with its beautiful illumination.

Elden Ring also has a better presentation, I dislike when games put the characters talking and talking and talking all the time, its a video game, gamers need to feel in that world, and open world should be us exploring, not constantly walking with another person slowly without much control. Ghost of tsushima was even worse in this.

Elden Ring is a pure game, its you and the world, no chit chat, no slowly walking with someone, no constant cutscenes, in fact Elden Ring does something that breath of the wild did very right, less reliance on arrows or tracks or wind pointing the direction you have to go, it leaves more to the player to figure out where they have to go, this is great as I hate just following arrows without needing to engage my brain. I can guarantee you that God of war 2 will have this issue, cutscenes all the time, to be more movie like, constant talking, constant parts where you need to walk together with another character, it was innovative when gears of war came out, but stop it already, we don't want games to be movies and play by themselves.

In my opinion breath of the wild and Elden Ring are the 2 best games of the past 15 years, maybe even the 2 best games in the history of videogames. Elden Ring slightly wins just because of the graphics and performance/loadings.

The only thing missing in Elden Ring is proper use of the adaptive triggers, let us feel the pressure of pulling the bow and let us feel the pressure of using heavier weapons.

Horizon forbidden west, followed by cyberpunk next gen version. Though I have yet to play elden ring, next on my list.