Elden Ring

[Peppermint Lounge]

Stuttering still there. It does feel improved though. When it's not stuttering it feels more solid. The worst area of the game for me is the very start location right after the tutorial. Riding around that opening area where the Tree Sentinel is/was. I had a nasty patch of slow down riding between the first grace point after the tutorial and the Church of Elleh. That's unfortunately still there for me.

[pilonv1]

It's probably the time between stuttering that's improved. I did seem to notice some pop in on grass and other details that I don't recall previously, maybe they toned down the draw distance to help?

[pilonv1]

Ended up submitting a refund request. Stuttering is just enough to be annoying and triggering motion sickness. I think if it was just the camera or just the stuttering I could deal with it but both at the same time is just too much for my brain to handle

[Peppermint Lounge]

Hopefully From will put some of their Elden income toward tech recruitment. Either that or Sony buy them and provide some of theirs.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Fuck you, Crucible Knight. That is all.

[Froggy]

I'm so confused about wtf I'm doing. I'm a souls tragic but utterly lost but starting just straight into an open world. So I've set off towards the castle but I just.. feel lost after a couple of hours. I ran into a dragon last night and that killed me, is this the right way? I got to a bridge as well with some dudes with a big explosive arrow shooting thing. Anyone care to give me a slight nudge without any spoilers just which way should I keep pusing at this stage out of these options?

• Through the water with the dragon (just running past him)
• Through the bridge with the big arrows that explode
• Both are the wrong way explore more

[Peppermint Lounge]

Just continue exploring Limgrave. There are caves, ruins, NPC vendors and/or quest-givers all with items and opportunities to acquire/improve gear and level up. Throughout Limgrave will be enemies too strong to engage for now. Explore every corner of the map. While the map isn't filled with quest/location markers you can scan the actual map artwork for areas of potential interest. Drop a manual marker and head off to check it out.

[Froggy]

Right. Manual markers I'll give that a go. I've started with two kids watching and screaming each monster so no doubt I have missed some key information

[Froggy]

Spent a lot of time a bit lost in this, went to the wrong castle at the start that they were on about. Game started to make sense once I worked my way through the first castle with the dude with 8 arms at the end. Now i get it and the worlds making sense to me that each main area will have a large bit with a dude in it to do over. Lots of caves and stuff I've been going into in the meantime, only level 48 still so the levelling seems slow. I think I'd have levelled faster if I went the right way first, I finally trigged on the map from the bonfires they point to the direction to go lol *face palm*

so I'm about 32 hours in and level 48 which seems slow, wasted so long just I think aimlessly going the wrong way. Game seems huge in scale, is a bit daunting if I'll actually finish it or get burnt out. How's everyone else done? Finished it? or having a break? I know Lestat got there in the end but did anyone else?

[Peppermint Lounge]

I'm still going. I'm about level 89 and in the later parts of the game (at least it feels that way). I've been keeping up with Destiny 2 so have been playing both games fairly equally. I'm doing my best to follow a lenghtly quest line which is taking me all over the map. I suspect it qualifies as side content as I fulfilled prerequisites to progress the main story ages ago. Or so I was told. Still loving it. Gear gets a lot better in the later game. Plenty of armour options. Weapons comnig out of my arse but they're all just sitting there sans upgrades. One of the games bigger shortcomings is throwing gear at you you can't experiment with because there isn't sufficient materials to get it upgraded to your current weapon's level. I've been running around with my Golden Halberd +9 for yonks now.

[Gamma]

I caved and picked it up for the Easter break, started playing on Friday evening. Found it pretty frustrating for the first seven or so hours, then I don't know what happened but nek minnit it's Tuesday and Elden Ring is GOTY.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Excellent.

Yes I think Elden is a lock for GOTY 2022.

[Froggy]

About 80 - 90 hours in now and level 93 I think. Just hit the capital.. fuck me I'm in that stage where I gotta finish it now but jesus.

[Froggy]

And I'm done. Finished it at level 142 and 122 hours. Jesus what a journey to get there and then I see I still only have half the achievements!! Just can't do a 2nd play through. I started and I'm wrecking everything but it's too big to do again

[Peppermint Lounge]

Well done on finishing. I took a break from Elden about three weeks ago. Was getting bored fighting my way to gear I couldn't try out. I've spent around 60 hours with the same loadout. The inflexibility with builds due to limited upgrade materials is the biggest drawback to what is otherwise a masterpiece game IMO. I craved a game with configurable builds you can change on the fly and for whatever reason the old Guild Wars jumped into my head. I've been playing this old 2005 game since. Will come back to GOTY Elden eventually.

[Froggy]

Yeah it wasn't until right at the end I was suddenly flooded with all the upgrades and ability to make them. There's also a sword near the end that just wrecks everyone that I got and have literally waltzed through half the map on new game+ with it in little time at all when I was bored. You get it from a npc invader near the church in the mountains of the Giants at the end s make sure you go there to trigger it.