Elden Ring has gone on to become my favorite video game of all time. I know that sounds drastic to some when considering the long list of video games available to play and to date myself, I’ve been playing video games since 1985. So, how on earth after playing more video games than I could possibly count did Elden Ring manage to take the top spot for me? Well, that’s a long answer, so I’m going to put it down into sections. None If the reasons listed are in any particular order, so I wouldn’t read too deeply into the placement. For starters, the games lore is top notch. Call it a story if you’d like, but the story is the lore. Playing through Elden Ring is rather realistic in the sense of how the story unfolds. I imagine that if I were in a primitive land on a mission to kill the lands lords and become a lord myself, it would unfold much like the game. Not a lot of clues, not a lot of friendlies and a whole lot of exploring. You never know what you’re going to get yourself into. That is unless of course you beat the game and start a new one. For the most part, you know what’s happening down the line. If it were real life, I could become a tour guide and talk about my adventures. Of course, if I’m an Elden Lord, I’d probably just have one of my subjects tell my story, but that’s just semantics. Well balanced. FromSoftware is known for challenging players. The Souls series is a great example of that, but I will say Elden Ring isn’t quite as tough as the Souls games. It’s still quite a challenging game, especially for newcomers that have no real prior experience with Fromsoftware games. The balance is pretty near perfect. It offers a good amount of challenge, but it also offers many ways to get relief if you just can’t get beyond an area. An enormous map. Man, this map is huge and it has so many hidden locations and items, it makes my head spin. During my first playthrough, I could have never grasped just how large it is. During my second playthrough, I wound up uncovering areas underground that I hadn’t discovered in my first run. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I discover a new map. Wow. Now, I have beaten all the games in the Souls series and I’d like to include BloodBorne and Sekiro for good measure, but completing Elden Ring the first tike around gave me more satisfaction than any of those titles. Probably because I sunk around 160 hours into my first playthrough and was just blown away by the vast amount of freedom to explore. I just can’t get over it. I’m sad for the ones writing articles about how they have Elden Ring fatigue before completing the game. All in all, Elden … Read More
Ghost of Tsushima Review
There is a lot I want to say about Ghosts of Tsushima, but to get us started, I would like to point out something that Ghosts of Tsushima is not. It is not like Dark Souls or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, from developer FromSoftware Inc. Months before Ghosts of Tsushima released, the opinion of the internet was that this game tite would be similar to the games FromSoftware have developed, but it really isn’t like that at all. Ghosts of Tsushima does not offer the same depth. The controls are simpler in several ways. Even if you were playing Dark Souls as a hack n slasher without strategy, you would still find the learning curve of Ghosts of Tsushima to be simpler. So, if the reason you haven’t played it is because you aren’t a FromSoftware fan, you can take that reason off your list, because they are very, very different games. Now that I got that out of the way, let’s take a look at what Ghosts of Tsushima really is. It is a solid game that has the potential to be a 10 out of 10, but it has its share of things that bring the score down a little. I am not paid to tell you what the developers want you to hear, I am paid to tell you how I feel about the game and with all due respect, opinions differ. So, bear with me here and hear me out. The story is amazing. The story itself is very well written and doesn’t leave you feeling in the dark about what’s going on. Granted, it does reveal itself at times when you might start to wonder where the story is going, but before you find yourself confused over it, things reveal themselves to help make sense of it all along the way. Without spoiling the story, I’ll sum it up. You are a Samurai that is on a mixed path of emotions. A Samurai that is hell bent on revenge, loyalty, protecting those that cannot protect themselves and dare I say, out for justice? As to why this is the path of our Samurai, you will have to play it or read a spoiler review in order to get that info and I’m sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger, but I don’t want to spoil it. This really is a story that I feel people should experience themselves. Yes, I found the story to be that good. Now, a game without a good story is disappointing and can make a game seem meaningless, but we have to remember that it’s not just about a good story, just good graphics don’t make a good game alone. There are plenty of things to factor in and I will do the best I can to point out the good and the bad. So, in regards to graphics, I have to say Ghosts of Tsushima does not disappoint. It is very beautiful and has a great … Read More