Elden Ring is second to only to Ruins of Kunark for best game ever made
 

Just finished the platinum trophy for Elden ring on PS5. 148 hours of a non-stop thrill ride. An open world where exploring nooks and crannies is rewarding, where you have to use your brain to conquer the environment, your enemies, even determine where to go and what to do there. Itemization is on par with the best MMOs like EQ and world of Warcraft. The spells and gear you accumulate are unique and individually worthwhile, and their quality inspires you to dig further in the game to find more and more. There's always a carrot at the end of the stick. You get crushed repeatedly, but you never feel like you're slamming your head against the wall, there's always a way and again you just need to actually use your brain to make it happen.

This may have ruined video games for me. I don't know what to do or think about the future of gaming unless developers see the light and release games of this quality. Get away from graphics, get away from fetch quests, just do better. This is now the template for what gaming is.

I don't really enjoy being stuck in 3rd person camera mode and not being able to swim. Isometric or way zoomed out party mode is ok tho.

Really good game, almost captures that original EQ feeling of a mysterious, dangerous world. Controls are a bit clunky on PC but overall money well spent

my zoomer senses are tingling.

I'm playing Etrian Odyssey, raw dungeon crawler where you have to draw your own map. and that gives me way more EQ vibes than something like Elden Ring. Elden Ring gives me tomb raider vibes with the clunky movement and unresponsive control.

I just started playing Elden Ring and it is quite impressive. I'm on a mission to beat Rennala next.

Waiting on my steam deck.

Game is excellent. I did a fairly thorough first playthrough clearing all major optional bosses and doing the majority of quests. I did miss a bunch in the capital city by progressing through Faram Azula before I had finished exploring. Spent like 160 hours on the game, so taking a break before diving into NG+ to do the things I missed on my first run.

What builds did you all go with? I went heavy armor and power stanced colossal weapons. I avoided ranged/spellcasting so i could "git gud" at dodge rolling and timing boss attacks. May do a midrange hybrid melee/incantation build for second run.

My brother was telling me this weekend how much he is enjoying this game. Think I may pick it up tomorrow

Nice. If this is your first game in the Souls franchise, get well acquainted with the dodge roll. The iframes on the dodge are integral to surviving boss attacks.