Recent reviews by Kirion

Taking my time with the DLC - it's basically Elden Ring 1.5 in terms of just how much content there is out there.
I have yet to face any performance issues bar the occasional RTX artifacting that existed even in the original game. My only real complaint is that the DLC seems to have a lot of enemies and bosses that heavily favor Strength builds due to their ability to deal immense poise and stance damage - a lot of enemies have the same base principle as some of the later game foes you fight in the base game, overwhelming you with an onslaught of attacks and forcing you to poke them down - something easily avoided with bigger weapons but a necessity for other builds using weapons with less stance damage.

For those complaining about difficulty and such, I don't see the frustration. I've 20 hours in the DLC before fighting the DLC's poster child, Messmer, and I have 11 or 12 blessings. There are frustrating enemies that exist due to my insistence to wield X or Y weapon but if I switch to something like a Claymore, they become a joke.

Every Soulsgame has always been: choose your own difficulty. If you choose to play with Light Greatswords, Daggers, Katanas, Straight Swords etc. you'll have a harder time against tankier enemies and an easier time against agile enemies, it's that simple

Fellow tarnished, don't worry about the "Mixed" reviews. Enjoy the DLC.

I will update this review if my opinion changes as I continue through. 20 hours in and I still foresee 20 more ahead, at least.

Edit: Capped out at around 60 hours in the DLC. Fully completed it with all items, ashes of war, spells and so forth. The last boss was probably the hardest Soulsborne challenge I have ever faced, especially after returning to the game after 2 years of inactivity. SL150, Blessing 20 and it took me hours of active attempts.

I experienced little to no performance issues outside of RTX artifacts myself. I play on a 144hz monitor and while ultrawide would be a good addition, I don't think uncapping the FPS is necessary, especially when the game runs generally as smooth as it does, outside the odd and infrequent stutter.

This DLC was amazing. For the price of an expansion pack, we got what is essentially an entire new game - from gameplay and bosses, areas and mechanics, to lore. I really hope that all the setup given to the DLC, all the lore introduced, gets answered in either patches (similar to base game) or with a smaller, follow up DLC.

A lot of promises in the trailer weren't really fulfilled in terms of lore. The environmental storytelling gives us clues, as do some of the talismans we find, but it's hardly a concrete and discernible answer.

It is similar to Dark Souls in the sense that it took many DLCs and 3 games to finally unveil most of the lore, but we were promised the revelation of an unholy union and the divine tower's purpose - of the birth of Gold - and got little in the way of answers despite the trailer showcasing it as a major focus.

This was not a DLC, this was an entire new game, down to new lore that still requires answering. I really hope another is in the works.

Imagine, if you will, a game in which people have fun.
Imagine, if you will, a game in which people use a myriad of weapons and some are stronger than others.
Imagine, if you will, a game in which the weaker weapons are buffed.
Imagine, if you will, a game where solo players aren't punished.
Imagine, if you will, a game where splitting up and doing Hollywood Style SpecOps shenanigans isn't punished.
Imagine, if you will, a game where Devs play above easy difficulty.

This isn't that game.

This is a game where you take see a fun weapon or stratagem, you grind the hardest difficulty to get it, you begin to understand the game mechanics and how you can use them for your benefit. Where you discover that stealth is an option and learn how to use it.

Only to have the devs nerf everything, give patrols a higher chance of spawning on solo players and give these patrols an auto lock-on that has them chase you across the map.

Maybe Sony was a blessing, not a curse. A blessing that made me stop playing this game.

I've got a job for you.

It's been a week since launch and I'm already clocking 80h amidst having to take breaks to raid in FFXIV, do my daily Expert roulette and tend to my Master's Thesis which is at its end. This game is actively consuming my mental space, I go to sleep and wake up thinking "I just want to play Elden Ring" and foregoing other games such as FFXIV, Arma 3, League of Legends and even Civ 6 and Stellaris games with my friends just so I can play one more hour of Elden Ring. In the first three days, I went to sleep at 6am and woke up at 12pm, spending the rest of the day playing it.

This is, honestly, the best game money can buy-- No, the best game ever made, in my humble opinion. It is fun, challenging, fair and provides players with SO much freedom in EVERYTHING they do. I'm 80 hours in and I still am not through my first playthrough. In fact, I've only been to 6 out of the 12-odd zones the game offers.

Got softbanned for picking up a hacker's weapon
10/10

I was like most League fans out there. I was skepticle about playing this game but once you grab a hero you like, get into the game and the hero you'll start getting the hang of it. If you come from a moba like LoL you'll have learned most of the basics around DoTA and will be able to play it to some extent. Just perfect a certain hero and enjoy!