Elden Ring - George R.R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki

I know you could use passwords to arrange for other players (that you wanted) to join you as phantoms. But I don’t think that effected the signs you see. I have never really understood why you see some signs and not others as I would imagine certain locations probably have hundreds of signs.

In Dark Souls/Bloodborne it only affected co-op summon signs. Messages were unaffected.

Ooooh, that’s what I get for reading quickly on my phone. I saw “group” on my mind starting fixating on grouping together. I missed that about messages.

Yeah, it almost allows for community- or event-specific signs. Imagine if the community designates one keyword combination as the “supremely unhelpful meme” signs. Or another as the “start fresh in October 2022” signs. Or one as the “QT3” signs.

Im sure it won’t work half as well as I imagine it will, but it’s a neat evolution to the formula.

Oh, a QT3 group. I’m sure quite a few of us will be plunging in.

Steam page… Didn’t realize this was due so soon. Or maybe I just didn’t notice 2021 disappearing. Early 2022.

Yea, I saw an “ad” for Elden Ring on Steam today. Not an ad really, just a box without a price saying it was coming soon. But still…

Detailed preview. I just sat down with my coffee and I’ll read it between tasks. Only skimming the beginning, I’m surprised to learn that it really is a open world game of sorts.

I’m not actually sure I want to read this.

Right, Every new mechanic, system, enemy and detail explored does sound a bit over the top. Report back on if it’s safe to read @Rock8man :)

DS1 & 2 were pretty “open world.” I remember 3 having a bit more linearity. Demon’s was extremely hub and spoke and Bloodborne was a bit more constrained.

Interesting. Dark Souls isn’t at all what I would think of as open world. It wasn’t exactly linear, but very much level-to-level with branches here and there.

You could just go mostly anywhere you wanted from the start, though, and some people did and then complained it was too hard because they ended up in New Londo or Valley of the Drakes.

Technically Dark Souls can be considered “open”, in the sense that there are multiple paths you can take and few physical barriers preventing you from going where you want. But the world’s design is still fairly linear. To get from one area to another, you are generally going to take a straight path even if you have some choice about which path to take. It’s not an open world in, say, a Breath of the Wild/Skyrim way where you can wander around in any which direction just to see what is out there. In some sense you can do that in Dark Souls, but the options are deliberate and more limited.

I’d say it’s safe to read. I just finished it. It’s a little boring because they’re describing every single detail in the demo. But the demo they were shown changes a lot. First they’re shown one thing, then it switches to a different character in a different situation.

Overall the main thing I got out of all that is you get a better sense of how the open world works, and how it’s quite different from the other From games as a result. They have a map now, to help you navigate this Overworld. There’s things going on in the overworld like caravans traveling from place to place, you can get out of sight so they don’t spot you. There’s more of a stealth element too. In one scene they used a sleep arrow to put a guard to sleep and then snuck past that tower to get inside a fort. And there’s lots of “dungeons” and “Classic dungeons” that branch off from different areas of the overworld, where “dungeon” could just mean one of the areas from Dark Souls type of place, not necessarily an actual dungeon, just a more linear path area.

All in all, it all sounds great to me. Bring it on.

A map?!

Yep.

Then, the player brings up a map interface - a brand new feature for Elden Ring. It’s beautifully illustrated and coloured in a sort of classic RPG map design. There are no words on it, just the outlines of the terrain and any places of interest drawn on from a top-down perspective. It’s massive, and interestingly, there’s a prompt at the bottom of the screen that says you can press in the right thumbstick to “show subterranean labyrinth” - suggesting there may be multiple map layers.

As someone who adores the mystery and complexity of uncovering From Software’s worlds as you explore them, I was glad to hear that map information is apparently updated by acquiring map fragments found throughout the world - you don’t just get full visibility of the Lands Between right off the bat. Which I’m glad to hear - one of my favourite moments in any From game is opening up a door or a shortcut and discovering the ingenious ways in which the world twists and folds on itself to bring players back to exactly where they need to be. I don’t want a map screen to spoil that. So what of that complexity and mystique? From doesn’t believe the inclusion of a map screen threatens any of that. “We feel like this aspect will be preserved, and even once you get to that information through the fragments of the map, you’ll think ‘oh that may be an interesting area to explore over here.’ Once you go there, you’ll find it has its own multi-tiered-ness, its own three-dimensionality, that will hopefully be interesting to explore,” Kitao told us.

This is me. I will probably buy the game wen it comes out but I really doubt my computer will handle it. I may end up buying a PS4 version. But I like to experience these games with as few spoilers as possible on my first play thru, it is part of the thrill.

Both were open to a point, and then became linear. DS3 went linear much quicker. But I don’t think any of them qualify as open world games.

Slight delay to Feb 25th. Not a big deal, and I’m all for a game coming out in the best shape it can be, so almost not newsworthy except I thought this was a March 2022 title (for some reason) and as such, I read this is as incredible news that it’s dropping a month early! :)

Also, there is some sort of network test in November which seems like it will be cool to at least follow if not try and get in on.

Also also, in case anyone missed it there is a short 30 second clip of gameplay floating around, taken from the last gen Xbox One system (I think it looks incredible, myself, but am eager to see what it will look like on current gen/PC).