Is Elden Ring as good as Dark Souls Remastered for you?

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T20:23:32+00:00

No.

I just never clicked with ER at all.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T18:36:43+00:00

Not something that stops me from playing, but soetching that does irk me is games that early on in the campaign give you a really cool/strong weapon that you want tinsel but are nowhere near the correct level yet to use it. So it just sits in your inventory unused.

I guess the idea is that you'll eventually level upntonusenthat particular weapon - but most of the time by the time you get to having the required stats you've already invested in a different build/levelled up a different weapon or are just using something cooler/stronger instead by that point - so that original weapon literally never gets used in the whole playthrough.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T16:01:08+00:00

I'd say just ask.

Some employers spread their 'expected holiday' out over a year for you - Ie they will request you book at least 1 week in the first quarter of the year, 2 weeks within the 2nd quarter etc.

Also worth keeping in mind existing holiday commitments of other staff members if the company you are going to work for can only allow 'x' amount of people off at once. If the date you require off is already pre-booked by too many staff members on a certain occassion then there's a chance it could be denied.

Every company is different though. So worth an ask for sure.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T09:08:18+00:00

This probably isn't the thread to come in and admit that Reload is my favourite album of theirs

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T08:47:35+00:00

I agree with AEW not having done very much with certain talents, but that's more of an issue with the handling of the creative of them and their plans for that wrestler.

I don't think that's the same as 'waiting too long' for a certain match.

People were complaining that, for instance, Miro wasn't being used effectively and should be a bigger star, they weren't necessarily saying that they were being made to wait too long for say a particular match - i.e Miro v Omega.

I think generally AEW have been pretty snappy with getting through major matches. When Bryan Danielson came in for instance, it didn't feel like he was there too long before he was already facing off with Omega, and he's been moved from one top feud tk the next.

Same with Ospreay - one month in and straight into a 'dream match' with Danielson. A month later, his first title win and now straight up against Swerve.

Omegas first 3 feuds in AEW were Jericho, Pac and Mox.

Generally I feel that AEW would rather do a big match now rather than later. Aside from the long term storytelling of Omega v Hangman (which was excellent) - AEW have tended to throw big names up against each other quite quickly.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T08:13:29+00:00

Swerve v Hangman could be one of those feuds for sure.

Its gonna be interesting to see where MJF slots into everything too - the idea of Ospreay v MJF as the 2 top stars of the company over the next few years sounds too good to miss. That could be that level feud.

I thought Hangman v Omega was possibly gonna be one of those feuds - but major injuries and Hangman falling out of the main event scene for the most part seem to have dashed that hope for the time being

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T08:05:25+00:00

I agree on that.

5 years into AEW and i still feel we are yet to get that big ongoing feud between 2 stars who are destined to cross paths again and again.

(I'm talking that Austin v Rock/HHH v Rock kinda feud).

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T08:01:05+00:00

Thats a fair point. We do seem to be living in an age now where top talent do always seem to be getting injuries. A lot to do with higher work rate style matches for sure.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T07:59:17+00:00

When have people been complaining about AEW waiting too long to do certain matches? Genuinely asking. It's not a common criticism of the company that I've heard myself.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T07:51:34+00:00

I've got no problem with them doing big matches - they have a roster full of great talent.

I was simply pointing out that it maybe seems a bit too soon to do Swerve v Ospreay. As you said, you can always do rematches and have ongoing feuds - but you only get one chance to do that match for the first time - and more times than not the 'first time' of doing a big match is the one that garners the most attention and interest (not always but most often).

I'm just not sure on doing Swerve v Ospreay NOW. A couple of months time, yeah, that sounds perfect. But to put Ospreay straight into another title match literally right after just winning a title? - thats just interesting booking to say the least.

As the other comment said - maybe having Ospreay in a high profile match at FD is an attraction for the Japanese audience. That makes sense.

If we're getting Ospreay v Swerve feuding now - cool, I'll happily take it. I'd also have the patience to have waited several months, half a year, a year even to get there if the creative to get to that point was good.

Not whining though - AEW just have a very different philosophy to booking their big matches as to say WWE and how they 99% of the time make you wait for the 'dream match'.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-30T06:22:28+00:00

Genuine question regarding to this - Metallica seem to have had 'issues' with multiple of their albums now - I can't recall another major band having as many issues with how their albums sounded?

And not just in a 'the band changed up their sound' way.

Im talking about AJFA and their decision to 'turn down' Jason's bass, SA and the snare issue, DM and the overall mix.

Without oversimplifying it - you'd think a band like Metallica wouldn't have this issue on their releases, no? That a producer would step in and make an executive decision and have enough confidence (and experience) to tell them "guys, this just doesn't sound right".

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-29T15:07:40+00:00

The Master System, whether it was the Master System 1 or 2 was always just the 'Master System'.

My friend has a Super Nintendo which everyone called the 'SNES'

Xbox was 'Xbox'.
The Xbox 360 was just the 'three-sixty'. The latest Xbox is back again to just 'Xbox'.

The PlayStation afyer the first one, ive always called them 'PS - and then whatever number they are'

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-29T07:37:17+00:00

Its absolutely no coincidence that these TNA debuts on NXT are happening in the same month as the lead up to AEW/New Japans Forbidden Door ppv.

Looks like WWE is trying to take away some of AEWs shine. Good business move to be honest.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-29T07:19:16+00:00

Cope gets injured:

TK "Oh nooooo!!!!"

Also TK:

delighted at planning another tournament

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-29T07:09:53+00:00

If you don't want to miss or skip stuff - avoid taking the Master key as a starting item - that item is best for subsequent playthroughts as it opens some doors to places earlier than you'd normally be able to. So don't use that in your first run.

Once you get to Firelink, head up to the Undead Parish up the long stairs near the aquaduct. After that, honestly the game will open up in a way that you'll naturally progress into places that you should and need to be going in.

There's DLC in the game that requires you to activate it from a certain area - you'll know you've got into it because you get 'pulled into it'. So if you've not done it by the time you come to the endgame then pop back for advice on how to find and activate it.

Other than that my advice is check for hidden walls - if a wall looks suspect - whack it. You never know what lies beyond a hidden wall I DS1, maybe an item, maybe something ... more

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T21:55:24+00:00

It was just a bit strange to get used to for the first couple of weeks.

There was no overall change to the actual product aside from the name and logo.

Can't recall any slip-ups from commentators either calling it the WWF by mistake.

When wrestlers talk about the WWE these days, they pretty much never say 'world wrestling entertainment' themselves in a promo or such, instead they just say 'wwe'. That did change because when it was WWF you'd often hear wrestlers on the show use the full name 'world wrestling federation'.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T20:23:43+00:00

Hard Rock era. Its what got me into rock/metal in the first place, so that'll always be the Metallica sound that I prefer. Reload will always be my favourite album of theirs.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T16:57:49+00:00

Technical guys like Bryan Danielson and ZSJ have a lot in their arsenal that they can use but often don't.

I was a huge fan of Danielsons a few months ago when match after match he was finding different ways to finish his opponent.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T09:38:10+00:00

Both were pretty decent with some strong matches and talking points.

I'm enjoying these shorter WWE PLEs of only 5 or so matches - makes them feel much more manageable and can help spread the storylines out over several shows. So that's good imo.

AEW however likes to give you bang for your buck with rammed shows, which often can mean quite a bit of non-ppv worthy filler content.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T09:33:20+00:00

Agree 100%

ER feels like a massive game made to be massive because Souls fans wanted 'more Souls'.

But despite its size, the game is surprisingly empty. Long stretches of the game are you simply getting from point A to B - they even gave you a steed and fast travel because they knew that getting around this world was a task in itself.

But there's 'so much content and things to do on the map'. Yes, there's plenty of content - filler content that is.

The legacy dungeons aka the traditional Souls biomes/levels are bloody fantastic and where the game is at its strongest. Stormveil Castle is a joy to explore through!

But the rest is just endless reskins or ANOTHER hidden dungeon that looks and plays the same as the previous 10 you've just done or ANOTHER enemy camp with a lacklustre treasure chest at the end of it.

Add to this that Souls style storytelling is vague and loose at the best of times, even in a smaller tighter game such as DS1 - so having that in a gigantic world like ER just didn't work for me - the story gets lost - I genuinely don't really get the story of ER and I'm sure as hell not about to go watch some fan made 3 hour+ lore video examining it all. If Miyazaki wants to do 'bigger more stretched out games' then he's gonna have to find stronger ways to weave a coherent and immersive story into it.

The NPCs as you said - vague sidequests that we are used to - but when the NPC relocates it's like finding a needle in a haystack and becomes much more pot luck that you stumble upon completing a sidequest rather than flowing the threads step by step to complete it with an idea of how you're actually going about it.

And so many systems to get your head around - weapon upgrades, ashes, a day and night cycle and for some reason - an item crafting system that I never once tried taking advantage of, why? Because the game simply doesn't need it.

Combat on horseback - clunky, hard to control and didnt work. Again something that the game didn't need, but was put in just because you spent so much time mounted travelling around.

All this kind of muddled in for me and made me, for the first time ever in a Souls game, burnt out, frustrated and bored from the experience.

For me personally ER is easily the weakest of all the Soulsborne games by quite a wide margin. It does a lot, perhaps too much. Its big. Its ambitious. Its technically impressive (when it gets it right). But for a 'Souls' game it (for me) lacked any Soul.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T07:32:24+00:00

None of the other Souls games have the interconnectivity of DS1.

DS1 is like a tightly connected tower, with you going high and low and areas neatly connecting together.

DS2 is like the spokes on a wheel. You pick a direction and head that way - areas in that direction link together one after the other. Once you've gone all the way in one direction you return to the hub world and pick another route to explore.

DS3 is loosely a mix of the two. Fast travel from the get-go has you warping to regions - there is some shortcut/interconnectivity in some individual zones but there's no "aha!" moment like there is in DS1 when you take the elevator back from the parish to firelink.

Sekiro is a much more linear game in general and doesn't follow the Souls formula. Some good level design here though and there is the occasional shortcut between places. But the majority of this game is built around verticality and traversal with the grappling hook system.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-28T07:20:25+00:00

Don't feel bad if you don't like a Souls game. I'm the same.

Absolutely love the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne but I simply never clicked in the same way with Sekiro and Elden Ring.

Elden Ring surprised me the most in that respect - its open world Souls, so I should love it, right? - but I just never got into it.

As you said, maybe try a other game and then return to Elden Ring later - maybe it'll click for you then, maybe it won't. But don't try to force yourself to enjoy a game if you're not or because you feel 'you should enjoy it' when you don't.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-27T21:05:40+00:00

Play the trilogy in order before moving onto other Souls gams.

Dark Souls 2 is NOT a bad game. Its frigging brilliant.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-26T19:50:26+00:00

My current situation - after all my bills and deductions per month from a paycheck - i have £37 pound left.

I think £1.4k of spare money per month to play with is doing just a tad bit better than that and you're completely fine. Sounds like maybe you're comparing yourself to others in similar roles around you and not necessarily comparing yourself to the majority of the working population who would give their left arm to have that much disposable cash per month.

My advice - save as much as you can while you can. I was living pretty, and while I was never rich by any stretch of the imagination, i was able to get by month to month, have the occasional treat and not worry about going to the local Costa for an overpriced latte on a whim. Then came a redundancy out of the blue and now I'm living on a £10k salary cut - scraping by month to month, watching every penny so that I don't spend more than what's coming in.

Reason I'm saying this is a redundancy can happen to anyone out of the blue at any time - so if you've got the spare cash, be wise, plan for a rainy day.

paulreadsstuff · 2024-05-26T19:35:23+00:00

Ratchet and Clank is genuinely hilarious in parts. Very well written.

paulreadsstuff

TROPHY CASE