[Zeta Dragoon]

Just got past Stormveil and making my way into Liurnia of the Lakes. Absolutely beautiful region, that first view exiting Stormveil and seeing that vast expanse with multiple fairy tale like castle topped mountains is one of the most wonderous views I've ever seen in a videogame, up with and maybe even exceeding exiting the cave in BotW and seeing the grandeur of Hyrule for the first time.

Maybe I could farm some knights back at the castle for their armor? Also got a nify halberd from one of them..

I am a long, long way from the DLC, if ever. I have never been able to beat a souls game, or a souls like, only bar Jedi: Fallen Order.

 

[Hostile_18]

Just got past Stormveil and making my way into Liurnia of the Lakes. Absolutely beautiful region, that first view existing Stormveil and seeing that vast expanse with multiple fairy tale like castle topped mountains is one of the most wonderous views I've ever seen in a videogame, up with and maybe even exceeding exiting the cave in BotW and seeing the grandeur of Hyrule for the first time.

Maybe I could farm some knights back at the castle for their armor? Also got a nify halberd from one of them..

I am a long, long way from the DLC, if ever. I have never been able to beat a souls game, or a souls like, only bar Jedi: Fallen Order.

Yeah just take your time, and enjoy. Elden Ring has loads of ways to tackle things unlike say something like Sekiro. You should be fine, and summon signs should be plenty with the expansion increasing the player base again.

Just bought the expansion!

 

[Calcium]

My wife set an alarm to get up early and play Erdtree. We're about to depart, boys, hopefully there is a ridiculously hard boss so I can watch her rage.

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Yeah just take your time, and enjoy. Elden Ring has loads of ways to tackle things unlike say something like Sekiro. You should be fine, and summon signs should be plenty with the expansion increasing the player base again.

Just bought the expansion!

(And System Shock!!!)

 

[Hostile_18]

(And System Shock!!!)

Colin Moriarty recommended The Banishers, which is my game of the year so far. When he mentiond System Shock, that he was playing, was like Bioshock (one of my all time favorite IPs) I had to give it a chance!

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Colin Moriarty recommended The Banishers, which is my game of the year so far. When he mentiond System Shock, that he was playing, was like Bioshock (one of my all time favorite IPs) I had to give it a chance!

You’re in for a treat. I’m a few hours into the PS5 version and it’s good in so many ways. Minimal hand-holding. Constant sense of being stalked. Beautiful art style. Old-school puzzle solving. Lots of exploration.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

I wonder if the lack of trophies for Shadow of the Erd Tree was to prevent spoilers or even hints of spoilers? I've seen it happen with trophy lists here and there, some games can reveal a lot of detail with certain trophies.

 

[Calcium]

Three bosses in, no rage to report.

I find it interesting how little fanfare there was entering the new DLC area. I guess it's just supposed to feel like another zone in the game.

 

[JORMBO]

I beat the third major boss in 2 tries. He ate me at the start on my 1st try. Easy after I did not get eaten. The 4th major boss took me around 20 tries. Something about her hitbox seemed off. I would hit her in the same spot and sometimes it would register, sometimes it wouldn't. I couldn't make any sense of it. I am using a large 2H sword so missing attacks that take some time to charge up when it looks like they hit was shitty. But I killed her eventually.

After that I found

Spoiler

Messmer the Impaler. I knocked out his first phase on my first try. I was expecting him to run away after that to fight again later since he was so hyped up. I wasn't paying much attention then and he killed me quickly in phase 2

. I decided to go explore some more after that. Checking out some of the outside zones (which I am assuming are optional)...most of what I ran across was pretty empty. Like they ran out of development time. There aren't even throw away items to pick up throughout most of it. Just open land with nothing. Some reused bosses sprinkled in (dragons, deathbirds, etc.).

I think my character is at +9 now and my spirit ashes are at +6 from the pickup items. Excited to dive back in for more but I am mostly busy until Sunday night now.

 

[Dreamlord]

The Blackgaol Knight has been kicking my arse, so I decided to go exploring a bit.

Was the game running at 60fps max before? It's kinda giving me a headache. I think I am really rusty with it.

 

[Hostile_18]

The Blackgaol Knight has been kicking my arse, so I decided to go exploring a bit.

Was the game running at 60fps max before? It's kinda giving me a headache. I think I am really rusty with it.

Yeah always 60fps. With Ray tracing maxed on my 4090 it's still locked 60. There is a mod that unlocks it but you need to double check it won't think your using cheats etc.

 

[Hinedorf]

I don't get folks crying about the difficulty. Getting punched in the teeth feels so good compared to other games where you never feel threatened. Give me some more humbling to git gud any day!

 

[Dreamlord]

I don't get folks crying about the difficulty. Getting punched in the teeth feels so good compared to other games where you never feel threatened. Give me some more humbling to git gud any day!

Who cried, sista? We all just chillin'.

 

[Dacon]

Who cried, sista? We all just chillin'.

I believe he is referring to the community at large.

Getting to start the DLC myself. I'm excited.

 

[Hinedorf]

I believe he is referring to the community at large.

Getting to start the DLC myself. I'm excited.

Yea more or less, I'm having a blast taking it super slow around every turn waiting to get piefaced. I haven't felt this way since.....ELDEN RING! Trying to think of a time Fromsoft under delivered because this certainly aint it.

 

[Saruhashi]

What's the performance of this like on PS5 these days?

I had been playing the PS4 version on PS5 as it had stable frame-rate and I found the variable framerate on the PS5 version to be a bit annoying.

 

[Dreamlord]

I believe he is referring to the community at large.

Getting to start the DLC myself. I'm excited.

Yea more or less, I'm having a blast taking it super slow around every turn waiting to get piefaced. I haven't felt this way since.....ELDEN RING! Trying to think of a time Fromsoft under delivered because this certainly aint it.

I was jesting, tarnisheds.

 

[rofif]

I don't get folks crying about the difficulty. Getting punched in the teeth feels so good compared to other games where you never feel threatened. Give me some more humbling to git gud any day!

what? I think many games are too difficult these days following dark souls trend but wrongly.
And Elden ring (final parts and haligtree) is also a victim of itself.
Feels like it's a game for streamers.

The dlc is especially difficult as I am seeing on streams (I am not in the mood for it now myself).
I've finished Ringed city 3 times, I finished sekiro and ac6 last year.
But Peoples perception of difficulty is all fucked. Delayed attacks, Bosses that 1 -2 hit you and have multiple health bars.

I even finished Lies of P last year which I thought was excellent but too hard for it's own good. Again, especially towards the end.

I don't want every game to be jumping at me with the "gotcha" difficulty.
I was so happy playing Hogwarts Legacy and I wouldn't say it was easy too. But seeing all the comments how it's way too easy was worrying.

I know thid ER dlc is supposed to be hard and it's for hardcore players but seems like everyone was expecting difficulty so great, From really had to try to match the expectation.
And there are better and more fun things in games than banging your head on the same boss for 3 hours. I don't find that fun at all. The amazing feeling you get after beating that boss is awesome but only because you were annoyed for past 3 hours and you are happy to finally be done with it. It's endorphin rush for the wrong reasons but it's still an endorphins rush.
I love exploring, collecting gear. Like stormveil castle or other legacy areas. That's what I like about souls. Bosses are usually an annoyance and fun stopper for me in those dlcs if it's too hard.

 

[Calcium]

The Jagged Peak area is fucking metal. Fun back to back encounters.

 

[Dacon]

 

[Calcium]

Spoiler: Boss Name

Bayle the Dread

fight was fucking epic. Good shit.

 

[Zefah]

That is awesome. I think Mohg would stomp Geralt, though.

 

[Dacon]

That is awesome. I think Mohg would stomp Geralt, though.

Mohg couldnt even stop me and my one bitty dagger.

 

[Dacon]

Did anyone else crack

Spoiler

tf up when they saw the lightning goats?

 

[NBinted]

Spoiler: Boss Name

Bayle the Dread

fight was fucking epic. Good shit.

That has been my favorite boss theme so far.

 

[regawdless]

 

[skeem]

I am slacking. I started on my new character a little too late and I am currently level 45 at Redmane Castle. Will hopefully be in a position to start the DLC through the coming week.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

Getting absolutely destroyed by everything in Land of Lakes, coantantly feel like hitting nonatop brick walls and I can't help but wonder how the absolute fuck anyone beats a Souls game without ending up in a mental ward.

Evergaols - Beat only the slower fire guy. Everyone else hits and moves like greased lightning, and my do attacks do fuck shit to their defenses.
Tons of smiting stones, but they work very weird. Feel like I can only consistently upgrade 1, maybe 2 weapons at the moment. Roger game me his cool Rapier and at +8 it's my highest level weapon. Lordsworn Greatsword+5, Lordsworn Keensword at +7.
Need Holy abilities and gear for the tombs and undead but lack holy levels to use them. Have a scyth with 24 faith needed, Cipher Pata with 30 faith needed.
End of Road Tomb was filled with tons of fake walls, but a snail?! summoner I can't get to and take out by the time I take down one of their overpowered summons.
Those multi limbed poison spewing teleporting motherfuckers
Even a normal solders camp needs to be carefully cleared out or some random fucking dog rips me off my horse, stuns me and kills me.
Or the first time I know about a ghost giant showing up is him roaring and killing me from out of nowhere.

Game is beautiful and has incredible art direction and background music for each region though.

 

[Dreamlord]

Getting absolutely destroyed by everything in Land of Lakes, coantantly feel like hitting nonatop brick walls and I can't help but wonder how the absolute fuck anyone beats a Souls game without ending up in a mental ward.

Evergaols - Beat only the slower fire guy. Everyone else hits and moves like greased lightning, and my do attacks do fuck shit to their defenses.
Tons of smiting stones, but they work very weird. Feel like I can only consistently upgrade 1, maybe 2 weapons at the moment. Roger game me his cool Rapier and at +8 it's my highest level weapon. Lordsworn Greatsword+5, Lordsworn Keensword at +7.
Need Holy abilities and gear for the tombs and undead but lack holy levels to use them. Have a scyth with 24 faith needed, Cipher Pata with 30 faith needed.
End of Road Tomb was filled with tons of fake walls, but a snail?! summoner I can't get to and take out by the time I take down one of their overpowered summons.
Those multi limbed poison spewing teleporting motherfuckers
Even a normal solders camp needs to be carefully cleared out or some random fucking dog rips me off my horse, stuns me and kills me.
Or the first time I know about a ghost giant showing up is him roaring and killing me from out of nowhere.

Game is beautiful and has incredible art direction and background music for each region though.

You are playing the main game right? Not the dlc.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

You are playing the main game right? Not the dlc.

Lol getting to the DLC with a 8+ as my max level weapon good joke there.

Yeah. I honesty don't know how people get good enough to beat shit like the base game, nevermind what I'm hearing about the DLC.

I might have to drop Elden Ring or I'll have a stroke from sheer fucking rage. Not having pre nerf froststomp makes things absolute hell instead of difficult but manageable.

I'm stuck exploring for sites of grace and weapons/abilities I can't even use since I lack the levels to use them.

 

[Calcium]

Getting absolutely destroyed by everything in Land of Lakes, coantantly feel like hitting nonatop brick walls and I can't help but wonder how the absolute fuck anyone beats a Souls game without ending up in a mental ward.

You either learn to appreciate the struggle or you don't play Souls games. Personally, I don't partake because I get pissed off and stop having fun. Luckily my wife plays the shit out of them so I just watch her. Win/win.

 

[Dacon]

What is this fudge packer whining about now? Games been running fine for me outside of the use shader cache building for the new area.

 

[skeem]

Lol getting to the DLC with a 8+ as my max level weapon good joke there.

Yeah. I honesty don't know how people get good enough to beat shit like the base game, nevermind what I'm hearing about the DLC.

I might have to drop Elden Ring or I'll have a stroke from sheer fucking rage. Not having pre nerf froststomp makes things absolute hell instead of difficult but manageable.

I'm stuck exploring for sites of grace and weapons/abilities I can't even use since I lack the levels to use them.

Just because you encounter something in this game it doesn't mean that you are ready to fight it. The soldier on the horse at the first steps site of grace is the perfect example of that. There is a sort of optimum order to approach things which can be easily found with a quick search. It is also easy to find an area by level guide.

I have a level 8 heavy battle axe which is my starting weapon now upgraded and it is serving me very well. I'm level 45ish and I've put everything into strength, vitality and endurance so far.

 

[Neil Young]

Lol getting to the DLC with a 8+ as my max level weapon good joke there.

Yeah. I honesty don't know how people get good enough to beat shit like the base game, nevermind what I'm hearing about the DLC.

I might have to drop Elden Ring or I'll have a stroke from sheer fucking rage. Not having pre nerf froststomp makes things absolute hell instead of difficult but manageable.

I'm stuck exploring for sites of grace and weapons/abilities I can't even use since I lack the levels to use them.

Play a sorcerer. You can nuke the fuck out of pretty much everything. The only boss I couldn’t beat was the final boss….and that probably has more to do with me sucking.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

Play a sorcerer. You can nuke the fuck out of pretty much everything. The only boss I couldn’t beat was the final boss….and that probably has more to do with me sucking.

Well 3 more levels in Faith I will be able to bless weapons and keep Death Fuckers from reviving when I have them down to nothing. I think thats how it works? Night's Cavalry and tomb enemies giving me fits when I have them down to nothing and they revive with half HP restored. Plus no ability to destroy core of certain undead, definitely need a dedicated holy weapon? Defeated that giant asshole after like 50 attempts in that one evergaol and got magic greatsword laser array though I need 29 magic vs my current 13. Have a homing Fell Giants fireball?! but need 41 faith to use that.

Now rocking a full set of Knight armor, weight not a problem by using a straight sword and the Arsenal Pendent given by Nepheli, also found that frost axe by the Temple area of the Academy town. Have definitely found a ton of gear, amulets, weapons and weapon skills at least. Mapping out the Raya Lucaria region is going well even if taking out high tier enemies has not. Just following the roads, paths and streams of grace are leading me to all sorts of places. Even nabbed an Academy Key from

Spoiler: Academy Key Spoiler

behind the sleeping dragon and ran the fuck away in the opposite direction

(since I do remember that from my prior playthrough).

Once I get to a certain point I will likely keep as a generalist adventurer, or respec into a full mage or cleric.

Edit - Was exploring beside the Carian Royal Manor and snagged one of the invisible critters. He dropped the Hoarfrost Stomp Ash of War.
*KronkItsAllComingTogetherMeme*

 

[Calcium]

Well 3 more levels in Faith I will be able to bless weapons and keep Death Fuckers from reviving when I have them down to nothing. I think thats how it works? Night's Cavalry and tomb enemies giving me fits when I have them down to nothing and they revive with half HP restored.

Nothing to do with Faith, really, you just have to double tap. After you kill 'em give the bones on the ground a whack and they'll be dead for good.

 

[Hostile_18]

Weather has been amazing in the UK, time for gaming has being exactly = 0. I'll boot it up sometime soon lol.

 

[NBinted]

What is this fudge packer whining about now? Games been running fine for me outside of the use shader cache building for the new area.

Digital Foundry never deserved a platform. Yes, there are performance issues, I'm ok, but I have a few friends with serious stutters. But the sensationalist way this idiot writes pisses me off.

 

[NBinted]

Getting absolutely destroyed by everything in Land of Lakes, coantantly feel like hitting nonatop brick walls and I can't help but wonder how the absolute fuck anyone beats a Souls game without ending up in a mental ward.

Evergaols - Beat only the slower fire guy. Everyone else hits and moves like greased lightning, and my do attacks do fuck shit to their defenses.
Tons of smiting stones, but they work very weird. Feel like I can only consistently upgrade 1, maybe 2 weapons at the moment. Roger game me his cool Rapier and at +8 it's my highest level weapon. Lordsworn Greatsword+5, Lordsworn Keensword at +7.
Need Holy abilities and gear for the tombs and undead but lack holy levels to use them. Have a scyth with 24 faith needed, Cipher Pata with 30 faith needed.
End of Road Tomb was filled with tons of fake walls, but a snail?! summoner I can't get to and take out by the time I take down one of their overpowered summons.
Those multi limbed poison spewing teleporting motherfuckers
Even a normal solders camp needs to be carefully cleared out or some random fucking dog rips me off my horse, stuns me and kills me.
Or the first time I know about a ghost giant showing up is him roaring and killing me from out of nowhere.

Game is beautiful and has incredible art direction and background music for each region though.

Sounds like you are spread too thin on equipment levels. You don't need to be optimized equipment wise for every encounter, doing so is gonna hurt you on crafting and upgrade materials. Focus on two stats besides vitality and endurance. Make sure to have a ranged weapon (bows or magic), a weapon that does strike, and a weapon that does pierce or slash. The melee weapons Some times you will face enemies that counter your entire arsenal, you just have to grin and bear with it the slow and steady way. Take things slowly and don't rush.

 

[JORMBO]

I got a bunch of attempts on Messmer the other day and he is a hard fight. Even with a mimic + the ohter quest NPC you can summon he is crazy. I had 15 minutes before my girlfriend was coming over so I decided I would try 2 more times on the Steamdeck after having taken a break from attempts. I got him on the first try there. There were some points it was dipping under 30fps since there's so much going on. Maybe that was the trick.