Recent reviews by _Belly_25021109

Playing on Linux Pop_OS.
Game runs amazingly well on Linux.
No micro transactions.
No BS dlc.
Not forced to be online.
Game has online co-op and couch co-op.
Lovely graphics.
Sound is awesome and voice acting is 10/10.
Story is really good so far (just finished act 1) - played 70-ish hours so far and haven't even scratched the surface!

F**k me! I can't believe a game this good actually exists. If you love story rich games with epic characters and deep turn based combat this is definitely the game for you. Uninstalled Diablo IV. This is my new passion!

TLDR:
What Elden Ring is NOT:
Breath of the Wild
A hand holding experience
Relaxing
On rails / linear
Horizon Zero Dawn
Skyrim
Stable
10/10 like some media outlets are claiming

What Elden Ring IS:
A MASSIVE open world with lots to do
An awesome storytelling experience - if you can be arsed to look
Fun running dungeons running with friends
Brutally hard at times (for me anyway)
Gorgeous
Sleep depriving
9/10

Elden Ring is probably one of the best FromSoft games I've played. They took good elements from previous Soulsborne games and created a combat system that seems quite basic at the start, but flourishes into a bloodstained pile of roses - It's awesome. People with experience with the previous FS games will feel right at home here.
The game is by no means relaxing - but that's a good thing for me. If you are after a new Skyrim / Breath of the Wild, this game may NOT be for you. It is hard. Nothing against those games you understand, but Elden Ring it is NOT like them.
The story is not on a linear path, which means you will have to find NPC's and items yourself - no hand holding! No quest log! No arrow pointing the way. Just how games used to be. And I love it!

The bosses are tough. You will die. Over and over and over etc etc. You get the picture. You will loose the precious Runes you have been collecting in order to level up if you don't get back to the area you died in -If that bothers you, this game is NOT for you.
But... that feeling of beating a hard boss - that adrenaline rush is something I just don't get from video games anymore.

Honestly, if I was to rate the game I'd give it a 9/10. I'd give it 10, if it was just that bit more stable for me. I know FromSoft have been working on the stuttering issues. I get it, everyone gets a different experience, that's PC gaming. And to give them credit, it's been running way better for me since launch.

The world they have created here at times can look stunning. Like, really beautiful. Any fantasy nerd such as myself, will be frothing at the mouth when they see some of the scenery in this game. Exploring the world didn't get dull for me at all, it was so nice just galloping around on my noble horse-ram-thing Torrent. The mounted combat felt nice too, even if it's a little basic. But moving around on the mount in combat feels great, so it doesn't need to be complicated at all imo.

Spoiler Free: Final Boss in the main story kicked my ass all over the place.
But killing it has brought me more joy than any other boss fight in any other game. Even killing Arthas Menethil didn't feel as good as this... and that is one of the best feelings I've had in gaming over the last 35 years, since I started gaming on my Dragon 32k in the 80's.
I almost thought my wife was going to cheer with me when I beat it, but I'm sure the look of joy on her face was because it was over and life would now probably be much quieter (even if our swear jar is now full to the brim).
This game is NOT for everyone. But if you feel like you are up for a challenge, want a massive (gorgeous) world to explore (and find stuff yourself, instead of being led by the hand everywhere), amazing boss fights, a great story (again, no hand holding here - even I probably missed some stuff / side quests etc) - then THIS game just MAY be for you.
It's destroyed every other game for me (well, maybe with the exception of Hades).

"If only I had pickle"
9/10

I totally bounced off this game. Spent ages waiting for the western release and I didn't like it. Dang!
Voice acting is bloody bad... controls like a one legged Bantha and gender locking is pants!
I'd probably have tried harder to play the game if I could even get on, but the initial experience with the game and queue times (when I was allowed to queue, sometimes I was just told I couldn't even get in a queue and the game would just close) just ruined the vibe for me so I just gave up!

Want an good MMO : FF14
Want a good ARPG: Hades

Lots of good games to play instead of this...
Sorry to the peeps who like the game, but I just don't get the hype!

10/10 would cure my WoW addiction again!

Don't like: How the game released!
DO like: Everything Hello Games have added to the game since release.
NMS is a great game - at one point I thought I'd never say that! But the game in it's current form is really, really fun!

This game is not going to be for everyone. Personally, I enjoyed my first play through. Looking forward to going through it again!
Man that twist at the end though. HOLY COW!!!!!

One of those games that is so fun to play, even if you are sh!t at it... like me.

This game is so, sooo good. On the surface it looks like a cute little building sim thingy, but actually it is much, much more.
It's easy to pick up, but hard to master - that kind of thing. I've learned more playing this game than I did in college!
Totally recommend!!!!! Totally addicted!

It's a souls game, but you play a ninja... What's not to like?

I just want to stress, I'm REALLY NEW to ESO and a new level 50 (CP 120 ish). I thought I'd give my two pence worth from a newbies point of view. I tried the beta a few years ago and didn't like it, but figured I'd try it again to see what has changed.

TLDR: The game seems very B!p0lar in a lot of ways; there is 'meh' here, but the stuff I liked, I loved!
Wait for sale!
EDIT: EU mega server is down all the time. Beware!
System - Core i7-9700K - Z390-A PRO - 16 Gig RAM - Radeon RX 5700 XT
Graphics: 7/10
What ESO gets right with graphics, it seems to really work. Some of the environments look really, really nice. The world feels alive and lived in and has some great weather affects. The world itself (although not the best I've ever seen) holds up and is a really pleasing experience.
Character creation is pretty good. I had a lot of fun making my tank a real fatty and my Necromancer some little skinny dude.
Character models after you actually get in game though, are very hit and miss for me. Some armour sets look great so far, but some textures look muddy or just bland. Luckily the games got systems in place so you can change the colours of your sets and styles (think Diablo 3 + WoW's transmog systems combined) so with some experimenting you can get a nice look.
Character animations, oh dear Lord. These range from sprinting like someone who ate too much Vindaloo the night before and needs the toilet, to drunk dance moves that made my character look like an Epileptic on Meth. A lot of the character animations are a little underwhelming - however I didn't really have issues with combat animations. These felt pretty much spot on 90% of the time.
Spell affects all looked pretty... I likey!
Sound: 9/10
The game has some great sound. Some of the music is great and although players may have heard some of the tunes before, there is a lot to like here. Music always seems to fit the mood, but it did drown out some of the voice acting at times for me. This was easily remedied by tweaking the in game settings though.
Voice acting is top notch. From voices you will recognise from other games to actors you will (if like me) wonder, "WTF, how did they get -insert actors name- to play that part?"
Kate Beckinsale, Bill ♥♥♥♥♥, Michael Gambon, Malcolm McDowell, John Cleese and Lynda Carter to name but a few here. The voice acting in this game is at times some of the best I've heard in an MMO. Consider me impressed.
Game play/combat: 7/10
At first the game felt a little clunky to me. Don't expect this to feel like your average TAB targeting MMO. The only advice I can give fellow n00bs is, "Stick with it!"
The game can be played with a controller or mouse and keyboard. I gave both a go, as did my teenage son. I liked Keyboard and mouse, he liked controller. Horses for courses.
Off the bat, new players need to get it into their heads - you can play this game however you like! I was not aware of this entering the game. Want a NightBlade (think rogue in other games) as a tank in heavy armour? You can do that! Fancy a Templar (think Paladin) who is a damage dealer but can heal too? That's all good. Coming from WoW, it took a while to get my head around this. But I have to say it's a breath of fresh air.
Need that sweet loot? Cool, you can get it from dungeons, quest lines, crafting, random drops, pvp - I haven't had to do content I can't stand to get the gear I want like in other MMO's yet.
Questing/leveling - OMG! I really like the quests in ESO. All seem to be voice acted and some of the stories are great. I found I was getting sucked into these great quest stories that last a decent amount of time. So much so I was in no rush to get to level cap, I just wanted to find out what happened next. It's not all sunshine and rainbows though. Want to play that sweet Dark Brotherhood quest line for example? Oh you need to be a monthly subscriber to get that, or buy it in the £££ shop.
As a whole, the questing has been very enjoyable for myself so far.
The games dungeons, pvp battle grounds and delves (single player dungeons) have all been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to trying more.
The game has bosses and portals opening up around the different areas of the world. The first time I took down a dragon with 10 randoms who were just passing blew me away - jolly spiffing time had by all. I also found myself getting bitten by, then running around as, a werewolf; devouring the corpses of my fresh kills as I went. Werewolf combat (so far) feels like it will never get old (the excitement was also felt by my Husky, Sky, who would howl back at the game every time my character howled life a wolf)!
I have yet to try being a vampire, but it also looks sweet.
Crafting so far has been a blast.
The game has housing. None of that silly Garrison stuff from that other game. It has real housing. This has been more fun than I originally thought it would and is very welcome.
The UI is kind of meh, and mouse and keyboard UI is different to controller UI. You can change the UI by downloading mods from third party sites.
The game has no mini map (weird) but you can download one.
The only things stopping me from giving the game play a higher score so far, is content behind paywalls and bugs. Some final boss battles at the end of quest arches have been bugged and stopped me from completing the story. I've found I've had to ditch the quest and then start it again (more than once) before some boss fights actually worked - which made me rage a little...
Bag space... Aaaargh! Remember that last free to play MMO you tried that gave crappy small bags, in the hope you'd buy bigger ones with £££? Well it's here. Players with a monthly subscription will feel this way less than others as you get unlimited bag space for crafting items (along with other benefits). But it's still too small. You CAN buy more bag slots in game with gold, or *drum roll* in the £££ shop. Welcome to 2019 people.
From a newbie point of view, ESO has some enjoyable game play, fantastic quests, decent graphics, great sound and voice acting. It kind of feels like a cross between Skyrim and an MMO - it just gets let down by things I don't like or bugs that need fixing.
For now I'd give it a 7.5 'Sky the Husky' howls out of a possible 10. This could change, but for now I'm finding the game isn't half bad. Fantasy/MMO/Elder Scrolls fans will probably find a lot to like here.