Elden Ring is the Ed Sheeran of video games – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader reacts against the current popularity of Elden Ring and complains that mainstream video games, and music, have become too safe and familiar.

I think I’ll receive a lot of flak and venom for this, but I’ll come out and say it: Elden Ring is the Ed Sheeran of video games. Yes, you read that correctly. Elden Ring receives all the popularity and adulation, just like the latest Ed Sheeran song, but to me neither of them do anything I haven’t seen or heard time and time again.

I guess this is why the indie scenes are so tempting, because they offer the sustenance video games and music sorely need. Now regardless of my criticisms here, I stress that I respect that many people enjoy both Elden Ring and Ed Sheeran. After all, these bugbears are my own and it’s my weakness that I can’t get along with either of them as many of you do; yet I want to impart my feelings in this diatribe for you to scour and react as you please.

First of all, I know it’s unfair to single out Ed Sheeran, he is only a microcosm of the mainstream music industry’s woeful lack of imagination and verve, but this issue has existed for many years. Last time I thought mainstream music was any good was in the early 00s, which may explain how old I am.

Elden Ring meanwhile, is a FromSoftware game that is open world and stuffed with familiar Dark Souls ingredients. Diligence and death are constants in these games. The challenges are Herculean and besting them summons a sense of satisfaction that’s pretty rare in games, but the formula birthed from the Souls-like refuses to change despite Elden Ring’s ginormous open world and some of the qualities that structure brings to the fore.

Where I think this whole comparison is nestled is within the insane fandoms. All