‘Elden Ring’: Wonder and terror abound in 2022’s most-anticipated game

techcrunch.com:

How to talk about Elden Ring, probably the most anticipated title of the year in a big year for gaming, without spoiling its innumerable surprises and qualities? I’m caught between waxing lyrical about this incredible feat of creation and being as vague as possible in order to allow others to go in as unprepared as I was for just how good it is.

TL;DR for anyone avoiding spoilers or who just wants the point: This game is almost unbelievably good, a landmark in open-world design, and everything you hope it will be. It also makes a good starting point for new players, as long as they are prepared for less hand-holding than almost any other major game out there.

Announced in 2019, Elden Ring was billed as the next “big” game by the creators of the Dark Souls series, From Software. Having capped that series off with the excellent Dark Souls 3, blown off some creative steam with the intense Sekiro, and observed the recreation of prequel Demon’s Souls, From promised a grand new adventure — with creative assistance by none other than George R. R. Martin.

When gameplay was finally shown and described, it was clear what we were looking at was “Open World Dark Souls.” And this gave many pause. After all, open world games can be empty and lifeless, or enormous task checklists, or else aimless sandboxes. Could From, whose expertise was in creating haunting and claustrophobic architectures and locations through which the player travels more or less in order, make an open world game that felt better than the others?

Having played the game for about 30 hours now, I’m very happy to say that yes, it can. Not only is Elden Ring probably the best open world game ever put out, it is probably the best game of the year and for many may displace