Samuel Black

This is from a neutrals perspective. I play mostly casual games and this was my first experience with a souls game. Visually the game is stunning and really hits home on exploration. You have to feel around in the dark so to speak but it excels at making that rewarding. Outside of this the game becomes a drag. You need countless hours to farm runes which help you level up. Even then, fromsoftware has made it clear you won’t be rewarded for your hard work. This game is a repetition of live, die, repeat with an emphasis on the dying and repeating. I’m all for learning as a player to get better. But in an open world setting this just didn’t age well. Beating a tough boss to make my way through the game felt more like a slap in the face. Beat a tough enemy only to trespass into a new area where once again, everything can kill you. Levels be damned. The process is tedious and just gets old fast. Elden ring is a game you’ll pick up and play for a couple weeks, then realize you’re no longer having fun. If you enjoy a beautiful grind that involves countless hours of frustration and watching your hard work go to waste then Elden Ring is for you.

Another installation that fails to provide a fun experience for casual players. The CPU is overpowered and limits you completely on offense. Defense is revamped which makes no difference online. MyNBA crashes at halftime which makes the only competitive offline mode unplayable. Micro transactions are more fervent than ever. 2k visually looks great but where that succeeds, everything else fails.