Games Inbox: Best Elden Ring character

Real characters
Now that Elden Ring has been out for a while it’s had time to pick up a few detractors and I’d just like to take exception with one complaint that’s come up a few times, that the game has no story. Like everything else you have to work at it, since it’s not handed to you on a platter, but Elden Ring absolutely does have a story. It’s not all that complex, from what I understand of it, but what makes the game is the characters.

Their back stories can all be worked out if you pay attention and a lot of them are very charismatic and a welcome sight after slogging through hordes of seemingly mindless enemies.

There’s the seemingly pathetic Roderika who becomes a vital ally, the honourable Master Hewg, the determined Millicent, the loyal Blaidd, and the mysterious Fia. Ranni the Witch is also a great character, who’s a lot stronger and more ruthless than she first seems and who can change the entire ending of the game depending on how you handle her.

My absolute favourite is Alexander, though. He’s a giant talking pot with arms and legs, which sounds stupid even when you learn what he’s filled with. But he’s a loyal friend and always a pleasure to bump into when you least expect. Although, like most Elden Ring enemies, his fate is a bittersweet one.
Cormat

Plug and wait
I had 90 minutes free this morning so wanted to start a new game (Pillars Of Eternity 2).

It’s always a bit deflating nowadays to remove the seal, open the box, and just find a disc and no manual or even control scheme flyer, but so be it.

But I hadn’t used the PlayStation 4 for a few weeks – so 20 minutes to install a new system update, then 30 minutes for a 9GB game Install followed by a 30 minutes 12GB patch download… and it was then time to switch off.

I miss that old school excitement of just a plug and play cartridge – even Nintendo Switch games have an inevitable patch. A five minutes load time on a ZX Spectrum game at least gave, in most cases, a nice loading screen to view – or on the odd C64 game the Invade-a-load Space Invaders game!

Frustrated gamer, or loading screen watcher…
Steve, South Wales

Size matters
It’s getting harder and harder for game graphics to really wow me. Don’t get me wrong, there are games with wonderful graphics or art style, but nothing that has made my jaw drop quite like the transition to 3D (Super Mario 64) and my first HD game on an HDTV (Resident Evil 5).

Nowadays, it’s the scale of games that really makes me stare in awe at the progress of gaming over the past couple generations. I’m currently playing the (optimised for current gen) Assassin’s Creed Origins and seeing the game world stretch for miles into the distance is still an incredible feeling. Then on ground level, there’s still so much going on, some of which are really minor things you could easily overlook.

I can’t even begin to imagine what scale the next Elder Scrolls will be like…
ttfp saylow (gamertag)
Now playing: Assassin’s Creed Origins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Super reboot
Considering Dotemu have done it again with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and another great beat ‘em-up revival it’s got to be Golden Axe is night. I’m sure they’d do a great job in their usual fashion but I really wish this was one game that Sega would give the ‘super game’ treatment to.

It would take only the smallest effort to turn Golden Axe into a modern action role-player. Put the emphasis on co-op play, lower the difficultly, and you’ve basically got Elden Ring: Not Stupidly Hard Edition.

I know it’s not as simple as that really but if Sega has conned Microsoft into giving them a bunch of money then I don’t know what they’re going to suspend the money on. Probably something stupid, like $100 million Alex Kidd game or something, but I hope they put in some effort and bring Death=Adder back to the big/small/whatever you’ve got screen.
Preston

Worth a pass
To mbeet, who wrote in Friday about the Sniper Elite 5 DLC. I also am loving Sniper Elite 5 and having played all the games in the series I would say if he is thinking of getting the season pass then I would say go for it. I have actually bought it myself. The kill Hitler mission was actually one of my favourite missions in the game and took a few hours to complete, as I like to explore the whole map and play as stealthy as possible.

I would say Rebellion do support their games with good DLC and I actually bought the extra missions and weapons in Sniper Elite 3 and 4. You will also get two extra missions and various weapons and skins as well as different characters when they are released. It’s a game I will keep playing for a long time which is why I went for the season pass.
David Clixby

Realistic wait
My favourite game reveal ever has to be the 2004 E3 reveal of The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. That entire Nintendo E3 conference was like a fever dream (well, apart from the business figures which they used to report back then!).

They had trailers for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Resident Evil 4, and the announcement of the Nintendo DS. Then at the end Reggie says: ‘I’d like you to step inside one more world for Nintendo GameCube’. Cue the totally unexpected trailer for Twilight Princess and then Miyamoto with a Hylian shield and Master Sword.

For context, this was during the time after The Wind Waker, when, rightly or wrongly, fans were crying out for a ‘realistic Zelda’. As a 13-year-old gamer, this announcement was incredible. Although looking back, it wasn’t until four years later that I actually played Twilight Princess on the Wii.
Barry

Funny objection
Starfield looks hugely impressive, but so much of space is, naturally, depressingly cold and barren. I worry that sci-fi’s lack of humour and warmth will alienate horse-loving Red Dead/Oblivion fans, and we’ll simply try and find lush planets that look like, err, Oblivion.

Similarly, spaceship building and combat is just so dull when compared to thundering through woodland with rifle in hand. I also don’t want a Doom-like first person shooter.

I did like the new lockpicking wheel, and the main city looked impressive, as did the new character faces. Sure it’ll be amazing when it lands fully formed.
Will Sargent

GC: We don’t see what the setting has to do with whether it’s funny or not.