I'm 43 and I've been playing video games since Atari 2600. RPGs are my favorite genre because of the length of story and replayability. I avoided Demon/Dark Souls because I don't find linear action games enjoyable especially with a learning curve like those games. I usually play games on normal, I don't care about a challenge, I don't have a lot of time to sit and do the same thing over and over, I just want to advance the story. So, as you can guess, I was a little hesitant about buying Elden Ring because I know it was going to have the same difficult combat style and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to enjoy it at all. I wanted a new RPG, and this was just to beautiful to ignore.

As someone with approximately 40 years of experience, I have to admit that Elden Ring is the most astonishing game I've ever played. It's consumed my life. When I'm not playing it, I'm thinking about it. Never has a game so completely entranced me before. I haven't played anything else (excepting a few rounds of Fortnite with the kids every once in a while) since launch day.

I would recommend anyone on the fence about it to try it. It's got a step learning curve, and you might have to use Reddit, YouTube, or Wikis to figure stuff out, but if you invest the time to learn the games systems, it will be well worth it. I bought the regular version, with no bonus stuff for $60. I would've paid $100 no questions asked. I'm 170 hours in, and I'm still exploring everything before I go beat it.

As a newcomer to the From Software family and a complete "Soulsborne" virgin, I know that my opinion doesn't mean much, but here it is anyway. These are the only slightly negative things I could think of.

Strength only fans are kinda cringe. I'm pretty sure there has been magic and summons in all of the other games too. Now why do you think they put all that other garbage in there? Probably just so some edgelords could ignore it and make fun of others for using it. - "I only used a Greatsword for the whole game." - Big deal, I saw a guy beat it using a Donkey Kong bongo drum, git gud son. - Enjoy your superiority complex and missing out on a bunch of cool shit in the game.

Online? Nah. I get that it has history and even lore in the games, but I'm not a fan of it. Co-op is janky because you have to resummon all the time, and pvp seems pointless to me. Holy shit, I got a Rune Arc and a Furl Calling Finger Remedy! Can't wait to do that again! It feels like a single player game with multiplayer as an afterthought to me. The intro even says "...and A Tarnished of no renown." Not 12 million Tarnished of no renown. This is my story, stay out of it. If you need messages everywhere and homies to help you out that's on you.

That's it. I love it, and I'm about to get back to collecting all the crap I missed before I go fight Radagon. Good luck out there guys.