RandomGaminginHD ran Elden Ring on integrated Intel graphics and pulled off 30fps average using 720p resolution and low settings. It’s not pretty (though the video is worse than “real life” due to Youtube’s compression) but it should give hopes to running it on a dedicated GTX 1650 in a laptop.
Stupid side-question about memory. I see that Amazon sells three varieties of memory for my computer: 2400 Mhz, 2666 Mhz, and 3200 Mhz.
I presume the 3200 Mhz is like the fastest and best?
Above it was suggested 2666 Mhz is what you have in that PC.
I’d stick with that.
Up to you of course.
You need to check what your computer actually supports. If it only supports 2666 Mhz then there will be no benefit to getting 3200 Mhz because it will only be running at 2666.
The L340 tops out at 2666 speed DDR4. You could put a 3200 stick in there and it would work, it’ll just downclock the memory to a speed it likes. If the 2666 wasn’t on sale, I’d actually say you might as well go with the cheaper 3200 stick but, since the 2666 is currently $5 less, you might as well stick with spec.
Ok I’ve played several hours of it. I’ll preface this by saying that yes I have played and beaten all of the Soulsborne games except Sekiro because it was simply too hard. Even though I have beaten them all I play the easiest starting character, a knight or the equivalent, because I am slow and need the shield. I suck at parrying. I’m not “good” at these games.
I would NOT say ER is explicitly easier in terms of fighting mechanics, it’s just like DS but with greatly refined controls. It absolutely is much MUCH more accessible and FAR less frustrating to die over and over in this game because there are an absolute SHITLOAD of bonfires (points of grace here). In the first areas I swear I hit a new one every time I walk in a straight line for more than a minute or two. This is great because warping is enabled immediately, no hoops to jump through. I was getting smoked over and over by the first “real” boss (Tree Sentinel for those wondering) so I pressed on and put the pedal to the floor on the horse and found some other bonfires, played around for a while, then went back and figured out how to beat him fairly easily (hint: you want to STAY on your horse while fighting). Oh, FWIW both bosses I’ve encountered so far have checkpoints within eyeshot of the boss, so theres no slog back. I’m playing on PS5 and the load times are fast. And it has a map.
The exploration right now feels like BotW. The art and level design is phenomenal, though the actual graphical fidelity doesn’t feel quite as spectacular as Demon Souls remake. The character editor is bonkers. It’s almost TOO granular. It takes a long time to figure out how to make a man without a female face. So many little tweaks shit with the look. I wasn’t able to make my guy look like me because there were way too many options,
So far the story i what you’d expect:cryptic and weird.
I’m going to give 2 important tips that will save frustration for those starting. When you run into a ghostly looking dude in the first 5 minutes and he say “take the leap buddy” or whatever you SHOULD take the leap. It literally takes you to the tutorial area where you learn all the controls and whatnot. I didn’t take the leap and played for an hour or so before making my way back and DOH!’d myself as soon as I took the leap.
There are caves/mini dungeons EVERYWHERE. I wandered into 3 different cave systems before I found the 2nd bonfire.
Also, you need to REST at 3 bonfires before you can level up. I unlocked like 7 bonfires and still hadn’t figured out how to level up. Turns out unlocking them doesn’t get you there, you have to actually REST. At a certain point an NPC will cutscene you while resting and viola! You can level. And she give you the horse. This all happens in the first 10 minutes of the game so it’s hopefully not too big of a spoiler.
Anyway, to summarize, the mechanics of the game are not a lot easier but the accessibility is like night and day. The enemies are rad looking, the open world is gorgeous and you get little to no direction on where to go or what to do. That’s how I ended up 2 hours into the game before I found the tutorial levels 
And you CAN beat the tree sentinel immediately upon getting your horse.
Agree with all of this - there’s massive flexibility in the game due to open world (huge BotW influence like you say - it’s like an homage at some points). They’ve also nerfed gravity substantially - you can take some huge leaps with little to no fall damage. It’s really accessible.
And then I fought the first storyline boss - Margit the Fell Omen. My God he is hard! Going to be a qualifier for a lot of players I reckon. Took me 20 - 25 goes - loved it lol. Think Father Gascoigne, Flamelurker, Capra and stuff like that - early game build check. He really is a challenge, quite fast. I was just tickling him with a +1 scimitar and found the spirit animals you can summon made the difference.
You can summon co-op help of course, or fall back to farm some upgrade materials to go in stronger (the game is way more versatile in this latter respect). There’s also bound to be a meta strat where Margit will be particularly weak to one thing - I noticed the jellyfish spirit could poison him, for example, but I don’t think that’s it. Didn’t slow him down much!
Have had a look at the first Big Boss of that area and he looks to be quite a project.
From what I have watched it does seem you were under-powered for that match. Also, there is a special item that can help a little. Always gonna be a tough fight though.
Elden Ring performance. Obviously just personal experience, YMMV, etc
In all instances Motion Blur and Depth of Field were set of Off due to personal preference but those rarely impact FPS much anyway.
i7-9700K @ 5GHz, RTX 3080Ti, 32GB DDR4 – Played at 1440p, max settings. Smooth as silk, constant 60fps and no stutters or hitches noticed. This is my main system so most of my play time has been on this one. The rest were more benchmarking/performance runs than extended game play.
i5-11400, RTX 3050, 16GB DDR4 – Played at 1080p, high settings. No complaints; 59-60fps while running around, riding my horse or fighting/casting.
i5-4590, RX 580 8GB, 12GB DDR3 – Played at 1080p, mostly high settings (grass to Medium). FPS varied from 35-50 but usually around 40. Some hitches when entering new expansive areas for the first time. Felt playable although I was mainly running around and ganking guards, not trying to do boss fights. Was fairly impressed given that the stated minimum CPU was an i5-8600 (which also assumes DDR4). Locking the FPS to 30 would make this entirely playable as a console-style experience by eliminating frame dips.
Really, for all the complaints I’ve heard about performance, I’m not feeling it. Maybe it’s just me and I don’t feel/notice stuff as much as some other people but, as a purely personal experience, it’s playing very well for me.
I have spent 30 minutes watching Markiplier(a youtuber) fight the first “world boss” straight out the door. He is insisting that while some would recommend coming back later and more powered up, he is not a coward and will fight him NOW. It’s called the “Tree Sentinel”.
Very entertaining.
Questions:
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If you chip away at a world boss’ heath meter and run away, will it remember that you chipped him down? Seems like you could hide, heal, and come back.
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What is the “easiest” or most basic class in this game? Vagabond?
Starter class doesn’t matter much outside of meta mini-max builds, which most people won’t care about. There probably will be one starter weapon or spell that is particularly effective very early game, so you’d have an easier time of it out of the gate, but I don’t know what that is - and with the game being so open to explore and find stuff I don’t think it’s a big deal.
I wanted to go samurai because katanas have been top tier in all Souls games, but I didn’t like the fashion of the armour. Ended up choosing warrior because curved swords are also usually good - scimitar was decent but I’ve found the claymore now so weapon choice is settled for the forseeable. But I could have chosen any melee or hybrid class really.
Levelling does seem reasonably expensive in ER, on first impressions - so perhaps there is more to consider with starter class in that regard. There’s likely going to be one early game weapon that really shines - if it takes a bit of dex or str to use then the starter class closest to it will end up being adopted as the easiest one for new players.
Vagabond, Warrior and Hero are the classes I’ve most seen recommended as a rounded melee-based starter.
No, you have to beat bosses in one go.
Well, I bought it, played for 83 minutes, realized that I was having the exact opposite of fun, and requested a refund.
“Difficult” is really not the right word for the game. I’m not sure exactly the best way to describe it, but “punishing” is more accurate.
wolfman is right that combat is basically a QTE with less obvious prompts. You watch the enemy perform some move and then you press the particular buttons to counter that. If you get it exactly right, the combat is easy. If you sometimes press the wrong buttons, then you die and repeat until you’ve gained the muscle memory or you get it right through sheer luck.
This is true of the normal mobs, too. That cluster of three giant bats or whatever they are? If you go in swinging, you’ll die. If you pick them off one by one, dodging their attacks, they’re easy. It’s not that anything about the encounter is difficult, it’s just that the game forces you to play by its rules.
And again like wolfman said, there are no proper hitboxes. The reason I can’t go in swinging is because despite carrying two large swords, hits simply don’t register under many conditions. I didn’t figure out all the hidden rules, but it’s clear that you simply can’t do damage under some conditions.
The world does look cool and I was impressed by the verticality (I’m assuming, based on the reviews, that you can actually go to all the places you can see). But ultimately the world feels very empty. The NPCs are all nobodies that sit around and deliver a few lines of dialogue. The baddies don’t seem to have any reason for existence. There are no cities and there’s seemingly nothing to do except engage in combat.
Which I guess reinforces the point that I’ve heard from Soulsborne advocates themselves: you can’t have an easy mode; the mechanics are core to the game. I think that’s true; there really is just the combat mechanic and as mysterious as the world seems, it’s really just paper thin. It would be a lot more obvious when you aren’t being distracted by the various enemies.
Aside from all that, I dislike how gamey the whole thing feels. Now, all games expose their mechanics one way or another, especially RPGs. But most at least try not to be so in your face. Not ER. Every few feet is a stupid message someone wrote, or a bloodstain where (I think?) someone died. The “You died” screen itself is a reminder of the gameyness. At no point do you get to just immerse yourself in the world and feel that you’re there, which for me is one of the key reasons I play games. Even in fairly abstract and plot-free games like Factorio I can manage this, but in ER there’s this constant poke-poke-poke that nope, this game has more in common with Guitar Hero than it does Skyrim or other immersive titles.
Anyway, I’m sure this is the best Soulsborne title ever, and it may even be more accessible than previous ones, but if anyone disliked the fundamental mechanics of those titles, they should keep looking.
I’m still generally entertained by it but, at the same time, the world so far reminds me of one of those big outdoor zones/regions in an MMORPG where everyone just goes to grind up xp/treasure. No real life to it, just a whole buncha monsters for killing.
Yeah, that’s a big component as well. On one hand, it’s kinda cool to see Tree Sentinel roaming around, knowing I have to get stronger (or more practiced) before engaging. But on the other hand… as you say, it’s really just a big area where I have to grind for XP first. The mobs just mill around in their respective areas until I get too close.
Incidentally, it was totally playable on my PC (3080, Ryzen 5950X). I won’t say it was totally silky smooth, but it was 60 fps most of the time and only occasionally dipped to 30. No graphics problems that made it unplayable. Granted, it’s a pretty beefy system.
I think this is very much a Souls thing. The whole idea that you play the same bits over and over until you get good at them is gamey. The shared world aspect with messages from other players has been a feature in the other games. There’s a restriction on what you can write (only canned messages maybe?) so you can’t explicitly tell another player what to do or where to go but it provides hints (and red herrings).
My impression of the game is that it has deep Souls roots and if you didn’t like other Souls games you won’t like this one.
Personally I quite like them but I never have time to get any good so I don’t get very far with them.
That’s really it. The only other Souls game I played was the DS1 remaster for the Switch. The gears and levers underlying the gameplay feel exactly the same. And they are much closer to the surface in this series than other games.
Which, sadly, probably means everything from FromSoftware is just a non-starter for me. They have their audience, which is expecting the games to follow a certain pattern. Not just the combat replay loop, but the shared messages and the opportunistic multiplayer and a few other things. None of which I particularly care for.
It’s unreasonable for me to expect otherwise, but given some of the reviews about it being more accessible, I was sorta hoping it would be different. Alas, not.
One other minor rant about the game: it really is still missing some obvious quality-of-life things that can’t help but make me think they have a hostile attitude toward the player. For instance, there was some prompt for “use XYZ key on statue” or some such. I tried it, and was of course told “you don’t have an XYZ key”. Couldn’t they have told me that in the initial message? There were other things like this as well.
Oh, and the lack of pause makes this game virtually incompatible with my rambunctious kitten.
I appreciate this review. It’s what I expected, even if it’s not what I was hoping for.