Recent reviews by Exoterminator

Combat feels very much on rails, evading is the only movement that happens at a reasonable speed. Not really high octane compared to the Armored Core series or Project Nimbus. I didn't know anything about the game before release but there does seem to be a lot of issue with the microtransaction nuke that happened.

Very fun game, though easy to beat first try. The art is cute, and the writing made me giggle a few times. The MAYBE button to quit with is very amusing.

Despite having a computer above the recommended, the game barely runs at 55fps at best, with most of the time being 40-45fps. The story is quite boring to me, and after about a dozen story quests I just skip everything I can. Because I'm still stuck in the story quests, nobody wants to help out, making the game quite lonely. SOS flares and my friends lobbies all ignore my story quests, guess I should've bought it day 1 and quit my job.

The dev team and community is beyond amazing. Having a vocal team in 2024 that actively engages with the community is such a joy. The game itself is a lot of fun, and better with friends and randoms. Warbonds, which are the monthly content additions, have been pretty good so far. I find myself using 6-9 different primary weapons, and this game doesn't have a real META. A lot of fights feel and look like a movie scene. solid 9/10 game, just wish the armor sets had individual coloration rather than one set scheme.

June 13th: Sony has removed the region lock after almost a year and a half after launch, congratz to everyones work getting games to the players.

Very fun and a nice challenge. Been a while since an Armored Core game but I've been playing these kinds of mech games for a long time. Lot of newcomers don't seem to quite get what the game is telling you, so changing up what you do is a valuable learning experience. PvP is fun and feels well balanced so far, though many people are loving dual shotguns. The story has a lot of awesome moments with beautiful art, I did get the deluxe artbook as well. 9.5/10 with the slight downside of the weapon stat menu being somewhat odd to read at times.

I should have done this years ago, and my playtime shown is like 1/10 what I actually have. No Man's Sky has been the best redemption story of a game I have ever heard. The devs poured their hearts and souls into making this a lovable experience of what a random vast universe can be. There is so much in the game now that I have had to warn some friends about how easy it is to get lost in a rabbit hole of adventure. On top of all this, the installed files only take up around 13GB since the heavy work is on servers. Co-op was rough in the beginning, and even up until a few years ago, but now it's pretty simple and quick now to form up a party and venture off. VR was interesting, but nauseating for me since I had a Quest so beware, since it offered a better perspective of the size of what's around you. Nowadays I just come back around for the regular updates rather than sink into whole new runs.

There's a good reason this game is suddenly getting thousands of bad reviews, this was the tipping point for the playerbase after years of the devs slowly making the game worse and worse to play. I have over 3000 hours and haven't finished a single tech tree of research, not nation but tree. And their "apology" is literally just saying to the community "No, you don't pay our bills. We are going to make this game worse cause that's what's best for you and you love it." If this kills the game, know that it had it coming.

Update June 13th: the roadmap of changes they have issued looks promising. If the game goes the way they say it will, then I will update my review

Update December 19th: The roadmap was mostly implemented, end of nation bonuses and better night battles are what's missing. Not surprised that Gaijin has gone back to ignoring feedback from the community, though I've heard word they are talking to content creators more. There's supposed to be a roadmap for 2024 so take of that what you want. The overall economy is better, but it's better to describe it as several years of degradation have been undone. F2P is manageable to reach the end of trees if you stick to one nation. I am still playing it, but I've also gotten to the point that research is not a priority so there's been feeling like a lack of drive. Gamemodes are pretty much the same since a decade ago.

The initial drop of Lightfall was strange and it's where a lot of the negative reviews come from. The campaign was not as story rich as Witch Queen, and I think a lot of people were expecting the same amount. It's about new combat, new subclass, new planet, and new buildcrafting(this was just part of the update not specific to the DLC). There's also the issue that Bungie had a rough time at first with Covid lockdowns and remote work, because that's when they were making this DLC, and it's noticeable with some audio recording but mostly good. The included raid has been a lot of fun, even with contest mode, and overall it's a blast to have a grapple and an easier time making builds. There's a lot of good content, and with the included season more each week.

Overall I give Elden Ring a 5/10, its a mess on PC and is not a good enough follow up to Dark Souls 3.

The biggest issue is the camera. It forces itself in the direction your character is moving and doesn't let you look around when moving. The wall recovery is almost nonexistent and will trap itself on the smallest of deformations of walls and railings. Locking on doesn't like to target whats right in front of you, but if it doesn't lock at all it can whip the camera around 180 degrees blinding you to an incoming enemy. It genuinely ruined most boss fights for me and made me feel like I had to fight the game rather than the boss.

Most bosses in the game are quite a bit of fun, when the camera works, and there's a lot of uniqueness even with the massive number of them. The only boss I really have an issue with is Godskin Duo. It feels like a horrible rehash of Ornstein and Smough. The non-optional bosses don't compliment each other and the very limited arena makes the fight an abysmal experience. For the bosses in open areas, their limited following range is easily used against them.

Jumping is a meh addition, I don't have a problem with it but I really only used it to fight NPC invaders or explore.

The fall damage changes are somewhat nice, lot of falls acted like jumpscares for me.

Torrent is either a blessing or a nightmare to use. Being near a ledge means death because he likes to step forward before turning. The direction that he turns is based on the camera rather than where he's already facing. But he's a blessing when dealing with very mobile enemies and bosses. Hit and run tactics are great for dealing with things you don't have the HP or Stamina for.

The only questline that was enjoyable for me was Ranni's. I tended to give up on most others part way through as they didn't keep me invested.

If the camera gets fixed I will definitely change my rating to a much higher number, likely 9/10, because it just kept dragging the experience down. Unless that happens, Elden Ring will continue to feel like a frustrating experience to me and if DLC comes out I won't be getting it.

So far without the raid it's hard to argue this dlc being worth $40, if it was $20 then it'd be a fantastic addition.
story 8/10: pretty good storyline, lots of well made cutscenes. lot of connections were brought into the main scene
combat 2/10: they made new enemies that are fearsome and demand your attention, very reminiscent of the marauder in doom eternal, the bossfights are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ abysmal with their mechanics and heavily gated health
gear 7/10: crafting is rather nice but pool is limited atm, most of the looks feel like rehashes of things we've had before. exotic additions have been meh so far but early builds are only so good

overall 5/10: not really worth $40, $20 would be golden or $30 at fair. if the raid is good i would be inclined to say it was worth the price so we shall see

Update April 27th: The raid was quite a challenge on day 1, but replayability and the master version aren't all that enticing. A solid 7/10 now