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Elden Ring May Just Reinvent The Open-World Genre

RDR2 was one of the most boring and empty open worlds I've ever played along with the first one. A few pre-scripted events here and there aren't going to change that. Shame on me for being fooled by R* twice though I guess.
There is so much cool stuff to discover, just have a look at some Youtube videos. Super boring/empty open worlds to me are Mad Max, Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, No Man Sky, Shadow Of The Colossus (still a great game), Just Cause 4 or Fallout 76.
 
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Juza

Member
tbh what makes Elden Ring less interesting for me is the open world! The beta test really concerned me about many things!
 

GymWolf

Member
The usual click bait title.

The game is probably gonna be a masterpiece but it hardly reinvent anything.

Darksiders 2 does many of the things that ED does and it was released like 10 years ago.
 
Look, I'm sure the game will be good, but this overreaching when it comes to From Software games is kinda ridiculous. Nothing against From, as I'm sure they're just trying to put the best game they can out, but these fanboys overthink every little shit.

It's a From game, it won't reinvent anything. It will grab things from other games, it will be built based on previous From games, it won't reinvent a damn thing. Jesus.
 
It's gonna be a quality game but it really is open world dark souls. Even alot of the animations are still the same. Its dark souls 4 under a different name.
 

Boneless

Member
No.

Red Dead Redemption 2 had an open-world filled with meaningful events, places to discover, side characters to meet and interesting activities to engage in - and had all of this come out to the player in a natural exploration-based way, instead of doing it the Ubisoft way with +100 different markers on the map.

Hell, even Days Gone did the "have enemies roam the map and show up at different spots depending on the time of day" thing more than two years ago with it's horde system.


Too much of a snorefest, an RPG is much better at instilling that feeling of curiousity, as there is better lore and loot to find.
 

K2D

Banned
Kotaku article screaming of hyperbole.

My excitement remains more and more tempered.

I'll have a good time of exploring Elden Ring in March I think..
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
But, it sacrificed gameplay and fun for the sake of realism.
It didn’t. It is both real and incredible. It is the most dynamic open world game and I doubt Elden Ring will come close as it is likely the same From formula we’ve seen over and over. I mean both From and Ubi follow the a similar design practice with every game yet From get praised on here like it is the game that will cure cancer and Ubi get hated like it is a game designed by Hitler. It is weird.

How is it any different that Dark Souls with a different coat of paint and a lazy story telling hiding behind the silly “player story”? Title to title, the ridiculously hated on here Ubisoft innovates more than From.
 

Nico_D

Member
Typical hyperbolic journalistic bs. Everything that comes from anyone or anything with recognition (deserved or not) is groundbreaking and mindblowing.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
You know… the same thing was said about Cyberpunk and look how that turned out. All I’m saying is, how about we leave the hyperbole behind and make these claims if and when the game actually achieves them?
But this way no one will give them clicks. Now is the prime opportunity to fool people into hyperbole for maximum clicks.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
What annoys me about these sort of articles is the way they reduce everything to a formula, when the reality is that the game's fiction is what drives the composition of these open worlds. If you are doing a fantasy-based game like Elden Ring then of course you can have caravans towed by giants, have dragons flapping in to feed and whatnot. But what's the equivalent if you are trying to do something that conforms to some sort of reality, be it past or present-day?

Obviously there are global features like density of content, interactivity/variability and how the terrain impacts traversal, but ultimately its all about what the world is supposed to be. You can't have magical horses that can fly up sheer cliff faces outside of high fantasy! In Death Stranding the same sort of geography represents a significant challenge to traverse or circumnavigate.

That one is way easier than the other *is* the game.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
So you are telling me you didn't play it without telling me you didn't play it.

Also From Software is a different breed than a one hit wonder PC based dev CDPR.
The only difference instead of making the Witcher 4,5,6,7,8,9 like FROM does they tried another game. Both are one hit wonders FROM just refines it with a cult that defends the bi yearly madden like refreshes.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
The only difference instead of making the Witcher 4,5,6,7,8,9 like FROM does they tried another game. Both are one hit wonders FROM just refines it with a cult that defends the bi yearly madden like refreshes.
Difference is TW2 and 3 are the only solid games they made.
Unlike From.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
So you are telling me you didn't play it without telling me you didn't play it.

Also From Software is a different breed than a one hit wonder PC based dev CDPR.
Not really. At least CDPR tried something different. They didn’t just make Witcher 3 with cars like all From games.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Not really. At least CDPR tried something different. They didn’t just make Witcher 3 with cars like all From games.
Tried something different?
CP2077 was in development since the PS3 days if I'm not mistaken. If after all those years of working on something different nets what we got then they are even more pathetic in comparison than most are saying.
 

WellSheet

Member
Hyperbole is rife in life with ANYTHING - but, gosh nabbit, sometimes I feel like gaming is where it’s taken to the extreme!



That being said - the preview footage does seem to be promising….my two cents is games have gotten close, but not there yet….looking at how big the map of Elden Ring is shaping up to be, that’s a task. And, let’s be straight with ourselves here, what you’re going to be doing is riding around exploring and fighting. That is, simply put, all the game is going to offer you. When you dig in on what exploration gives you and what fighting gives you, that’s where the return on your investment will really be shown.



Your exploration is only going to feel worthwhile If you feel like you are discovering unique places which will lead to unique fights and unique loot. If you feel like you’re finding another dungeon underground that looks a lot like the last 47 dungeons you’ve come across… and Oh, LOOKIE HERE… you’re fighting another mini boss that may look a little different, but it’s really just a re-skin…and then oh, boy golly gee willikers….some super great crafting materials that maybe I don’t need for my specific build….blah blah. Games have gotten better at this is small ways.



Look at - and JESUS fucking Christ calm down - Far Cry 5/6 with their “Treasure Hunt” side objectives. That’s what I’m aiming at. Making THAT feeling occur at almost every turn in a massive open-world game…spank my ass and call me Rashida; that shits an undertaking.



Examples:



God of War 2018 had a great quasi-Metroidvania / open worldy design that felt curated and rewarding to explore…



Control - similar in design to God of War. Not perfect, but side content and exploration felt meaningful and bespoke.



Those two listed above are certainly NOT huge open world games…but, that level of curation, reward and mechanics is a big ass to KEEP fresh in an open-world setting.



Let’s hope From can pull it all together.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Check the video below out to get a good idea of just how barren the map is when you’re not doing a mission.


It’s quite literally a snore fest with barely any life on the map at all.


RDR2 was literally teeming with life. From thousands of animals, birds, the sounds of insects, rustling of leaves,. Etc. From random events as Perrot mentioned. It was a massive improvement to the dead, barren world that was RDR1 and I can’t see this as anything other than a fact.

Now in terms of controls or the “story” of said missions? Entirely subjective and I can completely see where you are coming from if you had problems with those.
 

Boneless

Member
You know… the same thing was said about Cyberpunk and look how that turned out. All I’m saying is, how about we leave the hyperbole behind and make these claims if and when the game actually achieves them?

Cyberpunk did not have a massive demo pre-release that got raving reviews though. :)
 
Kojima already did with Death Stranding. It's an open world game like none else.

Anyways I'm a huge fan of from so I am very much looking forward to this!
Yep. Makes traversing it the whole point of anopen world not a blur to get to the next story/side quest. I still remember getting to Heartman place. Had to climb up a ravine and set up ziplines to get to and from his place.

When even Halo and Gears are copying the ubisoft formula, a little touch of originality can be hyperbolic. We wont get a gta 3 moment for a long while yet
 

TonyK

Member
No.

Red Dead Redemption 2 had an open-world filled with meaningful events, places to discover, side characters to meet and interesting activities to engage in - and had all of this come out to the player in a natural exploration-based way, instead of doing it the Ubisoft way with +100 different markers on the map.

Hell, even Days Gone did the "have enemies roam the map and show up at different spots depending on the time of day" thing more than two years ago with it's horde system.
I consider Red Dead 2 a masterpiece but the world, even amazing graphically, it's empty.

I played tons of open world games and the only one I played with meaningful content between main missions is Zelda Breath of the Wild. I hope Elden Ring will follow that path.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member

"Unless the Elden Ring demo condensed everything cool about the game into 1/12 the square mileage to fool us, I’m frankly worried about the developers. The attention to detail that must be going into making this ambitious project a reality is nothing short of herculean."
QZHowlu.jpg


"In any case, my brief time with Elden Ring showed me that From Software is entirely capable of owning the open-world video game genre. I don’t know how I’ll go back to massive plots of land with nothing to see between points of interest apart from environmental details that feel copy-pasted to simply fill space. Even as a diehard Dark Souls fan, I’m blown away by what the developers were able to accomplish with this small slice of the full game and worried about my free time come next February."
It's a great game, but Reinvent a new genre is overkill
 
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Notabueno

Banned
Those kind of hyperbolic titles should be read as manipulative advertisement and therefor the opposite of what is stated should be assumed.

In fact from the demo I can tell this is a very basic open-world but hopefully with a mature grid distribution.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I'm super hyped for Elden Ring and already preordered the game but being hyperbolic about it you guys asking to get disappointed. There is nothing wrong about being hype about the game but dont do this to yourself by putting unrealistic exceptions.
 
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ClosBSAS

Member
That's entirely subjective, but even then it has nothing to do with it's open-world design, which is what's being discussed here.

That's not true, RDR2's woods were populated with random events, curious stuff to discover and most importantly animals to hunt, which was an activity with much more depth, systems and mechanics in Red Dead than in other open-world games (Far Cry, Days Gone, The Elder Scrolls), hence a more engaging activity. Hell, my dad only booted up the game in order to go hunting, then carry the dead animals to the camp and then go to the nearest town in order to play some poker or domino.

Other open-world games barely allow for such a gameplay loop, as all their activities are always action-oriented missions or tasks.
Dullest open world and overrated as fuck.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
What a silly puff piece.

No doubt Elden Ring is going to be a great game.
"Reinventing the open world genre" is just some click bait trash.

Firstly elden rings strong points seem to be combat, bosses, and the fantasy world and art direction is some of the best.

But when talking about open world games, variety of activities and scenarios is key to keeping it fresh. Besides combat, leveling up and collecting collectables what else is there to do in elden ring?

One of the most important things in a open world is the NPCs, I very much doubt that elden ring will have the variety and interactivity with NPC's as RDR2.

BOTW somewhat reinvented the open world genre with its world interactivity and the many gameplay possibilities that enabled.

What exactly is elden ring reinventing?

It looks like a polished open world souls-bourne game, which is no bad thing. But its certainly not reinventing the open world genre and it doesn't need to.
 
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Fuz

Banned
Negative space is not a bad thing and helps create a proper scale of the world around. How much of that to find and when is certainly up for discussion, and honestly is going to be very much game dependant since they're all with different goals.
This.

If you want to make a realistic, believable world you'll need tons of "empty" space. Which could still be interesting in its own way - for example, I never see any huge, realistic forest in games, but there was a huge one in DAoC where you could actually get lost and it added a lot to the believability of the game world.
Finding POIs left and right, every 3 meters, kills the realism. Witcher 3 is a masterpiece, but for me, it suffered a lot from this.
 

Hugare

Member
Look, I'm sure the game will be good, but this overreaching when it comes to From Software games is kinda ridiculous. Nothing against From, as I'm sure they're just trying to put the best game they can out, but these fanboys overthink every little shit.

It's a From game, it won't reinvent anything. It will grab things from other games, it will be built based on previous From games, it won't reinvent a damn thing. Jesus.
Just like BOTW.

The game will pick a lot of aspects from other open world titles, and fans will see it like the second coming of Jesus Christ

Game will be good, but hardly the best thing ever that the whole industry and fans will tell you it is
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
I never understood the in overhype of souls-bourne fans.

I remember when Bloodborne came out and the hive mind of its fans here were acting like it was half life 3 and anyone who criticised the game would get immediately piled on and banned.
It was bizarre, it would be even more bizarre if it was not some shill effort.
 

bitbydeath

Member
RDR2 was literally teeming with life. From thousands of animals, birds, the sounds of insects, rustling of leaves,. Etc. From random events as Perrot mentioned. It was a massive improvement to the dead, barren world that was RDR1 and I can’t see this as anything other than a fact.

Now in terms of controls or the “story” of said missions? Entirely subjective and I can completely see where you are coming from if you had problems with those.
The video I posted proves that isn’t true. People seem to have this grand vision of RDR2 in their heads but the truth is, it’s a largely empty and dull world.

It’s not like Days Gone where you can get ambushed at any moment by freakers/marauders/wild life.

RDR2 does have larger towns though, although you can’t go inside every building, which you can in Days Gone.
 
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V4skunk

Banned
The seethe and cope is hilarious in this thread. I can't wait for launch and beyond to be sustained by the tears of the scrubs that dont want to git gud.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
The video I posted proves that isn’t true. People seem to have this grand vision of RDR2 in their heads but the truth is, it’s a largely empty and dull world.

It’s not like Days Gone where you can get ambushed at any moment by freakers/marauders/wild life.

RDR2 does have larger towns though, although you can’t go inside every building, which you can in Days Gone.
Mate, I played both games and got 1000 GS in both.

Anyone who has actually played these games can prove this. Your video even showcases more life, energy, and content than RDR1 even if it was blatantly trying to hide them to prove a nonexistent point.
 

Juza

Member
You didn't even play it.
Elden Ring has more going on in the 1/12th of the map we got to test than the entirety of a Ubisoft game like Assassins Creed lol.
You missed my point...

I thought I would like the open world formula of Dark Souls but unfortunately I didn't! I think From Software should stick with spoke-hub formula, It's perfect for their own style.
 
Kotaku writing clickbait headlines and using their lack of experience or respect for gaming to extrapolate weirdly lukewarm takes? Never seen that before...
 
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