There isn’t enough of it. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
More specifically, the issue this time is the fact that the time between Lost Ark and Elden Ring’s release dates is simply too short. This is something I’ve been worried about a while but if I’m speaking 100% honestly, I think deep down I just assumed the full-on ‘Lost Ark all the time!11!!’ drive would have died down by now. At least enough to allow for Elden Ring to peek in and have a shot at completing my set goal for the month.
In the January Journal post, I stated my goal as being:
- Elden Ring — Beat first Legacy Dungeon Area
This is another one that I don’t really know how much I’m committing myself to here. This might be more of a stretch goal, particularly if I end up spending most of my time wandering off the beaten path, which is entirely likely!
Well, I’m here to say I won’t be doing that.
Moreover, I’m not even going to try.
If you’d tried to tell me a year ago that I wasn’t going to play Elden Ring on launch day, that you’d seen the future and knew this to be true, I’d have to assume something terrible happened. Did my computer explode? Did a bus hit me? Something even worse in the family?
But no… None of those things, nothing more sinister than finding a game — by way of Lost Ark — able to hold my attention so greatly, and keep me so interested in it that I think it would be a mistake and a disservice to Elden Ring to even try to ‘fit it in’ right now.
News this morning of the Day 1 patch (now available to reviewers) making the PC performance issues worse helps confirm this decision is probably the right one, too. Elden Ring is a massive open-world game, a genre not exactly renowned for being bug-free day one so perhaps this isn’t really unexpected.
Still… If not for Lost Ark I absolutely would’ve dove in regardless.
As it is, I will probably still poke my nose in for a look.
Mistake?
… Possibly.
I might be eating every word I’ve written in this post come tomorrow morning.
One good maintenance window of Lost Ark could also throw this all out…
Suffice to say, I’m still conflicted. I don’t recall being this conflicted about two games ever. Generally, I’m just going to switch to the newer game with nary a thought beyond vague good intentions to absolutely, certainly, without a doubt, go back and finish the one I’m leaving someday. If you’re wondering — generally I don’t. At least with single-player titles, MMOs all bets are off with their general longevity and proclivity to entice people back with the latest and greatest in expansion content.
Veering off-topic even further for a moment, it has certainly been quite the thing working my way through Lost Ark and ticking off one-by-one the musical events noted in the Director’s Trailer as I encounter them. The one in the screenshot above has certainly been the most quirky so far and has reinforced my belief that this game is the dream game of the director and his team.
Any element or ‘thing’ they have ever wanted in a game has been — or ultimately will be — given space in this game, from islands focused on love and romance, to replication of Monster Hunter in ARPG form, to sailing the seas, to a treatise on global warming and ecological impact, to whatever else strikes their fancy in the moment.
But you know what? I’m here for it. A game with so much scope to it already and to the future realm of the possible fits me to an absolute T. Despite this scope there still somehow remains to be a connective glue that keeps everything feeling together. *shakes head* I don’t know how they have done it.
I’m enjoying Lost Ark enough right now that I can leave Elden Ring for later. I couldn’t manage both. Also, ER is another game that is $60 for the base package, so I can probably wait for a Steam sale on that as well.
Aye, if ER isn’t something you’ve been burning to play since they announced it then waiting is probably a decent idea even Lost Ark aside. Technical state seems a little rough and, as you note, no doubt GoTY editions and general sales down the track. :)
Before you got to the bit about quirky musical events, I was going to ask why there are two Jakes from the Blues Brothers in that screenshot. I’m guessing that’s the reason. I hated the music in the opening minutes of the game so much I turned it down to a murmur and never turned it back up. I wonder if I missed any of the musical events?
Lost Ark has grown on me a bit but mostly for the story and the cut scenes, which are good and getting better the further along I go. As with FFXIV, though, it seems to me the writers and animators would be better served by making an actual, animated movie or TV show than having to fit their work in and around a whole lot of video game combat.
I got my Stronghold last night and that seems very well done but it only served to convince me that these kinds of resource management sims, no matter how well done they might be, aren’t really very entertaining or a good use of that truly scarce resource, time. I’m increasingly finding the same problem with video games in general, though, not just Lost Ark. I really enjoy the opening stages and the mid-game but then you get to the part you’re supposed to go on playing indefinitely and it’s just like having a job and a not very interesting job, at that. I’m still waiting to find out what the “end game” of Lost Ark is supposed to be. I can’t even imagine what it would be, from what I’ve seen so far.
I don’t think you would’ve missed any musical numbers without knowing it – even with the game muted. They’re essentially set pieces to the game albeit without action and fighting and explosions. Set pieces of another kind. :)
The endgame as most would define it comes in the way of an extended cycle of gear improvement, replacement, improvement.
I know that this on and in itself would hold any real draw for you at all, with similar reasoning to what you’re thinking about the Stronghold itself right now.
There is also an extended set of horizontal systems though through numerous collection tracks which, for reasons difficult to define, haven’t just made me either groan or throw up my hands entirely. Perhaps because they come as a rather natural extension to exploring the world and island hopping and other things you may wish to do regardless?