Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

Ugh, I've got two weeks holidays at the start of May.

I could wait and get a PS5 then (hopefully) but I need to play this.

Explored the lakes (thankfully poison doesn't affect you on torrent), killed a fire monk and got his armour which is class. Found a burnt out village which is like something out of a horror game and damn, i do not like fighting enemies using magic. The Omenkiller came out of nowhere and hits like a truck. Only had a couple of goes off him but had me down to a cm of health left so I'll get him soon. Bloody Slash is such a great skill with the uchi.

Yeah enemies with gold glowing eyes give 4 times as many runes as normal. And it's also true that sometimes there's a light gold rain and it increases the runes you get (there'll be a gold hue coming from your character when it's active).

I'm enjoying this, it's Skyrim but with Dark Souls enemies and combat. I've beaten the Valiant Gargoyle and one other boss in 2 hours of playtime. I've played a lot of Dark Souls 3 and the combat is basically the same, bigger enemies vulnerable to parries etc. Looks great and I haven't noticed any bugs yet.

Raya Academy was actually handy enough compared to my first attempt. Some great loot in there is you're a magic build.

As for the boss, 1st phase is dead handy, 2nd phase destroyed me in my 2 attempts. Route to her is weird. Either a long staircase with no enemies or the unlocked 'shortcut' running past multiple magic throwing enemies which takes about the same time as the normal route.

I went to a site, opened ash of war to see if i could unequip the ash but the shield wasn't even selectable but now I'm thinking is that because i unequipped it before hand. Will try again today as it meant i had to stop using it as Bloody Slash is dragging me through tough enemies and bosses.

There's a guy who sells Ashes of War (think he's in the Warmaster's Shack in Limgrave, though he's since moved elsewhere for me). If you buy the No Skill AoW from him you can apply it to your shield at the smith back at the Roundtable (or maybe from site of grace too). It means then you can use your weapon skill while still holding the shield. Might be worth duplicating the skill too in case you need if for another shield later in the game.

Yeah, seems to be unique, should still be able to select what skill you want active though. Anyway, the jellyfish rage gives you a physical attack and defense buff, might be worth giving it a go, see if it damages as much as bloody Slash.

In Dark Souls 3 if you saw a foggy gate you knew it was a main boss. Is that not the case in this game? I've killed two tougher enemies that were behind fog gates but it turns out neither of them was Margit which is apparently the first major boss you come across.

Gold fog gates are always bosses (main and minor). White/Grey fog gates are usually only openable by using a Stonesword Key, and aren't always bosses. Usually tougher enemies protecting a decent treasure/reward, or maybe a shortcut to a different area.