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what to do to relax thats not alcohol

Elden Band is the first soulsborne that's let me relax

Sitting in front of the big tree
(Paradigm credit: FromSoftware)

Survive the Lands Between with these Elden Ring guides

You'd be hard-pressed to tell I was enjoying myself if you watched me play Dark Souls. With my expression lurching between steely conclusion and utter dismay, the sweaty handprints on the controller and the prolific swearing, information technology probably looks similar I'k having an atrocious fourth dimension. Only that constant feeling that I'm teetering on the edge of a heart attack is one of the reasons I keep coming back. It'south a helluva rush.

Every time I leap in, I'k transported back to the weekend where, in a blind panic, I decided that three days of caffeine pills, Red Bull, Slayer and no slumber would help me ace a university exam for a class I had been to maybe 5 times. I felt like I was beingness chased, I could hear my centre pounding in my chest like a jackhammer and I started laughing for no reason at all. But I too felt like I could do anything. I hadn't slept for three days and I was still standing leaning. I was unstoppable! I did not ace the test.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

The exhilaration that came from putting my mind and body through Hell and the possibility, however slim, that I was going to overcome the odds was like electricity coursing through my veins, which in retrospect suggests that information technology was trying to tell me to cease. Only a twelvemonth or two later, Demon's Souls came out, getting me back to that state without risking my mental and physical health. Well, not every bit much.

FromSoftware games exist at the intersection between decease and victory. One of those ii things is waiting for y'all, and you just have to button forwards and promise information technology'due south the latter. But even if information technology is, you lot don't become to rest. You lot have to get back out there and sweat and swear and almost certainly die once more and once more. Maybe you'll take a trip back to an easier place and farm some less threatening monsters, but that workmanlike grind is inappreciably relaxing.

I never considered there could exist another way. Sure, in that location have been enough of discussions and arguments over accessibility and difficulty when information technology comes to these famously punishing games, but nearly anybody agrees that, any changes would exist welcome, they are still meant to be challenging and even occasionally cruel.

(Prototype credit: FromSoftware)

But while being put through the wringer is an undeniable part of the appeal, I've besides come to capeesh so much of what Night Souls does. The moody beauty, the delicate narrative, the great large pile of secrets—they all drew me back, besides, just more and more than I've found myself wanting to experience these bright things without the spectre of death hovering over me the entire time.

Elden Band (opens in new tab) has all of this, but its chunky open world as well leaves a huge corporeality of room for more relaxing adventures. With other FromSoftware games, finishing up an especially nasty boss usually means I'm going to need a break. Maybe a wee prevarication down. But in Elden Ring, I hop on Torrent and go searching for paintings, or perchance just a prissy vista to screenshot. I might take a trip to the Roundtable to take hold of up with my buds, or just explore role of the map I haven't visited nevertheless. Information technology's the start FromSoftware game I've really struggled to put down, because it'due south always beckoning me with new directions and diversions.

Choose your toxicant

Inside dungeons, getting from A to B is fraught with peril, only outside y'all get to decide what you lot want to do and where y'all want to go. And that might be towards a boss or a huge pack of enemies or a distant tower that's definitely full of shit that volition mess you up. If the thought of fifty-fifty a few minutes where yous're not at risk of an unexpected demise sounds awful, yous can notwithstanding rush headfirst into danger.

So it'due south not just that there's room for relaxation—at that place'due south an abundance of options. Y'all've usually got a few choices when you lot hit a wall in Night Souls, but there are so many of them in Elden Ring, and so many of them enticing, that I actually quite like finding I've bitten off more than I can chew. It's an excuse to skip off in another direction and sample something new. These aren't walls; they're excuses to explore more than of a world that delights in hiding secrets and treasures everywhere.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

This all leads to an adventure with more texture and an undulating pace, with ups and downs that are smoother, and with more than going on in between the peaks and valleys. And this really accentuates the moments when all the game actually wants to do is grind your bones down to dust. The juxtaposition betwixt unexpectedly serene gallops across some of the almost stunning vistas yous'll take ever encountered and some multi-limbed monstrosity gleefully one-hit you makes those terrifying battles all the more surprising and stressful.

When I do end upwards dancing with a boss, I'm more excited about the prospect because I've had some reanimation. I'thou refreshed and all fired up. Chock with conviction. And then, naturally, Elden Band brings me back down to globe by kick the shit out of me. I love it.

Information technology suits me amend, I reckon, but I don't necessarily recollect information technology's an improvement over Dark Souls. It'south meaningful that this isn't chosen Dark Souls 4: they have a vast corporeality in mutual, just the open world really changes the experience and then much that it'due south clear Elden Band is offering something different, if adjacent.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

There's a gulf between the labyrinthine mega-dungeons of Dark Souls and Elden Ring's open earth littered with dungeons, and it's within that gulf where Elden Ring's novelties lie. And philosophical differences, likewise, emphasised by things similar the more generous fast travel organisation, letting you teleport to any site of grace from nearly anywhere on the map. While this arguably makes Elden Band a tad easier, and certainly more accessible, it also speaks to its desire to button you out into the globe, to make you lot experience like a freewheeling explorer and not just a tragic walking corpse.

Of course, it's nonetheless pretty gloomy at times, and that Nighttime Souls-way oppressive temper looms over everything, just it'due south not got that ambitious, relentless, punishing vibe oozing out of every pore. In Night Souls everything is shit, it all sucks, and you should probably just sit downwardly and have a wee weep. In Elden Ring you tin can sentinel your horse shoot off into the sky via a magical updraft and make friends with a sentient pot. And there's then much more chatting! Sure, everyone is withal pretty depressed, but information technology's a far livelier world, which feels right here in a style that wouldn't make sense in the other games.

Elden Ring isn't the future of Dark Souls, then, simply rather something that offers a Nighttime Souls-like experience, and so a whole bunch of other things. Information technology's wide, just not in a mode that sacrifices also much of what makes FromSoftware games distinct. And I can easily come across information technology seducing new players and inspiring them to take the previous games for a spin. Indeed, one time I'm done with Elden Ring, I'grand thinking of firing up Sekiro, the simply soulsborne romp I've hardly touched, considering it's reminded me that, while I do like to relax, I still want to feel like my eye's a ticking time bomb.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has really met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he'south been around the block a few times, serving equally a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a thirty-twelvemonth-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns downward the hazard to rave near Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to ready upwardly shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he'due south non editing, he can normally be institute writing features that are 1,000 words too long. He thinks labradoodles are the best dogs but doesn't get to write most them much.

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Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-is-the-first-soulsborne-thats-let-me-relax/

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