Look, Elden Ring can be really tough, as all FromSoftware games are, and you will almost certainly get stomped at least a hundred if not hundreds of times during your journey in the Lands Between. However, all this attention on playing up the difficulty, as usually is the case once we get into The Discourse, detracts from the fact that the game can also be hilariously easy.
This week, in a move perhaps more suited to an October special episode, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is here to put the spook 'ems right up you and talk about the best ghosts in games. This is in honour of Ghostwire: Tokyo, a game that Matthew played and reviewed for us, and one that has loads of bloody ghosts in it.
No update on Henry Cavill this week, but we talk a bit about Matthew's cursed trip to DisneyLand Paris, ways that Ghostbusters could take on a very different tone, and, once again, inject some serial killer energy into the podcast. Nate delivers a fun Cavern Of Lies where we have to guess which of the plots of terrible ghost games are made up. And for some reason I've written 'The Count of Monster Disco' in my notes. The reason escapes me. But it was probably funny.
As several members of the RPS Treehouse can attest, I have not been able to stop playing Tunic this week. I was a little cautious going in, having not particularly gelled with the E3 demo from last year, but in hindsight, that early glimpse was nothing but the tip of a tiny fox nose peeking out of its burrow. In its full, regal splendour, Tunic has become an early game of the contender for me, and a large part of that is down to its wonderfully clever in-game instruction manual.
When Imogen (RPS in peace) interviewed Tunic dev Andrew Shouldice last September, they talked about how instruction manuals were a fundamental part of a game's design back in the days of the NES, and at one point he even pulled out his old instruction booklet for Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link to demonstrate some of the "tantalising hints" they'd offer to curious players. As Brendan (also RPS in peace) noted in our Tunic review, the in-game manual is indeed a critical part of what makes Tunic special, and the act of piecing it together page by page really does capture that feeling of discovering some great secret that only you and the dev team know about. But here's a secret between you and me: it's not by chance Shouldice pulled out that old Zelda II manual during our interview last year. His fox hero may be cut from the same cloth as Nintendo's green sword-swinger, but the art inside Tunic's instruction manual also pays a wonderful tribute to those Zelda booklets of yore, too.
I’ve spent over 40 hours with Elden Ring and I’m still not very good at it. At this stage I’m less of a worthy Tarnished warrior on their way to be crowned the Elden Lord and instead more of a Mr. Bean type, accidentally succeeding through sheer incompetence alone. I can’t explain it, but my method of defeating Godrick had the same energy as Bean making a sandwich, in that I think the game eventually just took pity on me and let me win the fight to save me any further embarrasment.
I’m coming to terms with the fact I may never finish Elden Ring. I'm only in the second proper area, but I'm finding encounters to require a level of patience I simply don't possess. Its boss fights are simply too hard. But if I’m struggling this much at such an early stage, what else could Elden Ring possibly have to offer? What types of monstrosities lurk in the farthest reaches of the Lands Between, and how difficult are they to defeat? Spoilers, naturally, below.
I think "platformer" and my next thought is "slick". Hollow Knight springs to mind, as does Ori, as does Celeste. They all have precise and snappy movement, with upgrades and new abilities that add complexity without stodge. As for 3D platformers, Super Mario 64 remains a glowing example of how movement makes exploration joyful. String together rolls and jumps and you're not just navigating a world, but bounding through it like a gymnast (who's also a part time plumber to help pay the costs of serious competition).
Elden Ring is a terrible platformer. It's stiff and awkward and less gymnast, more Gimli on the Buckfast. But this is what makes its platforming sections good. They force you to embrace your limited toolset and channel your amateur longjumping, golfing, and climbing skills you definitely don't have.
For all of the spectral errand boy trappings of Ghostwire: Tokyo, good gravy, is it a looker. From the hyper-detailed backstreets to giant blazing billboards bouncing off fresh rain puddles, this take on Tokyo is eye-catching enough to ditch the sidequests and simply spend some time strolling around. Even if that stroll is sometimes interrupted by rowdy gangs of yokai.
In Matthew’s earlier preview, he noted a similarly evocative atmosphere to that of the YouTube channel Virtual Japan, which has featured one particularly calming walking tour through a rain-soaked Tokyo. Ghostwire has walking, and rain, and Tokyo, so when review code came in we thought we’d have a crack at making our own. And here it is, in 4K with maxed-out ray tracing:
Lots of open world games – or at least, those that I've played – steer you through their maps methodically. Jim, Dave, and Sally all have their map markers in Vice City for a portion of the game, then they'll shift over to Tilted Towers after a few hours. Perhaps the bridge to Shrek's Swamp won't open unless you rescue the princess from Bowser's Castle later down the line.
And there's nothing wrong with an open world that gently steers you in the right direction. Elden Ring does this with its checkpoints that blow the equivalent of directional arrows in the breeze, helping you feel in control of your progress. But I'd argue it's even better at the opposite: wresting that control away in a split-second.
Slight story spoilers for Big George’s Ring Fit Adventure Elden Ring, probably.>
The lumbering forms of Elden Ring’s trolls disguise an ancient melancholy. Turned traitors in the war between demigods and giants, their reward for loyalty to the Golden Lineage was an eternity in shackles, used as frontline fodder in bloody conflicts or beasts of burden hauling funereal carriages around the Lands Between. Since learning their history, I often muse sadly upon it, as I weave between their horribly gnarled legs in my freshly tarnished underwear and hoover up the shiny objects scattered underneath their feet.
I’m on my second run of Elden Ring now, progressing slowly and methodically, examining every statue and reading every spell description. But the first time through, the need to cram the whole content buffet in my face at once got the better of me. Underleveled and underprepared for most areas, I developed the winning strategy of stripping down to my burial rags for a speed boost and streaking through the wilds, shoving everything valuable down my pants.
I’ve been having a grand old time in Ghostwire: Tokyo, rescuing lost spirits and finger-gunning umbrella men. As Matthew's review notes, there’s a lot of busywork, but Tango Gamework’s rain-slicked rendition of the Japanese capital is quite the place to explore. And to gawp at, even if you don’t have the hardware for its fanciest ray tracing capabilities.
Indeed, despite some spooky-looking system requirements, Ghostwire: Tokyo can run well on older or lower-spec builds, just as surely as it gets the most out of the very best graphics cards. Within these paragraphs we’ll take a close inspection of how it handles different hardware and display resolutions, as well as which are the best settings to change for optimal PC performance.
Some friends recently put together a combined list of the top 50 movies of the millennium, of which it seems I've seen just eight. This does not bode well for my chances in Framed, a new Wordle-like puzzle game that challenges you to identify a movie from stills. You can play it in your browser for free.