Elden Ring has picked up the Critics’ Choice Award at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards.
Launched back in February across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, FromSoftware’s latest RPG features all the punishing combat you’d expect transported to a new open-world setting that Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin helped shape the story of.
You create your own character in the story, an exile of the Lands Between summoned back to traverse the realm and piece the titular Elden Ring back together by slaying a myriad of demigods. The mantle of Elden Lord is offered up as reward, though whether you pursue it or deviate to one of Elden Ring’s other endings is up to you.
FromSoftware’s latest launched to critical acclaim, and we were quite taken with it ourselves, giving it a perfect score in our Elden Ring review. While you may stumble across the occasional excess, Hidetaka Miyazaki and team have refined and evolved the Dark Souls formula, offering an expansive open world that’s “as hostile as it is inviting”.
“When Elden Ring hits the rails, the momentum carries it forward and refuses to slow down,” wrote Joel Franey. “My peaks of rage at being stomped on by towering titans never stopped being fun despite that, with that very particular form of masochistic joy you get from wrestling with FromSoftware games. It might not be as groundbreaking as its inspirations, but taken on its own terms, Elden Ring might be the best of its brethren - and that's something I'm still struggling to believe has actually happened.”
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