Dark Souls, the famous franchise to bring testicle-crushing difficulty back to contemporary gaming, with deadly bosses, unforgiving worlds and a dash of story-telling obscurity. As the saying goes “Show, don’t tell. Like, really. Almost never. You have to be a detective to figure it out”.

I haven’t played the original Souls trilogy, but I am a big fan of Nioh, Hollow Knight, Elden Ring, Sekiro and Bloodborne. So, here’s 3 mini reviews of amazing games, threaded through their shared “Souls”-ness. Skipping Hollow Knight because my review for that is right here! As for Elden Ring, stay tuned on that for another day.

Will I ever play Dark Souls? Maybe! I may get it bundled with Fruit Ninja, but that’ll probably be a long time from now considering how vast Elden Ring is, so feel free to treat yourself. This blog isn’t sponsored, but I’ll advertise any of the games you can get at the Go2Games store!

Samurai Souls, as they say. Nioh was my first love with “soulslikes” or “recursive sprawlers” for my fellow Yahtzee fans. Chose it because the gameplay seemed faster-paced than Dark Souls, but not as high-speedy as Bloodborne.

Now that I’ve actually played Bloodborne, I actually think Nioh is a much faster game, though it’s still an amazing time.

The vast variety of unlockable weapon arts spice up gameplay. Ninjutsu and magic skills are powerful and similarly unique. The story may be frustrating in it’s lack of character for most of it, but gameplay is visceral and strategic while making you feel like a badass with every boss slain. Check the Go2Games store if you want the game, or The Nioh Collection including Nioh 2.

Sekiro is amazing! In a strange way, while many Souls games reward caution and fear with a hit-and-run combat style, Sekiro rewards bravery and aggression in it’s unique parry system. The comparisons to rhythm games are not just for show.

The shinobi prosthetic arm is a stroke of design genius and ripe for an incredible amount of creativity, both in the finished game and in any possible future games.

For more interesting content, VaatiVidya’s Sekiro art competition winners video and my own offering may be worth your while.

I only have two complaints: Leveling up is a lengthy process and farming at the Fountainhead Palace is pretty boring at times. Second, the combat arts are limited and highly situational only really work wonders against non-boss enemies. This is where I think Sekiro should’ve copied some of Nioh’s homework, giving the player access to multiple combat arts at once to sell versatility in combat instead of having to pause and re-equip different arts.

I’m relatively green at Bloodborne, but I beat Daddy Gascoigne and one optional boss on a bridge. The trick weapon system is fantastic, because you’re basically getting two weapons for the price of one. I’m fond of the sword-cane sword-whip hybrid and the Kirkhammer. I think between Nioh’s stances and Bloodborne’s trick weapons, there’s a hybrid mechanic between them waiting to be realized.

Don’t have a lick of a clue on how to parry, but nothing a quick google won’t fix.

The atmosphere is suitably horrific and nerve-wracking. This game is one of the few times (besides Hollow Knight) that the “detective” storytelling style works for me because hey, Lovecraftian demon gods beyond human understanding turning people mad? When in Rome!

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The post Memoirs Of a Souls Fan Who Never Played Dark Souls first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Hashtag Controversial Radical Flaming Hottake of the year incoming, but Elden Ring? Great game! That said, I’m also massively into story-based games, so let’s see how Elden Ring stacks up so far (been playing for around a week)… But first:

More Highlights: I rode through a pasture and spent 5 minutes looking for an NPC calling out to me before giving up on the assumption that he’s invisible!

Rodericka’s an odd lass, but hope her training pays off.

The best thing about not knowing how to upgrade things for a long time is by the time I figured it out, I was just sitting on a dump-truck of smithing stones and didn’t feel guilty about boosting my katana like the filthy weeb I am!

Being greeted with Caelid after trundling about a labyrinthine cave gave me an existential crisis, I liked it a lot.

I beat Margit The Wonky Stick Waggler yesterday, a nocturnal knight with a flail, a creepy-crawly knight with more in common with Usain Bolt than The Mountain and a smattering of other mini bosses.

My Experience With The Story: The game starts off with an opening storybook-style cutscene explaining the key inciting incidents as to why the world is how it is. I’m no lore expert, so apologies if I misinterpret anything, but the opening, as I understood it:

Long ago, the people of the Golden Order lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when some plonker broke the Elden Ring. Lacking the necessary receipt for a refund, the next best thing was redistributing the broken pieces to other major lords and powerful folk of the lands. The broken pieces corrupted those who took them on and you’re a bright-eyed bushy-tailed bloke or bloke-ette trying to become the new Elden Lord by defeating the current Elden Ring shard owners because that turned out so well for them… Swear I’m only being drippingly smug for comedy’s sake, I was actually very intrigued, despite possibly not following on everything.

Side note, the opening cutscene mentioned a political assassination of sorts called ‘the night of the black knives’. That made my ears perk because I’ve heard of a similarly-named real world historical event, the night of the long knives, a series of assassinations of political opponents to Hitler.

While I have enough intrigue in the story to not be apathetic, I’m personally not a huge fan of the detective-style “piece things together by vague clues and item descriptions” storytelling approach… Except in Hollow Knight, for reasons unknown even to me (my review’s here)!

With that said, the intrigue that does come up does make me very enthusiastic to find out more! At the Roundtable Stronghold, some relatively innocuous rich bloke seems to have a good relationship with his servant (according to him) and asks you to find her. Few hours later and I find out Castle Morne is experiencing it’s own slave revolt from a blind noblewoman begging me to save her daddy- I mean father.

The other NPCs aren’t much to write home about so far (of the one’s I’ve encountered at least), besides Rodericka and Phia. Rodericka’s story (so far) is a nice dash of wholesomeness amongst hours of getting smashed by 10-foot Dilf’s stick! Same for Phia, sometimes all a brother needs is a hug and that can help more than you know.

Overall thoughts: Not thrilling, but nice, with a chance for something greater. I’ve heard that George RR Martin did the worldbuilding and Miyazaki the storytelling, but I think they should’ve done things the other way around in my humble opinion.

Product Poems:

Nioh, not to be confused with Neo or knee- Oh! You hit me!

Mortal Kombat 11 with Revenge of Scorpion. Win-win.

Tsushima samurai-ninja-boy. Bathe, fox pets and Haiku.

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The post Elden Ring Story Review So Far! The Ballad of Samurai Stefan first appeared on Get2Gaming.

This isn’t a full Elden Ring review (though I’ll probably do one in the future). Today, my accessibility-loving ass wants to gauge whether or not Elden Ring would be a good introductory title for non-Souls fans.

Despite being a massive harlot for Sekiro, Nioh, Hollow Knight and Ninja Gaiden Black… I’ve never played a Souls game. I get the superficial and obvious similarities, though, so I’m definitely no beginner. I also fancy myself an empath at the best of times though, so let’s see how easy you could get into the game… But first:

Highlights from the Ballad Of Samurai Steff: Been playing about 2 or 3 hours, haven’t found my magical horsey-boy and still haven’t beat the long lost Nordic twin brother of Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa (the tree sentinel, it’s the tree sentinel). I did manage to defeat two washed up tentacle hentai beasts before going ballistic on a giant though, so I’m not a complete noob saibot.

How’s it start? Well, after getting turned into a human pancake in a scripted opening fight, you wake up in a cave. Then you fall in a hole, slam your weapon of choice into a couple zombie lads spaced out in ways to show you the basics and then you eventually come up to a knight bloke with a massive throbbing engorged… Sword.

He does a lot of damage and has decent hyper-armor (meaning sometimes if you attack him too much, his next move won’t get interrupted by your comboner). Otherwise, he’s not too hard to dodge and with 3 healing potions on-hand, you should be A-Okay. While waiting patiently and reading an enemy’s attacks can be helpful, wailing on a fool while you have a full stamina bar is still often rewarded, provided you don’t drain all your juices in one go. And those fire arrows that come with the Samurai class got me hot and bothered like-

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The post Elden Ring Preview: Funny Moments & Beginner-Friendly? first appeared on Get2Gaming.

To borrow a (currently unreleased) quote from my upcoming personal blog post, “I do love a good farce”, so sit down and strap on as I tell you a tale from the annals of Elden Ring!

The year is twenty-two and twenty, a decently-sunny yet chilly March morn. Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West released back-to-back, Sifu was fun, one of my blogs was sent to the big-mandem at Nintendo. This is the setting in which we fall upon our hero, a professional Redditeer by the monicer u/xdc_lis, who shall henceforth be referred to as Lizzie Marvel!

Twas a common pastime of trolls and ne’er do wells to invade the worlds of their fellow virtual countrymen and perform acts of varying moral fortitude on them. This usually comes in the form of players “invading” each other’s worlds, be it for cooperation, a duel or dishonorable assassination attempts!

While farming for in-game souls (experience points), our epic protagonist Lizzie spotted a far away rival player seeking to inflict death and destruction!

Luckily for Lizzie, they were adorned in the fashion of nearby NPCs (non-playable characters), so with quick-thinking and shrewd intellect, they drew no weapon except a trusty torch and walked up and down the pasture! The hunt was on and an impostor was… Among Us!

Our deadly invader searched high and low for Lizzie, not unlike every pro-monarchist when the Queen had to “enter a new phase“!

Lizzie’s mega-minded strategy of hiding in plain sight was a success and the invader soon left, never to return again.

The End (or as the Swedish say… SLUT).

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The post The Elden Ring Caper: An NPC Among Us! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

FromSoftware has hidden interesting secrets in OOB (that’s gamer-lingo for ‘Out of Bounds’ to you and me) game areas. Rumblings of an Elden Ring PVP DLC arriving have surfaced thanks to an OOB exploration video of Elden Ring by one Lance McDonald, trusted data-miner (and Professional Farmer Knight based on name alone)!

While no extra content has been officially announced yet, this Colosseum could alternatively be part of an upcoming DLC extension or just generally be a half-made asset left on the cutting room floor to save time. Like, there was probably some obscure as hell in-game text reference to Hogthar The Pot-Clopper being linked to a Colosseum and there was some ungodly debate among the devs whether or not there’d physically be enough space on the disk to explore the intricacies of his character with essay-long item descriptions as far as the eye could see… I’m exaggerating, but not by much!

As you know, I’m just as into teamwork and the Hashtag Power of Friendship UwU just as much as the thought of clobbering fools in the free marketplace of ideas… And by free marketplace, I mean £50-quid action game, and by ideas, I mean increasingly phallic and oversized weapons of intergalactic destruction.

Which is to say, Elden Ring already features both co-operative PVE (player vs environment/bosses) gameplay AND competitive combat modes, including the more standard “player invasions” for all you heathens, or you can partake in ‘Duel Invitations’ if you’d rather comb your handlebar mustache and wax poetic about how you studied the blade.

If you’re looking to get your mits on Elden Ring, have a butcher’s round our store for the Launch Editions!

Product Poems:

Dank Souls. Dank memes. Freddy? Liz? Dank Queens. Smash both. LEGO Ninja team.

There was once an AMIIBO called Belmont. Who loved to yeet axes in Vermont. With a whip and a thong, Chrom soon came along, and said “Lottie promised me a bouffant”!

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The post Elden Ring Hidden PVP Arena News + Vouchers first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Good morrow knavlings! Elden Ring and Souls games in general have a wealth of influences about them from mythology to manga, but now seems to be the series’ first crack at a cheeky Star Wars reference.

Not only can you make a Darth Maul build here, but you can also take to the battlefield with a certain set of fist-claws eerily similar to everyone’s favorite Canadian X-Man.

Have a butcher’s round our store if you want in on the Elden Ring Launch Editions. Now, let’s find out how to join the dark side!

Elden Ring has a variety of spells and classes you can fiddle about with to find what works for you. For the Darth Maul experience, you’ll need to look for the Twinblade and unlock the bloodflame blade ability. Once you have both, all you’ll have to do from there is put the lime in the coconut and drink em both up. Then boom, you have an in-universe lightsaber! Thanks to Professional Redditteer u/Night_Parad0x for being the first or among the first to post the results.

So I found out that using the Twinblade + Bloodflame Blade basically makes you into Darth Maul. from Eldenring

Style or Substance? The weapon-spell combination seems an effective one, mainly for DPS combat builds.It takes a lot of your stamina while active, but dishes out a lot of damage, so specializing in this early-game would basically make you a glass canon. So honestly?  A little bit of both. Plus the character creator gives you plenty of options to lean hard into the roleplaying as a true sith lord. Speaking of Sith, you can find out how to get early-game lighting powers right here!

Okay Joseph Stalling, how do I get it? First you have a gander round the middle of Agheel Lake, right by the Dragon-Burnt Ruins… Still not as cool-sounding as Avatar’s “DRAGON BONE CATACOMBS” but I’ll take it. Get to the building without an entry point, yoink yourself over the wall with your trusty steed and ey-presto, the twinblades should be chilling in a basement chest. There’s also an optional dragon boss in that area, but you’re a strapping lad with some pep in your step, I’m sure you’ll manage!

For Fighting Flame Wars: You can get the Bloodflame Blade spell by killing a Teardrop Scarab in Liurnia of the Lakes, which you can fast-travel to once you find it! There are a couple scarabs out there, so if you end up vibe-checking the wrong one, just channel your inner Wild Hunt and you’ll have the skill in no time.

Product Poems:

Apex Legends. Cokemilk Champions! Racing too? Hell yeah bro!

Gran Turismo 7. Vrewm. Shooty shooty bang-bang? Doom

There was once a young woman called Aloy, who’s south-end faced west like McCoys! Surely forbidden, so purely well-hidden, till coming under Lottie‘s employ.

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The post Elden Ring Lightsaber! How To Unlock! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Elden Ring has been a fantastic addition to FromSoftware’s series of Souls games, although not being a direct sequel – it plays very much like the previous games albeit much smoother and with some additional mechanics.

In Elden Ring, Miracles return in the form of Incantations. These are Faith based spells that focus on lightning damage and healing magic. In order to use them you will need a Sacred seal equipped, as well as memorizing the Incantation at a Site of Grace. You will also need to meet the necessary Faith requirements to equip and use the spell.

For those of you who are looking to find some Faith based incantations to add some lightning abilities to your arsenal – look no further.

Where to Find Early Game Lightning Abilities In Elden Ring

The following is a video which shows the necessary steps to find the Dragon Cult Prayerbook and how to purchase the Incantations. Thanks to Twitch streamer Vet  for capturing the footage to show the location.

Step 1: Travel to the Artist’s Shack Site of Grace, marked on the map below.

Step 2: Defeat the Golden Knight and he will drop the Dragon Cult Prayerbook. This item can be exchanged with certain NPCs to learn new Incantations – faith-based spells with varying effects.

Step 3: Travel to the Roundtable Hold. Speak to Brother Corhyn. Give him the Prayerbook and he will teach you three lightning Incantations – Lightning Spear, Honed Bolt and Electrify Armament.

Step 4: Ensure you have the necessary Faith stat to equip the spell, as well as a Sacred Seal equipped. Rest at a Site of Grace and memorize your chosen Incantation after purchasing it from Corhyn. You can now use your chosen Incantations!

Elden Ring is available to purchase across all relevant platforms from our store now!

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The post Elden Ring Early-Game Lightning Abilities! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Elden Ring has been a fantastic addition to FromSoftware’s series of Souls games, although not being a direct sequel – it plays very much like the previous games albeit much smoother and with some additional mechanics.

One of Elden Ring’s new features is the Ashes of War. These are combat-focused abilities that can be equipped to your weapon to alter their stats, modify their scaling rating and give you a new ability.

Flame Strike is a useful Fire element skill that is good for melee-focused builds looking to add some elemental damage to their repertoire. Not only will it fire out a burst of flames in front of you, it will then coat your weapon in flames to deal increased fire damage for a short period of time.

Flame Strike Ash Of War Location in Elden Ring

Here’s a short video which shows the necessary steps to reach find the Ash of War. Thanks to Twitch streamer Vet on  for capturing the footage to show the location.

Step 1: Go to Impassable Great Bridge – South in Caelid Wildlands. You can find this by following the main road from the Caelid Highway South Site of Grace.

Step 2: Go across the bridge. Head left at the end towards the castle.

Step 3: At the gate, go right alongside the cliff and jump over to the building. Then jump to the cliff face opposite the building platform.

Step 4: Ride along the cliff face, avoiding the Vampire Bats along the way. You will eventually come across a graveyard with a Teardrop Scarab in it. Kill the scarab and it will give you Flame Sword Ash of War.

You can apply the Ash of War to most melee armaments with the exception of Colossal weapons and Flails. This can be done at any Site of Grace. Once equipped, you can activate the weapon skill through two-handing the equipped weapon and using your L2/RT button.

Elden Ring is available to purchase across all relevant platforms from our store now!

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The post Elden Ring Flame Strike Ash of War Location first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Elden Ring is one of the year’s most anticipated games. From Software has grown extensively over the last few years and has become one of the most well-known developers in the industry today, so it’s likely the game will receive good reviews and feedback from fans. The latest trailer gives us a gameplay overview of the new title, and gives us an insight into what to expect from Elden Ring.

Elden Ring Latest Gameplay Overview Trailer

The video starts by presenting players to Elden Ring’s narrative. It explains that players take control of a distant ancestor of The Tarnished, a cohort of exiled heroes.  Then  the mysterious world is unveiled  and shows the powerful threats who inhabit these lands. It also mentions Elden Ring’s dungeons and how they vary from the overworld.

Elden Ring, as seen in the trailer, places a strong emphasis on exploration and player freedom, and the video also provides an overview of some classes. Elden Ring also allows the player to use a variety of skills and equipment, allowing them to create their own custom and unique builds. The trailer, then briefly highlights the crafting system in the game. Later, the multiplayer component of Elden Ring is shown with the return of jolly co-operation and PvP invasions.

This latest teaser does an outstanding job of introducing gamers to Elden Ring’s universe. The game appears to be loaded with features and will have a lot of diversity in its combat design, while also adding many quality-of-life adjustments that are sometimes lacking in other games in this genre. Elden Ring looks more impressive with each demonstration, and all signs point to From Software successfully integrating Dark Souls mechanics into an open-world game.

Elden Ring was co-created by From Software and George R. R. Martin, and the world is supposed to be rich in lore. Sadly,  Elden Ring spoilers have popped up online, with more leaks and videos likely to emerge before the game’s release. Bandai Namco has since taken them down, but it would be impossible to stop all leaks at this point. Just be wary if you are someone who wants to enjoy the story for themselves!

Elden Ring is available to pre-order from our store now! It is scheduled to release across Xbox, PlayStation and PC platforms February 25th 2022.

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Voucher Codes: Offers end 28/02/22

The post Elden Ring Gameplay Overview Trailer! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In the lead up to the release of Elden Ring, From Software has announced the necessary specs to run the game on PC. They appear to put a lot of strain on the player’s hardware. If the specifications are any indication, the game will be more  hardware intense  than some FromSoftware’s previous PC releases.

Elden Ring is a significant improvement over the studio’s previous efforts, such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Whereas previous From Software titles take on a more linear, Metroidvania-style exploration system with tight and often small-scale levels, Elden Ring features a massive open-world for players to explore however they see fit with many smaller dungeons scattered throughout.

PC specifications for #ELDENRING. pic.twitter.com/qdmBFlMuit

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 15, 2022

According to the announcement, players will need at least 12 GB of RAM to run the game, with 16 GB being the obvious sweet spot for everything to run smoothly. The GPU requirement is far more intriguing, as the GTX 1060 (with 3 GB of VRAM) is listed as the minimum required to play Elden Ring, while the GTX 1070 is listed as the recommended option.

The relatively minor difference between the minimum and recommended PC graphics card requirements could indicate that the game doesn’t visually scale all that much and that any newer mid-range GPU should have no trouble running it. Elden Ring’s system requirements are vastly more demanding than Dark Souls 3′ for example.

Minimum and Recommended PC Specs for Elden Ring

Elden Ring is available to pre-order from our store now! It is scheduled to release across Xbox, PlayStation and PC platforms February 25th 2022.

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The post Elden Ring PC Specs Have Been Announced first appeared on Get2Gaming.