so, to toss my two cents into the Elden Ring discussion pit, it's the game of the decade for me and the best RPG since Persona 5.
someone here compared it to Conan Exiles, it actually feels very similar in terms of how the world is designed, although technically ER is vastly superior. it also reminds me of Final Fantasy for some reason. I've been told by the people that own a Switch, that ER is basically a Zelda game, but I'll have to take their word for it.
and just to clarify, the only two games from this company I played in the past were Bloodborne and Sekiro, and I hated both. Bloodborne due to terrible controls, Sekiro due to terrible vertical level design. Elden Ring on PC fixes most of these issues for me (although, the combat in Sekiro is superior in my opinion, would love to have that as an option in ER).
anyway, I won't write a review or anything (I have a lot to say, but I'll keep it to myself), I'll just address a few issues other obsidianites brought up recently. namely, GRRM's involvement and the whole plot thing, combat, the open world and role-playing aspects.
not sure how many of you have read ancient literature (Norse sagas, Greek myths etc.), but one of the things that makes GRRM's writing stand out is how he emulates story beats and styles that are often encountered in those early examples of storytelling. and you can see a lot of that in ER. I won't spoil anything here, but the influence is very noticeable, it gives the game this incredible atmosphere. I did catch myself many times feeling like I was actually experiencing a fairy tale.
love the quest design, easily the best approach to doing quests in an open world game IMO. you get to an NPC and talk to him, he/she drops a hint on what you should do next, and that's it. on the one hand it makes quests easily missed, on the other, you aren't required to complete any of them, so when you do stumble across a quest resolution if feels very rewarding. some of the quests are incredibly story-rich and all of them have tragic resolutions. everything else in the game's story is traditional FromSoft stuff with the elder gods and demi-gods doing their thing far as I can tell, not interested in any of that personally. but that's just fluff that never interested me in games.
combat on its base level is mediocre due to how heavily enemy design relies on the player evading attacks and not blocking. even though parrying and countering are a thing, they're very situational, while evading is universal across all enemy types. personally I think it should be the other way around (like in Sekiro, where the emphasis is on parrying and countering), but I can make parry/counter work with certain builds, so at least it's an option if you're willing to invest the time into making it work.
as for the open world, again, it's some of the best design I've seen. games like the Witcher 3 or Skyrim don't even come close (even though they're clear influences, as well as Assassin's Creed, I'm sure). the variety of environments, the attention to detail, the hundred different enemy types representing warring factions and poor creatures stuck between them - all of that makes the game world a joy to just traverse and take in the sights.
as for the role-playing part, I love that the game has at least three secret endings and another three unlockable variations of the base ending, all of which require you to jump through hoops to reach but all of which are optional and skippable entirely. I really enjoy building up my character and trying different approaches with bosses I can't beat. for example, I was having trouble with one particular boss (the first Crucible Knight you meet in Limgrave) and just couldn't get through no matter how much I tried spamming skills. I then tried parrying and just couldn't get a hang of it, but then I found an ash of war that added a special kind of parry to a shield of my choice, and that was the winning recipe for me. I like how crafting isn't forced down my throat and can be ignored completely. I like how intuitive the stats scaling is. unlike some other games I didn't need to go through millions of guides to figure out how to build my character. the equipment screen makes it self-evident.
anyway, I'll just stop here before this turns into a wall of text. one downside is the UI of course, it's borderline unusable but can be customized somewhat which makes it bearable.