Well, I've finally retired and chose Elden Ring as the first game I would play now that I actually have the time. I considered playing Zelda Tears of the Kingdom first, as it was renowned as the greatest game ever made by folks I don't know. But in planning my retirement I included buying myself the best gaming TV and sound system I could afford as a retirement present to myself and frankly the TV was too much for Tears of the Kingdom. 720p on a 4K TV? Kiss my ass!
I had enjoyed playing the Souls games on the Xbox 360, so I had an inkling what Elden Ring was going to be like. FromSoftware does excellent Middle Ages action rpg's and I love skulking around the old castles and ruins while I grind, grind, grind. I have no complaints about the game, but I'm playing on a PS5 that I'm using for the first time and I'm having some controller issues that make playing the game very exasperating. The worst of which is accidentally hitting the Home button on the controller while in combat. The Home button is placed between the sticks, making it very easy to touch when moving the thumb sticks rapidly in a panic. When you push Home while playing, it brings up a Trophies menu that entirely fills the screen but does not pause the game. You are blinded to what is happening in the game while enemies chop you character to bits as you frantically look down at the controller to find the Home button to push again and clear the Trophies. This happened so many times that I actually Googled PS5 controller Home guard and found a place selling exactly that for both the PS5 and PS4 controllers. I purchased both and so far it's been working very well. I included a pic of one on my controller.
It's an 1/8 thick piece of hard plastic with adhesive backing formed to fit the round surface of the controller. It puts the Home button inside a pocket that can still be activated with a deliberate effort. Just what I needed! My second controller complaint isn't aimed at Sony, but at the game designers who thought it would be cute to assign long winded celebratory gestures to impress, I assume, online friends with something you may have just done in the game. The very same controller button that is also used to pick up items, something that you do constantly. You find yourself sneaking around in catacombs trying to pick up as much loot as fast as possible by hitting the pick up button as quickly as possible, when BAM!, you've just accidentally triggered a two second moronic gesture during which you cannot control you're character. Naturally, the animations draw the attention of everything you hoped wouldn't see you, which attack you mercilessly while you're character struts around pumping his fist in the air. What a stupid way to die!
Being retired means I've lost my sugar daddy who funded my collecting hobby, but it's nice to have meaningful time to play the games now. I thought with the new TV I'd spend more time streaming shows I never had time to watch before, but no, I just grind, grind, grind all day long. It's fun!
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