I can't really think of anything, but I also never really say I'll never buy a game.

usually take a wait and see approach.

Depends on the game. If its a long game that is story driven, I don't need to be losing progress constantly by dying so I'll go with the default/normal difficulty.

If its a genre I'm good at/gameplay is the focus, i'll usually go one up from the default setting, then adjust as needed.

@hardwenzen: no, but I had a concussion in 2020 that messed me up pretty bad.

Though there are definitely other people reporting the same issue for ER, maybe something about it is worse I don't know.

Other third person action games don't cause the same problem it's weird

I ended up refunding the DLC. Primarily because I forgot the camera in the game makes me motion sick. I finished the base game over several months just playing it in short stints. The 60 FPS limit doesn't help, honestly I find that frame rate doesn't feel great to me anymore.

But I also realized after playing for a bit that I don't really feel motivated to do that again with the DLC. Being pooped into a big open area with minimal story context and just being left to wander around killing stuff reminded me of how tedious I found much of the base game. I honestly hope From get back to more focused level design and less sprawling areas in their future games but given the successive of Elden Ring that doesn't seem likely.

I think there is a bit of staleness creeping into some parts of their gameplay. I enjoyed Elden Ring, but I also didn't think their cryptic style of quests/story was a good fit for such a large, sprawling experience. So it really did feel like 80 hours or whatever of just kinda wandering around killing stuff and seeing cool shit without much direction or focus behind it, as someone who doesn't want to spend a bunch of time reading about lore/quest guides online.

but i'd still say I'm a fan. there is too much craftsmanship and compelling weirdness to their games for me to not enjoy them

yea, I guess I could do that. my lazy habits with gear management in the base game coming back to haunt me lol

Probably in the minority but I kinda wish there was a way to start with a fresh character.

Going back to my dude form two years ago who is loaded down with all manner of random shit, and having to sort through all that to find new items etc. feels like it will put a damper on my enjoyment. Would rather start such a big expansion with a clean slate.

still looking forward to it though. I like the sound of it being more dense/intricate as my biggest issues with the base game was that it felt a bit diluted/watered down with how big and open some of the areas were, especially later in the game.

that would be nice. But given we've made it through like 15+ AC games and the stealth has always sucked, somehow makes me struggle to expect much in the way of improvements in that area

stealth in AC games has always been terrible. The best AC games are the ones with the least stealth in them

I had some fun with infinite's single player but it's still boggles my mind how badly they screwed up with the multiplayer live service aspect of it.

They had a seemingly strong base for the game and just didn't do anything with it. Hopefully they just use a engine thats easier to work with next time because I got a sense that was a big part of the problem