Micah

I don't agree that it's weak. It's just massive and can feel boring and unrewarding at times. Shadow Of The Erdtree condensed the size of the map and used verticality and shortcuts to make it feel bigger and more interconnected. Which, imo, makes it better than the base game map.

I love Elden Ring. In fact, I'm 50 hours through my fourth playthrough. However, I would argue that making Dark Souls open world is hardly an innovation. Neither is adding a dedicated jump button. To make Elden Ring as approachable as possible for a mainstream audience, while retaining their signature difficulty, FromSoft stripped away everything else that made Dark Souls difficult. Like boss runbacks, not so many bonfires, hollowing and being cursed (or some other obscure game mechanic that adds friction to a playthrough) and traded it in for streamlining. Yes, Elden Ring is the most mechanically polished Souls game, but it is also the most vanilla, player friendly game they've ever made. Since beating Elden Ring, and inbetween subsequent playthroughs, I've played every Dark Souls game multiple times, as well as Bloodborne and Sekiro, and it is a sinch to switch back and forth between the them. Sometimes it's even better. There are times that galloping through Elden Ring's (gorgeous) open world and dealing with trash mobs is admittedly boring. And the rewards for exploration and combat can be wildly disappointing. Like fighting a rune bear for a fricken arteria leaf... Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro never really had that problem. I think either style is perfectly valid, and they both can exist at the same time. My hope is that their next souls game goes back to basics while retaining some of the lessons they learned from Elden Ring in terms of combat and world/dungeon design. I imagine a map that is as intricate and interconnected as Dark Souls with the quality of Elden Ring's legacy dungeons. That, to me, sounds like a dream come true.

Keep Todd Howard far away from New Vegas 2. We have no reason to believe that he is capable of delivering the kind of deep RPG experience that fans of NV will expect from a potential sequel. Unless, of course, your idea of a good NV sequel is the classic "your character is the one" narrative arc that Todd Howard is seemingly obsessed with. Which, consequently, leaves no room whatsoever for a meaningful RPG experience. Because no matter what you say or do in game, your character has to be "the one."

The reason it's impossible for Starfield to redeem itself like Cyberpunk is because Starfield is a fundamentally boring game. The story itself is supremely boring and the gameplay is big standard. Side quests were totally unengaging and pointless. Bethesda went the safe route and tried to make a game that would appeal to as many people as possible. Todd Howard has this weird obsession with narratives that revolve around the player being "the one" and it's not resonating with players. IDC if they can get the game running at native 4k 60fps with rtx on a 3060, it cannot be saved. Honestly I think they need to let someone else direct their games from here on our.

I just started another playthrough of Cyberpunk without even realizing a significant patch was incoming. I believe this is playthrough 3 or 4, and it's the first time I'm actually reading all of the lore bits and pieces and watching the news and talk shows, and I'm so much more invested in the story. It really is one of the best games of all time. And kudos to CDPR for never giving up on it.