Elden Ring - GotY 2022 @ Inverse

Inverse thinks Elden Ring is the GotY 2022, but many players don't finish it:

ELDEN RING IS UNDENIABLY GAME OF THE YEAR — AND THAT’S A PROBLEM

Uncomfortably inevitable.

YOU KNOW IT. I KNOW IT. WE ALL KNOW IT.

This year’s Game of the Year contest was all sewn up just six weeks into 2022. Elden Ring is one of the rare games to truly transcend the nerd-o-sphere and become a bonafide cultural phenomenon. Even The New York Times wrote about it (awkwardly). As of mid-November, it had sold more than 17.5 million copies worldwide.

But there’s one reason the game’s uncontested greatness is a mixed blessing. Elden Ring is too long and too hard for the majority of casual (and even not-so-casual) players. And its inescapable acclaim could wrongly convince some folks that games just aren’t for them.

There are several compelling reasons Elden Ring deserves all the praise that’s been tossed its way like Mardi Gras beads from tipsy revelers. The first and most persuasive is its world. It’s no secret that many open-world games can sag under the weight of big, empty maps that too often reduce gameplay to a series of interconnected checklists. Elden Ring does not suffer from this issue.

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Senior Entertainment Writer Eric Francisco expressed his mingled awe and dissatisfaction with the game rather elegantly in a December Twitter thread.

“I don’t know how else to express it but when it comes down to it, Elden Ring — a game I acknowledge is fantastic but that I ultimately do not love and cannot finish — kind of alienated me away from gaming completely,” he wrote. “Elden Ring’s immense status sorta disillusioned me on where the hobby is going, evolving into a thing I do not recognize and do not see myself fitting in anymore. It’s like everyone loves a person I had a very bad date with and I’m left to keep it to myself.”

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Thanks Henriquejr!