It’s hard to overstate how popular the latest Souls-like game is. Elden Ring became Steam’s most played game at 760,000 concurrents on launch day, which was unprecedented for a FromSoftware game. It’s been nearly three weeks since the game launched, and interest hasn’t died down. The PC port of Elden Ring has 226,106 reviews as of publication and a respectable “Very Positive” rating. The game garnered positive reviews, but many players cited the instability of the PC port. Some advised people to wait for an official fix before purchasing the game.
Most of the positive reviews praised Elden Ring’s open-world design for being enjoyable and open to different kinds of playstyles. While players acknowledged the famed difficulty of the Souls-like genre, many seemed to think that the latest entry was an approachable entry point for newcomers.
Other reviews were filled with jokes, including its famous maidenless meme and “try fingers, but hole.” This is likely a nod to the various messages that players can leave each other in Elden Ring’s multiplayer mode.
Some treat Steam as their own personal Souls-like forum. One reviewer even posted a recipe for…cookies? Some multiplayer messages are helpful game tips (like Steam reviews!) while others are considerably…less helpful for completing the game. If any Kotaku reader would like to try actually baking these cookies and tell us how they turned out, we’d be grateful.
Despite the fun had in the reviews, many players struggled with constant stuttering and stability issues on the Steam version of Elden Ring. Some felt physically ill at the wildly fluctuating framerate, and others pointed out that a boss-heavy game like Elden Ring was frustratingly unsatisfying when hampered by random game freezes. When a single second can mean the difference between surviving to fight another day or losing all of your runes, inconsistent performance can be a game-breaking issue.
But even when the Souls-like game got frustrating for players, the community remains in incredibly good spirits about having their asses handed to them on a regular basis. One reviewer joked that they dealt with Elden Ring frustration by tidying their house, and that their house has never been so clean.
Some players were having a spiritual experience with Elden Ring.
The folks with hundreds of hours of gameplay logged into their Steam account, on the other hand, are very likely maidenless.
