Elden Ring' Is Even Wilder Than What George R.R. Martin Envisioned

You might have noticed that the gaming world has been so excited about Elden Ring that some gamers even claimed they were afraid of dying before getting to play it. Hype is a dangerous thing, one many big games fail to live up to. Worry not about Elden Ring, though, as the few hours we've had to play it since release is more than enough to declare it as one of the greatest games of all time.

One of the slept-on ways in which it rocks is in how it shakes things up. Upon its announcement, Elden Ring thrilled many by announcing the collaboration of famed Game Of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin but scared a few others because From Software didn't really need anyone's help crafting a bizarrely enthralling tale. Nobody wants too many cooks, especially in a developer's office where you historically have no use for them. From Software, however, was smart enough to appeal to both groups.

Martin didn't exactly create the world of the game; he created the brave knights and lords who used to inhabit that world before the "shattering of the Elden Ring," a mysterious cataclysmic event that forever changed that world. That's the moment when Hidetaka Miyazaki, creator of Dark Souls and troll supreme of gaming, picked up on Martin's work and twisted all of his humane characters into eldritch monstrosities. From Software has always come up with interesting stories, but what the company really excels at is in the way they tell them

Another absolutely marvelous thing about the game is how it improves on its predecessors' messaging system. Ever since Demon's Souls, players have been able to leave cryptic messages made from a very limited number of words. These have always proved either deadly, helpful ...

... or hilarious plus one of the former. The new vast open world of Elden Ring provides the best possible use for that system.

And before you think every player is an absolute dumbass, just consider that maybe swapping the name of every animal in that world is From's idea of twisted world building – and it's good.