My Elden Ring Notes — Part One

More than a list, less than a full piece

PS5 screenshot taken by the author.

Last week, I wrote up my first impressions of Elden Ring’s new ray tracing patch. The results were not promising, based on a few hours of PC play and about an hour with the PS5 version. I said in that article that I’d “keep playing the console build if I could stomach the framerate,” and that I’d report back on whether it got better or worse later in the game.

As part of an accountability method to make sure I do this, I’m writing up my notes as a series of articles here on Medium, starting with this one. This is an informal discussion of random stuff based on my observations, and I hope you enjoy it.

I wasn’t asked by From Software to write about this game or compensated by them in any way. I don’t make money from my articles without reader support.

Ray Tracing Performance Is Still *So Bad*

I played several hours of the game as a new melee character and also about an hour of the game as a mage. With the melee build I’m trying a halberd for the first time, and I’ve now completed most of the first “zone” of the game’s massive world, including the side dungeons but not including fighting Margit (the first major boss) or the giant dragon that flies over the lake.