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Yo I miss very few things about my teenage years, but I do miss all the time I had back then to play video games. I loved playing non-stop into the early hours of the morning, an opportunity I now, as a busy adult, rarely get. Outside of covering games for work, I feel like I barely have time to play, which explains my fondness for games that can be finished in a couple of afternoons, rather than the gigantic, absorbing RPGs I once craved. I’ve made peace with this. My days of 100-hour epics and/or live-service online games are long gone. They’ll return in time, when my kids are older.
But it’s been over two years since Elden Ring came out (a game in my favourite genre, by my favourite director) and I’m suddenly fed up with barely having played it. I’ve tried the game on PS5, but I’ve never left the (admittedly huge) starting area of Limgrave. I’ve always hoped that my partner would take the kids away for a weekend, or that I could take a week off during the school term, so I could return to my teenage habits and play it alone for hours on end. But it’s been two yearsIf I want to play this game, or any other important game, I have to try to fit it into the life I actually have, with work, two young children, and all the other responsibilities that get in the way.
Is that even possible? One thing that would surely help: the Steam Deck. Since having kids, I’ve become very reliant on handheld consoles, because it’s nearly impossible to get an uninterrupted hour in front of the TV without anyone else watching, and I don’t want to traumatize my kids by cutting out Elden Ring’s grotesque, violent cutscenes in front of them. I managed to play both Zelda games on the Switch because I could take it with me everywhere and grab occasional moments, and those games are wildly popular. So a few weeks ago I bought Elden Ring again, installed it on the Steam Deck, and rebooted, determined to beat the game’s infamous early boss, Godric the Grafted, and see what lies beyond Stormveil Castle.
At home, I spent every spare minute on the Steam Deck, ignoring my family. Kids watching TV for half an hour before dinner? Elden Ring. My partner watching the Euros? Elden Ring, with one eye on the scoreboard. Microwaved food? Time to play some Elden Ring. I tried to take on small, achievable adventures, galloping around in search of unexplored ruins and being surprised by a dragon in the middle of a lake. I climbed back up Stormveil Castle and got absolutely crushed by Godric. I got used to giving up in the middle of a fight, retreating and finding something else to do. Progress felt painfully slow, and I hated having to stop playing in the middle of something. At the end of the first week I looked at the game time clock: six hours.
Six hours? Is that really the sum total of all the free minutes I have in a week? I felt deeply disheartened. Playing a game like this in small chunks didn’t feel natural, and all my stolen moments added up to an alarmingly insignificant amount. At this rate, it would take me half a year to finish this game, and that’s without playing (or doing) anything else.
My problem was that I was thinking about finishing the game, rather than enjoying it. Six hours is still better than zero hours. I can’t play the game like I used to, and that meant I needed a different attitude. Instead of reading guides to find an optimal path through the game, trying to progress as quickly and efficiently as possible, I left Godric in his castle, teleported to a safer area, and just… tried to have fun. I found a few hidden bosses and beat them with ease. I opened a chest and teleported to a horrible underground mine full of insectoid wizards, ran away, and ended up in a town full of ghosts. I grew very fond of some Wolverine-style metal claws I found, not because they were the best weapon out there, but because they were fun to use.
After a week of running back and forth like this, I had cured myself of the frustration I felt before. Elden Ring is a horrible game if you try to complete it as quickly as possible with extremely limited time – most games are. It’s a wonderful game if you focus on the adventure you’re having in the moment. I spent about 40 minutes in a small, smoky church, trying to beat a red ghost warrior with a gigantic knife that could kill me in two hits, just to see if I could. By the time I caught her, after two successful parries and a flurry of desperate sword strikes, I was beside myself. That was a moment I would have completely missed if I’d been fixated on beating the game.
Last night I defeated Godric with those silly claws I so enjoy using. I stopped watching the game time clock. I stopped worrying about maximizing or minimizing time. And now I’m actually having fun. If you’re wondering how to play huge games when you only have an hour here and there, my advice is: take that hour. It’s what you have, and an hour spent enjoying a game is better than an hour spent wishing you could play it longer.
What to play
If you’re ready to take on your first FromSoftware/Miyazaki game and want something more manageable than Elden Ring, I highly recommend the PS5 remake of Demon’s soulsOriginally released in 2009, the rebuilt version fixes many of the controls and camera issues, so you get the full dark fantasy-inflected horror feel and exceptional combat with less frustration. It’s a difficult game, but it’s worth it, and it takes far less of your time than any of the other Souls games.
Available in: PS5
Estimated playing time: 30+ hours
What to read
We did a dirty thing and simulated the first five years of each UK party’s government in the game. Democracy 4based on the policies of their manifestos. They did not do very well.
Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki mentioned the possibility of an Elden Ring movie or TV show in last week’s interview. Well, now George RR Martinwho co-wrote the game’s story, has hinted on his blog that something may already be in the works. “About those rumors you may have heard about a movie or a TV series… I have nothing to say. Not a word, no, nothing. I don’t know anything, you’ve never heard a peep from me.”
There are multiple remakes of old movies. Assassin’s Creed games in development, Ubisoft says – which could well include the pirate-flavored Black Flag, still the best in my opinion.
Capcom announced a remake of Dead man resurrectingthe satirical cult hit about killing zombies with whatever you find in a mall. Out in September.
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Reader Matt asks:
“What are the possible consequences of IGN buying the Gamer Network of gaming news sites? If Eurogamer is shut down, we will revolt.“
It may seem like a headline-grabbing question, but it’s an important one for readers of gaming news and reviews (and, as a Pushing Buttons reader, that’s you). At the end of May it was announced that major gaming website IGN (where, to be honest, I worked between 2010 and 2013) has bought UK gaming websites: VG247, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz and others (for more information: I also worked for all of those sites between 2006 and 2010). Currently, there are just two companies that own almost all of the UK’s specialist gaming media. Future Publishing has GamesRadar, PC Gamer and its selection of magazines, and IGN has everything else.
Now, IGN has already purchased other gaming websites before, including 1up and GameSpyAnd those ended up closing, which doesn’t inspire confidence. But you have to ask yourself: why would anyone buy a bunch of beloved and, from what I’ve heard, still profitable brands only to close them down? In 2024, any online media company needs all the traffic it can get; buying up the competition only to close them down would be a terrible investment in the shrinking advertising economy. So I’m cautiously hopeful that IGN is a good owner for these sites, and we won’t lose a huge chunk of UK gaming media through this acquisition.
Why does this matter? Gaming is one of the few areas of entertainment that still has a thriving trade press. The music press is dwindling – just look at the fate of NME and Pitchfork. TV and film journalism now lives largely in newspapers, like this one. But when it comes to gaming, the mainstream press is way behind the journalists and critics at places like IGN, Kotaku and Eurogamer. There’s immense competence, passion and talent in the gaming trade press and that leads to truly excellent coverage that benefits us all – not just because it’s fun to read, but because it genuinely challenges publishers and developers. Do we want a gaming media made up entirely of sycophantic influencers and celebrity gaming streamers? exceptionally poor characterPlease no. We want a thriving trade press and we expect IGN to be able to provide it.