Breath of the Wild is more comparable to Babylon’s Fall than most, since the former Hyrule Castle is the dominant central focus of the game (as it’s where Zelda is located), and Babylon’s Fall focuses around scaling the Ziggurat. BOTW , however, has build-up quests and side quests that provide diversity in gameplay, yielding hours of content that rarely if ever bo

Robbed of the Greater Will’s Grace, Elden Ring ‘s Godfrey became the first Tarnished, exiled from the Lands Between and told to struggle, fight, and grow stronger before they return. In a way, Godfrey’s journey mimics Martin’s journey as a writer. Godfrey was a strong warrior before catching Marika’s attention, as Martin was a talented writer before Game of Thrones caught HBO’s attention. As Godfrey was risen to the position of Elden Lord, Martin, too, was put on a pedestal as the world fell in love with Game of Thrones . Godfrey was a tool for Marika, somebody that she could use to advance her own goals, and it could be argued that Martin became a tool for HBO, having to entrust the unfinished material of his final book to the showrunners because the show was made faster than he could write the final b

Again, Skyrim represents a huge step forward when it comes to exploration. The game offers a number of sights and touchstones that can be discovered organically, while also featuring many secrets and lore-rich areas that are connected to its many quests. By the time most players finish with Skyrim , the in-game map will be littered with fast-travel markers tied to cities, ruins, monuments, and much m

Even with Martin’s punishing dark fantasy world, many of the inspired character designs give off an air of nobility. Meanwhile, FromSoft’s fantasies contain some of the most otherworldly and shocking desi

Inspired by folklore and horror, Bloodborne takes players down a path of investigating a mysterious affliction. It’s fantasy meets mystery meets RPG, and the three genres work in tandem to augment one another. Mystery keeps players exploring, fantasy means there’s no telling what they’ll find, and RPG means player ownership of the character. Babylon’s Fall could’ve benefitted from this co

Since the game’s announcement, there was very little revealed of Elden Ring until last year’s gameplay trailer, surely a testament to its intense production. Naturally, that means that many things were happening during its development cycle that fans may not know ab

Outside the Caelid colosseum are The Great-Jar and three summon signs. Players need to summon these three NPCs (all are named Knight of the Great Jar) and beat all three without dying. When the NPCs are defeated, players are given the Great-Jar Arsenal talis

Mass Effect 2 stepped up the story from the first game, innovating even further by using the Mass Effect 1 save file to influence the second game, so while players could go in without having played the first game, having done so provided an extra bonus. Without that, though, the story is still incredibly well-acted, written, and designed. Best of all, it’s welcoming for new play

The prospect of Miyazaki and Martin collaborating on a fantasy game was a salivating one when it was revealed in 2019. Now that the latter’s role has been more defined for the public, Miyazaki has also divulged how some of their flow of information wor

The map of Skyrim is undoubtedly vast and variable, but Elden Ring ‘s the Lands Between has it beat. Players won’t know exactly how big Elden Ring ‘s map is at first, which makes its diversity even more astonishing. Whereas Skyrim offers visual diversity between its most important settlements, Elden Ring ‘s many locations have differences that are far more than surface-deep. For example, Noskella, Eternal City has almost nothing in common with Leyndell, as the former is a subterranean, dark, menacing landscape while the former is a regal and pristine metropolis. These opposing styles are evidenced through each city’s unique art style, but also through their environment design, with Leyndell being far more open and sprawling and Noskella is more linear, with a greater focus on verticality and complex, Gothic architecture that highlights its incomprehensible nature. This difference is also present in the enemy types of each location (shining knights in Leyndell, giant bugs in Noskel

Don’t let The Legend of Zelda ‘s or Nintendo’s family-friendly image fool you; Breath of the Wild has appeal for all ages. It also doesn’t rely on nostalgia to sell itself, as the game genuinely compels players to explore every corner of its vast open world, all while eventually making their way toward facing Ga

One of the central inclusions in both Elden Ring _ and Bethesda’s seminal 2011 release The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim _ is the now-ubiquitous open-world map. As massive, highly detailed video games, both of these iconic releases place a heavy emphasis on things like scale, side activities, and traversal, with FromSoftware and Bethesda introducing innovation to the open-world formula in several ways. Connections have been drawn between Skyrim and Elden Ring Nightreign Returning Bosses Ring locations like Blackreach , but there are many other ways in which the two games differ when it comes to their iconic m