I don't think I've mentally flitted around so much in my opinion of a game over 100 hours of playtime but after everything from hatred and exasperation to respect and admiration I've ended up feeling pretty positive indeed on my experience.

It's a hard game, and one I didn't think I'd particularly enjoy especially having bounced off Demon's Souls and Bloodborne quite heavily, but maybe it was the fact that I actually spent money on this (rather than getting it as a 'freebie' through PS Plus) but I persevered and had myself a good time. The feeling of satisfaction when you finally beat a boss is honestly hard to match, and the critical path 'dungeons' are easily the best part of the game - it makes me think that I need to give these previous games (and the Dark Souls series in general) another shake.

Did the open world help here? Maybe - I'm not sure it necessarily added that much to what was on offer other than having somewhere else to go if you got stuck, and I also don't think it's a particularly well designed one, but there were enough interesting places to discover that I went off the beaten track more times that I expected to. As for the story and lore of the world though, I was left underwhelmed - it was fine, but I knew I wasn't getting invested in the hows and whys of the main 'story' or the sidequests.

At the end of the day though, I was surprised. Surprised that I'd had such a good time after dying a lot and having to deal with a lot of minor frustrations caused by seemingly purposefully obtuse design decisions. Despite going through phases of loving and hating the game in equal measure at various points, when it works, Elden Ring is a great experience.

The single player feedback loop is somehow even worse than GT7. I appreciate that you're actually punished for collisions and corner cutting here, but I could do without each event being a minimum of 5 races with a mandatory 10-15 minute segment at the beginning of each race to get a specific lap time, feels like a massive waste of time especially for anyone who's already familiar with the track/car.

Also not a fan of constant level up notifications and gamification of individual track segments and the need to keep using the same car over and over to unlock upgrades - I know FM is more simcade than sim but did the parts they've taken from more arcade like games really don't mesh with the more serious tone here, and can suck the fun out of some multiplayer events for cars you haven't driven too much before.

Summary
A tactical card based RPG set in the Marvel universe.

Do buy if you enjoy the Marvel universe, like tactical RPGs and "story rich" games.
Don't buy if you don't like long games, typical Marvel storylines, lots of dialogue or turn based combat.

Pros
- Well written and great voice acting. A world rich in lore that explores the arcane/magical side of the marvel universe. The story is enjoyable and the characters engaging.
- Graphics are generally good, especially the look of the heroes and their suits. The characters are well animated, with subtle differences in the way they move and behave.
- Combat is enjoyable and there are lots of difficulty levels to adjust the challenge. Use the environment and hero abilities to defeat your foes. Easy to learn, harder to master.
- You can pet the dog and cat

Cons
- Some glitches and bugs. Including an annoying one that prevents saving in some longer missions (like the final one and the last mission of the DLC). Some small graphical glitches at times or frame drops when certain abilities are used
- I feel like there could have been more abilities/cards for each hero as you see them all quite quickly
- Some of the general missions get repetitive as you see the same mission styles and enemy types over and over again

Neutral
- Some may feel the Abbey sequences are repetitive and there's too much dialogue. I personally didn't mind this at all, enjoyed exploring the abbey and hanging out with the heroes.
- Some may feel the DLC is underwhelming or too short. However, again it is well written, gives you new characters and an epic boss fight at the end.
- You initially may feel slightly overwhelmed by the different mechanics, but it does click and make sense eventually.

This is a game I didn't know I needed in my life.
I had never heard of this series before, and it wasn't on my radar at all, but all of a sudden all of the Civilizations channels I follow started talking about this game so I gave it a try. So very worth it.

This game is the perfect love child of Civilizations and Heroes of Might and Magic, with a bit of Total War thrown into the mix. It takes only the best parts of all of those games and mixes them together to create a gameplay loop that is at the same time familiar to fans of those franchises, yet unique enough to be its own thing. City building and diplomacy aspects of Civilization 6 are on display, but combat is much more like the HoMM, which is fantastic in my opinion.

Customization is also king here. Thanks to all of the incredible customization options in this game, I can't even really tell you how many factions there are because every game your units, skills and traits are determined by what you choose to pick, both at the race creation screen but also throughout the game. The first game I played, I was using a race of molemen who used Earth magic to create golems and eventually turn themselves into a race of golden gods. The next game I played a Druid/necromancer hybrid of cat people who's concept was that they descended from Egyptian gods who utilized all beasts, living and dead, to further their goals of conquest. Now I'm playing a race of assassin halflings that's elevated themselves to Angels of despair, being experts in deception, mental manipulation and deadly strikes.
All of this comes from decisions made mid-game, and that really makes you feel in complete control of the direction your civilization is taking.

I'm just raving, so I'll wrap this up. The game is excellent. If you're on the fence, just look up some of the excellent youtube videos and see if this is your type of strategy game. If you do feel even remotely interested after that, take the leap. You won't regret it.