It's been awhile since I've written gamelogs on this blog. I've been too busy playing and just do not have enough time to blog. Still I wanted to put out an update, if only to prevent me from falling further behind on my backlog of gamelogs to post. I'm going to do it a bit differently this time. Instead of the usual one post per gamelog format, I'm going to bundle them together in this one big post. I'll add some quick links below so you can get to the game you're interested in.

But first, some random thoughts on videogames at the moment.

It feels pretty good to be an Xbox Gamepass subscriber right now. Not only did The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remaster become available to play right after Bethesda shadow dropped the game, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was available on Gamepass one day after. I know everyone is talking about the Oblivion Remaster, but I will argue that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the game to play.

Also Path of Exile 2 is a great game! I did not include gamelogs for it in this post, but will do so in my next post.

Also my brother let me borrow his unused Playstation 4. I finally got to play Gran Turismo 7 for the first time ever and oh man I've missed the feel of Gran Turismo games.

A quick pose at Gatefront Ruins showing the equipment you could get from defeating enemies there: the Brass Shield and the Godric Knight Armor.

After I was satisfied with my ability to clear the Gatefront Ruins, I then moved on to fighting these enemies on horseback to the east of Gatefront Ruins. I died multiple times as well, until I realized that the weakness of these enemies, is that they are slow to attack. They are also vulnerable to attack while they're trying to turn their horse around. If you charge ahead and hit their horse, you can take down the horse or knock them off their horse, which will cause the enemy to fall down, giving you a chance to perform a critical hit. If you somehow miss this chance, the fight is still easier then on because it is now a 1v1 on the ground.

Bought Elden Ring last November. I struggled with it during the first few hours of the game.

I tried taking on the Tree Sentinel, who roams around at the starting area of the game. The Devs must have put that boss there as a preview of what's to come and maybe just for laughs. Because unless you are a very skilled player, you are not going to be able to defeat that guy, no matter how hard you try. I was both a newbie to the game and an unskilled player. I could not defeat the Tree Sentinel. Just at this very early part of the game, I already died more than 10 times I think.

Anyway, so I moved on and tried to follow the golden markers. I ended up at Gatefront Ruins. Instead of resting at the next site of grace, I only touched it and moved on to fighting the enemies at Gatefront Ruins.

^ This was a very noob mistake, because if I had rested at that site of grace, I would have unlocked the ability to level up. As it is, I kept racking up runes (they are like XP, used to level up), but had no way to make use of them. I could have made my life easier by leveling up, but didn't know I could do that.

I then spent multiple hours trying to clear the enemies at Gatefront Ruins to no avail. I could not defeat the Knight with the Spear and Shield.

^ What's hilarious is that, this guy was not even a field boss. He was just a regular enemy, granted, he was the strongest enemy at the ruins. Couple that with my mistake of not unlocking the level up feature, it's hilarious to look back and think that I could have made the fights against him so much easier.

Great video with good tips for players new to Elden Ring, like me.