Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Welcome to "PRESS PLAY," a recurring live show on Fridays at 4 p.m. ET where the Press comes to Play. The Washington Post's video game coverage team, Launcher, brings on big-name guests and journalists to play various games, including new and upcoming games, pre-release previews, interesting game mods, and popular multiplayer games.

In this episode, we have Launcher editor Mike Hume and writer/editor Alyse Stanley go where no Soulslike newbie has gone before: Elden Ring, considered by some to be one of the easiest of the Dark Souls games to get into.

Read our review here: washingtonpost.com/video-games/reviews/elden-ring-review

For more video game news, be sure to go to launcher.gg , or subscribe to our channel and check back in every Thursday at 4 p.m. ET for our Gaming News livestream, "WaPo Story Mode"!

#EldenRing #WorstEldenRing #PressPlay

0:00 Waiting room
0:48 Intro
2:25 Character creation
7:43 First cutscene
12:30 Entering the game
14:17 First impressions
20:00 Limgrave + first boss
31:03 Wandering the map
39:34 Stormfoot Catacombs
55:33 Back outside
1:12:18 Final thoughts