42 votes

The horse nerd’s review of Elden Ring – how Torrent satisfies gameplay needs but fails at horse movement

17 comments

  1. [3]
    Asinine
    Link
    This is possibly the best nerdy blog I've encountered ever. Eight year old me with my still-deep-down love of horses is very happy and I'm glad others are also bothered by the wtf is going on with...

    This is possibly the best nerdy blog I've encountered ever. Eight year old me with my still-deep-down love of horses is very happy and I'm glad others are also bothered by the wtf is going on with the spider crawl on my horse!?

    21 votes
    1. [2]
      alice-tmq
      Link Parent
      Author here, thank you so much <3

      Author here, thank you so much <3

      10 votes
      1. Asinine
        Link Parent
        Thank you for writing it! It has been a long while since I have had interest in any blogs. But yours was quite enjoyable, and I shall be popping back in to catch up. Cheers!

        Thank you for writing it! It has been a long while since I have had interest in any blogs. But yours was quite enjoyable, and I shall be popping back in to catch up.

        Cheers!

        2 votes
  2. alice-tmq
    Link
    Heyooo Alice from The Mane Quest here, thanks for sharing my article here! <3 I'm not very active on Tildes so it's lovely to see my work being shared and discussed here. (Just found this through...

    Heyooo Alice from The Mane Quest here, thanks for sharing my article here! <3
    I'm not very active on Tildes so it's lovely to see my work being shared and discussed here. (Just found this through my referral traffic insights)

    18 votes
  3. [2]
    Monte_Kristo
    Link
    I'm not particularly interested in discussing horse animation, but I do hope the writer knows about Leonard.

    I'm not particularly interested in discussing horse animation, but I do hope the writer knows about Leonard.

    8 votes
    1. alice-tmq
      Link Parent
      Heyoo the writer here! I do know about Leonard, see this video by Polygon about horses in games where I briefly discussed him with the host 😄 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DaAckzfIU

      Heyoo the writer here! I do know about Leonard, see this video by Polygon about horses in games where I briefly discussed him with the host 😄
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DaAckzfIU

      7 votes
  4. chocobean
    Link
    I love reviews like this that seriously analyzes media/anything from a completely orthogonal angle, being pedantic in the best way and lovingly criticises the subject over some trivial aspect....

    I love reviews like this that seriously analyzes media/anything from a completely orthogonal angle, being pedantic in the best way and lovingly criticises the subject over some trivial aspect.

    Example, there's a ten year old Reddit thread where a user reviews different food items, rating them based on how it pairs with rice. I still think about that one at least once a week while having rice.

    If you know other off beat reviews of anything, kindly let me know.

    8 votes
  5. [2]
    CptBluebear
    Link
    You usually see the horse from the back making the odd human like climbing legs sort of invisible. Lovely pedantry, this blog. I mean that as a compliment.

    You usually see the horse from the back making the odd human like climbing legs sort of invisible.

    Lovely pedantry, this blog. I mean that as a compliment.

    6 votes
    1. alice-tmq
      Link Parent
      Writer here, thank you so much, I love it when my pedantry is appreciated <3

      Writer here, thank you so much, I love it when my pedantry is appreciated <3

      2 votes
  6. Rich3yy
    Link
    This turned out to be more interesting than I thought, although it's mostly about the leg animations. Nice brief read though. The spider-legs actually caught me off-guard at how true that take is,...

    This turned out to be more interesting than I thought, although it's mostly about the leg animations.

    Nice brief read though. The spider-legs actually caught me off-guard at how true that take is, as I have noticed it before, but never really "thought" about it that much.

    Now I can't unsee how it's no longer a goat-horse, but a wigglylegs goat-horse. :D

    I do like Torrent as well though. It's one of the few horses in games I enjoy actually using.

    5 votes
  7. [7]
    mantrid
    Link
    I'm a bit surprised this blog has no review of the horses in Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2.

    I'm a bit surprised this blog has no review of the horses in Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      alice-tmq
      Link Parent
      Heyhey, author of the blog here! I've written about Red Dead on various occasions, see here: https://www.themanequest.com/blog/tag/red+dead+redemption+2 Just not a full, comprehensive review

      Heyhey, author of the blog here! I've written about Red Dead on various occasions, see here: https://www.themanequest.com/blog/tag/red+dead+redemption+2

      Just not a full, comprehensive review

      8 votes
      1. mantrid
        Link Parent
        Cool, thanks for the link!

        Cool, thanks for the link!

        1 vote
    2. [4]
      Carrow
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      They refer to RDR2 and RDRO in their top horse games and have a couple articles about aspects of the horses in those games, but the top games article also specifies there is no full review...

      They refer to RDR2 and RDRO in their top horse games and have a couple articles about aspects of the horses in those games, but the top games article also specifies there is no full review planned. I get the impression the author does not want to engage with profanity, violence, gore, shooters, etc. and does want their horse games more horse focused and family friendly.

      5 votes
      1. [3]
        alice-tmq
        Link Parent
        Heyhey, TMQ author here: I've played most of Red Dead and have written about it on various occasions, see here: https://www.themanequest.com/blog/tag/red+dead+redemption+2 A full review wasn't...

        Heyhey, TMQ author here: I've played most of Red Dead and have written about it on various occasions, see here: https://www.themanequest.com/blog/tag/red+dead+redemption+2

        A full review wasn't planned in the past because I never quite finished the game and because it felt a bit daunting to review a game of that size. I have been thinking about revisiting it though, because many people are interested in it.

        Gore and violence doesn't bother me much, and my issue with shooters is that I often find them boring to play, not that I'm somehow opposed to it. You'll notice that I also have reviews of the horses in Ghost of Tsushima and Elden Ring, both very much not family friendly games.

        In fact, I'm pretty strongly focusing my work on the adult audience of horse games, because that's the demographic that tends to get ignored.

        13 votes
        1. [2]
          Carrow
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Oh hi it's you cool :) Pardon me for speaking out of turn, I'm sorry my wording was more judgemental than I intended. I didn't word what I meant well, something like RDR2 feels more like "HBO...

          Oh hi it's you cool :) Pardon me for speaking out of turn, I'm sorry my wording was more judgemental than I intended. I didn't word what I meant well, something like RDR2 feels more like "HBO adult only" versus a typical mature game, I found it gratuitous in its violence and other adult themes. I appreciate your work examining horses in games, I've found it interesting.

          2 votes
          1. alice-tmq
            Link Parent
            no worries, I just figured I'd clarify ^^

            no worries, I just figured I'd clarify ^^

            1 vote