Elden Ring boasts one of the highest critical review rankings of any game ever on the day it's released around the world, including New Zealand.
At the time of publishing, the open-world action role-playing game is the top rated game of all time for the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X on review aggregator Metacritic.
One day previously it was ranked as the number one game of all time on any platform on Open Critic, another review aggregation website. At the time of publishing, it has fallen from a 97 rating to 96, putting it in the number two spot behind 2017 Nintendo Switch game Super Mario Odyssey.
Elden Ring is directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and developed by the FromSoftware studio, renowned for previous releases including Bloodborne, Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
It's being released after building a massive amount of hype over the past few years and, according to critics, it delivers.
"Elden Ring is FromSoftware's best work yet," the consensus on Open Critic states.
"With refined, accessible, and satisfying combat in a vast, beautiful, and intriguing open world, players will find a lot to love."
Among the glowing reviews is a rarely awarded perfect 10 out of 10 on IGN.
"Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it, Elden Ring is one that we'll be looking back on as a game that moved a genre forward," wrote critic Mitchell Saltzman.
"Even after 87 hours of blood, sweat and tears that included some of the most challenging fights I've ever fought, and innumerable surprises, there are still bosses that I left on the table, secrets that I've yet to uncover, sidequests that I missed out on, tons of weapons, spells, and skills that I've never used.
"Throughout it all, while the fundamentals of combat haven't changed much from what we've seen before, the enormous variety of viciously designed enemies and the brutal but surmountable bosses have brought its battles to a new level."
Elden Ring was released in New Zealand on Friday for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
