Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer From Software built its reputation on creating video games which had a certain level of masochistic charm to them. "Prepare to die" became the rallying cry for anything that the studio produced, but Elden Ring might just be the most approachable game yet from the team.

Last year's E3 was pretty much a write-off long before the Electronic Software Assosciation announced that the show would not go on in 2020. Extraordinary circumstances and saw E3 skip out on having any presence whatsoever in 2020, but this year things are a little bit different. The ESA has put together an all-digital showcase, one that has a beefy number of names attached to it, ranging from the biggest players in the industry through to smaller but no less important brands.

Adopting a digital approach this year, E3's proud daddy The Entertainment Software Association has been stocking up on partners for the event. A bunch of big names are confirmed to have something to show off, and the ESA has now confirmed that Sega, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco will be rocking up to the party as well.

Scarlet Nexus is now a mere month and some change away, and I'm already liking what I'm seeing: Action set in a world that looks very very anime in its construction. That idea has been magnified, compounded, and something else that does mathematical multiplication because Bandai Namco just released the opening animation for the game, which goes full Gundam.

Last week, Bandai Namco and NetherRealm Studios announced that they would no longer be working with new esports organisation WePlay, which has recently begun hosting Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat 11, and Soulcalibur VI tournaments with some BIG prize money involved. Both companies posted statements declaring buzzword reasons for not wanting to do business with WePlay, which began making a name for itself last year as it organised in-person fighting game tournaments.

Behold! Six entirely new seconds of Elden Ring footage! That's triple a two-second tease, double a potential three seconds of new footage. and definitely less than a proper trailer which usually contains at least 120 ticks of the clock under normal gravimetric conditions of our comsic odyssey through the universe. Look, I have a wordcount to hit and I'm doing my best here.

The last couple of years for E3 though has resulted in a show that has felt less relevant than ever before, those effects exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and publishers instead choosing to go down the Nintendo route by offering their own online streams. This year though? E3 is—in a digital sense at least—starting to feel like the entertainment juggernaut of old.

Now you can play through the game and attempt to keep your undies clean with a friend, even if they don’t own it. Neat!