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.

Essentially, Elden Ring is designed to give players more options when dealing with threats, more so than even Bloodborne or Sekiro.

Revealed at last night's Summer Game Fest kick-off show, developer FromSoftware has lifted the lid on the game after keeping dead quiet about it for the last two years. Not only did the new trailer show a healthy amount of in-engine footage, but also the biggest surprise of the night: A release date of January 21 for 2022.

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.

As pleased as I am that fans of FromSoftware have a glimmer of hope, I will miss the days of being able to dunk all over Elden Ring not existing. Good times.

January’s a bit of a dry month, but for the rest of the year? There’s some dang good content on the way. Arkane’s version of Groundhog Day, Ubisoft’s return to madcap acid trips with guns, and the twilight of the gods boy, are just some of the highlights on the horizon. So here’s a rundown, of what to expect this year.

According to the company’s resident expert on all things related to overpowered pugilism, Katsuhiro Harada, his next game may just have the biggest development budget in the history of the publisher and developer.

Sony’s kicking off its PlayStation 5 era with a remake of Demon’s Souls, but it’s not the next-gen console manufacturer on the block that has a FromSoftware RPG as an attention-grabber. Announced a while back, Microsoft’s also venturing into those die-and-try-again waters with Elden Ring, a game that is being headed up legendary developer Hidetaka Miyazaki and features some world-building lore from celebrated pirate George Arr Arr Martin. I think, I’m not big on fantasy.