Dead ringer

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 21 JAN / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT / DEV FROMSOFTWARE / PLAYERS 1

You’re a weakened warrior waiting for death in a cursed land. Then a mysterious stranger comes to give you hope and a new sense of purpose, sending you on an epic quest. The premise is FromSoftware to a praising-the-sun T, and yet much of Elden Ring excites us because of the way the developer is using what it’s already mastered to forge something entirely new. With a large open world, dynamic traversal, and many opportunities for character customisation, Elden Ring is a Soul unto itself.

With the shattering of the legendary Elden Ring from within the central Erdtree (a huge, golden Yggsdril-type of thing), the guidance of grace has returned to your bloodline and it’s up to you, the Tarnished, to return, reclaim your rightful power, restore the mythical artefact, and prove that you can become the Elden Lord. It’s a homecoming.

“GEORGE RR MARTIN WAS BROUGHT IN RIGHT AT THE START. HE HELPED BUILD THE WORLD AND DEMIGODS.”

Standing in your way are six demigods, heroes fallen from the grace with which you’ve been blessed. Each has taken a shard of the Elden Ring for themself, the fragment bestowing corrupting gifts upon them and their domains. They’re truly twisted, the sort of nightmarish dark fantasy that is genuinely tantalising.

A GAME OF GAMES

Usually, FromSoftware comes up with the mechanical elements of the game first, developing a narrative around