E3 - Elden Ring

After a few years of radio silence, we finally get a good, rolling, look at Elden Ring, the latest game from Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware. At first glance this latest iteration of the studio's finely tuned dark fantasy template looks to be selling itself on an idea of vista - vast, horizontal, expanses to plunder, necessitating a phantom steed. A closer look at these gameplay clips reveals, not just context specific jumps and launches but, at least when riding your horse, a double-jump mechanic. These stacked, player inputted, leaps imply vertical exploration, an entirely new dimension of nosing about that, more than likely, builds on the pagoda sneaking seen in 2019's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Demon's Souls - STINKING, ROTTING, MISERY

Now that the Demon's Souls remake is out in America, we can get a look at some of the visual options that Bluepoint have made available. As with their work on the PS4 version of Shadow of the Colossus, the studio have included filters that offset their massive graphical overhaul. The Classic option, demonstrated above, goes some way to aping the depressed, mouldering, greens seen in From Software's PS3 original. 

Demon's Souls - DANGLY BITS

Digital Foundry's John Linneman's chats with Marco Thrush and Peter Dalton from Bluepoint, as well as SIE Worldwide Studio's Gavin Moore, about their imminent PS5 remake of Demon's Souls. As expected from the development team that wrung the Xbox 360 dry to get the first Titanfall running at a solid refresh rate, the Bluepoint guys - in a pretty unguarded moment for a PR push - state a preference for their rock-solid Performance Mode. The clang is so loud that Moore quickly chimes in to talk up the game's less refreshed (and likely closer to the stuttering PS3 original) Cinematic Mode. New footage of the game is brief, centred around a Penetrator battle that signals a few key aesthetic changes, both good and bad. The boss itself now appears closer to the deep-fried damnation you'd expect from key Dark Souls characters while the Fat Official has been downgraded from an abyssal Beefeater to your standard pustulous oaf. 

Demon's Souls - STONEFANG TUNNEL

Another long, debug assisted, look at Bluepoint Games' forthcoming Demon's Souls remake for PS5. As a preview, this trailer is actually quite instructive, making prospective players aware of the idea that levels don't have to be tackled in one go - that bosses encountered at the end of areas might be massively out of scale with the threats conquered along the way. There's still nothing here to shake the notion that this reappraisal is shaping up to be one of the most beautiful games ever made, either. 

PlayStation 5 Showcase - Demon's Souls

As a child I used to buy White Dwarf magazine, not so much to keep abreast of Games Workshop's various complicated board games but because I was fascinated by the creativity that went into painting the company's lead figurines. Browsing the shop section at the back of the mag you'd see the raw model - colourless and obviously struck from a mould. This dull uniformity could be transformed though, taken apart and customised until they represented a distinct, personal, imagination.

Every year some auxiliary event held a diorama competition with the winners and runners-up displayed in White Dwarf. These were by far the best issues, pages crammed with mini-events and outrages. Towering, apocalyptic scenes besides quiet, comedic moments. If the artist was really confident, you might see one carefully painted knight stood on top of a polished wooden base, a piece that looked exactly like the kind of award you'd expect from this very event. That's exactly what Bluepoint's take on Demon's Souls reminds me of. An interactive rush through successive, beautifully appointed, dark fantasy scenes.

Digital Foundry - Demon's Souls PS5

Digital Foundry take a look at Bluepoint's forthcoming Demon's Souls remake. The vid touches on the (underwhelming) trailer and the gorgeous 4K stills Sony have since released, as well as speculating, based on the studio's PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus, what sort of tech options we can expect for this PS5 release. 

PlayStation 5 - Demon's Souls

Nestled in Sony's PlayStation 5 reveal last night was this first look at Bluepoint Games' long-rumoured Demon's Souls remake. While it's exciting to see what magic Bluepoint has worked updating FromSoft's smudgy PS3 game so it runs like a solid, stable next-gen standard bearer, it's a little alarming how fast and loose Bluepoint have been with From's enemy design. The Tower Knight in particular looks to have mutated from a grotesquely scaled-up clunker into a gleaming, Tolkienesque Gundam.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - POW

VaatiVidya's extended look at Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice hints at a game designed around a similar energetic rushing as Bloodborne. Rather than hang back and wait for an opening, FromSoft's 2015 classic encouraged players to press their advantage, leeching back lost health by wildly hacking away at their cornered enemies. Sekiro goes one further, totalling interactive evisceration against a meter that can grant fallen heroes an instantaneous resurrection.

E3 - STEALTH ASSASSINS

FromSoft's next masterpiece looks to be a subtle departure from the studio's usual creeping dread, integrating a few moves and mechanics from their stealth focused Tenchu series. As well as staggering the usual enormous, diseased bosses, this trailer for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice also shows the player character tiptoeing across rooftops and edging around the kind of enemy groups that made Bloodborne's early passages so difficult.

Dark Souls III - TECH DEMO

Digital Foundry take a quick look at Dark Souls III's network stress test demo, nosing around the game's pre-release technical specifications as well as taking the time to show off From Software's latest fallen kingdom.

TGS 2014 - Bloodborne

From Software's latest abandons the dark ages for the stained glass and wrought iron work of Antoni Gaudi's Barcelona. It could just be this trailer's quick-cut histrionics amping up the gameplay, but Bloodborne is giving me a serious Devil May Cry vibe. Like 2001's horror movie mauler we've got massive enemies, dodge roll combat, and environmental architecture that looks like a crumbling historical site.

E3 2014 Bloodborne - PRAISE THE SUN

Demon's Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki bounces back with Bloodborne, Sony's hardcore gamer coup. Rumours of a secret Souls project have been flying around ever since some bored / enterprising individual spent time cross-checking the credits for Dark Souls and Dark Souls II. Turns out key personal were unaccounted for on the sequel.

Fourteen Point Punch!

Barmy games department! This is Metal Wolf Chaos, a 2004 third-person action satire for the original Xbox, released exclusively in Japan. Players assume the role of President Michael Wilson, a descendant of 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson. Threatened with a coup d'etat spearheaded by his dickish VP, this Wilson puts aside idealistic Presbyterian politics and clambers into a suit of missile-spewing robot power armour. Win back hearts and minds by reducing your country to rubble! It's the diplomacy of the future! Add in wailing guitar riffs, a space set surfing sequence, and a White House boss encounter in which the building is outfitted with a future-shock combat coating and you've a game that begs for a wider re-release /HD remix. "Believe your justice!"