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 - Astro's Playroom

Last night's PS5 show contained a surprising amount of platform games - indeed at times it seemed like we'd slipped through a wormhole, travelling back to the days of full-on mascot shovelware. The most inventive looking of the selection is, as it turns out, also the system's pack-in title (another throwback), Astro's Playroom. A sequel to last-gen's Astro Bot Rescue Mission, SIE Japan Studio's latest has been designed around showcasing the DualSense controller's brand new feedback features.