Elden Ring is coming in January, and sure looks like Dark Souls

After long years of yearning, Dark Souls developers FromSoftware and world-class procrastinator George R.R. Martin have finally given us a look at their Elden Ring. The fantasy action-RPG's "gameplay reveal" trailer dropped during the Summer Game Fest today, and honestly it looks a lot like Dark Souls. The trailer even has a gravelly fella going on about flames and a faint woman talking about unending curses. Yep, I'm 100% cool with this.

Publishers Bandai Namco announced Elden Ring at E3 2019 and then... nothing. Well, now we know what we probably could have guessed: it is indeed quite Dark Souls-y. Though I will confess I am surprised by quite how Dark Souls-y it seems.

Lords? Flames? Curses? Horrible giant hand monster? Gothic castles? Knights? Bonfires? Summoning glowing friendly folks? Seen it all before. Very happy to see it all again.

The game's website says Elden Ring has "vast fantastical landscapes and shadowy, complex dungeons that are connected seamlessly," and that we'll be able to roam around on foot or on horseback. The horse looks particularly good at jumping. The site mentions exploring online with other players too.

Elden Ring is being directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the FromSoft fella who directed Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. As for George, the Game Of Thrones author is contributing to the game's mythos and world. Uh, presumably it's a subtle influence, given how Souls-y that all seems. Or maybe he's still writing his parts. Perhaps he promises to have item descriptions written any day now, you'll see, for real.

Elden Ring is due to launch January 21st, 2022 on PC, Xboxes, and PlayStations.

E3 2021 may be over but our memories live on - see everything on our E3 hub. Many more big game showcases and streams are still to come this summer, leading up to Gamescom, so see our summer games stream schedule to stay up to date.