Having logged 300+ hours in Elden Ring over the last year-and-a-bit, I needed a break. I've loved my time roving around in FromSoftware's multi-award-winning ARPG, and I'm buzzing for Shadow of the Erdtree. But with the first slice of Elden Ring DLC still without a concrete launch date – currently boasting a tentative "late 2023" release window – now feels like as good a time as any to step away from the Lands Between, momentarily or otherwise.
The Resident Evil 4 remake scratched an itch for me between times, as did the criminally underrated indie platformer Horace. I'm never far from the shores of GTA Online's Los Santos either – but none of these games have managed to fill the gaping action-roleplaying, uber-punishing hole left by Elden Ring. As such, I pondered a return to Dark Souls but decided against it. I'm as familiar with Lordran as I am with my hometown of Glasgow at this point. I thought about revisiting Dark Souls 2, inspired by my love of ER's most absurd locations. I could have given Dark Souls 3 another run, or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, or the Demon's Souls remake. But all of these distractions were simply delaying the inevitable: my return to FromSoft's most twisted gothic nightmare, 2015's PS4-exclusive and stone-cold classic, Bloodborne.
