Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 will be out at the end of February

February 28th. Mark it in your calendar with a big bloody X, because that's the day that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is hitting the PC. It's a little later than I was expecting, but considering the original is still a week away from existing on desktops , I suppose it's a wait we can endure. To celebrate the occasion of a number being decided on, Konami and MercurySteam clubbed together to create some new screenshots - because everything is expressed in screenshot form now. See some in all their gothic splendor below.

According to the press release - and this is exciting new information to me - "The world of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 breaks new ground for the series, offering for the first time a truly open play area, which can be freely explored. Despite its modern setting, the game's city shows a Gothic legacy that harks back to Dracula's past, and is inhabited by a varied menagerie of Satan's hordes. Players can freely wander the city, returning to previously explored areas as they accrue new abilities, while an all-new fully moveable camera allows users to pan around as they explore, highlighting the wonderful art direction the series is famous for."

Here are those screenshots. I particularly like the little gobliny dude.

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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.