The Elden Ring launch trailer is here

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We've learned a lot about Elden Ring over the past few weeks, through class reviews, previews, inopportune leaks, and memes galore. And today, we got the final piece of the big pre-release puzzle: The Elden Ring launch trailer.

It's a heck of a thing: Bombastic, overwrought, loud, and filled with strange creatures, bizarre fantasy landscapes, and the faux gravitas that arises inevitably from booming voices and choral chants. FromSoftware recently asked players not to spoil anything, which led us to wonder, is it even possible to spoil a Souls game? My feeling, after watching this trailer (more than twice, for the record) is a hard "no."

There is one particularly interesting point of note amidst all the sound and fury, though. At the 1:05 mark of the trailer, our intrepid hero uncorks what is clearly a firearm of some sort. After some discussion with my colleagues we decided against calling it a gun, for fear of suggesting that scores were being settled with some kind of medieval AK: Instead, we've opted for "shield cannon," mainly because UK news editor Rich Stanton pointed out that Bloodborne has an arm cannon, so it's apparently a reasonable thematic fit and not as out-of-place in a swords-and-sorcery action game as it might seem.

What I like most about this trailer, though, is the way it demonstrates the absolute truth behind this brilliant tweet:

Dark Souls revolutionized games, in the sense that instead of a story now you can just have some guy with a big sword named Myrmidon of Loss who gasps “Zanzibart… forgive me” when he dies and then twenty YouTubers will make an hour long video about how deep your lore isFebruary 5, 2022

It's worth noting that Winkler expressed genuine love for the Dark Souls games in a followup tweet, and I suspect we'll see the same sort of eyes-wide-open appreciation for Elden Ring. As overblown as it is, it also looks extremely promising: After playing through a six-hour preview build, our features producer Imogen Mellor said Elden Ring is the most excited she's been for a game since she was a teenager.

Elden Ring goes live on February 25—here's the full schedule of global unlock times.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.