Elden Ring (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £49.99)
Rating: 
Verdict: Choose your own adventure
You died. Fans of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls series will have seen those two words a whole lot, occupying the screen as yet another monster slaps their knightly adventurer into the dust.
Now they’ll see them a whole lot more. Elden Ring, the Japanese maestro’s latest game, is as brutal as your average episode of Game of Thrones — which is fitting, really, given that GoT writer George R.R. Martin, is a co-author here.
But it is also beautiful, achingly so. Its setting is the Lands Between, a liminal place that’s visibly caught between life and death. A gigantic, golden tree fills the horizon and projects light across the ground, but that ground is full of dark ruins and shambling things.
Elden Ring, the Japanese maestro’s latest game, is as brutal as your average episode of Game of Thrones — which is fitting, really, given that GoT writer George R.R. Martin, is a co-author here
Your job, as a Tarnished, similarly caught between life and death, is to traverse this territory and dispatch all the shambling things you can find. Which is far easier said than done.
The world itself is huge, offering a freedom of movement that’s almost overwhelming.
While the nastiest beasties will force you to dodge, swipe, dodge, block and keep on trying until… you probably see those two words on screen again.
It’s a forgiving way of enjoying Miyazaki’s unforgiving vision, even if Elden Ring does leave you rather stranded among its other complexities at times
The world itself is huge, offering a freedom of movement that’s almost overwhelming
But that’s why Elden Ring’s open-world design is such a triumph. Unlike Dark Souls, which was more linear, you can simply go walkies instead of bashing your head against an impossible boss fight.
It’s a forgiving way of enjoying Miyazaki’s unforgiving vision, even if Elden Ring does leave you rather stranded among its other complexities at times.
And then, later, when you’re better qualified, you can walk back to try for one of the best feelings in all gaming: the time You Survive.
Triangle Strategy (Switch, £49.99)
Rating: 
Verdict: Slow and steady
If you’d prefer something a little less intense than Elden Ring, might I recommend Triangle Strategy? It, too, involves combat in a magical kingdom, but the way that combat unfolds, the way everything unfolds, is far gentler.
The first thing you’ll notice about the game is its look. It’s stunning.. Much like the developer’s previous (and just as daftly titled) Octopath Traveller, it’s done in what they call a ‘HD-2D’ style — your pixelated people scamper across what look like three-dimensional dioramas.
It’s a perfect match for the gameplay itself, which involves you, as a scion of the house of Glenbrook, moving your friends against your rivals as though they were pieces on a board, taking advantage of their abilities and the landscape, among various other strategic considerations. It’s as enjoyably methodical, if not nearly as deep, as chess.
In between the scraps, Triangle Strategy serves up an story that’s part high politics, part low soap opera, and all lengthy. Consider it the Switch’s equivalent of picking up a 1,000-page fantasy novel and settling in for the night. Scrumptious.
If you’d prefer something a little less intense than Elden Ring, might I recommend Triangle Strategy?
