New Dark Souls screens to make you sweat

You might be crazy to be looking forward to dying over and over when Dark Souls comes out, but then that means we're crazy too. We have more than one fan of Demon's Souls here at GR, and we're anticipating getting mutilated, devoured, smashed, and impaled by the traps, monsters, and hazards that Dark Souls will surely casually toss our way with a malevolent cackle. With a game like this we love perusing the screens and picking out the little details so we can foresee our doom and shift uncomfortably in our seats. For instance, take a gander at this monstrosity:

Perhaps that thing is a dragon, since it appears to have a wing extending across the left side of the screenshot (and maybe a stump of a missing wing on the right), but man doesn't it remind you of an undead Tyrannosaurus? Fuh-reaky. We also like how the second player seems to be wielding some kind of energy javelin, although it might just be a spell he's casting.

We alsoenjoyed these crusty characters that will be forging your weapons:

Above: "I know I'm holding a hammer, but when you turn around I'm totally forging this weapon with my beard"

Above: This guy must get annoyed at having to make puny human-sized weapons

Of course, we also love the way the mere pedigree of the game makes normal screenshots appear threatening:

Above: In any other game that would be a harmless barrel, but in Dark Souls, it could hide a horrible fate. Also, we dig the guy's raggedy cape

Above: Seriously? We're going to have to run along narrow beams? This is not Assassin's Creed where a fall leads to a minor penalty...

Above: Beautiful and tranquil, and yet you know something horrible lurks just out of sight

Above: Okay, this has us baffled. The red guy is a black phantom, which can either be a type of enemy or an invading player, but why is he about to stab some dude in a coffin? Is the guy in the coffin a player trying to hide and he just got discovered? We saw one ability that allows you to disguise yourself as a piece of pottery, so maybe it has context-sensitive disguises?

You can check out more of the new screenshere, if you think you can handle the madness...

Jul 11, 2011