We're not far off from the review window proper, and then the retail launch of many a hardcore gamer's most anticipated release of 2022, FromSoftware's Elden Ring. But ahead of that fateful date, we were granted access to a handful of hours with the game in preview form once again, this time off restrictions and free to roam as we saw fit.

And by "we" I mean our resident Souls expert and trusted contributor, Joaby, who kicked the tyres once more for us in glorious fashion.

Here's a snippet:

I cut down a giant lumbering mausoleum, which offered me the opportunity to do something called a "Remembrance Duplication", and I never worked out what that meant. I bought something called a Note: Land Squirts which sounds like what you'd get if George R R Martin overwrote the concept of toilet paper.

And I killed the biggest goddamn dragon I have ever seen in any game. And I don't think I was supposed to. I saw what looked like a tall white tower off in the distance and as I rode towards it, I realised it was the spiny first finger of a dragon god's wing. I spent 10 minutes chopping it in its tail while it slept just to see if I could, and it worked. It died, and it gave me so much XP and so many Dragon hearts that I instantly worried that I'd made a grave error...

Click here for our Elden Ring - The Final Preview.