The Bloodbornification of Dark Souls = the Blandification of Dark Souls. Can't help but feel this game sets out to be the spiritual sequel to the PlayStation exclusive than its namesake series in an attempt to have its cake and eat it too.

Particularly Dark Souls III retains almost none of the atmosphere from its predecessor partly due to the removal of its labyrinthine, interconnected map design - exploring in this game is essentially reduced to clearing out a map and painstakingly breaking every barrel and peeking over every crack in a wall to see if something was missed, and if it has been rarely is it of any intrigue.

Basically this game is an exemplar of the issue I have with a lot of more modern games where more powerful hardware equals bigger, busier maps which very rarely equates to better game design.

Still though the sheer rush of adrenaline and endorphin from landing the final blow of a game-ending boss still hasn't been beaten by any other game series, and the combat is as frustrating and tedious and addictive as ever so it can't all be bad.