The contribution of George R. R. Martin to FromSoftware's Elden Ring is the proverbial icing on the cake that so many fans are waiting for. The famed author behind the saga of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire worked on the game's worldbuilding and characters.

　　In a blog post penned a few days ago, George R. R. Martin explained why he accepted this proposition despite his tepid passion for gaming (by his own admission, he only played old strategy games like Railroad Tycoon, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Master of Orion).

　　A few years back, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his incredible team of game designers, the creators of the DARK SOULS videogame series, reached out from Japan to ask me to help them create the backstory and history for a new game they were working on.

　　Miyazaki and his team from FromSoftware were doing  groundbreaking stuff with gorgeous art, and what they wanted from me was just a bit of worldbuilding: a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create. And as it happens, I love creating worlds and writing imaginary history.

　　So I did my bit, and handed off to my new friends in Japan, and they took it from there.   And years passed. Videogames are as big as movies these days (bigger, actually)… and take just as long to create.

　　But the day of ELDEN RING is finally at hand.

　　And I’ve got to say, it looks incredible.

　　Elden Ring is certain to top many most anticipated lists for 2022, that's for sure. After a slight one-month delay, the game is set to launch on February 25th for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X. Check out Kai's hands-on preview from the Closed Network Test to find out his first impressions.