20 Game Anniversaries Coming In 2026 That'll Age You Mercilessly

Action RPG series Dark Souls is known for its punishing, nigh-miserable gameplay, sitting at the nexus of challenging gaming experiences and sadomasochism. The game that started it all takes place in Lordran, a dark fantasy kingdom where we are given control of a cursed undead escapee of the Undead Asylum and undertake a combat and challenge intensive journey through what can perhaps best be described as hell, in order to determine the fate of the current Age.

As the complexity and possibilities of games have increased with each console, so have the ways in which developers can use enemies, environments and character flaws to turn up the heat. And while there have always been difficult games out there, and Hard modes designed to give skilled and stupid players a run for their money, Dark Souls represents the contemporary transition of a large player base towards obsessively difficult gaming,

Forgive us, then, for not quite being able to stomach that Dark Souls is now old enough to watch The Godfather. The game’s two sequels followed in rapid succession, with the flame burning out in 2016 – a mere five years after the first had dropped, and even though that was a whole decade ago, many of us still hold futile ideas about how it hasn’t been that long and that maybe there’s a fourth game on the horizon.