All About Interwebz: How to watch the Elden Ring gameplay showcase

We've all been chomping at the bit for some Elden Ring gameplay footage, and details on the highly anticipated From Software title have been thin on the ground at best, so much so that many fans started to joke that the original E3 2019 reveal trailer was merely a fever dream.

Thankfully, fans of all things Soulsborne (that's the collective Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice namesake if you're not in the know) are finally getting a proper first look at Elden Ring since Geoff Keighley enthusiastically unveiled the game's last trailer at Gamescom 2021's Opening Night Live showcase.

News of the showcase comes at an apt time, as fans were slightly disappointed by Elden Ring's recent delay, which pushed the game back from its original January 2022 launch date to February 25. The game is still due to release on PS4, Xbox One and PC, as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via a free upgrade.

Thankfully, this gameplay showcase, paired with the closed network test happening in November, means that many of us will get to both see and play the game ahead of release.

When is Elden Ring gameplay showcase?

Announced via the official Elden Ring Twitter account, fans worldwide will be able to tune into the 15-minute gameplay showcase on November 4, 2021 at 7am PDT / 2pm GMT / 3pm CET.

If you're viewing in Australia, you'll have to tune in early in the morning of November 5, 2021 at 1am AEDT. If that's too late, fear not, as the gameplay showcase is guaranteed to be uploaded to the Bandai Namco YouTube channel after the fact.

Where can I watch the Elden Ring gameplay showcase?

You'll be able to watch the Elden Ring gameplay showcase live on YouTube at the aforementioned times. Twitch viewers are in luck, too, as the Bandai Namco US Twitch account will also be broadcasting the gameplay reveal live.

Elden Ring gameplay showcase: what we want to see

We know that the world of Elden Ring mixes sandbox exploration with more traditional, self-contained From Software level design. This means that while the game features an open world, it will branch off into smaller, explorable levels rife with dangerous enemies, bosses and loot.

We'd love to see the transition between these two very different approaches to exploration in Elden Ring shown off tomorrow. For one, we know that your travelling companion (a double-jumping horse called the Spirit Steed) won't be able to follow you into these more compact areas, so we're expecting a similar style of gameplay to that of Dark Souls or Demon's Souls.

Plus, as there won't be any major towns or settlements in Elden Ring, we're keen to see how else the open world will be populated. As in, what is the incentive to explore such a vast, open space? We're sure that a whole host of wonderfully weird NPCs will be around to offer us quests, lore and perhaps even systems adjacent to Dark Souls' covenant system. Of course, we're rooting for Patches to show up, that loveable rogue who finds his way into almost every modern From Software game.

We're especially looking forward to seeing just how combat-capable our player character is in Elden Ring, compared to games' past. We've already seen a litany of new weapons and sorceries in the Gamescom reveal trailer, including ethereal creatures that can aid us in battle.

Finally, it would be a real treat to see a full boss encounter play out in Elden Ring. We got a look at a small handful of them in the Gamescom trailer – some even had finishing moves – but these were mere glimpses. We're very keen to see just how From Software has approached boss design since the rapid pace of Bloodborne had a demonstrable effect on both Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro.