Knights, dragons, castles and dungeons feature in this gorgeous game

To our surprise, it isn't id, Epic Megagames or Sierra bringing the initial first-person shooter to the new PlayStation2 - it's Sony. Eternal Ring is a medieval, fantasy-style game that looks to be all action-based. The short demo playable at the Tokyo Game Show featured a brief romp through a castle, in which we stomped past half a dozen easily-dispatched guards, down into an empty well and into the lair of an extremely angry dragon.

What was particularly noticeable in this demo was the level of rich and varied textures, from the ancient-looking castle walls to the solid gleam of the knights' armour, all of which were completely unpixelated, gorgeous examples of Sony's new and powerful system.

Thankfully, the addition of a floating-point processor has made the PS2 a completely different creature than its predecessor. This means, among other things, that we should see a lot more first-person shooters on the system.

The most amazing part of the demo was the final dragon scene. From deep in a cavern tunnel you can hear it breathing and the area around you trembles ever so slightly. As you come out of a small hole into a giant, dark environment, a fiery-eyed dragon, perched on a tall atoll, awakens. After he lunges back and forth a few times, he lets out a stream of fire that torches you within seconds, thus ending the demo.


Courtesy of IGN.com