Articles Code Vein

The soulslike genre owes its existence to Demon's Souls, released by FromSoftware in 2009. A PlayStation exclusive, it first earned a cult following among hardcore players in its homeland of Japan. From its core mechanics, FromSoftware's lead designer Hidetaka Miyazaki built a new game — Dark Souls — which launched a series that became iconic the world over. Soon the "soulslikes" started arriving: games that copy the Dark Souls formula of success. An entire genre was born, built on the hallmarks of Dark Souls — punishing difficulty, "bonfires" (checkpoints for saving and leveling up), enemies that respawn on a location once you die, collecting experience ("souls"), stamina management in combat, fragmentary storytelling, and — most importantly — gruelling boss fights that force you to learn every move set.

The best vampire games for PC, PS5, PlayStation 4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch — we've gathered a top 30: from cult classics to 2026 releases. Vampires are a fertile theme for games, though surprisingly few major projects about them have come out. But the last couple of years have been making up for lost time: in 2025, after long delays, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 finally arrived, and on the way are the RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker from former developers of The Witcher 3 and the grim The Duskbloods from the creators of Bloodborne.