'Dark Souls' offers Limited Edition for standard price

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Dark Souls, follow up to terrifying cult hit Demon's Souls, has been given a new trailer, a release date, and an apparently lavish collectors edition that retails for the same price as the game's standard edition.

Demon's Souls, a medieval-themed monster hunting tale, was famed for powerful enemies that would exploit the smallest of errors, wiping out hours of progress in an instant.

Players could also 'invade' each other's games, to help or to hinder as they saw fit.

Dark Souls' most recent trailer, entitled 'Prepare to Die', promises more in the way of deadly traps, unfair ambushes, and otherwise overwhelming odds against dragons, giant bugs and colossal knights.

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game has been given a September 2011 launch window in Japan, with North America and European regions following in October.

Enticing shoppers to make early purchasing decisions is a pre-order campaign that offers the Limited Edition, with soundtracks, behind the scenes featurettes, game guide and art book, for the same price as the standard game-only version.

It's part of a plan to fend off competition from titles such as Gears of War 3 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, launching around the same time, to say nothing of November's dragon-slaying Skyrim or the as-yet undated Call of Duty and Battlefield offerings.

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