'Dark Souls 3' release date: Game coming to North America, Europe in April 2016

 Twitter courtesy of "Dark Souls"

Fans of insanely challenging games will be glad to know "Dark Souls 3" now has an official release date for North America and Europe.

For players residing in the aforementioned continents, they can already mark down April 2016 as the time to look out for the upcoming game, although publisher Bandai Namco did not provide a specific date.

The news of the North American and European release date comes on the heels of the announcement that "Dark Souls 3" will be launched in Japan on March 24, 2016, Polygon reported. The good news for western fans of the "Dark Souls" franchise is that they won't have to wait that long for their turn. 

If waiting around for April 2016 simply will not suffice, "Dark Souls" fans will be glad to know that a beta for the third entry in the franchise will be debuting later this year.

According to Shack News, Bandai Namco will be holding a beta test for the game in the United States beginning Oct. 4 to see how "Dark Souls 3" will hold up. The information that will be gathered from the beta, or network stress test, will be used by developer From Software to make sure that the game's release will be mostly, if not entirely, problem-free.

The beta for "Dark Souls 3" will be completely free to join. Interested players can head on over to the game's official web site to sign up and secure their slot for the beta testing.

Bandai Namco has yet to announce how long the beta testing will take place.

There's a lot for players to test out as well, as "Dark Souls 3" is changing some of its elements to provide players with an experience that will not be entirely similar to the ones they have had before, according to Eurogamer.

Elements such as Critical Arts and a tweaked magic system are expected to make "Dark Souls 3" a different kind of harrowing adventure, although one still filled with the franchise's incredibly challenging enemy encounters.

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