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Dark Souls 2 retains Havok physics

Dark Souls 2 uses the Havok Physics engine, like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 did before it. A Namco Bandai representative confirmed to Joystiq Dark Souls 2 features the much-used engine, the news coming as game director Yui Tanimura said he'd focus on next-gen physics were he to make another Dark Souls game for the PS4 or Xbox One.

Dark Souls 2 incorporates Havok physics with a new graphics engine, the latter revealed late last year. At E3, Tanimura told Polygon the new graphics engine means players can "dive in and immerse themselves within the actual gameplay and feel as if they are actually part of the game itself."

That said, Tanimura told us last week he feels graphics are at a "maximum level" on consoles, and that he would pay more attention to physics were he to make another Dark Souls on next-gen hardware.

"In order to implement a physics engine, we'd need more machine power and more CPU power," Tanimura told Joystiq through a translator last week. "That can only become possible if we were to create a game for the, for example, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. So that's something [I'd] personally be paying attention to if [I was] to create another [Dark Souls] title for the PS4 or Xbox One."

In the nearer future, Dark Souls 2 is on the way to Xbox 360 and PS3, consigning us all to our many, many deaths on March 11, 2014 in North America, and March 14 in Europe.