The Making of Dark Souls II, Part One

IGN has posted the first of what looks to be a series of exclusive "Making of" videos for Dark Souls II, which seems to mostly cover the developers' approach to the development of a sequel to the original title. While the interviews with developers are a bit vague, the video is worth watching for the new gameplay footage and a few interesting tidbits.

Apparently the game's engine was developed with performance and next-gen (DirectX 11 is specifically mentioned) tech in mind, and the initial concept for the game world was of an "extremely cold" place, though it was soon expanded to include more varied areas.