A song of ice and fire

When talking Souls, be it Demon’s or Dark, it’s hard to avoid the subject of difficulty. To the casual observer, frequent deaths followed by a taunting ‘YOU DIED’ screen makes player persistence seem borderline masochistic. Add this to the tantrums thrown when a Souls game aims to be more “accessible”, and it’s easy to misconstrue intentions. But those more experienced with Dark Souls as a series know better. So, to get this out of the way: is Dark Souls III difficult? You bet it is. In the five or so hours spent with the title I was stabbed in the back, burnt to a crisp, frostbitten and even torn apart by tentacles. But it wasn’t the difficulty that kept me pushing through, nor the variety of ways in which I died (although it does keep things interesting). It was everything else around it.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Drake comes up with solid gold in this gorgeous remaster

Remember the first time you saw Uncharted? That vibrant jungle you couldn’t wait to rush into, lush greenery that was an antidote to every bit of brown that had infested games, and the alchemy that made Nathan Drake’s clothes stay sodden when he got out of water? The Nathan Drake Collection will make you feel that awe all over again.

Homefront: The Revolution

Playing at a disadvantage in Dambuster’s occupied urban jungle

The Homefront series’ luck is notorious. Despite taking a swing at a half-taboo subject and sparking controversy with its marketing, 2011’s linear run-and-gun through a USA under hostile occupation met with generally mild reviews and mass indifference. In its wake, developer Kaos was shuttered by THQ; two years later, the publisher also went extinct. Crytek then acquired the rights and envisioned a new game to be developed by Crytek UK and co-published with Deep Silver – a clean break, but one that would retain the challenging subject matter. Crytek’s own financial crisis would see what is now The Revolution changing hands again, Deep Silver’s parent, Koch Media, taking ownership of both the IP and Crytek UK, rebranding the latter Dambuster Studio. After so much misfortune, a superstitious observer might easily conclude that the series was cursed.

Windows 10 Gaming Guide

Get the most out of gaming with Bennett Ring

The release of a new Operating System is usually accompanied by a feeling of nervous anticipation followed by outright dread amongst gamers. Compared to the general PC populace, we’re the most sensitive to software change, with our demanding games putting more pressure on the entire PC than nearly every other type of software. If something doesn’t work quite so, it can destroy the entire gaming experience. It could be as simple as a broken refresh rate thanks to wonky monitor drivers, or as drastic as multiple-GPU setups no longer working caused by a revised version of DirectX; we’re accustomed to the release of a new OS breaking something. With the recent release of Windows 10, many gamers have adopted the safe Wait-and-See approach, which usually equates to waiting to see just how horrible the new OS is at gaming. Windows 10 seems to be something different though – despite the leap in version number up to 10, this isn’t really a giant leap forwards as an OS. It’s more a lick of paint applied to Windows 8.1, which probably explains why it’s already so good at gaming. We know this, because we’ve spent a month testing the ins and outs of this operating system in our regular gaming box. We’ve benchmarked the bejeesus out of it, but before we get to the performance metrics, let’s check out the new gamerspecific features that Microsoft has included.

Website Paywalls: Can They Work?

Could website content gated behind a subscription work or will the practice ensure the death of a site? Aaron Birch reports

The internet is seen by most as a free source of information. Whatever you want to know, you can find a site online, somewhere, that has what you need. Whether it’s news, the latest movie reviews, reference material for an exam or simply the latest juicy gossip, it’s all there. Sites are available for you to visit and soak up all that they contain.