Call Of Duty: Black Ops III

Thinking outside the hitbox

Remember in old platforming games where, right at the start of the level, there’d be a pitfall – a trap that was placed to make you learn how to jump, how to navigate obstacles, how to remain alive? Well, funnily enough, Black Ops III has the same thing… which feels somewhat out of place in a Call Of Duty game, right? It serves the same purpose as those pitfalls did some 30 years ago, though: the traversal in the multiplayer portion of Black Ops III is vital, and the game wants you to learn – immediately – that if you try to take shortcuts through the maps, you can die.

The real cost of free-to-play

If the future of gaming is free, what are the issues the business model's foremost developers are having to overcome?

We’ve all become jaded cynics, and it’s easy to see why. While society as a whole tumbles ever closer towards a permanent state of eyerolling – one cleverly doctored image of a BBC news ticker at a time – it’s gamers in particular that are finding their trust egregiously chipped away by the machinations of the big publishers.

Are Expensive Screen Protectors Worth It?

Keir Thomas splashes the cash to see if screen protectors costing more than a few quid are worth it – plus, what’s the best way to keep your screen clean?

Screen protectors are cheap. In fact, they’re often entirely free, given away with other products such as phone cases. For larger items like tablets and laptops you’ll have to hand over cash, but that’s when you discover there are hundreds of different makes and price points. Some prices can be eye watering.

Hive Of Activity

Not many companies like to take on the might of Google but with Nest recently unveiling its latest, thinner smart thermostat, David Crookes talks to a well-known British company aiming to claim it own sizeable share in the connected home market

The Next Big Thing, we have so often been told, is not the latest smartphone, wearable or revamped operating system. It’s the connected home – or smart home, as some like to call it. Research by Time showed that 84% of people in the UK are interested in buying at least one smart home device, with 58% considering smart lighting, 56% household utilities and 54% security.

Microsoft’s Sting In The Tail: Updategate

Mark Pickavance looks at Microsoft’s foray into making friends and influencing people

Afew months ago, Microsoft drew some flak for installing an app onto Windows 7 and 8 users systems that was intent on pushing Windows 10 on them.

What was rather odd about this was that it offered to reserve a copy for you, despite there being absolutely no chance whatsoever that Microsoft would run out of them, as they weren’t boxed items.