Call of Duty:Black Ops III is back at the pinnacle of the charts. Having had such a stellar run since its release (this year it has spent almost every single week at Number 1) this will have to be the first game that we give a serious review to.

Developed by Treyarch and published by Activision, 'Call of Duty: Black Ops III' continues to be a run-away commercial success. It is a military science fiction first-person shooter. Set in 2065 (40 years after the end of Black Ops II) the world now has robots fighting its wars (cybernetics). There is a genuine fear that machines may come to rule over man, as they now know how to kill him. In fact, whilst some citizens have been turned into zombies by certain robots, the governments of the world have dispatched a group of cyber robots called the Deadkillers, whose aim is to 'kill again' any zombies they come into contact with.

As one would expect, this game is a continuation of Black Ops II in that it basically centres on the Direct Neural Interface (DNI) device with which the Player and other members of the game can communicate: both with other DNI implanted people, and machines. With these devices it is possible to have dreams (or more likely, nightmares) transmitted to the user. And it is by communication through these devices that one learns a great deal about what is occurring in the game/story.

A lot of this particular game is centred in Singapore and Cairo, Egypt. We learn that there has been a massive explosion in Singapore in which approximately 300,000 people died. Was this explosion as a result of, say, a gas leak, or were more sinister DNI human-trial experiments occurring? We do learn that there is now a new type of gas that renders those who breathe it, mad, turning them into zombies. Commander John Taylor's team may have witnessed too much, and may be able to shed more light on this explosion. All the same, finding survivors of this explosion may be one of the tactics that you may decide to use. These are the main themes that the game centres on, finding out as much information as possible is gonna be key, but all the time you have to be prepared for betrayal (as you yourself may well have to betray others).

The supernatural plays a prominent part in this game. You are dealing with portals and different time-lines. Hence, if two different time-lines collide, it is possible to kill someone who still exists in another time-line. There are ritualistic sacrifices, and so it may not always be clear why someone is, or has to be, killed.

In the game, considerable customisation is possible, both of your player and weaponary.

The video game

Indication is that the few developers of the various versions of the game were given slightly altered contracts in that they were allowed to bring out new titles once every three years, instead of the previous agreement requiring releases once every two years.

The game was released on a number of different formats, for instance, PS4, PS3, XBox One, XBox 360, Microsoft Windows, to name a few. On the Playstation format, the drive was certainly to emphasize the PS4 release, in that it was relaseed prior to the release of the PS3 version, which was to have fewer features than the PS4 version. The developers of this version of the game had ingenious ways of maintaining interest and tying in players to the game. Exclusive betas were offerred to those who pre-ordered, with them having first (or sometimes, only) download access to such things as particular maps, as well as having exclusive modes.

The game has been a runaway commercial success, garnering rave reviews from many major circles. It was the biggest selling game of 2015, grossing over $550million in its first 3 days of release. As of today (17/02/2016) it has spent almost every week of this year perched at Number 1.