DARK SOULS III (XBOX ONE)

At this point developer From Software is a veteran of making brutally hard action RPGs. Having started with Demon's Souls and progressed through two Dark Souls games and Bloodborne, director Hidetaka Miyazaki has coyly said that Dark Souls III is the last game "in this style", meaning that this may come to be seen as a watermark in gaming. While the Dark Souls III feels instantly familiar, it does much to turn the series on its head. The ruined castle ramparts and monstrous dragons are still present and accounted for, as is the atmosphere of impending doom. But where the games have traditionally seen the player ascending ever higher as the game progresses, here the player begins by sinking ever deeper into the world. The role of non-player characters is subverted, with them initially