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Xbox has announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, an upcoming monthly subscription that rolls the offerings of Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game pass into one.

It’s a move that aims to consolidate the two big subscription services into one monthly fee, and likely make enrolling in the subscription-based Game Pass program a more attractive option for those already paying for a Gold subscription.

The new $14.99-a-month service comes with all the features of Xbox Live Gold, like online multiplayer and monthly game freebies and sales, as well as access to the Xbox Game Pass library. For those paying month-by-month, subscribing to Game Pass Ultimate would save about $5 every time since each service on its own currently comes with a $9.99 per-month pricetag.

For now, it looks like the 2-in-1 service is being offered in addition to the existing monthly plans rather than a replacement for either. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is set to go live at an unannounced point later this year, though Xbox has plans to open it up to select Xbox Insider members as a test run prior to that full launch.

While the first Panzer Dragoon game was created 25 years ago, the developers behind that classic Sega Saturn title believe that the lessons they learned working and struggling with the then-cutting-edge system can still be put to use by developers today.

Yukio Futatsugi and Kentaro Yoshida, two of the minds behind the Panzer Dragoon series, sat down at GDC 2019 to walk through the development of three games in the series, including the original and the rarely discussed Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Panzer Dragoon Saga.

It’s an hour-long talk that walks though the concepts and art design of the Sega Saturn games as well as conversations about the thought process that went into planning the world’s unique atmosphere, decisions that influenced the art style for the dragons, and what they had intended to create when first setting out to create an unusual shooting game that combines dragons and homing lasers.

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Starting at 2:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha Skip Ahead Ring will begin receiving the latest 1910 Xbox One system update (19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_19H2HOLD_1910\18362.7033.190404-1920). This build has the same features and fixes as 1904 however we need valuable core recovery coverage and feedback as we skip ahead.

DETAILS:

• OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_19H2HOLD_1910\18362.7033.190404-1920
• Available: 2:00PM PST 4/8/19
• Mandatory Date/Time: 3:00 AM PST 4/9/19

Fixes:

Audio

• We have resolved the issue that some users were experiencing no audio with the dashboard.

My Games and Apps

• We have resolved the issue with various titles not launching consistently.

System

• Performance fixes to Home and collection.

Known Issues:

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net.

Update: We’re now on pre-release 4 and we expect this to be the last pre-release before the full release. We aim to release Village & Pillage for Minecraft: Java Edition on Tuesday, April 23rd.

• Fixed bugs
• Performance improvements

• MC-101233 – Burned out redstone torch map causes memory leak
• MC-144173 – When foxes eat a soup they eat the whole bowl
• MC-144346 – Composter Bottom texture uses side texture
• MC-145736 – taiga_meeting_point_2 has two logs that are rotated incorrectly
• MC-145762 – Villagers don’t go to their appropriate work site
• MC-146528 – Raid bar will disappear after being filled in villages created in nether
• MC-146615 – Looms are backwards in village house
• MC-147316 – Villager GUI right edge is missing/incomplete
• MC-147845 – resources.zip in world folder makes game crash when clicking resource packs button
• MC-148044 – Foxes look weirdly at you after killing rabbit/chicken when jumping
• MC-148091 – Ominous banners are called “block.minecraft.illager_banner”
• MC-148192 – Music slider doesn’t affect volume
• MC-148210 – The merchant can be summoned with a negative age which has the effect that he has the hitbox of a baby villager
• MC-148356 – Foxes holding items are lowered by a pixel or 2
• MC-148357 – Foxes still run away from wolves, even if they are tamed
• MC-148358 – Baby foxes holding items are shifted
• MC-148383 – Right-clicking cartography table output when duplicating map causes loss of second map
• MC-148466 – Foxes have 20 health points
• MC-148504 – Mobs not affected by sunlight

• Fixed bugs

• MC-137935 – Skeletons do not shoot player when seeking shelter from sun
• MC-139446 – Sky light not recalculated when blocks placed in air with /fill command
• MC-141990 – Cartography table does not update when cloning maps
• MC-142134 – Light sources spontaneously not working in some chunks
• MC-144107 – Miscalculation of camera position in windowed mode on Linux with KDE
• MC-144111 – Foxes get stuck after pouncing
• MC-144114 – Foxes can walk/slide while sleeping
• MC-145944 – Villagers travel up water really quick
• MC-145952 – Iron golem and villagers can leave their village
• MC-146272 – Double screen bounce with new sneak/crouch changes
• MC-146978 – Hero of the Village effect obtained naturally makes the player give off particles
• MC-147305 – Player crouches with a delay
• MC-147363 – “Villager disagrees” sound is played twice when right clicking a villager without trades
• MC-147387 – Ravagers with a passenger won’t attack players and iron golems
• MC-147646 – Mobs will go to village centers and attack the air
• MC-147772 – Horses can glitch when moving up blocks
• MC-147799 – Strange TNT behaviour
• MC-147853 – Animals can not get out of water since 1.14-pre1
• MC-147897 – Riding entities down elevation deals damage on dismount (again)
• MC-147913 – Shearing Sheep doesn’t use Shears Durability
• MC-148000 – Enchanted books cannot be disenchanted with the grindstone
• MC-148031 – Spectator flying slows down in solid blocks
• MC-148037 – Light Level decreases on Blocks as Y Level increases
• MC-148045 – Same items types on ground don’t stack together
• MC-148185 – Duplicate maps using cartography table

Japanese chart figures are now in for 8th – 14th April, revealing that Nintendo Labo VR has managed to enter the charts in second place in its opening week.

The game managed to sell more units that this week’s other big Switch release, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, with Famitsu’s estimates reporting a total of 26,634 sales. This debut puts it ahead of Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit‘s opening week sales, but still significantly behind the sales experienced by the first two Labo kits.

It was Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain which managed to take the top spot, though, with an estimated 55,573 sales. Labo VR released a day later than both Earth Defense Force and Final Fantasy, potentially causing the VR kit’s sales to look a little weaker than they might have done.

Here are the top 10 (first numbers are this week’s sales, followed by total sales):

1) [PS4] Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain (D3Publisher) {2019.04.11} – 55.573 / NEW
2) [NSW] Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit (Nintendo) {2019.04.12} – 26.634 / NEW
3) [NSW] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Square Enix) {2019.04.11} – 16.839 / NEW
4) [NSW] Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission (Bandai Namco Games) {2019.04.04} – 14.132 / 85.122
5) [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World (Nintendo) {2019.03.29} – 13.197 / 91.672
6) [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) {2018.12.07} – 11.346 / 3.018.497
7) [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software) {2019.03.22} – 11.034 / 223.995
8) [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft Game Studios) {2018.06.21} – 9.123 / 728.968
9) [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo) {2019.01.11} – 8.447 / 568.545
10) [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} – 7.834 / 2.254.250

As for hardware, Switch is still sitting at the top of the chart, selling an estimated 54,101 units this week. Here are this week’s figures, followed by last week’s in brackets:

1) Switch – 54,101 (46,850)
2) PlayStation 4 – 6,662 (8,347)
3) PlayStation 4 Pro – 5,131 (5,507)
4) New 2DS LL – 2,676 (3,469)
5) New 3DS – 664 (919)
6) PlayStation Vita – 575 (482)
7) Xbox One X – 47 (60)
8) Xbox One S – 19 (33)

< Last week’s charts

Any surprises this week? Did you expect Labo VR to reach number two? Let us know in the comments.

Note: This trailer contains a small amount of bad language.

A brand new trailer for the upcoming Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package has just been released, coming alongside the announcement of the game’s Deluxe Pack which is available to pre-order from GAME starting today.

The game is set to launch on 10th May (so in just under a month’s time) but if you really can’t wait, here’s a look at what you’ll get by picking up the Deluxe Pack:

The Deluxe Pack contains an array of Saints Row inspired goodies including:

– A set of Saints Row Analog Stick Thumb Grips, for extra control
– A2 Double-sided Poster, featuring iconic Saints Row: The Third artwork
– Purple Microfibre Screen Cloth, adorned with the Saints Row: The Third insignia
– 2 Console Sticker Sheets, showcasing iconography from the world of Saints Row
– 3 Double-sided Lithographs, featuring artwork of six of the series’ most beloved characters
– Double-sided Alternative Artwork Inlay, that owners can use to personalise their boxed copy
– Deluxe Game Case Sleeve, featuring the original 2011 artwork for extra nostalgia

The standard release, called ‘The Full Package’, will be available from the Nintendo Switch eShop on its release day of 10th May. It’s priced at £34.99 / $39.99 and comes with the following game features (also present in the deluxe release, of course):

· City of Sin – Disrupt and dismantle the Syndicate stranglehold on weapons, cybercrime, and criminal rackets. Discover the secrets of Steelport, where there is action on every street corner, for better or, more likely, worse.
· Weapons of Crass Destruction – It’s one thing to defeat your enemies. It’s another to humiliate them. Hover jets, human cannonball cars and melee weapon warfare are all part of the fun.
· Joy-Con Crazy Customisation – Create the most outlandish characters ever seen, from washed-up celebrities to maskless ninja pirates. Inside every sinner, there is a Saint. Who will you become?
· Portable Over The Top Co-op – Fly solo, or play online with a homie and for the first time – two players can play side to side via online or local multiplayer. Give freefall skydiving a try, landing in your partner’s flaming pickup as you make a desperate run toward a heavily armed Syndicate base. Steelport is always more fun with a friend.
· The Full Package – Includes all three mission packs and more than 30 DLC items. All previously released content is included on the game card.*

* Two DLC packs – the Bloodsucker Pack and the Unlockable Pack, have been omitted for game balance and improvement based on feedback.

Are you excited to take Saints Row on the go? Let us know with a comment below, yo.

Mdadm stands for Multiple Disk and Device Administration. It is a command line tool that can be used to manage software RAID arrays on your Linux PC. This article outlines the basics you need to get started with it.

The following five commands allow you to make use of mdadm’s most basic features:

1. Create a RAID array:
   
   
   # mdadm –create /dev/md/test –homehost=any –metadata=1.0 –level=1 –raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
2. Assemble (and start) a RAID array:
   
   
   # mdadm –assemble /dev/md/test /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
3. Stop a RAID array:
   
   
   # mdadm –stop /dev/md/test
4. Delete a RAID array:
   
   
   # mdadm –zero-superblock /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
5. Check the status of all assembled RAID arrays:
   
   
   # cat /proc/mdstat

Notes on features

mdadm --create

The create command shown above includes the following four parameters in addition to the create parameter itself and the device names:

1. –homehost:
   By default, mdadm stores your computer’s name as an attribute of the RAID array. If your computer name does not match the stored name, the array will not automatically assemble. This feature is useful in server clusters that share hard drives because file system corruption usually occurs if multiple servers attempt to access the same drive at the same time. The name any is reserved and disables the homehost restriction.
2. –metadata:
   mdadm reserves a small portion of each RAID device to store information about the RAID array itself. The metadata parameter specifies the format and location of the information. The value 1.0 indicates to use version-1 formatting and store the metadata at the end of the device.
3. –level:
   The level parameter specifies how the data should be distributed among the underlying devices. Level 1 indicates each device should contain a complete copy of all the data. This level is also known as disk mirroring.
4. –raid-devices:
   The raid-devices parameter specifies the number of devices that will be used to create the RAID array.

By using level=1 (mirroring) in combination with metadata=1.0 (store the metadata at the end of the device), you create a RAID1 array whose underlying devices appear normal if accessed without the aid of the mdadm driver. This is useful in the case of disaster recovery, because you can access the device even if the new system doesn’t support mdadm arrays. It’s also useful in case a program needs read-only access to the underlying device before mdadm is available. For example, the UEFI firmware in a computer may need to read the bootloader from the ESP before mdadm is started.

mdadm --assemble

The assemble command above fails if a member device is missing or corrupt. To force the RAID array to assemble and start when one of its members is missing, use the following command:

# mdadm --assemble --run /dev/md/test /dev/sda1

Other important notes

Avoid writing directly to any devices that underlay a mdadm RAID1 array. That causes the devices to become out-of-sync and mdadm won’t know that they are out-of-sync. If you access a RAID1 array with a device that’s been modified out-of-band, you can cause file system corruption. If you modify a RAID1 device out-of-band and need to force the array to re-synchronize, delete the mdadm metadata from the device to be overwritten and then re-add it to the array as demonstrated below:

# mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb1
# mdadm --assemble --run /dev/md/test /dev/sda1 
# mdadm /dev/md/test --add /dev/sdb1

These commands completely overwrite the contents of sdb1 with the contents of sda1.

To specify any RAID arrays to automatically activate when your computer starts, create an /etc/mdadm.conf configuration file.

For the most up-to-date and detailed information, check the man pages:

$ man mdadm 
$ man mdadm.conf

The next article of this series will show a step-by-step guide on how to convert an existing single-disk Linux installation to a mirrored-disk installation, that will continue running even if one of its hard drives suddenly stops working!

So you may not be aware, but Asmodee Digital launched a newsletter last year. I can’t exactly remember when but it was early 2018 I believe. By and large, it’s not the most useful newsletter in the world – it’s infrequent, a lot of the stuff it talks about we already know or is repeated, and generally it’s a bit vague even at the best of times. We do appreciate getting it though.

Case and point, the most recent newsletter lists these games are being ‘In Development’:

I mean this is fine – the Gloomhaven icon has a link to the official page, but the others don’t have anything. Some of this we knew, some of this we didn’t, but without any information regarding platforms, price, time-table etc… it’s just a bunch of icons at this point. Again we appreciate it, but we can’t always do anything with what it contains.

Then, every so often, there will be some utter bombshells, dropped in ever so casually:

So yeah, Zombicide. April 24^th. Mark your calendars I guess… we knew this was coming, but there hasn’t really been a peep out of the studio on this since it was announced so to suddenly learn it’s release next week is a bit of a surprise. The “finally” comment throws me me a bit – I mean, it’s not even out on Steam, so it’s not like we’ve been waiting around watching our PC-based brethren play this while we clutch our mobile phones in frustration. Unlike with their legions of other PC-only digital board games.

All that aside, another milestone in board games is only a week away. It’s good that we’re seeing both iOS AND Android ports at the same time. We’ll try and have a review ready for when it drops.

The Game Creators are working on a successor to their game framework AppGameKit, previously reviewed here.  The new product AppGameKit Studio builds on the existing framework while building a complete all in one IDE for game development.  This adds a scene editor, integrated code editor, debugging, online help and more together into a single application.  Key features from the website are:

Drag & drop assets to visualise your scenes
Code with AppGameKit Script
Easily browse app media assets
Run live debugging sessions
Access online help

AppGameKit Studio is currently in beta, but is available for purchase for a discounted price.  You can learn more about AppGameKit Studio here.  See Studio in action in the video below.

GameDev News