Now this looks interesting. Half racing game, half demented physics puzzler, Fromto is a turn-based racer. Players construct the track in build rounds and then challenge each other with ever trickier designs and alterations. It appears that you all race the same track, so while it’s all very adding ridiculous obstacles and jumps, you’ll have to negotiate it yourself before long. So, there’s a balance to be struck between being an utter git and making something completable. Sounds perfect for some local competitive multiplayer on Switch, then!

The game is from Studio Erikson and that childish art style comes from the developer’s children. Now, before you get too concerned or begin imagining labour practices that might not be be entirely surprising coming from some of the larger companies, this is a family team and the game takes partial inspiration from both the father’s childhood drawings and those of his kids in the present day.

The team’s official blurb gives more details on the background:

Fromto is a very unique 2D racing game (1-4P) from the Netherlands, coming to PC and Switch in Q2. Its special as it was made by a contemporary artist called Erik Habets together his two little kids Niki (5) and Joep (2). They are creating many of the assets for the game and you can clearly see their influence in some crazy gameplay features. This all began when Erik found an old black and white drawing, made by himself at a similar age.

The result is the chaotic racer/builder you see in the launch trailer, and we think it looks very fun indeed. We’ll find out when the game releases in that nebulous ‘Q2 2019’ period.

Like the idea of creating a monster your mates can’t conquer before showing them how it’s done? Let us know if this looks up your alley in the comments.

When we first clapped eyes on Yoshi’s Crafted World, we’d be lying if we said our first thoughts weren’t something along the lines of ‘oh look, another Yoshi game’. That’s not to say we didn’t like what we saw, but the Yoshi series has always played things a little bit safe in the past, and at first glance, beyond the art style, one might say the same about this crafty addition to the Switch’s library. Well, now we’ve actually played it – and gone beyond the single level available in the free demo – what do we have to say now?

First off, let’s get the obvious out of the way; the game’s adorable as heck. If you point to anything on-screen that isn’t alive, you can be certain it’s made to look like a child’s arts and crafts project in a way that’s simultaneously realistic and unrealistic. If you don’t know what we’re on about, have a look at some of the screenshots scattered around this article.

It’s an aesthetic that works, and works by the bucketload. If you can stand there and state in earnest that you don’t find at least something charming about the way this game looks, we reserve the right to stand in a similar spot and call you a heartless fiend. The tiny little details from the Shy Guys waving tiny paper butterflies on sticks, to a train being made out of a cola can, it all smacks of creativity, and gives the levels we tried a great sense of consistency.

But enough about the looks, anyone with eyes already knows what a visual treat it is; how does the ruddy thing play? Well, it’s a Yoshi game. It feels almost exactly like Yoshi’s Woolly World for the most part, but it’s in the finer details where things start to change. For one thing, our favourite green dinosaur (or should that be Yoshi?) from the Mario franchise isn’t restricted to just going left and right; in a style similar to a handful of levels in Yoshi’s Story, he can go forwards and backwards through the oft-forgotten Z axis, where the levels allow it.

You’re not allowed to run entirely free, however; you’re only allowed to move along predetermined paths that are clearly indicated underfoot. It sounds restricting at first, but considering every 2D platformer has the same linearity of movement, it’s actually quite refreshing to suddenly go up rather than constantly right.

Eggs now behave quite differently as well; you have free control over the aiming reticule and can aim at quite literally anything you can see onscreen that isn’t the HUD or yourself. Enemies in the backdrop? Throw an egg at them. Coins in the foreground? Throw an egg at them. An inconsequential piece of indestructible scenery to your immediate left? Throw an egg at it, although that won’t do much. Where this benefits the game most is in the hidden collectables, as previous games relied on borderline obscure corners housing invisible winged clouds, but Crafted World adding a whole new dimension (literally) allows hidden items to be hidden in much less convoluted and obtuse manners, but still concealed enough to make finding them a fun little challenge.

We also got to have a go at the ‘flipside’ of a level, where the camera pans around Yoshi 180 degrees so you can see the back of everything as you search for lost Poochy Pups. It’s nice to see the courses from a different angle, and it can help you find collectables you may have missed before, but it’s definitely taken much more of a back seat compared to how it was shown off in earlier presentations of the game. So much so that a previously promoted mechanic whereby two Yoshis ground-pound simultaneously to flip the perspective on command is no longer present. Yoshi’s Flipping Island this certainly isn’t.

Speaking of co-op, we had a pop at that as well. We didn’t get much of a chance to play it for any great length of time, but from what we played it felt quite different. In Woolly World, for example, it could often feel like your co-op partner was either just getting in the way, storming off ahead of you, or lagging behind. We can’t quite say how or why, but in Crafted World it feels a lot more balanced, and you’re able to help each other out a lot more effectively. Naturally, you can still swallow your partner and spit them out into danger; there’s all the sabotage you’d like, so if that’s more your jam, worry not.

All in all, Yoshi’s Crafted World looks like it’s shaping up to be a fine game indeed. The new mechanics are fun and add a bit of a new spin on things, the aesthetic is wonderful, and whilst all of it doesn’t amount to anything revolutionary, it’s still very entertaining and there’s plenty to enjoy for fans of the series. It may well end up being ‘just another Yoshi game’, but if it gets all that right, that’s more than alright with us.

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Yoshi’s Crafted World lands on the Nintendo Switch on 29th March.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is one of the most beloved entries in the entire Zelda series, so it’s little surprise that the announcement that Nintendo is remaking it for the Switch caused such a stir. The 1993 original remains a masterclass in adventure game design, and we personally cannot wait to get our hands on the 2019 edition of this seminal title.

The news also got us thinking about a previous feature we ran which focused on Jeff Hansen, who was a Nintendo World Champion for the early part of the ’90s. The feature we ran – along with its accompanying short film – was in fact inspired by Zelda: Link’s Awakening; the whole reason we got in touch with Hansen was to speak to him about a press trip we’d read about in a dog-eared issue of EDGE magazine.

The trip – a press junket to promote the game before it launched – involved putting a bunch of games journalists on a cross-country train with the ultimate objective being to discover who could finish it first. While this wouldn’t be a global achievement – the game had been released in Japan a few months earlier – it would still be worth bragging about, and Jeff, thanks to his status as Nintendo World Champion, went along for the ride.

“The train trip was especially exciting because neither I nor my parents had ever done a cross-country train trip before,” Hansen told us last year. “I think they had a hard time deciding which of them would go; usually, my mom would go with me on our trips, so it was my Dad’s turn.”

Each person on the trip was given a Game Boy and a copy of Link’s Awakening, which was unreleased in America at this point. “The only people on the train with Nintendo were me, my dad, the Golin-Harris and Nintendo marketing people, and a bunch of journalists,” Hansen explains. “Everyone that participated received a fresh new Game Boy and Link’s Awakening – even my Dad, who played it for about 10 minutes and then went back to reading his PC Magazine. Nintendo had only purchased a couple of rooms on the train that had beds, so we all took turns getting some sleep.”

While it all sounds well-organised, a spanner was thrown into the works early. “The original plan was to go from New York City to Los Angeles, but shortly before the event, there was a major bridge on that route that collapsed, killing many people,” says Hansen. “So plans were changed to go from New York City to Seattle instead. We were a little scared to embark on the trip after hearing the news, but we were also glad that we weren’t the ones on the bridge when it collapsed. There were several major stops along the way where we would wait for hours at a time before embarking again, and some journalists came and went at the Chicago stop.”

During his video game glory days, Hansen’s usual tactics when approaching a new game often involved collaboration with like-minded gaming friends, but that wasn’t something he could rely on in this situation. “There weren’t any of my usual friends to ask for help, and there certainly wasn’t anything I could Google to get hints back then,” he says. “There were a couple of Nintendo Counselors that rode with us on the trip, so I was able to ask for a couple of tips from them when I got stuck at the very beginning of the game. After that, though, it was smooth sailing.” Hansen’s talent – which had bagged him multiple World Championships by this point – took over. “The only thing I really cared about was getting into the game and beating it,” he recalls. “I was so occupied that I didn’t pay much attention to the outside world until I beat the game half-way across the country.”

It wasn’t just prestige that Hansen was competing for here – there was a monetary prize on offer. “Nintendo had announced that the first person on the trip to beat the game would be awarded $1,000, so that was a big part of my motivation for spending every waking hour towards beating it first,” he explains. Sadly, despite being the first person to complete the game (you can watch that exact moment here), the money wasn’t forthcoming. “Unfortunately, there wasn’t really any incentive for Nintendo to give me – the only non-journalist – the money, so I was a little disappointed to find out that I did not qualify – after I had beaten the game! I recall that there were several others that also beat it before we arrived in Seattle, and the first one to do so after me was declared the official winner.”

While it’s unlikely, it would be amazing to see Nintendo revive this unique promotional event for the upcoming Switch title.

If you were a fan of the arcade sports action found in Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube, you might be wondering why Nintendo hasn’t given us a sequel yet, given the popularity of football (or soccer) across the globe.

Stepping into the void, Spanish developer Xaloc Studios will soon be bringing Super Kickers League to the Switch eShop, this should scratch the fantasy-football itch quite nicely while we wait for Mario to put on his studded soccer shoes once again.

Here’s a bit more info about the game from the official PR:

‘Super Kickers League’ allows you to play crazy, 3 on 3 football matches, where the only thing that matters is scoring more goals than your opponent!

Inspired by games like ‘Super Mario Strikers’ and ‘Soccer Brawl’, ‘Super Kickers League’ is a new concept, where competing with your friends will be more fun than ever. ‘Super Kickers League’ has great graphics, original retro music and engaging gameplay.

With 3 different game modes, unlockable content, up to 10 teams with special abilities, achievements and a local multiplayer of up to 6 players (4 in the PS4 version), Xaloc have ensured this game is full of excitement -and goals!

In ‘Super Kickers League’ each team has a unique ability. The “Teams” mode is played with a single special ability per team, while the “Kickers” mode, lets you form a team of captains and combine their different abilities, turning the pitch into a real battlefield.

Finally, “Retro” mode allows you to play the game with an orthographic camera and pixel art graphics, transforming the graphics into a much more “classic” format.

Features:

– Crazy 3vs3 arcade football matches, in the style of ‘Super Mario Strikers’.
– Local multiplayer of up to 6 players (4 on the PS4 version)
– 3 different game modes: Teams, Kickers and Retro.
– Up to 10 different teams with a unique special skill per team.
– Achievements and unlockable content.
– Possibility to combine captains of different teams to use their skills strategically. (Kickers mode)

No referees, no rules, JUST GOALS!

Let us know if you plan to pick this up on Switch when it pops up in the eShop with a comment below.

If you are developing software using Fedora Silverblue, and especially if what you are developing is a Gnome application, Gnome Builder 3.30.3 feels like an obvious choice of IDE.

In this article, I will show you how you can create a simple Gnome application, and how to build it and install it as a Flatpak app on your system.

Gnome and Flatpak applications

Builder has been a part of Gnome for a long time. It is a very mature IDE to me in terms of consistency and completeness.

The Gnome Builder project website offers extensive documentation regarding Gnome application development — I highly recommend spending some time there to anyone interested.

Editor’s note: Getting Builder

Because the initial Fedora Silverblue installation doesn’t include Builder, let’s walk through the installation process first.

Starting with a freshly installed system, the first thing you’ll need to do is to enable a repository providing Builder as a Flatpak — we’ll use Flathub which is a popular 3rd-party repository with many desktop apps.

To enable Flathub on your system, download the repository file from the Fedora Quick Setup page, and double-click it which opens Gnome Software asking you to enable this repository on your system.

After you’re done with that, you can search for Builder in Gnome Software and install it.

Creating a new project

So let’s walk through the creation of a new project for our Gnome app. When you start Gnome Builder, the first display is oriented towards project management.

To create a new project, I clicked on the New… button at the top-left corner which showed me the following view.

You’ll need to fill out the project name, choose your preferred language (I chose C, but other languages will work for this example as well), and the license. Leave the version control on, and select Gnome Application as your template.

I chose gbfprtfsb as the name of my project which means Hello from Gnome 3 on Fedora SilverBlue.

The IDE creates and opens the project once you press create.

Tweaking our new project

The newly created project is opened in the Builder IDE and on my system looks like the following.

This project could be run from within the IDE right now and would give you the ever popular “Hello World!” titled gnome windowed application with a label that says, yup “Hello World!”.

Let’s get a little disruptive and mess up the title and greeting a bit. Complacency leads to mediocrity which leads to entropy overcoming chaos to enforce order, stasis, then finally it all just comes to a halt. It’s therefore our duty to shake it up at every opportunity, if only to knock out any latent entropy that may have accumulated in our systems. Towards such lofty goals, we only need to change two lines of one file, and the file isn’t even a C language file, it’s an XML file used to describe the GUI named gbfprtfsb-window.ui. All we have to do is open it and edit the title and label text, save and then build our masterpiece!

Looking at the screenshot below, I have circled the text we are going to replace. The window is a GtkApplicationWindow, and uses a GtkHeaderBar and GtkLabel to display the text we are changing. In the GtkHeaderBar we will type GBFPRTFSB for the title property. In the GtkLabel we will type Hello from Gnome 3 on Fedora SilverBlue in the label property. Now save the file to record our changes.

Building the project

Well, we have made our changes, and expressed our individualism (cough) at the same time. All that is left is to build it and see what it looks like. The build panel is located near the top of the IDE, middle right, and is represented by the icon that appears to be a brick wall being built as shown on the following picture.

Press the button, and the build process completes. You can also preview your application by clicking on the “play” button next to it.

Building a Flatpak

When we’re happy with our creation, the next step will be building it as a Flatpak. To do that, click on the title in the middle of the top bar, and then on the Export Bundle button.

Once the export has successfully completed, Gnome Builder will open a Nautilus file browser window showing the export directory, with the Flatpak bundle already selected.

To install the app on your system, simply double-click the icon which opens Gnome Software allowing you to install the app. On my system I had to enter my user password twice, which I take to be due to the fact we had no configured GPG key for the project. After it was installed, the application was shown alongside all of the other applications on my system. It can be seen running below.

I think this has successfully shown how easy it is to deploy an application as a Flatpak bundle for Gnome using Builder, and then running it on Fedora Silverblue.

Apple is anticipated to update nearly every line of hardware it has in 2019. AppleInsider shows you what we’re expecting to see, including the “AirPods 2,” 2019 Mac Pro, Apple Pro displays, new iPhones, the “iPad mini 5,” and more.

As happens every year, Apple makes a large number of changes to its product portfolio, and 2019 is shaping up to feature a considerable amount of major upgrades.

Practically all corners of Apple’s hardware empire will see changes, including the iOS-based iPhone and iPad ranges, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro, and accessories such as AirPods and the long-awaited AirPower.

AirPods 2

Anticipated to launch in the first half of 2019, or at latest, the fall.

Health-related features reminiscent of the Apple Watch’s functions are touted, monitoring inside the ear for the user’s heart rate.

While similar in appearance to the originals, the second generation may ship with a black color option alongside white. Extra grip in the ear is expected, via a change in its coating rather than by physical design alterations.

16-inch MacBook Pro

A larger model of MacBook Pro is tipped for launch, with a 16 to 16.5-inch display.

Apple’s last 17-inch MacBook Pro shipped in late 2011. It is presently considered an obsolete product, and Apple isn’t offering service for it any longer.

iPad Mini 5

International regulatory filings indicate new models are on the way, potentially including the iPad mini and could arrive early in the year.

An early-2019 launch for the new fifth-generation iPad mini is expected.

The update is thought to be relatively similar to its previous form, including a headphone jack, 7.9-inch display, and the continued use of Touch ID instead of shifting to Face ID.

One big change is the possible addition of Smart Keyboard support, along with the Apple Pencil.

2019 iPhone

Apple is expected to release three iPhones this fall, following a similar pattern to the 2018 releases, with two OLED models joined by a cheaper iPhone XR-style LCD model.

This could be the last generation to use LCD before Apple moves completely over to OLED in 2020, though it is also possible the shift could happen this year.

A triple camera setup is tipped to appear on the rear, which could include the ability to produce depth maps similar to the front-facing TrueDepth camera in current-generation models.

The front TrueDepth camera could get an upgrade, making it capable of producing a 10-megapixel image.

It is suggested there could be bilateral wireless charging, allowing an iPhone to provide charge to another device. Other new additions could be larger batteries, a frosted glass casing, and support for UWB (ultra-wide band) for indoor positioning and navigation.

There have been some debate about whether Apple will stick to Lightning or shift to USB-C, just like the iPad Pro.

2019 Mac Pro

Expected for launch sometime in 2019, but it is unclear when in the year it will take place. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that it will be easy to upgrade, but Apple has only said that this model will be modular in design.

What that “modular” specifically means for the end-user isn’t clear at present.

Apple Professional 6K Display

Anticipated to launch alongside the new Mac Pro, though it is unknown when that will be during the year.

Expected to be a 31.6-inch 6K3K display (6,144 x 3,072 resolution) and will use a “mini LED-like backlight design” to deliver outstanding picture quality.

After decades of continuous monitor production, Apple’s last display was the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display. It was discontinued on June 23, 2016.

Seventh generation iPad

An early 2019 launch is expected for the model, based on rumors and the existence of regulatory model number filings.

A design refresh is tipped to take place, possibly borrowing elements from the iPad Pro design.

The well-known 9.7-inch display is expected to increase in size, possibly measuring 10.2 inches, though it is likely the overall device size won’t grow as much.

Smart Keyboard support is touted for the model, allowing the accessory to connect in a similar way to the iPad Pro range.

Even with the changes, it is probable that the iPad will continue to use Touch ID, not Face ID.

iPad Pro

Following the previous model updates, Apple is thought to ship two models of the iPad Pro as part of its usual refresh, with upgraded processors.

Apple last updated the iPad Pro in October 2018 with a new exterior design, and Face ID.

AirPower

Originally slated for launch in 2018, but now expected to ship in the first half of 2019.

Allows up to three devices to wirelessly charge at the same time, such as an iPhone, Apple Watch, and an AirPods charging case

Apple Watch Series 5

At present, there are few rumors discussing the Apple Watch —save one from Ming Chi Kuo.

The Apple Watch “Series 5” is thought to reintroduce the option for a ceramic body, after being dropped from the Series 4 roster.

iPod Touch

Tipped for launch at some point in 2019, but with no indication as to when the seventh-generation iPod Touch will make an appearance.

No details about changes have emerged, except for speculation it will have an upgraded processor.

All quiet regarding the Apple TV, the iMac, and the Mac mini

Very little has emerged on the Apple TV since the 4K version was launched. Similarly, the iMac 4K and iMac 5K are likely to get an update, but there hasn’t been anything of any substance in from the supply chain regarding the topic.

Apple has very recently updated the Mac mini, and probably won’t do so again in 2019.

Far Cry® New Dawn is Now Available on Steam!

Dive into a transformed vibrant post-apocalyptic Hope County, Montana, 17 years after a global nuclear catastrophe.

Lead the fight against the Highwaymen, as they seek to take over the last remaining resources.