2018 is well underway. Over half-way, in fact, and there’s still plenty more awesome titles expected to arrive between now and December 31st. Below is an up-to-date list of all of the best new mobile games due out before the end of the year. Some of these are more wishful than others, so don’t be surprised if you see some games turn up on 2019’s list as well. Let us know if you spot any others!
Bad North (RTS)
Bad North is a real-time tactics game where you’ll defend your kingdom from waves of Viking invaders. Between fights for the very survival of your realm you’ll have to gather precious resources and negotiate the aid of your nobles and commoners to stay in the fight. The game looks beautiful, is clearly a potential game-of-the-year contender and is one of the games I’m most looking forward to this year. There’s no firm release date but Bad North is coming to mobile (and we may have to consider knocking it off this list), but it’s due out on PC via Discord’s new game store later this year.
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Command and Conquer: Rivals (RTS)
Fans were stunned, awed and a little concerned when Rivals showed its face as the next entry of the classic series. Right now details are a little scarce, aside from the promise to see some familiar faces and engage in whirlwind base-building and battle. The visuals are already incredibly polished, and while its nerve-wracking seeing a legacy series carried forward, this game has the potential to be a killer distillation of the iconic C&C experience.
Dungeon Warfare 2 (Tower Defence)
Dungeon Warfare is my pick for the best tower-defense game on mobile. If you haven’t tried it and enjoy the genre, you really ought to remedy that, if for no other reason than to get ready for the sequel. Dungeon Warfare 2 has been in development for some time and will be released to Steam this year. Hopefully, we’ll see a mobile release as well as was the case with the first Dungeon Warfare. Dungeon Warfare 2 will include over 60 maps, 12 unit types, 6 traps, and 3 different skill trees.
Donut County (Puzzle)
If Seinfeld is a show about nothing, Donut County is a game about nothing. The ‘hero’ is literally a hole lurking and swimming across the surface of L.A., land of fantastic donuts and pending seismic disaster. The ‘whole’ game ‘circles’ around swallowing various objects, growing larger and holey-er and solving puzzles by interacting with the environment. The novelty of its central mechanic (here as elsewhere described as a Katamari Damacy in reverse) is strong. Its irreverent, off-the-cuff tone as delivered by a raccoon narrator and soft-poly aesthetic point to a wonderful game.
Epic Card Game (Card Game)
White Wizard Games has become a competitive-card-game behemoth. So much so that they only have to hint at a Kickstarter and it is instantly fully backed. Well, not quite, but pretty close. Their digital version of Epic Card Game has been in alpha testing for a few months and is on track for a 2018 release to both iOS and Android. Like their previous titles, Epic is a buy once and have all the cards you need for sealed, draft, and constructed for up to four players. There are even preconstructed decks to start with and modify.
Nowhere Prophet (Card Game/Roguelike)
Nowhere Prophet one is a doozy and a little secretive. The dark horse of this race, if you will. In the game, post-apocalyptic leaders trek across a scabrous landscape to gather supporters and supplies, occasionally clashing with foes or environmental dangers. This card game has grid-based combat as well procedurally generated encounters. It’s a card-battler roguelike, essentially, with a unique setting and what seems to be a robust battle system. It’s due to hit steam in Q3 this year, although no word on when the mobile versions are due out.
Evolution (Boardgame)
Evolution is a bit of a strange beast. It isn’t quite directly competitive but at time the kinds of nature and ecosystems it simulates can be punishing and downright hostile. Eating the last scrap of food or eating your opponents, it certainly embodies survival of the fittest. If the devblog is any indication, the digital version should be as lovely and clearly presented as the original. They’ve taken their time perfecting the interface, and now Evolution is ready for its next form, to be released next month.
Heaven’s Vault (Interactive Fiction)
Inkle (of 80 Days interactive fiction fame) has been teasing their mechanically ambitious Heaven’s Vault for some time now. An archeologist-slash-xenolinguist explores the dusty remains of an alien civilization on an unknown planet, with a vivid backdrop of sienna sand and celestial blue. There’s some pretty nifty procedural tricks behind the code-breaking and translation, and while its approach to storytelling is a little less handcrafted, it has the potential to have even more surprises and replayability than the globe-trotting 80 Days.
Lord of the Rings Living Card Game (Card Game)
Fantasy Flight Interactive is working on a Lord of the Rings living-card game. It is coming to Early Access on Steam sometime in Q3 with a full release to follow later this year. Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game will be free-to-play with in-app purchases of non-random packs to add more cards with which to play. Mobile releases haven’t been officially announced, but there are Apple and Android logos in the video reveal, so we know they are coming. 2018 may be a longshot though.
Night in the Woods (Interactive Fiction)
In Night in the Woods, an anxious young critter comes home to a town, down in the dumps and feeling like a fresh failure. Sometimes just relating to others who care about you is an effort, or your childhood town strange as much as comforting. Oh, and there’s something dark and sinister afoot in the woods. Animal characters with human struggles, empathetic storylines and moving dialogue combine to create one of the best indie games of the past few years. It’s conversation-based gameplay and touch-and-go interactions.
Monster Slayers (Card Game)
It’s a deck builder. It’s a roguelike. It’s one of the best games of 2017. Monster Slayers is heavily influenced by Dream Quest and, for my money, is a better game. It’s coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PS Vita this spring and the developer has confirmed mobile is on the docket. Whether we can get our hands on it yet in 2018 is TBD.
EVE: War of Ascension (MMO)
The game that launched a million spreadsheets, space-based MMO Eve Online, is getting a mobile spinoff. Formerly known as ‘Project Aurora’, Ascension will be based in the same universe as EVE but will not be integrated into the existing game. CCP have partnered up with Kongregate to publish the game, and you can glean some insights as to how the project will be made here. While it’s supposed to have the same open world, player-driven gameplay as the PC game, it’s being specifically designed for a wider audience. It is expected to release to both iOS and Android later this year, although it has already soft-launched in the Phillipines.
Scythe (Boardgame/Strategy)
Slowly but surely all of the most-popular tabletop games are making their way to digital, and Scythe is on that list. The game is set in the alternate-history 1920+ universe where mechs and other mechanicals exist side-by-side with agrarian society. Each player acts as a leader of a faction seeking to bring it to glory and success. Asmodee Digital is at the helm of this port, and a mobile port is expected sometime this year. It’s already in Steam’s Early Access program.
Terraforming Mars (Boardgame/Strategy)
Yet another Asmodee digital title on its way is Terraforming Mars, and it should be a big one. Set 500 years in the future the game is all about the race to colonize Mars and out greed your fellow space-faring corporations. The tabletop game is perhaps the most popular board game still without a digital variant, but not for long. Transforming Mars is coming to iOS, Android, and Steam sometime this year, and will probably hit Steam Early Access first.
Void Tyrant (Card Game/RPG)
Do you dig Solitairica and other cool card/RPG/roguelike hybrids? If so, Void Tyrant is one worth watching for later this year. In Void Tyrant you pick a hero from a number of classes and head out to explore a chaotic galaxy. The graphics look good and combat has an interesting twist where either you or your opponent gets to do damage based on a Black Jack style showdown with special skills and items to monkey with the results. Void Tyrant is coming in Q4 for iOS and Android. It’ll be free-to-play by the developer cites “no annoying timers” so hopefully the monetization will be player friendly.
Seen anything else you’re excited for on the horizon? We’ll be keeping this list updated as the year progresses, so make sure you check back every couple of months!
Welcome to Flatwood Peaks, a small whimsical town with a problem -- Death is on vacation. Play as Penny and help trapped ghosts with your trusted scythe. Flip the entire world around to solve puzzles on both the living and the dead side and slowly uncover the mystery surrounding your own demise.
From the independent studio that brought you Contrast, We Happy Few is an action/adventure game set in a drug-fuelled, retrofuturistic city in an alternative 1960s England. Hide, fight and conform your way out of this delusional, Joy-obsessed world.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-13-2018, 10:49 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Nintendo narrows down Switch Online launch to the ‘second half of September’
Nintendo is getting closer and closer to nailing down an official release date for the Switch’s paid online subscription service and is now saying that Nintendo Switch Online will launch in the second half of September.
While it’s not anything particularly concrete, the announcement does shave two weeks off the prospective release date for the service, which itself was originally slated to launch in Fall of 2017 before eventually being pushed back to sometime in September 2018.
Once up and running, Nintendo Switch Online will lock multiplayer play and online features like voice chat on the Switch behind a payment wall, though there have been rumors that online play in free-to-play games like Epic’s Fortnite will be excluded from the plan.
Additionally, enrolling in the program grants paying players access to a library of classic Nintendo games like Super Mario Bros 3 and Dr. Mario along with member-exclusive deals on the Nintendo eShop.
Pricing, meanwhile, hasn’t changed for the Nintendo Switch Online service; Nintendo still plans to offer access at $3.99 for 1 month, $7.99 for 3 months, for $19.99 for 12 months.
We know you’re busy and might miss out on all the exciting things we’re talking about on Xbox Wire every week. If you’ve got a few minutes, we can help remedy that. We’ve pared down the past week’s news into one easy-to-digest article for all things Xbox! Or, if you’d rather watch than read, you can feast your eyes on our weekly video show above. Be sure to come back every Friday to find out what’s happening This Week on Xbox!
Battle Skeleton Ships And Join Over 5M Players In Free Sea Of Thieves ‘Cursed Sails’ Update Today marks the launch of Cursed Sails, our second major content update for Sea of Thieves, introducing fearsome enemy Skeleton Ships, the new Brigantine three-player ship, and a new Alliance system. With today’s launch of Cursed Sails, we’re excited to share with you that our community has reached a new milestone of five million pirates that have played Sea of Thieves thus far on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC… Read more
Destiny 2: Forsaken – Legendary Collection Available for Pre-Order, Launches on Xbox One September 4 When things don’t go according to plan while attempting to restore law and order at the Prison of Elders, it’ll be up to you to track down some of the most-wanted criminals in the galaxy. This is the world of Destiny 2: Forsaken as you’re tasked with venturing alone to the Reef to take justice into your own hands — and to avenge your fallen mentor. With new regions, new powers, and a ton of new weapons… Read more
Xbox Game Pass: Hitman Season 1, Ruiner, Ryse: Son of Rome, and More August 1 Xbox Game Pass members, get ready for action as a variety of new titles for gamers of all ages are on their way. In addition to the more than 100 great games already included in your membership, starting today journey to the ancient Roman Empire with Ryse: Son of Rome; stop a cyberpunk conspiracy in Ruiner; fight two distinct flavors of zombie from the gory hordes in Dead Rising 2 to the 8-bit walkers… Read more
Ready Your Fists to Play Tekken 7 for Free This Weekend with Xbox Live Gold Get into an epic fight and unveil the ending of the legendary family warfare between members of the Mishima clan. This weekend, Xbox Live Gold members can enjoy Tekken 7 for free during Xbox Live Gold’s Free Play Days! Starting Thursday, August 2 at 12:01 a.m. PT and running through to Sunday, August 5 at 11:59 p.m. PT, Xbox Live Gold members can play one of the most ambitious entries in the Tekken series… Read more
Summer Spotlight: Six Weeks of New Xbox One Games, Earn Microsoft Rewards Points Summer Spotlight is back and it’s time to celebrate! Keep cool with six weeks of hot, new Xbox One games from July 31 to September 10. Microsoft Store will have over 60 new games coming to Xbox One, including the most anticipated titles of the Summer like: No Man’s Sky (Available Now) -Inspired by the adventure and imagination that we love from classic science-fiction, No Man’s Sky presents you… Read more
Four FIFA 19 Gameplay Changes You Won’t Want to Miss EA Sports FIFA 19 introduces a host of innovative gameplay changes so that every tactical decision and technical touch has a huge impact on matches. The main gameplay features coming to FIFA 19 are the Active Touch System, Dynamic Tactics, Timed Finishing, and 50/50 Battles. Each affects the game in nuanced and unique ways that, when mastered, can make your FIFA experience richer and closer to the real sport… Read more
Inside Xbox One X Enhanced: X-Morph: Defense Many of gaming’s most compelling stories come from those who’ve helped to create our favorite Xbox One games. In our Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, these creators will share the behind-the-scenes accounts of the work involved in enhancing these epic games for Xbox One X, how they’ve helped chart the course of the world’s most powerful console, and what that means for the future of gaming… Read more
Remothered: Tormented Fathers is Available Now on Xbox One We’re excited for the release of our survival horror game Remothered: Tormented Fathers. For this occasion, I wanted to tell you more on the indie survival horror game that’s made its grand entrance on Xbox One. When I met Antonio Cannata, CEO and Co-Founder of Stormind Games, an Italian video game development studio that develops story-driven titles and handles marketing strategies for the game industry… Read more
Play Madden NFL 19 Before Launch with EA Access on Xbox One We’re all fiending for a football fix. As the NFL regular season edges closer, instead of focusing on your fantasy football team, why not just build your own team in Madden instead? This season, the football drought ends a bit earlier as Madden NFL 19 drops sooner than before, launching August 10. As an Xbox One gamer though, you can dive into H2H matchups and Franchise building even sooner with EA Access… Read more
Earn the Stone Hatchet in GTA Online and Red Dead Redemption 2 With no shortage of reprobates across Los Santos and Blaine County, Maude Eccles has put the dream of a white picket fence, a husband, and a dog named Skip on hold to reignite her burning passion for justice. Keep an eye out for a text message from Maude for bounties when playing GTA Online. Collect these new bounty targets dead or alive to complete this challenge and unlock the location of the Stone Hatchet in GTA Online… Read more
Crafting a Compelling Gaming Experience from Real-World Events in 1979 Revolution: Black Friday 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is an interactive drama set against the turbulent backdrop of Middle Eastern politics, specifically the Iranian Revolution. And, yes, you’d be completely correct in thinking that this isn’t a typical premise for a video game. The time and place – Tehran in the 70s – and the formidable complexity of the subject matter contribute to making 1979 Revolution: Black Friday one of those real rarities… Read more
Local Multiplayer Battler Jump Gunners Blasts onto Xbox One Jump Gunners was recently described “the beautiful child of Towerfall and Worms” by Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas was Alone, Volume, and Subsurface Circular. Why did he say that? It’s because Jump Gunners, whilst bringing a lot of new mechanics to the genre, feels familiar on one hand, but fresh and exciting to play on the other, especially those of us who grew up playing games with our friends… Read more
How to Survive in Vigor, Now Available via Xbox Game Preview Vigor is a brand-new title from us at Bohemia Interactive exclusively on Xbox One. We’re excited that we were able to bring this title to the platform. You can now play the game in Xbox Game Preview, and to make things easier for you, here are some tips on how to survive in Norway 1991. So why do we call the players Outlanders? Because after the nuclear strike in Central Europe people started to migrate and most of the population… Read more
Discover the world of Xbox Game Pass, now just a tab away! Just over a year ago, we launched Xbox Game Pass, a new membership that gives gamers the ultimate value and freedom to play over 100 great games for one low monthly price. Over the last year, we’ve achieved several important milestones based on feedback from our fans. We expanded the service to support 40 markets across the globe. We also announced in January that going forward, we plan to release all new Xbox games… Read more
Planet Alpha Launches September 4 on Xbox One Planet Alpha is an adventure game that takes place in a living alien world where you can control the day and night. It combines fast platforming, challenging puzzles, and stealth elements with a unique art style to create an unforgettable experience. Alone and far away from home, you find yourself in the center of a conflict of epic proportions where second chances are rare. It’s with great excitement that I can now… Read more
The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs Expansion Pack Available Now on Xbox One Pets can make our lives complete. They’re furry friends to call our own. Members of the family. And as some say, an extension of who we are. In The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs expansion pack, a pet can be just like your Sims, in every way possible. A dream pet, of sorts. A personalized pooch or custom cat. But there are two sides to this story. What if you could make the pet of your Sims’ nightmares? As a prelude… Read more
Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds takes on the Xbox Game Pass Challenge to raise money for the LOVELOUD Foundation Those who love “Imagine Dragons” know thafrontmanan Dan Reynolds is a force to be reckoned with on stage. But he’s also a fierce gamer with an important cause to support: LBGTQ+ youth and suicide awareness. This past Friday, Xbox hosted an Xbox Game Pass Challenge to support LOVELOUD, the foundation that Dan founded in 2017 to help ignite the relevant and vital conversation of what it means to unconditionally love… Read more
Meet Sally Boyle, We Happy Few’s Most Mysterious Playable Character In We Happy Few, you’ll play the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial in the city of Wellington Wells. In this alternative 1960s England, conformity is key. You’ll have to fight or blend in with the drug-addled inhabitants, most of whom don’t take kindly to people who won’t abide by their not-so-normal rules. When discovering the retrofuturistic city’s dark history… Read more
Pokémon Quest Mobile Version Rakes In $8 Million After First Month
When the free-to-download title Pokémon Quest was launched on mobile at the end of June, it generated $3 million in revenue in its first week, with a total of 3.5 million downloads.
It’s now been a month since the game’s release and Sensor Tower is reporting players have spent more than $8 million on the mobile title during this period. The largest source of revenue is from players in Japan, who make up 34 percent of spending in total. The US places second at 24 percent and interestingly South Korea has contributed an additional 12 percent.
According to Sensor Tower, the majority of revenue has come from iOS players – making up “66 percent of spending versus Google Play’s 44 percent”. Spending has slowed overall since the launch of the game, with daily gross revenue coming in at around $30,000 on both mobile platforms. The best day for the game on mobile was apparently on 30th June – grossing more than $580,000. The download total is now around the 8 million mark.
Have you made a monetary transaction in Pokémon Quest on mobile? Are you playing the Switch version? Tell us below.
FlyHigh Works held a live broadcast on YouTube announcing multiple Switch games for Japan and also revealing entirely new titles coming to Nintendo’s hybrid system in the near future.
New games included mobile clicker sequel Captain StarOne (out this October), 2D action-adventure TRANSIRUBY (a 2019 release from the developer of Fairune and Kamiko), puzzle side-scroller Obakena Fune to Takaramono (scheduled for Fall 2018 – no confirmation on platform) and the shooter, Solstice Chronicles M.I.A. (on target for November). The previously announced role-playing game with lifestyle and crafting elements – Pictonier – will also be made available on the Switch and 3DS in the near future, with a release date not yet announced.
Other games that got some screen time during the presentation included:
If you’re curious, you can view footage of the new games in the FlyHigh Express YouTube presentation above. These titles are revealed around the fifty-minute mark.
Are you a fan of FlyHigh Works? Did you like the look of any of these games in the broadcast? Tell us below.
* Fixed various charged abilities not consistently being affected by cooldown reduction properly * Fixed a bug where non-stun interrupts did not reliably cancel channeled abilities if cast an instant before the end of the channel; for example Vengeful Spirit’s Nether Swap cast on a target at the last tick of channeling a Town Portal scroll. * Hero voice lines for picking up bounty runes no longer play in the first 30 seconds of game time. * Fixed an uncommon client crash with Morphling’s Morph ability. * Fixed a bug in the interaction of Lycan’s Howl and units with low max HP, which sometimes created uncontrollable and unkillable units.
Review: Apple and Blackmagic’s eGPU with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity
AppleInsider takes an in-depth look at Apple and Blackmagic’s Thunderbolt-enabled eGPU, testing the MacBook-accelerating hardware with a gamut of tests from 5K gaming to video editing. We show you everything that sets this eGPU apart from the pack.
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The Blackmagic eGPU, built in cooperation with Apple, might seem pricey at $699, but it comes packing a Radeon Pro 580 GPU, the same chip that comes in the top-spec 2017 5K iMac. By itself, the silicon is worth just under $300, and you can now get it bundled with some other eGPU’s for around $500.
So why would anyone want to pay extra for this particular unit from Blackmagic and Apple?
For one, the Blackmagic is the first eGPU to support Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C monitors like LG’s 4K and 5K UltraFine displays, meaning well-heeled MacBook Pro owners can turn their portable rig into something closer to a desktop.
If you don’t have or don’t plan on buying an LG UltraFine display, the Blackmagic also works with any USB-C or HDMI monitor. DisplayPort screens are also supported with the help of a separate adapter.
In addition to the two Thunderbolt 3 ports, the Blackmagic packs in four USB 3.1 ports and an HDMI 2 slot, besting a number of competing eGPU boxes. The extra inputs and outputs can be used to connect external storage drives, keyboards, mice, or simply charge an iPhone.
The Blackmagic works with any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac, and it provides 85 watts of charging for your MacBooks. For now, the setup is a macOS-only affair, as the eGPU does not yet support Windows 10.
From a design standpoint, it’s undoubtedly the best-looking eGPU we’ve ever seen, and it’s built with high-quality materials.
This leads us to one of the biggest reasons why you would choose this eGPU over another model: incredibly quiet fan noise and low temperatures. It features a large fan that sucks air through the bottom and pushes it out of the top, just like the late 2013 Mac Pro.
It’s incredibly quiet, even at full load, a major upgrade from competing hardware that gets increasingly loud as operating temperatures heat up. In fact, the Blackmagic is so quiet that we forgot it was on while playing a demanding session of Fortnite at 5K resolutions.
Performance
The eGPU drastically improved the gaming performance of a base model 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. With the MacBook’s internal Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 running at maxed-out resolution and high video quality settings, we were able to achieve around 15 frames per second while playing Fortnite. Those speeds dropped down to 7fps at times and the laptop’s fans were on full blast.
We turned the settings down to around 1080p at medium graphics settings and saw frame rates rise to around 40 to 45fps, but we still experienced frame drops that made the game unplayable.
Connecting the Blackmagic eGPU and LG’s 5K display, we set the game’s resolution to 5K, or 5,120-by-2,880 pixels. Graphics quality (obviously) improved and frame rates were hovering at around 30fps. Unlike the MacBook Pro’s integrated graphics chip, the eGPU was able to keep things much more consistent, with no frame drops that ruined gameplay.
Dropping graphics settings to medium boosted frame rates to about 40fps, and everything still looked great.
We also hooked it up to a regular 4K display using a Thunderbolt 3-to-DisplayPort cable and saw around the same 35fps at 4K “Epic” settings.
Throughout testing, both the Blackmagic eGPU and the MacBook Pro were whisper quiet.
Photo & Video Editing
If you’re a photo editor, an eGPU won’t really make a difference, since apps like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom mostly rely on Mac’s CPU for heavy lifting. We were hoping to see an improvement while editing 42MP RAW images in Lightroom, but the lag is still there despite some assistance from the eGPU.
Video editing, however, is a different story. In Final Cut Pro X, the Blackmagic eGPU allows the 13-inch MacBook Pro to export a five minute 4K h.264 clip with added effects in less than half the time of the integrated GPU. That puts the smaller MacBook Pro’s performance nearly on par with the base 15-inch MacBook Pro. Interestingly, in some cases the 15-inch MacBook Pro gets slower when using the eGPU.
For example, when attached to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the eGPU cut processing time in half for a one minute 4.5K Red RAW clip with added effects. However, the 15-inch MacBook Pro was almost twice as slow when combined with the eGPU.
Stabilizing a 4K clip on the 13-inch with eGPU was basically just as fast as the base 15-inch MacBook Pro, both with and without the eGPU. To our surprise, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the eGPU was faster in the Bruce X 5K benchmark, finishing almost three times faster than the 15-inch MacBook Pro’s discrete GPU.
We tested 4K 60fps Canon Cinema RAW Lite footage in a one minute project with color corrections and a LUT applied on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, with and without the eGPU. We saw a vast improvement not only in export speeds, but timeline smoothness as well. We went from not being able to play back the footage in full resolution to smooth playback in 4K, in both 24fps and 30fps.
Benchmarks
We performed benchmarks by attaching the Blackmagic to a base model 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro and a top-of-the-line 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with 2.9GHz i9 CPU, 4GB Radeon Pro 560X graphics, and 32GB of DDR4 memory.
Geekbench 4’s OpenCL test shows us the raw graphics performance of each GPU, and as you can see, it’s a massive improvement over the 15-inch MacBook Pro’s GPU.
We also ran the Unigine Heaven gaming benchmark and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Blackmagic eGPU greatly outperformed the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch model fell behind by a couple of frames when compared to the 15-inch with the eGPU.
Conclusion
Our testing shows the Blackmagic eGPU is not really worth the extra money if you already own a 15-inch MacBook Pro, are not a video editor and intend to use the hardware without an external monitor.
On the other hand, if you own an LG UltraFine display or a 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro, the solution is definitely appealing. With the 13-inch MacBook Pro, you get added portability when on the go and a quad-core, 8GB Radeon Pro 580 workstation in the home or office, nearing the performance levels of a 15-inch Macbook Pro with i9 CPU.
Overall, the Blackmagic eGPU is a specialty product that makes a lot of sense for a smaller group of people. It’s more expensive than other solutions using the same GPU, and it’s not upgradable. If you need Thunderbolt 3 support and would like a near silent experience, however, there’s nothing else like it.
Score: 4 out of 5
Where to buy
Blackmagic’s eGPU sells for $699 and is available through the company’s website and Apple.com.
Nomad Games bringing Quartermaster General to digital
By Joe Robinson09 Aug 2018
Guys. GUYS. Nomad Games have snagged another excellent board-game license to port to digital platforms. The Quartermaster General series are fascinating ‘lite’ board wargames that use cards to fuel the action, and revolve around strategic decisions and operations.
Even more important is the concept of supply – all of your armies and navies have to be able to trace an unbroken line of supply through units back to either their home territory, or another space that’s become a valid supply point (these quite often get brought into the game via events).
Quartermaster General itself is a WW2 game, where up to six players split between the Axis and Allies. Each player will have their own dedicated deck of action cards to draw from – you can build/muster armies and navies, prepare response cards to react to enemy actions, or play a card from your own dedicated staple of historically themed and powerful events.
Other games in the QMG series include a WW1 version, and an upcoming release set during the Cold War – hopefully Nomad can adapt them as well at some point!
Nomad Games have been very sparse on details – other than offering up a general description of the game all we know is that it’s coming in 2019. We don’t officially know which platforms either, but plenty of their games end up on mobile so we’re reasonably confident this should do as well. It’d be a perfect fit for it.
