Football Manager 2018 is Now Available on Steam!

Football Manager 2018 is the latest release in the best-selling, smash-hit series. Putting you in the hot seat of any football club in more than 50 countries across the world, Football Manager 2018 is the closest thing to doing the job for real.

Battlerite is Now Available on Steam!

BATTLERITE​ ​is​ ​an​ ​action-packed​ ​team​ ​arena​ ​brawler.​ ​Experience​ ​the​ ​unique​ ​combination​ ​of​ top-down​ ​shooter​ meets​ ​fast-paced​ ​fighting​ ​game and challenge ​friends​ ​and​ foes​ ​in​ ​a​ ​battle​ ​of reaction. The Arena awaits!

Idle Champions Starter Pack, DLC for Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is free for 48 hours!

The starter pack provides an entry-level boost to start your Idle Champions adventure with a piece of gear for Bruenor and two Gold Chests.

This pack includes:

Bruenor’s Shiny Level 1 Strong Shield
2 Gold Chests

Available for free until 9am Pacific on November 10th.

When you pick up your Xbox One X on November 7, you’ll experience many of the latest cutting-edge technology features that will be focused in gaming for years to come like 4K Ultra HD, High Dynamic Range, or HDR as it’s better known, as well as Spatial Audio. To help showcase these new features to you, even if you may not have the 4K display to run, we developed an interactive demo known as “Insects.”

Originally developed by the Xbox Advanced Technology Group for game developers, “Insects” was designed to help teams easily see and hear just how the dramatic the differences can be between the various technologies.

Over time, the team realized how fun and effective the experience was, and so we’re making it publicly available the same day that Xbox One X launches, on November 7 to be viewed on your console. “Insects” will be available to download from the Microsoft Store on your console.

If you don’t have an Xbox One X to experience this interactive demo, we have included a variety of screenshots here that showcase all the elements of the video to give you a sense of what features like HDR and 4K bring to your games.

On Xbox One X, the beauty of “Insects” is the option to toggle between the various formats. Once you’ve completed the initial Guided Tour, you can, at any time, turn 4K on or off, as well as HDR and Spatial Audio. You can also pause the experience and zoom in on various elements.

Better yet, you can even change the time of day and alter the colors of the ladybug and flowers, all while toggling 4K, HDR, and Spatial Audio on or off to your heart’s delight. Also, if you download Insects on an Xbox One X and display it on a 1080p display, switching 4K mode on and off will showcase super-sampling in all its beauty.

If you really want to dig into the details, you can even use Pixel Highlighting to show you what areas of the scene are being affected by HDR or Wide Color Gamut. We think you’ll find it remarkable to see the detail pop into focus when you turn 4K back on, or see the range of detail and color when you do the same with HDR. Our personal favorite is switching HDR on and off at night and looking at the moon. It’s such a simple, but great illustration of the technology.

We hope you enjoy the “Insects” demo experience on Xbox One X and we can’t wait for you to feel true power when the world’s most powerful console launches on November 7.

It’s time for the Nintendo Download Update, and it’s another busy week in Europe. There are multiple intriguing retail arrivals on the Switch, along with various download-only options and DLC. The 3DS and Wii U also get in on the act along with the usual batch of discounts, so let’s get to it.

Nintendo Switch Retail Downloads

DOOM (Bethesda, €59.99 / £49.99) – This intense and fast-paced shooter was critically acclaimed when it launched in 2016, and it’s made an impressive transition to Nintendo’s hybrid system. A full-on solo campaign is joined by some fun online multiplayer options, so it’s an impressive package to have on the go. Despite a few day one flaws we still gave this a thumbs up in our DOOM review. Available from 10th November.

Sonic Forces (SEGA, €39.99 / £34.99) – The long-awaited next entry in the 3D Sonic series, drawing ideas from the likes of Generations and Colors. In this one there are wisp powers once again, and in addition you also create and control your own avatar characters in some stages. We gave it a modest recommendation in our Sonic Forces review.

Farming Simulator: Nintendo Switch Edition (Focus Home Interactive, €44.99 / £37.99) – While it’s easy to dismiss a humble farming sim, this series is surprisingly popular. Farming Simulator 17 attracted a whopping one million players within the first month of its launch. Even the German Chancellor Angela Merkel can’t get enough of ploughing virtual fields. If that’s your thing, this may be worth a look.

Ben 10 (Outright Games, €34.99 / £34.99) – A single player action brawler which could certainly be fun for fans of the TV series. Available from 10th November.

Nintendo Switch Retail Download / DLC

Snipperclips Plus: Cut it out, together! (Nintendo, €29.98 / £26.98 for a ‘bundle’ of the full game plus new content, DLC alone is €9.99 / £8.99) – Coming to retail as a complete package with the new content also available as DLC for those that own the original; there’ll be 30 new stages, remixes of old stages and some additional features such as a ‘stamp’ mode. Available from 10th November.

Nintendo Switch Retail Download Pre-Purchase

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo, €59.99 / £49.99 or €89.98 / £76.98 with the expansion pass) – Full game unlock on 1st December.

L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, €49.99 / £44.99) – Full game unlock on 14th November.

Switch eShop

Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Young Horses Inc, €13.99 / £11.99) – A game based around tricky controls and chaos, it was actually a sequel and certainly earned plenty of plaudits when it first arrived. It eventually made its way to Wii U but, unfortunately, it wasn’t a perfect port. Our review of the Switch version will be with you later today.

Cat Quest (Pqube, €12.99 / £9.99) – One of the quirkier titles that’s been in the works for some time, this is “an open world RPG set in the pawsome world of cats!” Expect lots of cat-themed wordplay, but it also looks like it could be a relatively deep and fun game – we’ll ask whether Dog Quest is in development and see whether this one is purrfect in a review.

Heroes of the Monkey Tavern (Monkey Stories, €9.99 / £8.99) – This one picks up the style of old-school first-person dungeon crawlers, with a mix of classes, enemies, puzzles and plenty of combat to tackle. It looks rather simplistic in footage but neverthelesss captures the stronger points of the genre; we gave it a recommendation in our Heroes of the Monkey Tavern review.

UNO (Ubisoft, €9.99 / £7.99) – No, that’s not a typo, it is a Ubisoft game, and considering the fact that the company’s version of Monopoly costs a slightly ludicrous $39.99USD / £29.99 on the Switch, this is at least reasonably priced. This spin on the card game includes online play and various customisation options to switch things up.

Tallowmere (Teyon, €6.99 / £6.29) – Perhaps you remember this one from its release on the Wii U eShop last year; we really liked it in our review. The challenge is to see how far you can get into the dungeons. Each randomly-generated room gets bigger, harder, and more rewarding the further you go, and you strive to earn better gear as you progress. We’ll check it out on Switch and let you know what we think.

Koi DX (CIRCLE Entertainment, €5.00 / £4.99) – Released on the Wii U a while ago, Koi DX places you in the role of a lone fish which has become separated from its owner and is tasked with purifying waters polluted by mankind. To do this, you must explore the waters for other fish and guide them to flowers of the same colour while avoiding the malevolent black fish. The game includes “memory jigsaws”, new skins and alternative fish to control. We’ll swim towards a review soon.

Transcripted (Plug In Digital, €7.99 / £6.99) – This is a match three puzzler / dual stick shoot ‘em up hybrid that looks a bit like the love child of Nano Assault and Zuma. We’ll see how it shapes up in a review.

Spellspire (10tons, €9.99 / £8.99) – Spellspire casts the player in the role of a nerdy wizard climbing a 100 level tower; plenty of monsters must be defeated and loot collected on the way. Combat uses a word game mechanic, where the player picks letters from a grid of ten to spell out words; these are cast out as spells, with longer words producing more powerful blasts. We’ll dig out a thesaurus and get cracking on a review.

Maria The Witch (Naps Team, €4.99 / £4.49) – One of those ‘tap to fly’ games popularised on mobile and with a few similar experiences on Wii U and 3DS, your task is to collect mail and various items through a variety of stages. We’ll see whether it casts a spell over us in a review.

Rock ‘N Racing Off Road DX (EnjoyUp Games, €7.99 / £7.19) – Another title making its way across from the Wii U, it features a variety of tracks, an arcade mode, time trials, and multiplayer action to get stuck into as well as a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack for accompaniment. We didn’t have a great experience with the game on Wii U so we’re hoping for a pleasant surprise on the new console.

Street Hoop (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – The latest ACA Neo Geo release fills that Basketball gap in the line-up; we reviewed this back in 2010 when it landed on the Wii Virtual Console it netted an impressive 8/10.

Nintendo Switch DLC

Sonic Forces: Shadow Costume (SEGA, free)

Switch eShop Demo

Super Beat Sports (Harmonix, free)

Switch eShop Temporary Discount

Sparkle 2 (10tons, €6.79 / £5.94 until 16th November, normally €7.99 / £6.99)

3DS eShop

Bonds of the Skies (KEMCO, €9.99 / £8.99) – When we saw the artwork and title we instinctively thought ‘that’ll be a KEMCO RPG on 3DS’, and so it came to be. In this one humans and Gods team up to find a demon that’s ‘cast a town into a sea of flames’, which is a normal weekend for most of us.

Hiding Out (Green Lightning, €4.99 / £4.99) – Drawing inspiration from retro platformers, this looks like a simplistic title in which you hunt for photo parts. 

New Nintendo 3DS eShop

RTO (nuGAME, €8.99 / £7.99) – This appears to be a scrolling gallery shooter in which you control multiple characters to shoot a whole lot of scary aliens, though the developer describes it as an “FPS survival horror game with permadeath”.

3DS DLC

Culdcept Revolt – Challenge from Hell (NIS America, €0.99 / £0.89)

Culdcept Revolt – Soltis (NIS America, €0.99 / £0.89)

Culdcept Revolt – Zigzag Tour (NIS America, free)

3DS Demo

Worcle Worlds (Lightwood Games, free)

3DS eShop Temporary Discounts

Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH! (Shin’en Multimedia, €2.24 / £1.87 until 30th November, normally €2.99 / £2.50)

Real Heroes: Firefighter 3D Download Version (Zordix AB, €4.99 / £4.49 until 16th November, normally €9.99 / £8.99)

Me and My Pets 3D (Treva Entertainment, €4.99 / £6.24 until 30th November, normally €29.99 / £24.99)

My Pet School 3D (Treva Entertainment, €9.99 / £8.24 until 30th November, normally €29.99 / £24.99)

3D Game Collection (Joindots, €5.24 / £3.74 until 23rd November, normally €6.99 / £4.99)

Atlantic Quest (Joindots, €5.24 / £3.74 until 23rd November, normally €6.99 / £4.99)

Secret Agent Files: Miami (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Kutar Apple (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar Burger Factory (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar End Credits (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar Powder Factory (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar Ski Lift (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

New 3DS eShop Temporary Discounts

Super Destronaut 3D (Petite Games, €1.59 / £1.43 until 23rd November, normally €1.99 / £1.79)

FIFTEEN (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

Wii U eShop

Annihilation (TreeFall Studios, €1.99 / £1.79) – A pixel-based top-down shooter in which you try to resist waves of enemies; also includes support for co-op.

Wii U Virtual Console

Digital Champ: Battle Boxing (Konami, €6.99 / £6.29) – An interesting idea and technically impressive for the time, this first-person boxing game falls short once it steps into the ring; that’s what we thought in our review, anyway.

Wii U Demo

3Souls (RedColumn, free)

Wii U eShop Temporary Discounts

Bridge Constructor Playground (Joindots, €7.49 / £6.36 until 23rd November, normally €9.99 / £8.49)

Dracula’s Legacy (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Frankenstein – Master of Death (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Island Flight Simulator (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Suspension Railroad Simulator (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Toon Tanks (Petite Games, €1.59 / £1.43 until 23rd November, normally €1.99 / £1.79)

BLOK DROP U (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.86 until 6th December, normally €1.49 / £1.29)

BLOK DROP X TWISTED FUSION (RCMADIAX, €2.00 / £1.80 until 6th December, normally €2.99 / £2.69)

FIFTEEN (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

ORBIT (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

PINBALL (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

SPHERE SLICE (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

TABLETOP GALLERY (RCMADIAX, €2.00 / £1.80 until 23rd November, normally €2.99 / £2.69)

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That’s it for the European update this week – let us know what you’ll be downloading in the poll and comments below.

Space Pirates And Zombies 2 is Now Available on Steam!

Design and then improve the ultimate mothership. Explore a persistent living galaxy populated by 200 unique captains that can do everything you can do. Survive the zombie infection and then fight them back. Make allies and start your own faction. Build your empire. Also includes Sandbox Mode.

In 1.13 we are completely redesigning the command system to be easier to use, faster to run, and allow for much cooler things than were possible before. Todays snapshot introduces the first kinda-workable build of that command system!

A full changelog can be found on Minecraft.net, which includes a full breakdown of the new command system.

CHANGES

• New horse model! Hurrah!
• Lots of bug fixes! Especially crash fixes on Mac OS.
• New command library! Details below.
• Added new GUI scaling options! 4k users rejoice, you can see a few more pixels now

[…]

COMMANDS

• Most commands are even more case sensitive than before. Lowercase is preferable wherever possible.
• For example, this is no longer allowed: /scoreboard ObJeCtIvEs ...
• They will be so much more faster and efficient. Especially functions. Oh man.
• Functions will be completely parsed & cached on load. This means if there’s any command that isn’t correct for whatever reason, you will know about it on load.
• This means to check if a map works in 1.17.banana, you simple open your world in 1.17.banana. If there’s errors, they’ll be in your log. If there’s no errors, it’s probably fine!
• Here’s a list of every single executable command so-far: https://gist.github.com/Dinnerbone/943fbcd763c19be188ed6b72a12d7e65
• It’s very verbose, because each line is its own command. [optionals]and (conditionals|ors) are separated out.
• ... is where another command is required
• -> foo means an alias to foo
• The new command library is called “Brigadier”. That’s not relevant in any way, I just really like the name.

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 1.13 will have a lot of experimental snapshots that may break everything and smell funny. This may be one of those snapshots. This is what happens when Mojang are changing all the things! 

Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!