Anno 2205 was announced earlier this year at E3 with a fairly awesome little trailer that excited quite a few and certainly made me smile. When it was announced it came with a beta that pre-order customers would be able to play and give feedback on before its release date.

However, in a post on the German Ubisoft forums, the publisher of the game has announced that the beta has now been cancelled. The reason why it was cancelled was not included, but the release date of November 3rd is not expected to be changed as a result.

An in-game bonus is now being offered to pre-orderers instead, although once again we don’t actually know what said bonus will be. Gamescom is just around the corner though and Anno 2205 will be there with Ubisoft and developer Blue Byte, so I’d expect to see the details of the bonus revealed to the public there.

Every time a new game comes out, everyone waits for the release dates to see who will be getting what first and who will need to wait. While it’s becoming more the norm nowadays to have a release for all the main platforms on the same day, not everyone will do this. GTA V fans with a good PC had to wait quite a while for a PC release for example.

Fortunately while it seemed that MGS5: The Phantom Pain would be one of those games PC owners would need to wait for, but now a post on the Steam Community page lets us know that this will not be the case. The release date has now been moved up two weeks so that it will release at the same time as console versions! Hurrah!

Konami say that the game will come with graphical options that are much improved from Ground Zeroes, to allow control of depth of field and other elements of the display. While Windows 10 is a concern, they’re optimistic that it won’t cripple the game or cause many problems that can’t be quickly fixed.

Check out the full post for more details.

So, it’s been a while since Mojang released the snapshots that precede a full new patch release for the game, but the time has finally come again.

1.9 is called the Combat Update and already we know that a lot of things that will be added to or overhauled this time round have to do with the combat and PvP elements of the game. This snapshot though introduces some very early versions of the things that mostly don’t though.

The two main features of this snapshot are the dual-wielding/dominant left hand feature that many have wanted to see added to the game for some time and the new levitation effect that you get from potions and the new Shulker mob.

Dual-wielding is not yet finished, but already we can tell you that it’s not possible to wield two swords at once. Sorry. It is possible to use a bow though while holding something like a torch in your offhand though, although this could be patched out before 1.9 releases properly. Dual-wielding will mean that mining will also be a bit easier, as you can now use a pick and hold torches to place at the same time. There’s also a few bugs and quirks to be worked out with the dominant left hand feature too, although the b and c versions have at least nixed a few already such as certain actions reverting you back to default righty.

The levitation effect too is still a bit unfinished, but at least we can tell that certain levels of effect applied will make a difference. More levitation effect means a faster rise into the air, while a little effect can actually make it seem like you’re on a low-gravity planet when you descend back down to blocky earth. Of course, if you’ve played on any Minecraft server in the last few years, you’ll know that the game can and often will kick you for ‘cheating’ if it thinks you’re using a cheat to fly in Survival. That used to happen with the levitation too until it was patched out in the b version of the snapshot.

As always, if you want to play with this snapshot remember to backup your worlds just in case. Especially with this one, Mojang admit themselves in their blog that this is a very early Alpha stage snapshot and had a lot of potential to mess things up.

Mojang Blog “Minecraft snapshot 15w31c”: [x]

So Hearthstone’s next big expansion is due to be released sometime this month, and already the hype is growing. Right now in game you can pre-purchase 50 packs of the new card set for a discounted rate of $49.99 / £34.99 / 44,99 Euros.

Also there have been confirmed to be around 130 new cards coming to the game, and a number are being slowly revealed to the public as the days go by many with a bunch of interesting new abilities and effects.

Here are the newer ones that have been revealed since the time I wrote the last article:

Neutral:

Warrior

Rogue

Priest

Druid

Mage

Warlock

In fact, Wrathguard was revealed on a stream while I was in the middle of writing this article. That’s how often we seem to be getting new cards revealed to us right now.

Stay tuned for some more next week. Unless The Grand Tournament is out by then, in which case prepare for a FLOOD of new cards.

Don’t Starve was a good game, made better by the regular updates that added new content and the addition of multiplayer Don’t Starve Together that sees you choosing whether to survive together with your friend or screw them over. After all, you don’t have to outrun the Tallbird – only your friend running with you.

Now Klei have announced that they’re teaming up with Capybara Games, makers of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, to bring a new expansion to the game that’ll take Wilson and the other playable characters out over the water: Don’t Starve Shipwrecked.

Details are still a bit thin on the ground, but we do known that it’ll include new seasonal effects, biomes and creatures for you to learn how to survive and co-exist with. Keep your eyes peeled for more news as it’s revealed.