Frontier, creators of popular space ship sim Elite Dangerous have been working on their theme park builder game Planet Coaster for a bit now, and they have announced that the game will be removed from their own store and moved onto Steam for pre-orders as soon as they update the game to the next Alpha stage.

Alpha 3 will be released on August 23rd onto Steam and the early access alpha pass which has been available for purchase through Frontier’s store will be removed a few days later on the 25th. It will instead be replaced with two pre-order options on Steam, meaning that if you want early access you will lose your chance very soon.

If you do want to pre-order though, the standard edition of the game will be available for £26.99/€33.99/$40.99, while the Thrillseeker Edition will contain the game, a golden hat and King Coaster mascot for your in-game avatar, a digital sketchbook and the game’s soundtrack for £29.99/€37.99/$44.99 which isn’t really that much more for a special edition of a game. It will also grant you access to the beta, which is really good.

If you do already have the early access pass, you’ll need a Steam account to continue to play and more information can be found at the FAQ.

It has recently been announced by Creative Assembly that one of their older well received strategy games is about to be ported over to iOS so the game can be played on your iPad.

Rome: Total War will come over the the iPad with most if not all features complete, trading in the PC controls of its PC version in for touchscreen control. The game will come with a full grand campaign and all eleven of the game’s factions will be included and playable. The press release put out says that “Rome: Total War for iPad comes without compromise,” and apparently will be able to handle thousands of on-screen units thanks to “upgraded graphics that take advantage of the iPad’s high-resolution Retina screen.”

Release dates have yet to be announced, but we do know that it will be playable on the first generation iPad Air and iPad mini 2 models, as well as every unit that was released after that. The expansions will also be released for the iPad too but separately in the future at some point.

The world can always use more strategy games, even if they’re re-releases with updated graphics. Nostalgia!

When Overwatch launched it’s competitive mode earlier this summer, Blizzard set it up to be a season based mode with rewards for each season. Now, they have revealed the rewards for the first season, as well as details on when that season will end. As posted on the official Overwatch forum,

“Season 1 will officially end on Wednesday, August 17 at 5:00 p.m. PT (August 18 at 12:00 a.m. UTC). For time zone assistance, and to see when Season 1 will end in your region, visit thetimezoneconverter.com.

Season 2 is currently scheduled to launch on September 6, but this could shift as we continue to work on system improvements. We will be sure to share the exact date and time as we get closer to its release.”

While we do know when the season will end, it seems that the start of Season 2 is still up in the air as Blizzard works to make the mode better. Many players (myself included) are anxious to see what they do to replace the “coin flip” sudden death system. Widely panned by players, Blizzard has confirmed it will be removed but have made no comment on what they will replace it with.

Season 1Rewards

The forum post also detailed rewards for Season 1.

“If you completed your placement matches during Season 1, you will eligible to receive a special spray and player icon. These will be unlocked automatically when you log into your account the first time after the season ends. If at any point during the season you managed to break into the Top 500 players on your platform (and in your region), you’ll receive an extra player icon and animated spray on top of the other seasonal rewards.”

It remains to be seen how many players will receive the animated spray and other Top 500 rewards, as you only needed to break into the Top 500 during the season. This means that the pool of players would have been fluid and constantly in flux. It is nice, however, to have some exclusive rewards if you performed in the top percentile of players. In addition to sprays and icons, players will also receive a number of Competitive Points (CP) based on their skill rating (SR) from the season. Skill rating can rise and fall depending on wins and losses, so Blizzard have based the number of CP to be award based on the maximum SR  achieved during the season. The breakdown is as follows:

• SR 0-30: 10 CPs
• SR 40-45: 20 CPs
• SR 46-49: 40 CPs
• SR 50-52: 60 CPs
• SR 53-55: 80 CPs
• SR 56-59: 120 CPs
• SR 60-64: 200 CPs
• SR 65+: 300 CPs

Competitive points are the  currency used to buy golden weapon skins, with each skin costing 300 CPs. Higher tier players will obviously be getting more CPs, with those rank 65 and up basically being able to buy a skin with their season rewards CPs. Lower ranked players can supplement their CP reward with the normal points earned from winning a match: 1 CP per win.  It seems Blizzard is serious about keeping golden weapon skins as exclusive as they can, with only top tier players or those willing to grind able to afford them. That being said, you still have a few days to rank up, so if you’r on the cusp of SR 60, those 80 extra CPs might well be worth the grind.

***Editor’s Note: The Sightings feature is available to all players. The Nearby feature is currently in testing in San Francisco.***

After the closedown of the various third-party Pokémon Go tracking sites and the removal of the game’s own tracking system which had been bugged for a while with the dreading “three footstep bug”, fans of the game were not pleased. They wanted Niantic to quickly fix the game so they would be able to track down Pokémon in the wild again and it seems like Niantic have acted and are beginning the roll out a new tracking system to replace the old one that they called “flawed”.

At the moment only some users have been updated to the new system which contains two different types of tracking; Sightings and Nearby. Sightings is the more general of the two, simply showing the Pokémon that is near next to a patch of grass with no indications about how far away the Pokémon is or in which direction. Tapping the icon simply brings up the message “Find these Pokémon in the wild!” Nearby is more focused around PokéStops in the game, showing each Pokémon in front of a picture of the PokéStop that they are nearby. Tapping each one will take you to the overhead map and place down a marker to indicate their location. If the Pokémon despawns before you can find it, the game will notify you that the Pokémon has fled.

Given that it’s not with everyone yet, it does seem like Niantic is doing a controlled bit of user testing for the feature before they release it widely. What do you think? Let us know.

The Japanese magazine “CoroCoro” has become so associated in the west with Pokémon news, that one merely needs to say “CoroCoro” and Pokémon fans flock to see what else has just been revealed about the next games in the series. Thus it comes as no surprise that with the most recent issue now out in Japan, once more we bring you new details about things coming to Pokémon Sun and Moon.

New Pokémon

Let’s start with the new faces, since that’s what all new generations are about anyway. This month, CoroCoro have pictures for four new Alolan Pokémon, including one that’s a pre-evolution of another recent reveal. Currently known by its Japanese name “Nuikoguma”, this cute bear with the pink face is a pre-evolution of the previously-revealed (and rather funnily-named) Bewear. A Normal/Fighting type like its bigger brother, Nuikoguma is very popular among women and children, and tops the lists of Pokémon people want to meet. It hates being touched and will kick and struggle to resist. It’s also described as being very powerful, and it only becomes more so when it evolves into the “herculean” Bewear.

Both Bewear and this new pre-evolution are shown on the bottom of the page you see on your left, but what are those rather creepy-looking things above them? “Creepy” is the right word indeed. These two Ghost/Ground-type Pokémon are basically haunted sandcastles. Shirodesuna – the bigger one – steals the life force from other Pokémon, in a style not dissimilar to the Gengar family I love so dearly. Whatever grudges that Pokémon had then get turned into Sunaba – the smaller one – which is Shirodesuna’s pre-evolution. Sand that becomes sentient from angry spirits… yeah, that’s pretty creepy if you ask me.

The other new Pokémon reveal is the little fishy to your right, currently known as Yowashi. Capable of fighting on its own in “Single Form”, it also has a special form called the “School Form” where it turns dark and gathers lots of itself together, to create a far larger and rather monstrous-looking fish. Unsurprisingly, it is a Water-type Pokémon.

New Alolan Forms!

As well as the new Pokémon, Meowth is getting a makeover. In Alola, Meowth were bred by the ruling Royal Family; as a result, they have become far more pampered and regal-looking. For some reason, they’ve also turned grey, and now class as Dark-type Pokémon. Also getting a new Alolan form is Marowak, who to protect from the island’s native predators, has learned to wield a ghostly flame to resist them. This flame now lights up both sides of its traditional Bonemerang, and turns the Alolan Marowak into a Fire/Ghost type himself. Both are pictured to the left of the Alolan Exeggutor, revealed a month or so ago.

Other Stuff!

CoroCoro also has hints to the Alolan region’s villainous team. Currently known as Team Skull, it is suggested the team may be Pirate-themed; and is headed by a boss currently known as “Guzma”, while there appears to be many female members including a woman currently known as “Plumeri”.

More information is hinted to be revealed next week, including a hint to a “secret evolution” of Rockruff. We’ll have more as it gets revealed, but until then, as always, you can join our Forum or Discord to have your say on what you think of the new reveals.

Update: Nintendo have pushed out a new English-language Trailer showing off the CoroCoro-leaked information. Watch it here: