With each turn, little tiles bearing individual letters count down to zero before ultimately being frozen in stone, but by chaining them together into words, these tiles transform into bears and grow into larger bears. This is Alphabear, and it’s a classic formula, so natural and fun that one might mistakenly believe it was discovered rather than designed. Alphabear 2 is almost strictly a better game in every respect, with more interactions and play-modes as well as better scaling, not to mention an in-game dictionary for the curious. It is perhaps the snazziest, coziest, smartest word game you can play on the go. This sounds like a dream and it’s mostly accurate, for Alphabear 2 plays like one too, but its ‘honey’ energy timers never go away even with the paid, fully-unlocked version. So the perfect word game is dragged down to an only slightly unbearable reality.

Alphabear 2 has a lot of bells and whistles, and a fairer monetization, but its spelling-whiz challenges are as good as they’ve ever been. The game’s transparency is perhaps its greatest strength. Each level has a point cutoff, with this goal score easily broken down. Each turn clearly spells out what a word is worth (just the simple sum of its constituent letter values), and last but not least, the big bear bonus. At the end of the match, either when a board is full or no words can be spelled, the largest bear is worth its area times four, in points. (So a 5×4 bear is worth eighty points.)

That’s it. The best turns have long words, sometimes easily recognized common words but more often than not obscure ones (almost obnoxiously so). But success creates suffering: a big turn opens up many more letters ticking down ominously, begging the speller to keep up the momentum and add more long words or else lose key central letters. This is one way Alphabear 2 encourages and rewards perfectionism, the other is with its ‘Big Bear Bonus,’ which offers special (cosmetic player character costume) currency for a perfect clear. With some letter layouts, this is a trivial accomplishment, but for many it feels like something special, especially during the hurly-burly of timed stages.

In terms of planning and strategy, there are a few strong points in Alphabear 2’s favor. First, the bears are ‘equipped’ before each level and give multipliers to this final score. Besides choosing Zombie Bear, Lucky Bear, Cleopatra Bear for their scoring potential, they also each contribute passive perks or potent active abilities to tweak the levels. The Hollywood Ingenue Bear (not her actual name) makes S letters 50% more likely to spawn, while the Zombie bear adds an active which reveals ‘ZZZ’ on the board. These custom loadouts offer a pretty big influence on how the actual play unfolds, which means the sheer variety of bears to collect isn’t cute or cosmetic but instead mostly functional.

There are about twenty levels to each stage, and ten stages. The hapless young bear has created a break in the space-time continuum which must be repaired by travelling to every-where and -when whilst spelling like mad. Suffice to say the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The game has a faux-selfie mode after each level with a MadLibs-style random phrase generator. This is a nice touch for those who care and easily glossed over for those who don’t. Ditto for the costumes, earned by accruing red, blue and gold cloth, mostly from perfect clears. Earning a tuxedo for the player avatar isn’t profoundly meaningful, but trying it to performance and consistent high achievement is as good a fit as any. A good look, if you will.

Now for the downsides. The original Alphabear felt a little stale after a while, largely because of two fatal flaws. First, neither the boards nor the bears had any active or deep effects to alter planning in any real way, so each level played out more or less the same. Secondly, later stages were literally impossibly difficult. You see, a bear’s level increases its final score bonus modifier, so by artificially ratcheting up the minimum winning scores, Alphabear (originally) pushed its players to collect and level up bears in order to progress at all. In its endgame, skillful play became secondary to devoted, regular daily sessions. The game is easily great enough to play daily, but that’s no excuse to try to disincentivize other types of engagement.

So is the sequel any better on that front? Well, yes and no. (Mostly yes). Scoring is more transparent, effects are more dynamic, and the collectible aspect is both deemphasized overall and easier to accomplish. Two main currencies, coin and berries, fuel time-machines which work basically like lootboxes for bear unlocks. There’s also a free time-machine once per day, and special clocks to fix for significant resources. Oh, and daily school mode to level up bears. Each of these are pretty useful investments and just as fun as the main mode. It is still possible to get roadblocked from sheer bad luck for days on end, but if players invest their time equally across all game modes, this shouldn’t happen out of the blue.

Oh, and the ads. Ads for honey a few times a day, for faster free time machines, and for bonus loot drops from normal play. It’s about as tastefully done as can be, with one glaring exception. The premium version of the game drops ads completely but still restricts energy (honey). It takes hours for honey to regenerate, true, but it also takes quite a while to spend it all, given how tricky some of the harder stages can be. So the problem isn’t as acute as it would be in other free-to-play titles, but for some hyper-adept spellers who blaze through levels the honey limits will get on your nerves.

Alphabear 2 is a delight, accessible to those wishing merely to sample the gameplay but challenging for those on other end of the spectrum. It’s cute and smart and probably deserves a go from most anyone. If it had a premium-premium infinite energy purchase and less bumpy progression it would be perfect, but it’s still great and endearing as-is.

© 2018 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.

Welcome to Next Week on Xbox, where we cover all the new games coming soon to Xbox One! Every week the team at Xbox aims to deliver quality gaming content for you to enjoy on your favorite gaming console. To find out what’s coming soon to Xbox One, read on below and click on each of the game profiles for pre-order details (dates are subject to change).

Games

September 11, 2018

The official arcade racing game for Super Street, the world’s number one in automotive tuning culture. Build your ride, part by part, from scrap and use it to tear up asphalt in a wealth of different game modes and environments.

Games

September 12, 2018

Xbox One X Enhanced – In Construction Simulator 2, you’ll build your own construction company and take the wheel of 40 original, licensed construction vehicles from manufacturers like Caterpillar, Liebherr, Palfinger, Bell, STILL, ATLAS, Mack Trucks, MEILLER Kipper, and Kenworth. Take a trip to the USA, complete road construction and tons of other diverse jobs all from the comfort of your couch.

Games

September 12, 2018

Xbox One X Enhanced – Team up with your friends & family and explore the peculiar universe of Adios Amigos. A game with serious astrophysics in a comic setting for one to four players where everything moves where you can spontaneously exit the ship inside a busy asteroid field, fly to the sun and melt your ship, tow a giant mushroom and put it in orbit around the sun, and even ride a sofa into a black hole.

Games

September 12, 2018

Explore dynamic, constantly changing dungeons, and take on side quests full of adventure in Revenant Dogma, a fantasy RPG featuring stunning 3D battles and customizable weapons with an epic story.

Games

September 12, 2018

Fossil Hunters is a casual action-adventure game about digging for fossils and building your own dinosaur skeletons. Travel deep into a vibrant, mysterious underground cavern in search of fossils, treasure, and the glory of being the world’s greatest Fossil Hunter. Embark on your journey alone or with up to 3 other friends in dynamic local co-op.

Games

September 12, 2018

Time Carnage is a frantic survival wave shooter with a weapon-charging reload system. Travel through time and wreak havoc through worlds swarming with dinosaurs, monsters, robots, and zombies. Unlock and upgrade your arsenal to survive the onslaught.

Games

September 14, 2018

Xbox One X Enhanced – Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

Games

September 14, 2018

Fishing Sim World is the most authentic fishing simulator ever made, taking you around the world on an angling journey like no other. Feel the adrenaline rush of landing a trophy largemouth bass and the thrill of fighting huge carp and monster pike. Featuring seven different locations, 18 different species of fish, and hundreds of items of equipment to use. Also features live tournaments and 4-player multiplayer. If you pre-order Fishing Sim World you can start playing Friday, September 14; available for everyone on Tuesday, September 18.

Games

September 14, 2018

Xbox One X Enhanced – Travel through a world of neon, solving puzzles, and overcoming obstacles. This experience requires focus, concentration, and timing to let the ball rolling as fast as you can. Remember, in a world made of neon, you will need balls to survive.

Games

September 14, 2018

Xbox One X Enhanced – Hockey returns to its roots by taking the game to the great outdoors. Play on outdoor rinks and journey from the pond to the pros in new and returning modes. Compete with and against over 200 of the greatest hockey legends, including Wayne Gretzky, all powered by the cutting-edge gameplay technology Real Player Motion Tech with explosive-edge skating with faster acceleration, and more responsiveness. A new collision physics system also adds bigger, jaw-dropping hits. EA Access members can start playing a free trial today.

Games

September 14, 2018

Sprint through dynamic neon levels in the quickest time possible, employing skills such as super-speed boosts, mega-jumps, drifts, stomps and strafes to bypass obstacles and uncover shortcuts to propel yourself up the online leaderboards. But there’s a catch: powers cost momentum, and if your energy falls too low your shoes (and you) could very well explode.

Games

September 14, 2018

Tired of playing the hero? Nefarious is a 2D action platformer where you get to be the villain! Step into the wily shoes of Crow, an evil genius on a quest to steal princesses for his royalty-powered death ray – the world-conquering Doom Howitzer. Wreak havoc across five different kingdoms, stomp on heroes in iconic battles, and unleash your inner megalomaniac.

Games

September 14, 2018

Gonner is a tough as hell procedurally-generated 2D platformer with roguelike elements, following the largely misunderstood and altruistic Ikk on a journey to cheer up his only friend in this world—a giant landbound whale named Sally. Procedurally-generated environments, arduous bosses, hidden secrets, multiple endings, and more await Ikk on his journey to make one person happy even if it kills him.

There’s not long at all until Nintendo Switch Online arrives and still, we’re finding out more about how exactly certain aspects of the service will function.

If you were expecting to see individual tiles for each NES game clogging up your Switch HOME Menu, it’s worth pointing out all of these classics will be contained within a single piece of software totaling 58.78 MB. The information once again comes directly from Nintendo’s official website.

Based on what we’ve been shown so far, the library looks similar to various other digital media services available, where you flick through content until you find something you want to watch – or in this case play.

What do you think about the NES library being a single software icon on the HOME Menu? Were you expecting this? Were you hoping to display your NES games proudly alongside your modern Switch titles? Tell us in the comments below.

60 Parsecs! is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

60 Parsecs! is an Atomic Space Age adventure of scavenge and survival. Keep your crew alive and ready for action. Make difficult choices, face soup shortages and other horrors of outer space. And maybe reach your destination. Or not.

*Offer ends September 25 at 10AM Pacific Time

At the recent Open Source Summit in Vancouver, I participated in a panel discussion called How Writing can Change Your Career for the Better (Even if You don’t Identify as a Writer. The panel was moderated by Rikki Endsley, Community Manager and Editor for Opensource.com, and it included VM (Vicky) Brasseur, Open Source Strategy Consultant; Alex Williams, Founder, Editor in Chief, The New Stack; and Dawn Foster, Consultant, The Scale Factory.

The talk was inspired by this article, in which Rikki examined some ways that writing can “spark joy” and improve your career in unexpected ways. Full disclosure: I have known Rikki for a long time. We worked at the same company for many years, raised our children together, and remain close friends.

Write and learn

As Rikki noted in the talk description, “even if you don’t consider yourself to be ‘a writer,’ you should consider writing about your open source contributions, project, or community.” Writing can be a great way to share knowledge and engage others in your work, but it has personal benefits as well. It can help you meet new people, learn new skills, and improve your communication style.

I find that writing often clarifies for me what I don’t know about a particular topic. The process highlights gaps in my understanding and motivates me to fill in those gaps through further research, reading, and asking questions.  

“Writing about what you don’t know can be much harder and more time consuming, but also much more fulfilling and help your career. I’ve found that writing about what I don’t know helps me learn, because I have to research it and understand it well enough to explain it,” Rikki said.

Writing about what you’ve just learned can be valuable to other learners as well. In her blog, Julia Evans often writes about learning new technical skills. She has a friendly, approachable style along with the ability to break down topics into bite-sized pieces. In her posts, Evans takes readers through her learning process, identifying what was and was not helpful to her along the way, essentially clearing a path for her readers and removing obstacles for those new to the topic.

Communicate more clearly

Writing can help you practice thinking and speaking more precisely, especially if you’re writing (or speaking) for an international audience. In this article, for example, Isabel Drost-Fromm provides tips for removing ambiguity for non-native English speakers. Writing can also help you organize your thoughts before a presentation, whether you’re speaking at a conference or to your team.

“The process of writing the articles helps me organize my talks and slides, and it was a great way to provide ‘notes’ for conference attendees, while sharing the topic with a larger international audience that wasn’t at the event in person,” Rikki stated.

If you’re interested in writing, I encourage you to do it. I highly recommend the articles mentioned here as a way to get started thinking about the story you have to tell. Unfortunately, our discussion at Open Source Summit was not recorded, but I hope we can do another talk in the future and share more ideas.

Check out the schedule of talks for Open Source Summit Europe and sign up to receive updates: