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!

New Games with Gold for August 2018
Welcome to another Games with Gold reveal for Xbox One and Xbox 360! In August on Xbox One, celebrate speed and style in Forza Horizon 2, then defeat your enemies in glorious battle in For Honor. On Xbox 360 and Xbox One via Backward Compatibility, prepare to once again fight the nightmarish Necromorph plague in Dead Space 3… Read more

No Man’s Sky Available Now on Xbox One
Hello! I’m so excited we’re launching No Man’s Sky on Xbox One today! Last week we shared our trailer for No Man’s Sky Next, and your feedback and response has been so lovely to hear; we just couldn’t wait to let everyone play. We’re excited to see what people do with multiplayer, unlimited base building, and the ability to command freighters… Read more

Accessible Unboxing of the Xbox Adaptive Controller
In May, we announced the Xbox Adaptive Controller – a first-of-its-kind controller for gamers with limited mobility, and we appreciate the overwhelmingly positive fan feedback received to date. On our journey of inclusive design at Microsoft, we are looking at extending this methodology and its principles… Read more

Realm Royale is Coming Soon to Xbox One, Register for Closed Beta Today
It’s my pleasure to announce that Realm Royale is coming to Xbox One, and closed beta testing starts next week! Click here to sign up for the closed beta test on Xbox One, and we’ll send you a free key when the servers open. The Xbox One community has been posting, emailing, and messaging us asking for Realm Royale on their favorite console… Read more

Meet Arthur Hastings, We Happy Few’s First 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… Read more

Welcome to the End: Banner Saga 3 is Now Available on Xbox One
From humble indie Kickstarter beginnings to becoming an award-winning tactical RPG, we are proud and excited to bring you the third and final chapter in our story-driven Viking trilogy, Banner Saga 3.  What started out as a passion project for us here at Stoic has become a reality, and we were only able to do it with the support of our fans… Read more

For Honor Season VII: Storm and Fury Brings New Map, Updates, and a New Event
For Honor continues to hone its edge with Season VII: Storm and Fury, arriving on Xbox One as a free update on August 2. Featuring a new map, major reworks of two heroes, and updates to the ranking system, Season VII will also include a special event that will be announced at a later date. And if you haven’t yet started playing… Read more

How to Build Your World of Chel Character in the NHL 19 Beta
Hey, Xbox gamers, the NHL 19 beta is live from July 26 to August 2! It features the World of Chel, where you’ll start by creating your own character to use across multiple game modes. The World of Chel introduces player classes, traits, and specialties that boost your character’s ratings, as well as over 900 new pieces of gear… Read more

Our Five Favorite Features in No Man’s Sky on Xbox One
Space jockeys and planetary pioneers alike are rejoicing with this week’s release of Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky for Xbox One. No Man’s Sky is a sci-fi adventure set in an absolutely massive universe, in which every star is orbited by planets filled with life, each of which you can visit if you’d like. Every player’s experience is unique thanks to… Read more

7 Development Facts About Candle: The Power of the Flame, Available Now on Xbox One
I’d like to tell you more about our first game, Candle: The Power of the Flame. It’s a beautiful 2D adventure created entirely from hand-drawn watercolor paintings. In our adventure, you assume the role of little Teku, who after an attack on his village is forced to undertake a dangerous journey to rescue his tribe’s shaman… Read more

5 Reasons Why Train Sim World is Your Next Big Challenge
As a gamer, I pride myself on being able to master games from all kinds of genres. I’ve been strategizing since the original Command & Conquer, had my share of action adventures, worked out puzzlers and explored many MMOs and first-person RPGs to name just a few. New titles bring new challenges, but each genre is largely built on the same basic premise… Read more

Armored Warfare is Coming Soon to Xbox One
Ever since the launch of this free-to-play modern day tank shooter, My.com wanted to bring the experience to the Xbox One players – and it finally succeeded! In Armored Warfare, you become a tank commander of the future – a grizzled veteran in a broken world with allegiance belonging only to the highest bidder… Read more

The Underground Dance Club Scene in Los Santos Gets a Major Upgrade with Grand Theft Auto Online: After Hours
Jump into Grand Theft Auto Online to partner up with legendary club king Tony Prince to open your very own Nightclub. Own and operate the club from setup, design, staffing, and promotion. Book real-world superstar DJ’s to start the party and pull a crowd. The more popular the club, the faster your secure wall safe will fill up with cold hard cash… Read more

Play as the Jem’Hadar and Return to Deep Space Nine in New Star Trek Online Expansion
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of “Deep Space Nine,” and the team behind Star Trek Online couldn’t wait to mark the occasion with our fourth full expansion: Victory is Life. The only way we could see to top our previous expansions was to not only introduce a new player faction in the Jem’Hadar, but also introduce a level cap increase from 60 to 65… Read more

Horror Lurks Beneath the Western Front in Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics on Xbox One
I’m excited to be here to share news of our upcoming turn-based strategy game, Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics. In partnership with publisher Ripstone, we are bringing tactical WWII combat to Xbox One later this year and you can get a sneak preview of what to expect in the brand-new announcement trailer above… Read more

Discover the Truth in The Occupation on Xbox One October 9
The year is 1987, and you’re an investigative journalist living in the wake of a terrorist attack that killed 23 people in England. You’re tasked with investigating an impending government act, as well as the events that led up to the incident. This is the world of The Occupation, coming to the Microsoft Store on Xbox One October 9 from us at Humble Bundle… Read more

Wario’s hijacked the eShop, Nintendo’s Twitter account and even issued his own press release in celebration of WarioWare Gold arriving on the 3DS. Overall, it’s been an effective way of reminding everyone games are still actually being released on the system. 

Now, website Gaming Reinvented reports an equally as naughty dataminer has uncovered unused content in Wario’s new game in the form of an early version of Penny’s intro cutscene. There are a series of early sketches by the game’s character designer, Ko Takeuchi, that have been improved upon as development progressed. 

Here’s exactly what ‘Ehm’ from The Cutting Room Floor found:

A video has also been released illustrating what the hand-drawn sketches look like in motion: 

It’s surprising how content such as this has been discovered so soon in a new release when earlier this week we heard about the existence of a beta version of Bowser’s Castle in Mario Kart Wii that took a decade to reveal. 

Did you pick up or download a copy of WarioWare Gold on release? Have you at least tried out the free demo? Tell us below.

You’re probably sick to death of us mentioning Rare on Nintendo Life – especially since the company has long since parted ways with Nintendo itself and is now firmly ensconced as a Microsoft studio. Still, we have our reasons – Nintendo Life Towers is located in the English Midlands, just a short drive away from Rare’s Twycross HQ – and just because it no longer works on Nintendo hardware that doesn’t mean Rare’s contribution to the incredible history of the Japanese firm should be ignored; that’s certainly the stance that Rare itself is taking, as a new exhibition proves.

Rare: From 8-Bit to Xbox One is currently taking place at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in the city of Coventry, just down the road from Rare’s offices. This exhibition showcases the complete history of the studio, from its days as Ultimate Play the Game operating out of a tiny cottage in Ashby-de-la-Zouch to its more recent escapades, namely the epic online pirate simulator Sea of Thieves. As diehard Rare fans, we simply had to pay a visit.

“This started a long time ago, just after Kinect Sports Rivals,” explains Rare Lead Engineer James Thomas, who spearheaded the team that pulled the exhibit together. “Our facilities manager was basically saying that they were tidying up the maintenance shed and they had a load of hardware, games, magazines and other stuff that needed tidying up. My eyes lit up at this point! I’ve been there long enough to know that I’ve seen cupboards with stacks of old merchandise or old games, so I saw this as an opportunity for us to pull it all together.”

The arrival of Rare Replay – a collection of the company’s most beloved titles on Xbox One – gave the project additional importance, although Thomas reveals that his archival work began before the compendium was even in production. “I went around the whole company, going through cupboards and stock rooms, pulling together everything I could find; cartridges, design docs, everything. Eventually, I started documenting it and listing it to make sure we knew what we had, because by no means did we have a complete collection – everyone who has worked at Rare will have taken their own mementoes when they left, which is fair enough. You worked on it, those are your design docs. But equally, there’s the fleetingness of what is important. What do you keep now thinking it’s going to be historic? In the exhibition here at the museum, they’ve got an Apple iPod. My wife is a curator here and someone asked her, ‘why have you got an iPod here?’ She said, ‘you’ve got to have one in there because at some point that will become part of history.'”

Thomas’ work in cataloguing all of this material proved invaluable when it came to creating the excellent bonus material for Rare Replay. “It was quite fortuitous that we had all that stuff together because it meant that we could fill out all the Rare Revealed videos and we could get all the sprites that we needed for any artwork,” he explains. “Also, a lot of the ROMs that we shipped on Rare Replay came from the stuff that myself and a couple of other people found during that time. It was all organised, but it was just that no one had an idea of the complete picture, so getting it all in one place really helped with that.”

After Rare Replay launched, that’s when the idea of having a proper public exhibit of all this amazing material arose. “Sea of Thieves started, which meant the archive got bundled up, tidied away securely,” Thomas recalls. “Last summer, my wife started telling me about this summer’s exhibition at The Herbert, which was going to be based around toys, games and play. They try to do something that’s quite engaging because it’s the school holidays. They decided to do the history of play, and how play has evolved over the years. You have everything from sticks and hoops right up to, obviously, video games. I got Leigh Loveday and Dale Murchie together from the Rare Replay team and we started putting a picture together to show to Craig Duncan, the studio head. We wanted to try to make sure it wasn’t an advert. It could have been so easy to just say, ‘buy Sea of Thieves!’ but we wanted it to be more than that, so we ended up splitting it into two. We wanted to show the history of Rare, and hopefully by extension, the history of gaming, because Rare has been going since the early ’80s.'”

This first room of the exhibit is packed with items that will catch the eye of any gamer, not just those who consider themselves to be Nintendo or Microsoft fans. There’s a Famicom console with a development board sat awkwardly on the top; Rare’s founders, Tim and Chris Stamper, famously reversed-engineered the console in order to secure a development deal with Nintendo. Sat next to this is a SNES with a massive plastic device crammed into its cartridge slot, which is emblazoned with the iconic Donkey Kong logo – no prizes for guessing what this dev cartridge was used to create.

Elsewhere, there’s a Donkey Kong plush, pages of concept art (some of which is for games that ever saw the light of day), a stretchy Battletoads figure, a Conker’s Bad Fur Day beer glass and – perhaps most interestingly of all – a glass cabinet filled to the bursting point with boxed Rare titles, such as Donkey Kong 64, The Amazing Spider-Man, Solar Jetman and even Beetlejuice. There’s certainly no shortage of cool things; it would seem that the real problem was knowing where to stop. “We could have probably filled the rest of the ‘play’ exhibition if we wanted to!” laughs Thomas. “It was hard because I had to actually take a step back and ask myself if the general public would be excited about it. We had a load of concept art and design documents from either early NES games or SNES games that never made it, and for me they were super fascinating, but they didn’t give a snapshot of the history of the company. What we did was choose roughly twice as many objects for each of the decades and then ask what fits best with the story, so we could vary the objects we show, rather than just going saying, ‘this is how games were made.’ It was a good test to show it to some of the curators here, as well; to actually show the objects to non-players and ask if it makes sense and is this interesting – that’s a nice test to see whether we’d chosen the right material.”

The second room is devoted purely to Sea of Thieves, which is understandable – it is Rare’s current opus, after all – but there’s an important reason for so much space being devoted to it. “I do careers talks every now and again,” explains Thomas. “When you go to the younger age group, even college or GCSE, not a huge number of people know what roles are available in game development, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to say, ‘these are the different functions, these are the different people that can come together, the different skills that you need to create a modern video game.'”

What’s really amazing is the amount of time and effort that has gone into creating this exhibition. “Over the last 9 months it’s been a slow and steady build-up,” Thomas reveals. “Going back and forth between ourselves and the museum, making sure the text that we want to put on is museum-friendly, and so on. There was a tiny bit of fighting between Rare’s slightly more laid back tone and the museum’s slightly more academic tone, so we had to find a nice compromise between the two!”

While the exhibit has had the misfortune of opening during one of the biggest heatwaves the UK has seen in decades, Thomas says the reaction has been a positive one. “I think what a lot of people don’t realise is that Rare is on their doorstep,” says Thomas. “Also the people who run the museum have been really fascinated by how the kids have taken to it. There’s an Xbox, N64 and SNES for people to play, and I think a lot of people just expected the kids to go off and play that, but so many of them have been equally intrigued reading how these things are put together. One of my friend’s kids thought that the NES and the Spectrum were artistic choices! We had to say, ‘actually, no. This is history. That’s what gaming has gone through to get to where it is now.'”

Given that it is helping to spread the good name of the studio, it’s only fitting that the exhibit has been well-attended by staff. “We had a lot of Rare-ites on the opening night,” says Thomas. “There were about 20 or 25 people who made the march from Twycross for the evening, and we got their seal of approval as well. Some even found out things about Rare they weren’t aware of, which meant that we’d done our job, so that’s good.”

But what about the Stampers themselves? As the founders of the company, this exhibit is, on so many levels, a tribute to their legacy; have they visited it? “I don’t know whether the Stampers have come in,” replies Thomas. “I’d like to think they will. I hope we’ve tried to make something that’s for old and new. Given the number of former Rare staffers we worked with on Rare Replay, with the videos and interviews, it’s clear we want to make sure that the people who worked on these games are with these games forever; hopefully, they can see it all here.”

Speaking of the Stampers, the siblings were famous for locking the down the studio and only occasionally speaking to the gaming press. Ironically, since Microsoft has taken over – a company which would have good reason to expunge the Nintendo era from Rare’s history books – the company has relaxed this secretive stance. “Over the years we’ve become a far more open studio,” says Thomas. “I think we try to let people peek behind the curtain more often. You can see that with the Sea of Thieves development blogs that Joe Neate puts out every week. I think the way Craig Duncan talks to the media is far more open as well. We’re getting more press to the studio far more often than we ever used to. We’re also trying to appreciate the past far more often; Rare Replay was a big celebration, but in recent times we’ve seen Conker, Battletoads and Killer Instinct all appear again, and we’re open about our history.”

Rare may have moved on from Nintendo hardware, but this excellent exhibit shows the firm isn’t turning its back on the games which made it famous; it’s a refreshingly open look at the rich history of a company that amazingly remains largely unknown to thousands of people in the English Midlands. Hopefully, the show – which runs until the end of September and is free of charge to enter – will change that. Even during the short time we spent at The Herbert, we noticed more than one family walk through the exhibit, with parents excitedly pointing out old consoles and sharing their memories of these classic games with their offspring – the next generation of players.

Rare: From 8-Bit To Xbox One is now on at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum and runs until September 28th, 2018.

[ Bugfixes ]
– Fixed a bug that allowed players to cause Monkey King’s Primal Spring activation sound to play at different location than it would be cast.
– Fixed a bug that prevented Monkey King from drawing creep aggro for a short time when attacking out of Mischief.
– Monkey King may now transform into an Arcane Rune.
– Fixed a bug that caused Morphling’s Morph to gain certain abilities even if the morphed hero had not yet skilled them (e.g. Ogre Magi’s Multicast).
– Fixed a bug that allowed players to ping the real version of a hero if they had them selected before using illusion-creating abilities such as Manta Style and Doppleganger, which randomize the position of the hero.

[ General Changes]
– Enchanted Mangoes are now initially sellable at full price for ten seconds after they are purchased.
– Increased the number of Pro Circuit Prediction Tokens given per week to 60

Before we delve into the Nightmarium, I should make it clear that this is a game that uses the Tabletopia game system. This means that all you are getting is a digital rendition of the game’s components, leaving the players themselves to interpret and enforce the rules. Furthermore, do not expect any AI opponents or online matches, as the only option is to play face to face with a player count of two to four.

Nightmarium is a small, easy to learn card game that only had a limited print run. Consequently, this digital version will be the only chance that many of us will have to play the game. The background story concerns the masters of the Order of Dreamers who have been studying the landscape of dreams for centuries. Even after all this time, one small, dark corner of the dream world subconscious remains off-limits. That place, as you may have guessed, is the Nightmarium, home to night terrors, bogeymen and monsters under the bed. Finally, the researchers have mastered the art of subduing these terrors and moulding them into creatures. The problem is that these creatures are hostile and volatile, often, fighting among themselves, simply disintegrating or escaping to run amok. Yet, despite their nature, these unstable creations do have a use since they offer the only means of reaching the Crystal of Panic.

An example of what the game looks like in the early stages.

As a player, you will take on the role of a dream researcher and compete against your opponents to be the first one to assemble five creatures.  The night terrors are made up of 108 individual cards, which are split into legs, torsos and heads. You can work on creating your five creatures simultaneously, but each has to be assembled in a strict order beginning with legs. Most cards can only be used for one body part, but some special cards can be used for two, or even three parts. Each night terror is loyal with one of four colour-coded legions of Horror – Necronauts, Insektoids, Homunculi, or Chimeridae. A creature can be made up from any mix of Night Terrors, but creating creatures from cards of the same legion will give you a distinct advantage.

At the start of the game each player is dealt a hand of five Night Terror cards and on a turn, they get to perform two actions. The most basic action is to draw a card.  A variation of this is to discard as many cards as you like and draw half that number back. There is also the option to play a card from your hand to start or continue constructing a creature. Creatures have to be built from the bottom up; starting with legs, followed by the torso and finishing with the head. As soon as a creature is complete any special abilities that are marked on the individual body parts will activate. These are applied in strict order, starting with the head and working downwards. If a special ability cannot be performed, then it and any other outstanding abilities are cancelled. If you have ensured that the creature is made from terrors of the same legion, then every opponent must discard one card of that legion from their hand. If they have no such card, then they face the larger penalty of having to discard two cards.

Your late-game board may end up looking like this.

Special abilities are worth investigating a little closer as they form the core of the game and ensure that there is more to Nightmarium than a simple primary school matching game. The Weeper ability lets you draw two new cards, whilst the Mocker lets you play an extra card from your hand. The Herald skill is one of the strongest: it offers a combination of the previous two skills, allowing you to draw two cards and immediately use them to construct your creatures. The other skills are more interactive – the Executioner allows you to remove the head from an opponent’s creature and add it to your hand, the Scavenger ability lets you remove an opponent’s incomplete creature. Finally, the Devourer ability lets you discard the top card of any of your own creatures. Identifying how these skills complement each other is at the heart of the game. For instance, a completed creature with both Executioner and Scavenger abilities could first claim the head from an opponent’s creature, thus making it incomplete. Then the Scavenger skill can be used to send the unfortunate soul back to the discard pile.

Nightmarium is a straightforward game that can be learnt in five minutes and only takes about twenty minutes to play. The theme is refreshingly original, with the lovely creature illustrations adding to the game’s overall charm. However, there are frustratingly high levels of luck involved, which makes for a game best suited for families rather than seasoned gamers. In terms of actual gameplay, there is nothing here that hasn’t been seen many times before. However, Nightmarium’s rather ruthless player interaction and neat card combo opportunities make for a decent if unspectacular game.

The horror! Not the monsters – just LOOK at the state of that board…

The simple rules and few moving parts mean that Nightmarium is a good choice for conversion to the Tabletopia system. Although, having to keep your cards hidden from the other players does mean that turns need to be taken in secret, so only one person can view the screen at any one time. Whenever I play I cannot help but feel that the game would be infinitely more enjoyable to play in its physical format; snatching an actual physical card from a rival is so much more satisfying. Tabletopia is an innovative way of playing tabletop games, but the fiddly interface, no-frills presentation and, most tellingly, lack of rules implementation means that it will only ever appeal to a limited market. The rest of us will happily stick with physical copies or enjoy the impressive range of fully featured board game apps that have added advantages like AI opponents and competitive online matches.

You’ll get a kick out of this! ⚽
Team up with your friends for Summer Games on August 9. pic.twitter.com/VSyxMDTrc3

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 3, 2018

The changes in the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro prompts comparisons between the models from potential customers. AppleInsider compares the low, mid-range, and high-end options in a series of benchmarks, to see if it’s worth paying more for the better-specification models.

[embedded content]

For the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro refresh, Apple has made a number of improvements to performance, such as using faster DDR4 RAM that allows for configurations of up to 32 gigabytes, faster graphics with higher base memory, and using Intel’s new 8th-generation 6-core processors.

The changes mean that, once again, users are tasked with choosing the notebook that can meet their performance requirements, as well as their budgets. To help those deciding which to acquire, we have put the refreshed models through a variety of benchmarks that simulate 3D rendering, gaming and overall system performance, along with video and photo editing.

Three models were used for the tests, starting with the base model 2.2GHz Core i7 CPU at the low end, complete with Radeon Pro 4GB 555X graphics, 16 gigabytes of RAM and a 256-gigabyte SSD, priced at $2,399. In the middle is the 2.6GHz Core i7 model with Radeon Pro 4GB 560X graphics and 16GB of DDR4 memory, costing $2,799. On the plus side, that model also comes with a 512-gigabyte SSD, doubling the storage capacity compared to the lowest specification model.

The highest-specification 15-inch MacBook Pro used in this test cost $3,499, packing the 2.9GHz Core i9 processor, Radeon Pro 4GB 560X graphics and 32 gigabytes of DDR4 memory. While it is only equipped with the 512 gigabyte SSD, since all SSD versions are incredibly fast, this should make no real impact on performance for any of these tests.

Standard Benchmarks

Starting with Geekbench 4’s CPU test, all models have impressive scores, but the difference between them isn’t huge. The i9 reached about 10-percent higher scores in single-core and 8-percent higher in multi-core compared to the base model.

In Geekbench 4’s OpenCL graphics test, the results between the three laptops are minor. Switching to the Metal test shows a much bigger difference, with the 560X GPU models scoring about 20-percent higher than the 555X in the base model.

Unigine’s Heaven using the extreme preset was employed to put a gaming workload on the test group. Here, we observed an 18-percent higher average frame rate between the 555X GPU model and the 560X models, a hefty performance increase which can be had for only $100 more.

Moving onto Cinebench R15, a rendering benchmark that runs the processor under full load, we ran 5 back-to-back tests on each system. Despite the specification differences, we only saw performance vary by an average of 2 percent between the base 2.2GHz i7 and the top spec 2.9 Ghz i9, which is a $400 upgrade.

Starting from an idling temperature and only running the test once, the i9 will score around 50 points higher, but only because the test finishes before the processor has a chance to heat up.

Shortly after the first run, the processors in these new MacBooks thermal throttle so much that all three run at very similar speeds. There was an average speed of 3.05GHz for the base model, 3.1Ghz for the mid and 3.15GHz for the i9.

Since some 2D and 3D renders can take hours, all three processors have similar performance for extensive graphics-demanding tasks.

Image Editing

For the photo editing test, the latest version of Adobe Lightroom Classic was used to edit 42-megapixel RAW images. We saw no speed or smoothness differences while color-correcting and retouching within the develop module.

However, while exporting 99 edited 42-megapixel RAW images to JPEG, the Core i9 model was around 17% faster than the other two, which finished at exactly the same time.

Looking closer,, all three models ran at about the same speed, at around 3.0Ghz throughout the export. While processor usage was close to 100 percent in all cases, the onboard graphics were effectively left unused.

For RAM usage, the top model used more than 18GB of memory, while the other two 16GB-packing models had to cut into the SSD using file-swapping. For the most part, the performance difference is actually coming from the amount of RAM available to use.

Video Editing

The video tests using Final Cut Pro X started with the 5K Bruce X benchmark, which resulted in similar times across the board. Stabilizing a 20-second 4K clip also results in nearly identical speeds.

Moving on to a 5-minute 4K h.264 project with color corrections and effects, the mid-range and top models took 3 min and 44 seconds to render and encode, while the base model was slightly slower at 4 min and 11 seconds. This shows that the lower-end GPU was the actual bottleneck in this case.

As far as the editing itself, all three models have no problem playing back the timeline at a full 4K resolution, with background rendering turned off.

Taking a look at a similar project, except using 4K HEVC files, the results were practically the same. While the 555X graphics card was close to capacity, the 560X still had about 30 percent of its potential performance still available.

Testing ProRes RAW and Canon Cinema RAW lite codecs, both with color corrections and effects, the results come out the same. The base model, again, is slower while the mid and top-spec MacBooks are very close in performance. Once again, the graphics card is the limitation.

One noticeable difference is that all three models have no issues playing back the 4K ProRes RAW, while the Canon RAW stutters on all three machines, taking much longer to render.

Finishing off testing with 4.5K RED RAW files, the results were close, but unexpectedly the i9 model was actually the slowest, even with repeated testing. The i9 ran at just 2.4GHz after stabilizing, even though its base clock speed is rated at 2.9GHz, while the base 2.2GHz and mid 2.6GHz models ran at 2.7GHz and 2.8GHz respectively.

Our RED RAW project pushed both the processor and graphics, causing the best GPU and CPU combination to thermal throttle slightly more than the other configurations.

We do want to point out that most of our video editing projects are short, and we tested without having other programs running in the background, so differences in RAM don’t really make any impact. If you edit long 4K projects, especially while having other programs or many browser tabs open, we would suggest upgrading to 32GB of RAM.

Summary

As far as the other components, the 560X graphics chip is well worth the extra $100 for everyone but photo editors. If you’re running long and intensive tasks that need more than a short burst of high speed, upgrading the CPU to the i9 isn’t really worth it. If you don’t push your machine hard in any way, you won’t need the extra short term performance. If you do, the performance difference can be negligible because of thermal throttling.

If you need to buy a Mac right now, the mid-spec $2,799 model, which is kept in stock at most retailers, will be a good choice. If you don’t mind waiting for a MacBook Pro order, going for the base model with the i7 2.2GHz CPU, Radeon 560X graphics, and 32 gigabytes of RAM will give you the best bang for your buck.

Save $100 on every 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro

Apple authorized reseller Adorama is knocking $100 off every 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with promo code APINSIDER when used with this shopping link or the pricing links in our MacBook Pro Price Guide.

Adorama also will not collect sales tax on orders shipped outside NY and NJ, and each system ships for free within the contiguous U.S. With the exclusive discount, many shoppers outside those two states can save up to $635 compared to buying from Apple, a significant cost difference for the brand-new models.

Those looking to finance the purchase can also take advantage of no interest financing when paid in full within 12 months using the Adorama Credit Card. For help redeeming the coupon code, please see the step-by-step instructions found in this guide.

We’ve heard a bunch of complaints from the community after the recent treasure was released, and we wanted to walk you through how things unfolded from our end.

On Tuesday after the release, we heard the community being concerned if there were bugs with the item drops, with many examples of people not getting the Witch Doctor set but having the Phantom Assassin and Outworld Devourer sets. We looked into it to see if there were any differences between the drop rates of those items, and found that all three were identical, so we just assumed it was anecdotal cases and selection bias. Another contributing factor is that the volume of Treasure 3 is meaningfully less than Treasure 1 and 2, partly because a lot of customers bought the Weekend Bundle Sale and that did not include Treasure 3 (as is the case historically). So it would then be expected that a number of people would have some items and not the others, and that the Witch Doctor set would be the most rare.

However, the complaints continued to come in, and it was confusing to us why. We decided to investigate a bit more, but were generally still assuming it was a mixture of selection bias and supply differences between Treasure 1 and 2 and Treasure 3, especially since we knew the three items were identical. Late last night we eventually found a bug that existed for all the Immortal treasures this season. It primarily affected players who opened a very large number of treasures, causing the drop rates to not escalate as quickly as they did last year. And since the volume of Treasure 3s were lower than the other two, it was a more visible bug to players.

As a result of this, this morning we started working on fixing this. We are re-running the rolls for players on Immortal Treasure 1, 2 and 3, and will be granting the items shortly as well as fixing the bug for unopened treasures. We will also be giving all Battle Pass owners 10 extra levels.

In addition to this, we’ve also heard the community being unhappy at the content of the level 615 reward. As part of this update, we are adding an extra bundle of treasures at level 615. It’ll include 4 Immortal Treasure 1, 4 Immortal Treasure 2, and 4 Immortal Treasure 3.

If you know anything about Baseball, you’re in luck. MLB Manager 18 has no tips, no tutorials, no hints at the rules of the sport or the nuances within the stats. Whereas so many management sims allow a little wiggle room for new players who may only take a partial interest in the sport, this game effectively shutters itself off from any kind of enquiry. In fact, even those who have an extensive knowledge of the American pastime might find themselves completely lost among a hundred menus which offer no solace or guiding nudges about what specific command does what action. It’s a mess.

MLB18 opens with the usual fare of naming your coach, selecting the team you’d like to head up from the American or National leagues. Before even seeing a playing field or batting cage, the game prompts ask whether to simulate the real world of Baseball. Maybe you’d like to tick boxes which really mean very little until the game gets into the flow of things? MLB18 has you covered by asking about pitchers and batters with no shade of why they’re asking.

Once these frustrating opening screens have passed by, we’re met with the most uninspiring handful of menus. Still, there’s no sign of any tutorial so absently tapping at certain boxes in the hope of either starting a season or changing the line-up of the team relies solely on either luck or parsing the information until you stumble into the correct menu option and there’s a list of names that mean very little. Do we tap and hold? Do we tap? Can we rename anybody to make the game more personal? Mess around and find out, because the developer clearly doesn’t want to tell us.

I chose to use the Philadelphia Phillies, for myriad reasons and wanted to dive straight into a game, hoping to have some sway on how my team performs. I entered a game, forgiving the lack of direction thus far and tapped ‘Swing’. My hopes of any kind of interesting interaction were thwarted as I watched a wall of text fall down the screen in a pseudo commentary voice. The pitch of the ball was described as arcing through the air, my batter did his thing and we made it to first base. The static Baseball diamond on my screen changed the colours of a few names to state that the Phillies had grabbed the first base and the game prompted me, asking if I wanted to steal second base.

Why not? Maybe there’s a mini game hidden away that allows me to test the infield players as I heroically dash from first base to second as the pitcher unleashes his ball. Nope. More text, we didn’t steal the base and my batter struck out. Before I even considered trying to swap out players, I decided to simulate a couple of innings, in the hope that maybe the game would show some form of animation of players movements, balls flying out to home runs or sliding into home. Sadly, a few names blinked red rather than black and the menu appeared from before, only now I was 0-3.

Of course, most management games are brimming with menus and stats. That’s mostly why we flock to them, because it’s in the minutiae where we find joy. It seems no matter where I turned, every menu is bland, leading into another soulless list where drop down menus languish, unexplained or even brushed over by the game itself. I know a decent amount about Baseball, I like to watch a bit of Spring training, I catch games where I can, and I stumbled around lists that made no sense to me. Despite knowledge, a game needs some form of guidance. Building a routine of which option furthers play or the calendar, maybe highlights a few of the star players to add into the starting line-up. If I wanted to roam endless boxes of information I don’t really understand, I’d open Microsoft Excel.

I can’t imagine that even the most expert Baseball fan will find much joy here. There’s no option to swing a bat, or throw a pitch, which could have easily been implemented. MLB18 takes everything that makes Baseball an interesting sport and removes it. There’s no passion for the game, or even any hint that there’s a genuinely fun sport within the simulator.

After a time I started changing the strategy of my team – increasing their aggression on running bases, telling my pitcher how to hold base runners, I asked my players to steal bases wherever they could. I found a screen that told me that my personality was “charitable” and that I was “delighted” with the performance of the team. I started rotating players around, choosing different starting pitchers. Not one thing made any noticeable difference. I might as well have just simulated every game using the default settings, because nothing I changed really mattered. The game rolled some imaginary dice or randomly generated a few numbers, translated that into ‘boy howdy’ Baseball commentary and declared my batter swung and missed. STRIKE!

I’d like to say that MLB Manager 18 has a redeeming feature, but it doesn’t. It’s the most lifeless, boring game I’ve played in a long time. Maybe someone who reads every little detail about the sport will find something to love. You have to be an absolute die-hard fan of Baseball and have the patience of a saint to really get anything from MLB18. As someone who supports a team, watches games, plays other Baseball games on mobile and console I wanted to still be guided around and told about the intricacies of this management sim. Instead, I felt like I was scooped up from Little League practice and told to bat in the World Series.