Aristotle, the hero of Minesweeper Genius, takes a rather literal approach to mine disposal, whipping out his broom to sweep the surroundings for deadly devices. He is a peculiar little character, so proud of his superior brainpower that he keeps his smarts in a glass dome that is attached to the top of his head. The silly plot concerns aliens and scientific experiments, but sweep this aside and you are left with a smart update of a game that has its origin’s in the earliest mainframe games of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The most well-known version of Minesweeper dates back to the early 1990’s, when it came bundled alongside Solitaire with Windows 3.1.  It may not have had the same mass appeal as solitaire, but countless hours of productivity were wasted by those bored office workers, who wanted something a little more tactical than just arranging playing cards. Better still, the unobtrusive graphics, consisting of a small grey grid, were much less likely to catch the eye of a wandering manager.

Actually, Minesweeper Genius has just as much in common with number puzzler Sudoku as it does with its original namesake.  Aristotle begins each level placed in a grid, the exit will be marked but the rest of the spaces will be unexplored and could contain deadly mines. You can infer which spaces are safe from the numbers that appear along the edges of the grid. These reveal how many mines are in each row and column. On each level, Aristotle gingerly makes his way from square to square. He is never allowed to backtrack, and should he tread on a mine then he is returned to his starting position.

Minesweeper Genius consists of thirteen islands, each with ten levels apiece. Upon completing a level Aristotle will be awarded a star rating and the next level will unlock. Sometimes, after completing an island, a number of optional advanced levels will also become available.  As you progress, more features familiar to those who played the original minesweeper will become available. From the second island onwards, you can flag squares that you think contain mines. Simply press on a square or drag your finger across multiple squares to place flags. The third island introduces radial indicators; these appear in certain squares at the beginning of some levels and display a number that signifies how many of the adjacent spaces contain mines.

To spice things up, the game also introduces a range of special squares that trigger as soon as Aristotle steps on them. There are ones that allow Aristotle to belie his advanced years and leap over a square. Others will slide squares from one end of the grid to the other or swap entire rows and columns. All of the special squares in a grid must be triggered in order to successfully complete a level.

My initial impressions of Minesweeper Genius were extremely favourable, the graphics are clear, the controls responsive and the puzzling initially feels very rewarding. It is obvious that the developers have spent a lot of time polishing and refining their game. It is also commendable that the game offers a generous amount of levels and comes as a complete package, with no extra purchases required. Unfortunately, after playing for a while things began to go downhill pretty fast. Some of the issues are easily remedied; the background music soon begins to grate, but it can be switched off, as can the annoying sound effects that have Aristotle nodding off and snoring after only the briefest period of inactivity. The old dear’s desire for frequent naps may initially be mildly amusing, but I soon felt like grabbing his broom and whacking him over his stupid fishbowl head.

Unfortunately, the game’s biggest issue is not one that can be so easily resolved with the flick of a switch. Minesweeper Genius really suffers from a lack of variety and challenge. Each island follows a similar pattern, starting on small grid layouts that gradually increase in size. It soon begins to feel very formulaic, even the graphics hardly change from island to island. Minesweeper, like Sudoku, is all about making inferences from the limited information on offer in order to build up a complete picture. A large part of Sudoku’s appeal is down to the leaps of logic that you have to make in order to arrive at the correct conclusion.  In comparison, the decisions here are much more straightforward and consequently less satisfying.

So, whilst you may initially think, wow, that’s a neat twist on an old classic, Minesweeper Genius soon becomes a bit of a slog. It may make a neat casual game that you can play on your daily commute, but, in the long-term, the repetitive gameplay is a big disappointment. I’m no puzzle genius but still managed to cruise through the first sixty levels with ease, racking up a complete set of three-star ratings. Even at this relatively advanced stage it wasn’t really getting any more difficult. It seems that the game is too obliging and eager to help you succeed. This is largely down to the fact that the puzzles aren’t individually designed but procedurally generated.

Initially, this seems to be very neat and clever, an insurance against player frustration. Yet it turns out that it also makes things too easy, even the special squares that should really add some extra challenge turn out to be a big disappointment.  You would think that switching around the grid would really increase the challenge, but actually, the special squares just feel like they are just a point on the board that you have to reach. No matter how drastically they change the layout you can be assured that there will always be a valid move. Consequently, there is never any need to think further ahead than your current move, which is never that taxing, even if you are not a genius.

Smoke and Sacrifice is Now Available on Steam and is 20% off!*

Smoke and Sacrifice sees Sachi, a mother forced to give up her son, adventure into a grotesque underworld on a quest that will lead her to a darker truth.

*Offer ends June 7 at 10AM Pacific Time

Skulls for the Skull Throne is back, with in-game events and great discounts up to 90% off, as part of this week’s Weekend Deal.

It’s back! Fantastic new Skulls themed content and updates for many of your favourite Warhammer games. The Bone Giant comes to Total War: WARHAMMER II, earn a Skull portrait UI in Warhammer: Vermintide 2, unleash the Legion of the Damned in Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf and deploy new successor chapters in Space Hulk: Deathwing – all to name just a few. There is also a new game with Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus, plus new DLC and pre-orders to look out for.

In celebration of this festival of Warhammer gaming, there’s up to 90% off selected Games Workshop and Warhammer universe titles during this time.

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!

State of Decay 2 Breaks Record with Over 1 Million Players in First Two Days of Global Release
As we close out our first week of the zombie apocalypse, we wanted to welcome and say thank you to the over one million fans playing State of Decay 2, helping break the million player mark, and answering the question: how will you survive? Since Early Access for the Ultimate Edition on May 18 and the global release of the Standard Edition on May 22, we have had over a million survivors across the globe playing and creating their own zombie survival story. Throughout launch, there have been over six million combined hours of State of Decay 2 gameplay, and we’ve watched nearly 3.5M hours of gameplay across Mixer, Twitch and YouTube Gaming from over 41,000 unique broadcasts. Watching… Read more

State of Decay 2 Available Worldwide on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, and Windows 10 PC
Today, fans can test their zombie apocalypse plans as State of Decay 2 from Undead Labs launches worldwide in Xbox Game Pass and exclusively on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. State of Decay 2 is the ultimate zombie survival fantasy, where it’s up to you to decide how to survive in an open, post-apocalyptic world. State of Decay 2 takes everything you loved about the first game and greatly expands on it, giving you more unique survivor characters, more backstories and skills for each member, more community and base management options, and bigger maps to survive in. State of Decay 2 also adds one of the most-requested features from the community: cross-platform co-op. You and up to… Read more

Five Game-Changing Features Coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
It might be one of the most popular video game franchises in the world, but Call of Duty isn’t scared to take some risks. At a community reveal event in Los Angeles, Activision and developer Treyarch gave gamers their first good look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. The explosive shooter is going bigger than ever, capturing the zeitgeist with a battle royale mode and eschewing a traditional single-player campaign in favor of a narrative-driven approach to multiplayer. Here are the five biggest features coming to Black Ops 4. 1. Blackout mode gives fans the royale treatment. Games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite have ushered in the era of the battle royale. Black… Read more

Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition Available Now via Xbox Game Preview
If we’ve been doing our jobs correctly, you’ll have seen that Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition has been released in Xbox Game Preview with a fancy new artwork sitting pretty on the Microsoft Store. But what does this mean for you, new-comer of Divinity? Well, firstly, this means that you can play it. Not only can you play it, but you can play it for free. Because we think you’ll like it, we’ve given you three hours of the game so that you can try it, and you can tell us what you think! If you choose to buy it (thanks, that’s awesome!) your save games will carry across to the complete Act 1 experience during Xbox Game Preview, and then into the full game upon… Read more

Xbox Game Pass: Next Up Hero, MotoGP 17, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 and More Coming in June
Hello, gamers! Welcome to your June Xbox Game Pass update. If you can stop playing State of Decay 2 long enough to read this, we’ve got some great additions to the Xbox Game Pass catalog this month to tell you about, like MotoGP 17, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, The Technomancer, Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, and Disneyland Adventures. They’re all coming to Xbox Game Pass on June 1, in addition to the over 100 more great games included in your subscription. Later in June, action-packed dungeon crawler Next Up Hero will join the catalog. And be sure to keep an eye out for more awesome game announcements coming soon. Let’s take a closer look at the new additions: Next Up… Read more

How Battlefield V Will Depict WWII as You Have Never Seen It Before
Fans of Battlefield, Just recently, we revealed that the setting of the next Battlefield will be World War II – the era where it all began for the series. When the original team and I wanted to create something special back in 1999, WWII was always our first choice. The result was Battlefield 1942. Since then, we’ve visited various eras, but we’ve always longed to return to WWII. For a period, there was a fatigue for this setting’s representation in games, and we didn’t want to recycle the same experiences you’ve already seen. We used our old Battlefield 1 mantra – “untold, unplayed, unseen” – in the development, which liberated us from expectations and… Read more

Age of Wonders: Planetfall Brings Tactical Turn-Based Strategy to Xbox One in 2019
We at Triumph Studios are very excited to finally announce Age of Wonders: Planetfall! The game has been in development for about three years now and runs on a new generation of our multi-platform Creator Engine. Let’s start with the basics. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a turn-based strategy game in which you emerge from the cosmic dark age, created by the fall of a galactic empire, to craft a new future for your people. You’ll need to develop new technologies for your colonists to thrive on these hostile worlds, for you are not alone here. Other survivors will compete with you to rebuild the Star Union in their own way, and you will need both a carefully crafted arsenal and a firm… Read more

Build Your Deck of Cards and Crush Your Enemies in Monster Slayers, Available Now on Xbox One
I’m Sim Yih Chun, also known as Nerdook. I spent eight years making web-based games on weekends while working as an electrical engineer, then transitioned into full-time game development. Monster Slayers is my latest game and it combines two of my favorite genres: dungeon crawls and deck-building card games. Unlike card games such as Magic: The Gathering, where selecting the cards that go into your deck happen before the game even begins, deck-building card games usually start you off with a simple starting deck, and as you play, you add more powerful cards to your deck, upgrade your existing cards, or even delete weaker cards to make your deck thinner and increase the odds of… Read more

ID@Xbox Game Fest: Celebrating the Summer of Arcade 10-Year Anniversary
It has been 10 years since Summer of Arcade started. The program could be considered the precursor to the ID@Xbox program with a series of fun new releases. To celebrate the last week of ID@Xbox Game Fest we have decided to highlight some of our favorite Summer of Arcade games and their spiritual successors and put them on sale. If you missed out on these classic favorites now is a wonderful time to play them on Xbox One. Here are a couple suggestions to get you started: Limbo (80% off) – This black and white artistic puzzle-platformer took the world by storm when it released in 2010. Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters Limbo and sets out to explore the unique environment and… Read more

Celebrate Our Heroes in World of Tanks This Memorial Day
Memorial Day marks a time where we remember and pay tribute to the brave heroes who fought to protect the freedom and rights of all of us. Without the service and sacrifice given by our soldiers, the world wouldn’t be the same place it is today, and World of Tanks certainly wouldn’t be possible. To commemorate those who put their lives on the line while fighting for a better world for present and future generations, World of Tanks is hosting special events in-game on and around Memorial Day. You can enjoy enormous XP bonuses on May 28, and take advantage of special Ops and discounts for US vehicles from May 25 until June 1 in honor of America’s heroes. x5 XP on Memorial… Read more

Madden NFL 19 Coming to Xbox One August 10
After a thrilling draft and a loaded free agent market, it’s time to talk about the most important cog in the NFL offseason — Madden NFL 19 is coming to Xbox One August 10. Building on the success of last season, Madden 19 is set to provide a new level of control to more game modes to make this the best season in franchise history. The focus behind the enhancements in Madden 19 is the player and Madden community. We listened to Madden fans, and that feedback was at the center of everything when developing the game. One big addition gamers will see this season will be improvements to player control. Real Player Motion (RPM) allows Madden 19 to deliver a more authentic playing… Read more

Mothergunship Demo Available Now on Xbox One – The Gun Crafting Range
Hello, Xbox fans! It’s been a while since we were here last time, but we are back with some great news! We’re very excited to announce that the Mothergunship demo is now available on Xbox One for those who want to get a glimpse of the game before its launch. Mothergunship is a bullet-hell first-person shooter where you craft your own guns, fight gigantic bosses, play together with your friends, and defeat a robotic alien armada that conquered Earth. From the first time we showed Mothergunship publicly, experimentation with our crafting system was a key attraction, leading to long lines at trade shows and a lot of excited gamers showing off their creations to their buddies. This… Read more

Talking with Halo FFA and Community Champion Ryan “RyaNoob” Geddes
Heading into Halo World Championship 2018 last month, Ryan “RyaNoob” Geddes was one of the players Halo Waypoint pegged as a player to keep an eye on during the tournament. Ryan has competed at the highest level for many years, but this would be one of the biggest tournaments in his career as he would eventually go on to win the Halo Free for All (FFA) tourney and take home $6,000. Back home in Tampa, FL, Ryan recently attended a celebration in his honor at his local Microsoft Store, the same store that he rose through the ranks of qualifying for HaloWC 2018. “As a competitive Halo player, hearing that there were local tournaments at the Microsoft Store, I knew I had to… Read more

Rainbow Six Siege HypeZone Channel Launches Today on Mixer
On Mixer, we see more than 500 unique streamers every day chasing chicken dinner and victory royale glory in the HypeZone. The down-to-the-wire, 24/7 non-stop action is what makes HypeZone an engaging experience for viewers and an awesome discovery vehicle for streamers of all sizes. Today, we’re expanding HypeZone beyond the battle royale genre for the first time with Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, a tactical first-person shooter with intense 5v5 team matches. In Rainbow Six Siege you will attack or defend with your choice of unique operators with an active community of over 30 million players. HypeZoneRainbow6 will be looking for streamers in Late Round, Overtime, and Match Point… Read more

New Desert Map, Miramar, Arrives for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) on Xbox One is about to get a lot bigger and better! PUBG Xbox Game Preview players can now experience the vast, open desert of Miramar on live servers as part of our Spring update. Here are some of the highlights the update has in store: New Environments to Explore Miramar, the desert-themed map dotted with large, densely built towns, rocky hills, and wide-open expanses adds an all-new battle royale gameplay experience for players. Along with the new map comes an assortment of new weapons including the R45 revolver, the Win94 lever-action rifle, and the sawed-off shotgun, as well as vehicles specially designed for the barren terrain of… Read more

Creators Corner: Derelict Fleet
Xbox Live Creators Program empowers passionate developers everywhere to share their games with the world. In the Creators Corner series, Xbox Live Creators Program developers will share what inspires and motivates them to design and create their games, what challenges and creative solutions they pursue to bring their games to fruition, and how they leverage Xbox Live capabilities to enhance their games for Xbox. Today, we’ll be chatting with Jason Keiderling about their experience creating and bringing Derelict Fleet to the Xbox audience. Tell us about your developer journey — what inspired you to start developing games and what continues to motivate you? I originally had no… Read more

Free to Play MOBA Hyper Universe Coming Exclusively to Xbox One August 7
We are excited to officially announce that Hyper Universe will launch as an Xbox One console exclusive on August 7! Hyper Universe will be available to download and play for free with Xbox Live Gold upon release and starting today, fans of the game can pre-order the Ultimate Hypers Pack, which will instantly unlock all current and future playable Hypers in the game. This pack also includes a total of six Xbox One exclusive Aurora-themed cosmetic skins, and anyone who pre-orders the Ultimate Hypers Pack before August 7 will also receive a seventh limited edition additional bonus skin featuring Aurora’s Arrow for Celine. For those unfamiliar with the game, Hyper Universe is a 2D… Read more

I Hate Running Backwards Comes Running to Xbox One Today
It’s easy to surround yourself with so much work that you never really take the time to look at your game from a distance. But it’s important to take a moment with the team to see how far you’ve come with the project. Now that we’re at the release date for I Hate Running Backwards, we did just that. We looked back. Our game started out as a regular arcade shoot ’em down. But that wasn’t enough. We wanted to do something different, make something new. We sat down with Damjan Mravunac from Croteam and started brainstorming on this one thing that can make the game feel different but have a familiar feeling about it. We decided to use the one-liner that Sam Stone says in… Read more

Innovative Puzzle Game Gorogoa Available Now on Xbox One
If you’re wondering what Gorogoa is about, it’s a puzzle game where each tile or scene is interactive. As you advance through the story, you will need to solve progressively harder sequences between the tiles. Words don’t really do the gameplay justice, so check out the trailer above. The original 2012 demo of the game is also unlocked once you complete the full game, where you can see how the art style has progressed, as well as similarities and differences with a few puzzle mechanics. There are also achievements to unlock as you play the game. It has been rewarding to see Gorogoa win a few awards over the past few months, including a BAFTA, and we’re happy to bring it to… Read more

While the rest of the world enjoys a rekindled return to Lordran, us Nintendo Switch owners are left to wait patiently for Dark Souls: Remastered to finally make its way to our hybrid shores. To help fill that hollow void, one intrepid player has managed to recreate part of Dark Souls… in LEGO Worlds.

Entitled Dark Souls Re-bricked, the video is the work of one MythicMarty, who recently took to Reddit to unveil his creation (created entirely in LEGO Worlds, with a few post-production touches added in After Effects). It’s a cute little creation and proof you can technically enjoy Dark Souls on Switch right now, you just need to build it first…

Check out the video above. What do you make of this cute rendition of Dark Souls in a sandbox LEGO game? Share your thoughts with the rest of the community below…

EON the company behind GCHD, a GameCube to HDMI adapter, have today announced that Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma of Team Liquid and Number 1 Super Smash Bros. Melee player in the world has joined them as their official Brand Ambassador and e-Sports Liaison.

The professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player is considered to be one of the best in the world, and at the most recent Overlords of Orlando event, Hungrybox debuted the first ever fully digital Melee Tournament using all 144hz monitors and original GameCubes outfitted with the EON GCHD.

Until now the Melee competitive scene has almost always been tied to ageing CRT technology, as to not to introduce any lag into the fast paced action. But with the combination of original GameCube hardware, lagless HD monitors, and the EON GCHD HDMI Adapter, Smash Melee can finally be played at a professional level on modern displays, with no lag, and at the highest resolution possible.

You may remember we recently took a look at the GC Video Plug ‘n Play device from ZeldaXPro, which is based on the same technology as GCHD. EON have been kind enough to send us a GCHD unit to test ourselves, which we will review in the very near future.

Are you still playing Melee? Would having a zero-lag HDMI adopter finally move you away from that CRT screen? Let us know in the comments below.

– Added Beta support for Vulkan on macOS (requires installing Vulkan DLC). Vulkan for macOS DLC provides improved performance and reduced stutters on macOS 10.13+ with a Metal-capable GPU. Vulkan support on macOS still in beta, please file any issues at https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Dota-2-Vulkan

It’s finally time for the Update Aquatic pre-release!

A full changelog for this Snapshot can be found on Minecraft.net. 

• New Update Aquatic title screen
• Three brand new pieces of music by C418
• You can now tab-complete in command blocks again
• Fixed bugs!

FIXED BUGS IN 1.13-PRE1

• MC-122134 – Tab-completion in command blocks no longer works
• MC-122940 – After executing the /reload command, clicking on recipe book recipes does not work
• MC-124123 – Crash upon loading world: Non [a-z0-9/._-] character in path of location: minecraft:Zombie
• MC-124972 – Game crashes during the loading world, when creating a superflat world with oceanmonument tag
• MC-127142 – Failed to create block entity DUMMY (path of location: minecraft:DUMMY)
• MC-129625 – Sea grass changes to air pockets when upgrading from 18w16a to 18w20a+
• MC-130463 – Sponges do not absorb bubble columns
• MC-130521 – Leaves placed by hand disappear if not touching log or bark after a reload

To get pre-releases, 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.

Pre-releases can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 

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