Firaxis has confirmed the next DLC that forms part of the New Frontier Pass for Civilization VI will be releasing on January 28. Here's some highlights of what's to come.

While the full details are yet to be released, Firaxis did a developer update video to tease some of it. There's going to be a new civilization with Vietnam joining the world, two new leaders for existing civilizations (China and Mongolia), a new "Monopolies and Corporations" game mode with expanded economic options which sounds really quite interesting.

The new mode enables you to create an industry around duplicate resources. Industries will provide buffs to cities and as you get more resources you can level up your industry into a corporation, to further increase the buffs and then you can create products. You then have a Stock Exchange added to the Great Works system, to allow you to add in products to share buffs between cities and you can even create a monopoly on something which brings in vast amounts of tourism. Here's the full video if you wish to hear it all:

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Once they do release the full patch info and DLC details, we will let you know.

What's to come next for Civilization VI? They officially have planned one more free update, and then the final DLC in March as part of the New Frontier Pass. After that, we have no idea.

You can buy Civilization VI with Linux support from Humble Store and Steam .

NERTS! Online is the free to play card game from the clever people at Zachtronics (Eliza, Opus Magnum, Infinifactory) that was created to help them play together that they released free to the public.

It's not an original game though, as Nerts has been around in some form since the late 1890s. It has also been called Pounce or Racing Demon. Zachtronics mentioned they "learned about it from our artist Kyle, who has played it for years, and started playing it after lunch in the Zachtronics office. Over time we added more to it, including house rules, longer tournaments, and even a theme song".

Watch video on YouTube.com

At release the multiplayer was limited to Steam friends and people you're in Steam Groups with. It worked but now they've nicely expanded it to have public lobbies. Now anyone can download it free (it's properly free too, no micro transactions), create a lobby and make it public for anyone else playing to join.

Seems like a really slick game overall too, great to see more like it and being free means there's no barrier to enjoying it with your friends and others alike.

Find NERTS! Online free on Steam .

Stellaris from Paradox Development Studios gets a lot right in how it deals with grand space strategy but some parts of it are still being expanded.

Paradox have continued their regular development diaries on Stellaris for the next big upcoming update. Looks like things are again about to get more interesting, especially when it comes to communication and information gathering on other space civilizations.

Spread across three development diaries ( #1 , #2 , #3 ) they go over changes to First Contact, Fog of War, Intelligence Gathering and Espionage systems that will all see a revamp and expansion. I'm excited for all of this, because Stellaris a good story-teller and expanding on that is a great idea to invite more playthroughs.

For First Contact, there's going to be more options to make it a more engaging process with new First Contact Protocols to pick how you deal with such a huge situation that previous Stellaris made pretty normal. The whole system expands from there, with it being a longer process and much more like the dig site system for relics as it goes through stages. Exciting!

Information gathering becomes hugely more important too. The newer Fog of War system will block out more info on other races, making them that little bit more mysterious. Gathering Intel directly is now a bigger part of exploration in Stellaris, as you will need to do it to get much more details on each race. You get an Intel value from 0 to 100 based on lots of things and Intel will be split into different categories including Government, Military, Diplomatic, Economic, Technology. To go along with that, there will be an Intel Report system, allowing you to gain information in a category over time.

Just as exciting is their new Envoys and Spy Networks system coming, allowing you to put spies to work passively gain intelligence needed due to all the other changes. On top of that you can also give them active roles to work in including:

• Subterfuge - Information gathering and operations that improve the spy network itself
• Sabotage - Ruining things (physical or immaterial)
• Manipulation - Replacing the truth with your own improved version
• Provocations - Don't do these, they're bad

Since empire security can now be a bigger problem Paradox are also giving players and AI new technologies to research, like having telepaths walking around reading the minds of everyone around them or tracking implants to ensure increased local security.

All of the changes make Stellaris sound properly interesting again, and a lot more sci-fi. Looking forward to seeing the full announcement on the next update!

You can buy Stellaris on GOG , Humble Store and Steam .

Paradox Interactive and Double Eleven have announced the next expansion and free update for Prison Architect with the Prison Architect: Going Green DLC launching on January 28.

Seems like bit of a theme with Paradox published games. We had the Cities: Skylines - Green Cities DLC in 2017, the Surviving Mars: Green Planet DLC in 2019 and now prisons are going green too. You will be able to create a more environmentally friendly prison with farming and all sorts.

Here's the key features to expect from it:

• Fruits of Labor: Farming introduces a new type of Prison Labor, allowing prisons to grow potatoes, wheat, apples, and more. Produce can be exported or used as ingredients for inmate meals.
• Room to Grow: Three outdoor rooms facilitate farming: Fruit Orchard, Farm Field and Vegetable Allotment. But that’s not all, players can recruit staff Farm Workers, build a Pantry to store produce, and construct a Shed to house farming-related items.
• Best Buds: Inmates who enjoy nature’s beauty can grow flowers and other plants recreationally. Gardening affects inmates and gives them a positive recreation activity.
• Trouble is Brewing: With new crops comes new contraband. Prisoners can now secretly grow herbs in the fields and swipe kitchen ingredients to brew Booze. Fields can also become Gang Turf, so keep your guards on alert!
• A Greener New Deal: Prisons get an eco-friendly makeover with Solar, Wind, and Solar/Wind Hybrid power sources. Excess power created by these sustainable methods can be sold back to the grid using the Power Export Meter.

Have a look at the announcement trailer below:

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As for the free update everyone will see, this will be called The Glasshouse which will bring with it "additional objects, quickrooms, community improvements and two new top-notch employees - K9 units Shepherd and Bowtie Bandit." additionally Wardens can "create a more sustainable prison with Recycling Systems and objects like recycling bins or solar lights" and improvements to sorting methods and dump / demolition tooling - all of which has been highly requested by the community.

“Going Green continues Prison Architect’s history of riffing off popular prison fiction seen in movies, TV, and other media. This will be the third Prison Architect expansion we will have launched since Paradox took over the IP in 2019 and we can’t wait to see your latest creations,” said Steacy McIlwham, Product Manager for Prison Architect at Paradox Interactive. “The Glasshouse also kicks off a series of updates we will make to the game’s interface, starting with the dump and demolition tools, making it more user-friendly. We understand this is something the community has been asking about for a long time and we want you to know your voice has been heard.”

You can buy Prison Architect from GOG , Humble Store and Steam .

Free, open source and actually really good - Widelands was originally inspired by The Settlers II and they've confirmed their plans for a big release this year.

Back in July 2020, Widelands Build 21 went out which pulled in lots of big improvements and made it much more worthwhile spending time with. After that, the team working on it continued hacking away and in the latest announcement it was a "golden time for development, with numerous new features added and swarms of bugs fixed" and so "the era of the Widelands beta build releases has come to an end, and the first-ever stable release Widelands 1.0 will be released this summer".

To ensure the Widelands 1.0 release is good to go they will enter Feature Freeze in March, which means no new features will enter the code to ensure they can then focus on fixing up bugs.

I remember spending absolutely tons of hours playing the original Settlers on an Amiga, and much later Settlers II on a PC. Widelands brings back plenty of good gaming memories and it's a really relaxing game to play through, as you build up and expand your settlement across the map. Multiple game modes to suit different players, including endless and peaceful modes if you wish to just keep building with no interruptions.

See more on the Widelands website . You can find downloads here .

Love your turn-based tactics, party building, amusing conversations and plenty of adventuring? Guildmaster: Gratuitous Subtitle from Jim Makes Games released back in December and it's genuinely good. Note : key sent by the developer.

The developer mentioned to us that they were "inspired by gameplay from games such as Darkest Dungeon and X-Com" but the "true soul of the game is the irreverent humour in the tradition of Monkey Island and Monty Python". It doesn't disappoint on any side of it and has been a genuine delight.

Watch video on YouTube.com

Graphically it doesn't look like much, and you could easily keep on clicking past it. It does make up for that though in the gameplay and overall atmosphere thanks to fully playing into the humour. Don't let that fool you though, there's a challenging game beneath the laughs that will keep your focus too.

In Guildmaster: Gratuitous Subtitle you are a Guild Master, who guides newly recruited heroes on a series of quests in tactical turn-based combat. For each quest, you choose four heroes and teleport them directly into battle, where you use their various abilities in tandem to defeat enemies with different strengths and weaknesses. The Guildmaster and the heroes level up, gain more powerful abilities, and face increasingly difficult quests as the game progresses.

Feature Highlight:

• Challenging turn-based combat
• Fifteen heroes to recruit, each with different combinations of skills
• Weapon-based abilities, each weapon grants a unique combination of attacks
• Combine melee fighters, archers and spellcasters in a party of four to take on each quest
• Choose your Guildmaster's appearance and their spells as they level up
• An irreverent storyline with humorous dialogue between the quests

The developer mentions how it's their first commercial game and that it "yearns to be played by those tired of straight-laced fantasy adventures. It calls out to gamers who don’t take themselves or the game too seriously, while also enjoying challenging tactical gameplay".

Quirky, fun, plenty of party customization and lots of battles. What more can you ask for?

You can find it now on Steam .

Loop Hero is a probably the most unique deck-building mix I've seen yet. Coming from Four Quarters and Devolver Digital later in 2021.

Four Quarters originally created Loop Hero under the name of LooPatHerO during a Ludum Dare game jam, and it must have been promising enough since it's coming to a full expanded release. The good news is they will be doing a Linux build, as confirmed on Steam by the developer.

"The Lich has thrown the world into a timeless loop and plunged its inhabitants into never ending chaos. Wield an expanding deck of mystical cards to place enemies, buildings, and terrain along each unique expedition loop for the brave hero. Recover and equip powerful loot for each class of hero for their battles and expand the survivors' camp to reinforce each adventure through the loop. Unlock new classes, new cards, and devious guardians on your quest to shatter the endless cycle of despair."

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Feature Highlight:

• Infinite Adventure: Select from unlockable character classes and deck cards before setting out on each expedition along a randomly generated loop path. No expedition is ever the same as the ones before it.
• Plan Your Struggle: Strategically place building, terrain, and enemy cards along each loop to create your own dangerous path. Find balance between the cards to increase your chances of survival while recovering valuable loot and resources for your camp.
• Loot and Upgrade: Strike down menacing creatures, recover stronger loot to equip on the fly and unlock new perks along the way.
• Expand Your Camp: Turn hard-earned resources into campsite upgrades and gain valuable reinforcements with each completed loop along the expedition path.
• Save the Lost World: Overcome a series of unholy guardian bosses over a grand saga to save the world and break the time loop of the Lich!

Want to try out the early version? The post game jam build is up on itch.io , so you can have a go and see what you think. Keeping in mind it's going to be far more polished and feature-filled for the commercial release later this year.

You can follow Loop Hero on Steam .

Zachtronics are well known for their excellent puzzle games which often sneak in some form of solitaire, this time around though they've put out a full solitaire style game you play online with friends in NERTS! Online.

"Unlike the rest of our solitaire games, we did not invent Nerts. We learned about it from our artist Kyle, who has played it for years, and started playing it after lunch in the Zachtronics office. Over time we added more to it, including house rules, longer tournaments, and even a theme song."

"When we started working from home in early 2020 we made a rough version of the game to play over the internet, which eventually (nine months later) was cleaned up and turned into this. Now you can play it on Steam for free!"

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It's properly free too, no special strings attached. Although, you do unlock cosmetic card backs by owning their other games but it's a tiny bit of fluff they say to "pretend that's a legitimate monetization strategy".

Sadly it's a little on the limited side in that you can only play with Steam Friends and people you're also in a Steam Chat with. They mentioned you can join the Steam Chat for the game to find others on the Community Hub where it says something like "24 in Group Chat".

You can find NERTS! Online free on Steam .

Into the Breach was an absolutely fantastic turn-based strategy game about facing overwhelming odds, and now it appears that developer Foolish Mortals (Radio General) is doing their own take with Kaiju Wars. Currently in the early stages, it's confirmed to be launching for Linux.

"Use your military as cannon fodder to buy time; park tanks in the monster's path to slow it down (don't worry, we have a good insurance policy). If we can hold them off long enough, our scientists will finish their anti-monster serum. If the monster approaches the laboratory, we'll have to evacuate using transport trucks, boats or planes."

Check out the teaser below:

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They said you will be responsible for defending various cities, constructing new buildings, unlocking units with an experimental weapon research system and more. You're going to need some big guns too, as the monsters grow and gain new abilities.

"As if things aren't bad enough, the alien invader controlling the monster (because of course there's an alien invader) is sending down black-ops teams to locate our scientists, and may even be causing disasters such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and earthquakes!"

It will feature a full campaign, along with the ability to create your own with the map editor.

You can follow it on the official site and the developer on Twitter .