Microsoft Details Their Windows 8 Beta Games

The Windows 8 beta has been running for several weeks now. During this time, testers have had access to a few of the titles that will be amongst the first wave of games to be released for Windows 8. For those of you who, like me, have not had access to the beta program, here are a few more details and screenshots for five of those titles. All will support achievements.

Adera (Win 8)

Although Microsoft advertised 40 games, technically the list included only 38. Adera is an adventure game that will be released as three episodes, taking up three slots in that list of 40 titles. Players assume the role of Jane Sinclaire, a world traveller who is on one of the most dangerous adventures of her life. The first episode takes players to the Atacama Desert on the search for Jane's long-lost grandfather. Armed with only a coded message and a strange stone orb, Jane must solve puzzles, collect items and complete mini-games to get past obstacles and uncover the mystery of Adera.










Microsoft Mahjong (Win 8)

The classic tile-matching game tasks players with matching pairs of duplicate tiles to remove them from the board. The board must be cleared for the player to win the game. The game is free-to-play and there will be 12 puzzles available at launch. More puzzles will be available to download at an undisclosed cost and there will also be microtransactions as an optional extra. Daily challenges will encourage players to improve their skills and cloud saves will be enabled. Players can compare their scores with their friends using the Xbox LIVE leaderboards. The controls are optimized for touch screen.







Microsoft Minesweeper

Minesweeper is one of those classic games that shouldn't need explaining. Players have to touch the squares on the grid to reveal the locations of a number of mines. Squares with no mines will show numbers that indicate the number of mines in the surrounding squares. Selecting a square with a mine will instantly end the game. The classic gameplay will be available in the game, but there will also be a brand new Adventure Mode, as well as Daily Challenges. Cloud saves, Xbox LIVE leaderboards and touch-screen optimization are present in this title too.






Microsoft Solitaire Collection

This is another of those classic games that needs little introduction, as forms of Solitaire have been found on PCs for years. The Solitaire Collection includes five different versions of the game: Klondike Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Free Cell, Pyramid, and Tri Peaks. Daily challenges will be available for all five varieties of card game. The game can be played on PC, tablet and Windows Phone and players' games are always saved when they need to exit the game. The Play, Pause, Resume system is active across all platforms, so players can play the game on PC, pause and then resume on Windows Phone if they so choose. For those choosing to play at work, there are full screen or Snapped view modes to enable hiding the game from your bosses, although I'm sure that this isn't the real purpose of this feature.





Taptiles

Taptiles is a re-imagining of the old tile-matching games. Players must match symbols on all sides of the cubes to enable them to drill through into the centre of the structure. Rotating the cubes reveal more matches to aid players when they get stuck. More points are awarded for quick clearance times. There are three game modes. Dash Mode is a test of survival as players face puzzles that arrive one after the other. Origin Mode pits players against the clock in a race to clear the puzzle before the clock reaches zero. Relaxation Mode allows players to solve the puzzles at their leisure. Daily Challenges add to the fun and players can compare scores through the Xbox LIVE leaderboards. As another game to feature the Play, Pause, Resume function, both Windows 8 and Windows Phones can be used to play the game.




None of these titles have yet been given an exact release date, but Windows 8 is due to be released on October 26th. It is likely that these will be launch titles, but we'll let you know if we hear anything different.