[NewsPoster]

Welcome to the Game Replay, the thrice-weekly look at the wider world of gaming by the staff of MacNN. In today's edition, Bethesda reveals Fallout 4 mod support will not be ready this year, Microsoft starts charging for Solitaire in Windows 10, Angry Birds 2 ships, and Prison Architect has a date for when it will leave alpha.

Windows 10 Solitaire includes subscription option to remove in-game advertising

Solitaire, the card game traditionally offered as part of the Windows installation as a free app, is no longer completely free to play. In one of the offbeat gaming stories coming out of the Windows 10 launch, The version included in Windows 10 as part of the Microsoft Solitaire Collection includes advertising, but users are able to get rid of this by paying a subscription.

PC Gamer reports the advertising isn't a small banner ad, but a larger one that covers the full Solitaire window for up to 30 seconds at a time. Users will have to pay $1.50 per month to get rid of the advertising in a "premium edition" of the game, or $10 for an entire year. The subscription will also offer additional in-game currency for completing daily challenges, as well as boosts for various game modes, though this currency cannot be used to pay for the premium upgrade.

It is noted that Solitaire Premium Edition was available as a separate app in the Microsoft Store for Windows 8.1, and not as part of the operating system. Minesweeper has similar advertising support in Windows 10, but is also only as a separate Microsoft Store download.

Fallout 4 mod support coming sometime next year, not at launch

Players wanting to use mods with Fallout 4 will have to wait for a while after the game is released. Bethesda does not expect to have the tools and sharing systems for the mods to be in place for both the Xbox One and PC versions of the game until long after launch, and will likely become a priority for the development team in 2016.

Speaking to IGN, Bethesda VP of marketing Pete Hines claims "Our entire focus is on finishing the game. Nobody cares about mods if the game sucks. This has always been our philosophy. We shift energy to construction tools, the creation kit, and all that stuff once the game is done, and we start to figure out what all of that is going to look like."

It is expected that the eventual mod sharing system will form part of Bethesda.net once it is completed, with the service acting as a central hub for Fallout mods as well as Doom SnapMaps and other user-created items.

Rovio ships Angry Birds 2 as free-to-play title

The latest incarnation of the Angry Birds franchise has been released on mobile devices, including iOS and Android. Angry Birds 2, pitched by Rovio as a true sequel to the original game and not taking into account all the spinoff versions, seemingly keeping the core gameplay of the first game while enhancing it with new visuals and gameplay elements.

The new game has a more cartoonish appearance with more animation than before. The same selection of birds and attacks are present in this edition, but now the birds can be played in any order the player wants, instead of a predefined order. Multi-tiered stages and the ability to win more birds are also present. As with other free-to-play games, there is a limited number of lives available, but they can be replenished over time, by watching advertising, or through in-app purchases.

Rovio is looking for Angry Birds 2 to be a success, revitalizing a wildly popular game for the company. According to PC World, Rovio cut 130 employees in October, which is approximately 16 percent of its workforce, with co-founder and CEO Mikael Hed also stepping down to try and reignite growth.

Prison Architect developer Introversion aiming for an October release

British developers Introversion Software is intending to "release" Prison Architect on PC and Mac this year. Following an extensive period in alpha as an "early access game" on Steam, the company has sent out emails to players of the game, advising that it is committing to a launch in October.

Producer Mark Morris and designer Chris Delay do not state why they are setting the release for October in the email. A Steam page update from April does advise that Introversion aimed to finish development on the title in the fourth quarter, but the new announcement creates a narrower time limit for its completion.

Prison Architect allows players to design a prison using limited funds, which is then filled with prisoners. Players must take into account various different needs of prisoners as well as the finances and design, in order to avoid escapees and riots. The latest update now has prisoners trading contraband and setting up protection rackets, with rival gangs acquiring territory and making life harder for the administration.

While the game has been in Early Access, Introversion has been offering a number of different bundles in order to bring in more funds for the game's development. While a standard package provides immediate access to the alpha and finished versions, along with a soundtrack version and a bundle containing previous games by the company, Introversion is also offering the ability to name a prisoner and write the biography for the individual.