Frostpunk console release pushed to October

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release of Frostpunk has been pushed to 11th October, with a PS4 retail release planned a week later - Friday, 18th October - courtesy of publisher Merge Games.

Previously, Frostpunk was pencilled in for summer.

I played Frostpunk on console back in May and it worked well. 11 bit has clearly taken time over it, carefully remapping controls for console pads. It shows. The radial menus take a bit of time getting used to but once you do, they're intuitive.

Various tweaks to the user interface compliment this. Things like buildings snapping to grid or clearer overview menus for managing the city nitty-gritty. This is no lazy port and performance-wise, it seemed to run well.

It's good news because Frostpunk is a game you ought to play - a city-builder with a thrilling, provocative, survival twist. It asks to what lengths you will you go to survive and it gets pretty grim.

I reviewed Frostpunk on PC when it came out more than a year ago, but plenty has been added since then - new modes, new features, new scenarios. And they will all be included on console from the get go. The upcoming paid DLC will not, though.

As for what's next for 11 bit Studios: it's Project 8, and I spoke to lead designer Marta Fijak about it in May.