Frozen Endzone renamed to Frozen Cortex; huge update rolls out

If you're making a game, I suppose that means you're allowed to call it whatever you like. I suppose that also means you can change the name of the game whenever it suits you. That's what Mode 7 has done: fed up with what it believes is a "rubbish" name , it's decided Frozen Endzone is now Frozen Cortex. Another motivation for the name change is to shrug off the Madden connotations of 'Endzone'.

Of course, if you've played the Early Access or read our previous impressions of Frozen Cortex , then you'll already know it's nothing like Madden. For those with an eye on the game, a substantial new update to the Early Access edition will be of more pressing concern. It includes new stadiums, better AI and big improvements on framerate. The full patch notes are below, followed by a new trailer.

- OSX and Linux versions

- New pitch, ball and animations

- Completely overhauled AI including much faster performance and much more intelligent play

- Five new stadiums

- Significant performance improvements: frame rate should be 50-100% improved on most hardware

- Big loading time improvements

UI improvements:

- Throwing UI improved

- Intelligent interception-radius rendering

- indicator for whether a move location is “safe” or not

- Minor rules changes to reduce the need to “keep playing when the match is clearly over”; other gameplay improvements

- Quite a few new gameplay options to play around with in the Custom Game editor.

- Significantly updated in-game commentary text

- Other minor changes

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.