Build 26513483

NEW MAP: CHECKMATE (BETA)

A giant marble chess set on a terrace 40 m above a calm sea, ringed by 64 columns. The board is 176 m across and the king is 70 m tall.

• Fly through the rook gates and up the hollow rook, the slit in the bishop's hat, the knight's mouth and neck, the arches of the queen's crown and the hole in the king's cross.

• The pieces play five famous games, one move every 8 seconds, from the Immortal Game of 1851 to Kasparov vs Topalov, 1999. A plaque shows the players and every move.

• Knights hop, captured pieces leave the board and the losing king topples. Then the next game starts.

• At the start, everything is life-size for scale: a cafe chess table whose little set plays the same game, a bronze statue watching it, a bench, a street lamp and a parked 5-inch quad.

NEW MAP: PERGE (BETA)

The ruins of Perge, an ancient city near Antalya in Turkey, at real scale on a golden plain with mountains on the horizon. One huge stone bando for freestyle.

• Shoot the gap between the two round gate towers, through the court and the triple arch, then up the colonnaded street.

• Slalom the columns through 2.9 m gaps, under the stone beams and into the shops behind.

• Skim the water channel down the street, over its little waterfalls, to the great fountain wall at the end.

• Grass in the cracks, rubble, fallen column drums, headless statues in the niches and more ruined houses, olives and cypresses. The stone no longer shimmers as you fly.

• Dive into a hollow tower through a top window. Fly the arched doorways of the baths, the vaulted passages of the stadium, and the theatre: down the seats and in through a stage door.

LONDON: A HUGE UPDATE

• A new start in St James's Park, by the lake, with Big Ben and the Eye in view. Duck Island Cottage, the Blue Bridge, reeds and pelicans.

• NEW: Waterloo station. The Victory Arch, the grand stair, the hanging clock, a big departure board and a glass roof over 12 platforms. Trains come in over a brick viaduct: fly through its arches. TAB → What's in the game → WATERLOO.

• The Tube. Two stations, St James's Park and Tower Hill, with ticket halls, escalators and tiled platforms. Trains stop, open their doors with a chime and leave again. Chase one down the tunnel, but don't sit in front of it.

• Tall buildings. Fly through the Shard's sky lobby and out of its open top, under the Cheesegrater, and into the Sky Garden at the top of the Walkie-Talkie, with the Gherkin and a new cluster of City towers round them.

• St Paul's Cathedral. Fly round the dome inside its ring of columns and land on the Stone Gallery, 52 m up.

• Down the river. Tower Bridge (between the towers under the walkways, or through a road arch), the Tower of London with Traitors' Gate and the White Tower, and London Bridge with red buses.

• Round Buckingham Palace. Guards in sentry boxes and gilded gates, Green Park, the Wellington Arch to fly through, Belgravia's white terraces, and Victoria station's glass train shed to fly into.

• Parliament. A new Gothic river front and the Sovereign's Entrance. 10 teddies now hide inside Westminster Hall, the Central Lobby, the Commons and the Lords.

• Fly inside. Most London buildings now open up: in at the front, out the back or up a roof shaft.

• The skyline. The London Eye is rebuilt, and a power station's four white chimneys and the Docklands towers stand on the horizon.

• 180 lost teddies to find, in London outfits: guardsman, bowler and umbrella, raincoat, or scarf and flat cap. They take over from the golden ducks.

• At night the stone is floodlit and the City windows light up.

NEW MAP: DUNES (BETA)

A sea of desert dunes up to 150 m high, and you hit the real sand: land on a slope or skim a crest.

• Fly the valley: the oasis, a 5 m slot between two rock towers, the arch, a dry riverbed through the ridges and a 146 m dune at the end.

• The oasis has 119 date palms, reflected in the water.

• NEW: an oil rig. Fly through the 48 m drilling tower, past the gas flare, the tanks and six nodding pumps. It is lit at night. TAB → What's in the game → OIL RIG.

• A dusty red sunset (TAB → Time of day → DUSK).

• Its own new track: GLASS MIRAGE, a cinematic glitch-hop track. Pick it on any map in TAB → Music.

COVES DEL DRACH: CAVE PAINTINGS

22 painted panels along the route, in red and yellow ochre and charcoal: horses, bison, deer, ibex, a mammoth, hand stencils and hunters. Where the entrance slope opens into Cova Negra, a 16 m painted gallery runs along the wall. The paint follows every bump of the rock. It is our own Stone Age-style art, not copied from any real cave.

• The twisted columns are now natural columns, and the stalactites lose their candy-cane stripes.

• Sharper fallen blocks, and damp rock that glints in the lamps.

EVERYWHERE

• A more natural view: the camera FoV is now 83 by default on every drone (was 95). If you set your own FoV, it stays. TAB → Camera.

• A new factory FEEL for every drone: a little grippier, sinkier and punchier. The FEEL sliders reach further both ways (TAB → Flight physics). If you set your own FEEL, it flies exactly as before.

• Confetti bursts every time you collect something, on every map.

• NORTH POLE opens at dusk. Pick another time and it remembers it.

• TAB → Maps: 21 maps, each with its own neon icon.

NEW: MINI GAMES

Trippy Plains is full of games inside the game, and now the main menu shows them all: a MINI GAMES tile on the start screen, and TAB → Mini games in flight. 48 cards: collect, race, smash, build, watch and explore. Each card shows what to do, the keys and your progress, and PLAY takes you straight there.

FRACTAL: A GIANT GAMING PC

A gaming PC set-up at 80 times real size stands on the FRACTAL floor. Its monitor shows the game's own start screen, and its lights cycle through the fractal colours. Fly in through a front fan, over the graphics card and out of the back. TAB → What's in the game → GAMING PC.

CLAWTOWN: EASIER BUILDING

AUTO GRAB: hover still over a piece to pick it up, then lower it onto a green spot to set it down (switch it off on the claw card). Grabbing works with the TAB menu open, the chase camera banks with the drone, and ESC no longer leaves the claw card over the start screen.

Thank you to everyone who flies it and tells us straight what is wrong. Keep it coming.