After years of publishing its PC games exclusively through the Epic Games Store and its own service, Ubisoft has reversed course and will be releasing games on Steam. And it’s starting with last year’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
The publisher announced on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend that Mirage will be coming to Steam later this month to coincide with its first anniversary on October 5. The store page is now live, and you can wishlist it ahead of launch.
It’s worth noting that while you can play it without needing a separate Ubisoft Connect download, you will need a Ubisoft Connect Launcher account, according to the Steam page.
Assassin's Creed Mirage is coming to Steam later this month. Add the game to your wishlist now! https://t.co/ZvtP8tWyx5
As we celebrate one year since launch, we can't wait to welcome more fans to our back to the roots experience set in 9th century Baghdad. pic.twitter.com/9of3CbSo9N
— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) October 5, 2024
Mirage follows Basim, a character introduced in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as he works to uncover his past while training to become an assassin. Unlike other previous series entries, Mirage is a lot smaller in scope and goes back to the stealth-centric gameplay players liked pre-Origins.
However, as Digital Trends’ Tomas Franzese wrote in his review, it doesn’t do nearly enough to refresh the long-running series. “At first, Assassin’s Creed Mirage seems like it’s going through all of the proper classical motions of an old-school Assassin’s Creed game, but it lacks the passion and innovation necessary to make it a truly memorable installment.”
But maybe a short, more classic adventure is just what you need ahead of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which was recently delayed from November 15, 2024, to February 14, 2025. Ubisoft said the delay was to give the developers more time to “polish and refine the experience,” and it coincided with an executive announcement that it would be making some changes after its latest open-world action RPG, Star Wars Outlaws, sold less than expected.
The publisher also announced that it would be going back to Steam day one releases, and that it would be removing the season pass model from its upcoming games.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.