The recent discovery of a massive chamber hidden deep in Egypt’s Great Pyramid in Giza has made headlines around the world. The first significant pyramid discovery since the 19th century, it was virtually unearthed by scientists using cosmic-ray imaging with subatomic particles called muons, which can penetrate deep into the rocks of the structure.
So, does Assassin’s Creed Origins, the sprawling new adventure set in a historically accurate ancient Egypt, now need an update or patch to reflect the new discovery? Nope, says Assassin’s Creed historian Maxime Durand. It’s already in there.
“We have long believed that Jean-Pierre Houdin’s theories about the inner ramps and royal circuit with two antechambers inside the Great Pyramid are probably the most credible, which is why we decided to use them in the game,” she explained to Kotaku. “We were betting on the fact that these secret locations inside of the Great Pyramid would probably be discovered in the near future, so we wanted to allow players the chance to visit them in advance.”
The Origins developers worked with Houdin and many other Egyptologists for years to make the pyramids and other aspects of the game as authentic as possible, as detailed by The Guardian. The renowned architect even posted a trailer for the game on Facebook last August.
The secret room itself isn’t all that exciting — it’s not even necessary to ever enter the pyramid to complete the main storyline of the game, although there is a side quest that encourages you to explore it. However, if you work your way to the King’s Chamber, look for a small gap that leads to the large secret antechambers, which are roughly in the same place as the new discovery.
If you like the idea of being a virtual tourist traveling back 4,000 years to an ancient civilization, the developers are planning an additional educational mode that lets you explore the world without worrying about being stabbed in the back. The Discovery Tour is a free DLC billed as a “combat-free living museum” that lets you explore the game’s representation of Egypt.
“We spent years recreating Ancient Egypt, documenting ourselves, validating the content with historians, with consultants, and we feel that many more people than just the players can benefit from that,” Jean Guesdon of Ubisoft said at the company blog.
The Discovery Tour DLC will arrive in 2018, but you can go visit Giza in the game now and feast your eyes on the remarkable new discovery that no one has ever seen before.
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.