During Gamescom 2018, World of Warcraft revealed its third and final Battle for Azeroth Warbringers short. It stars one of World of Warcraft’s eldest and most vicious villains Azshara and unlike the last two shorts, it takes us all the way back into the popular MMO’s history.
As it stands, Azshara rules an underwater city called Nazjatar that’s home to a race called the Naga — formidable enemies that players have battled against since the early days of WoW. It wasn’t always like this though, and with the latest short, we get a little context to her backstory and a clue of what to expect farther down the line in the Battle for Azeroth expansion. The description of the video reads, “What would you do to save a people?” foreshadowing that the story we’re about to witness is a heavy one. Warcraft lore has it that once upon a time, Azshara was a revered monarch who ruled a kingdom of night elves before they were struck down by a catastrophic event called The Sundering.
We get to see this take place in the short, as she uses her powers to momentarily stop her kingdom from being destroyed by massive waves. In those moments, her strength and morality are both tested. N’Zoth, an Old God from Azeroth, attempts to strike an agreement with her — in return for saving her kingdom, she must serve him and help him rebuild his own. If Azshara turns his offer down, she and her entire kingdom will be left to ruin.
If you’re a fan of Warcraft lore then you may have an idea about what happens next, but if this all new to you, we’ll promise we won’t spoil it all here. Watch the Warbringers: Azshara short below.
The Warbringers short series up to this point has spotlighted characters Jaina and Sylvanas, with Azshara being the last one. There was speculation that this would be the case, especially since Blizzard unveiled new key art for Gamescom 2018 that featured Azshara (along with D.Va who subsequently got a new short herself) and now we know with certainty what they were alluding to.
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.