EA announced that development is winding down on one of the new modes introduced in Battlefield 2042. Hazard Zone is getting taken off of life support, with future development being brought to an end as active player numbers wind down.
The end of development for Hazard Zone doesn’t mean that the game mode will meet its end. EA confirms that the playlist will remain active within 2042 and will even have possible future critical errors addressed. However, things like future maps, content, and experiences won’t have any presence in Hazard Zone at all.
Hazard Zone features several four-player teams on one battlefield, tasking them with beating other squads to gather objectives called “Data Drives.” Since last year, many players have complained about the mode feeling dead. This is just one of many issues that Battlefield 2042 faced following its launch, and EA has clearly determined that Hazard Zone is no longer a mode worth supporting.
“All of us on the team had great ambition and high hopes for this new Battlefield experience throughout our development,” EA’s blog states. “But we’re the first to hold our hands up and acknowledge that it hasn’t found the right home in Battlefield 2042 and that we’ll benefit greatly from letting our focus and energy stay on the modes we see you engaging most with.”
While Hazard Zone is meeting an early developmental end, EA still plans to keep content coming to 2042. The blog confirms that more content, maps, modes, and core gameplay updates are the main focus of the development team going forward.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.