Oxford-based Rebellion Developments announced on Thursday that its upcoming PlayStation VR launch title Battlezone will feature online co-op that lets up to four players team up to tackle a series of neon-tinted first-person shooter arenas.
Rebellion additionally revealed new details regarding Battlezone‘s core campaign, noting that the game’s procedural approach to gameplay progression ensures that “no two campaigns will ever be the same.”
A virtual reality remake of Atari’s 1980 vector graphics arcade game of the same name, Battlezone puts players in control of virtual tanks equipped with high-caliber weaponry. Players observe their surroundings using the PlayStation VR’s head-tracking technology before heading into first-person combat against swarms of AI drones.
You will not have to take on Battlezone‘s challenges alone, however, as co-op partners can drop in or out of a campaign in progress at any time. Players will need to spend in-game currency to join a friend’s campaign and individual levels can support up to four co-op partners at a time.
Rebellion teases a lengthy campaign for Battlezone and a procedurally generated progression system revealed in the trailer ensures players will see little repetition in terms of objectives. Each campaign takes place across a series of interconnected levels and players who lose all of their reserve tanks in battle will need to restart from scratch. Online co-op will be a welcome addition for players who encounter tough objectives scattered throughout any given Battlezone campaign.
Battlezone is one of several games launching alongside the PlayStation VR headset in October. Other launch standouts for Sony’s VR platform include the music-driven shooter Rez Infinite, DC Comics superhero sim Batman: Arkham VR, and the horror-themed virtual rollercoaster Until Dawn: Rush of Blood.
Battlezone and Sony’s PlayStation VR headset will hit retail in North America on October 13.
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.