Massively multiplayer online shooter PlanetSide 2 is coming to PlayStation 4 and you can sign up now on the game’s website to participate in the closed beta. No specific date has been given, but the beta was scheduled to launch by the end of 2014, meaning it should kick off soon if everything is on schedule. All you need to sign up for the beta is an e-mail address, though the selection criteria for taking part are not obvious.
Originally developed by Sony Online Entertainment for Windows, PlanetSide 2 is a massive scale online shooter, with up to 2,000 players on each continent on foot or in land and air vehicles. Battles can last an entire day as three factions vie for territorial control. The game features an elaborate system of character class progression and upgrades–experience can be traded in for new abilities or equipment. It’s a fun and unique game, enough to earn our award for Best PC Exclusive in 2012.
Although the game is free-to-play, in-game purchases such as cosmetic upgrades or experience boosts help keep the lights on. This economic model carries over to the PS4 release. The developer has also been working closely with Major League Gaming — the premiere eSports league — in order to get the game ready for high level competition alongside eSports mainstays like League of Legends and Call of Duty. At launch there will be no cross-play between Windows and PS4, in order to keep updates separate for the developer’s ease.
No window for the actual release has been given yet. It was originally announced for 2014, but that seems unlikely this late in the year. Take a look at some recent footage that has emerged of the early PS4 build in action below.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.