Fallout 76 is filled with bugs, some of which can make the game a miserable experience, but that pain stayed relegated to the digital world — until now. Bethesda has accidentally given out users’ personal information on its support site, including their home addresses.
Users began alerting Bethesda to the problem on December 5, with those who opened support tickets regarding Fallout 76 finding that they had access to several other players’ support tickets, as well. Their email and were addresses listed, among other personal details. Many of the tickets were created in order to replace the bag included in the Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition, which Bethesda encouraged users to do this week.
Bethesda took care of the problem quickly and posted a statement on its Twitter page, acknowledging and apologizing for what had happened.
“We experienced an error with our customer support website that allowed some customers to view support tickets submitted by a limited number of customers during a brief exposure window,” Bethesda said. “Upon discovery, we immediately took down the website to fix the error.”
Bethesda clarified that users’ passwords and credit card information were not exposed during the accidental leak, but it’s just one of the problems the company has faced regarding Fallout 76. The game released in November to poor reviews, many of which criticized the game’s unfinished state and lack of purpose compared to the single-player Fallout titles. A possible class-action lawsuit is also in the works, with upset customers arguing that the game is in technical ruin and Bethesda will not offer refunds.
Software patches haven’t been the instant fix players were hoping for either. An apparently new glitch makes it possible to duplicate items after the latest patch, and this sort of “fix something, break something” problem isn’t unusual for Bethesda.
When The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released in 2011, the Xbox 360 version suffered from a texture-loading issue, but an update released for the game after launch also had the unfortunate side effect of breaking magic resistance and causing dragons to fly in reverse. Eventually, Fallout 76 will likely have some major improvements, but it remains to be seen if players will stick around to find out.
Fallout 76 is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
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.