Big Distraction, a newly formed independent game studio founded by former Fortnite developers, announced its debut game, Lort. It’s a one to eight player co-op fantasy roguelike set to launch later this year on PC.
Formed in 2023, Big Distraction is led by the former Lead Producer and Marketing Lead on Fortnite Battle Royale. It’s currently an 11-person team comprised of veterans from studios like Dice, Blizzard, and MachineGames. Big Distraction’s initial goal was to create a game that it could launch within two years of the studio’s founding. Lort is the end result of that effort.
Lort is a co-op action roguelike set in a comedic fantasy world. Its debut trailer emphasizes a gameplay loop that will have players exploring a procedurally generated map in search of loot, scaling their power up, and hunting down bosses. Think of something like Risk of Rain 2, but with more more absurd humor.
Players will start a run by squading up with up to eight players. They’ll be able to choose from three character classes initially, including a wizard, warrior and ranger, but Big Distraction has ideas for more. There are no team composition restrictions, so players can run with a team of eight wizards if they so desire. From there, they’ll explore an open area, hunt down treasure chests featuring over-the-top weapons, and get upgrades that boost their stats.
Since it’s all high fantasy themed, players will fight with weapons like maces, oversized hammers, and bows. In hands-off demo footage, I watched a crew take down hoards of Dragon Quest-like slimes and other colorful monsters using over the top spells, like one that whacks foes with an enormous hunk of wood. Big Distraction says that the power progression is a major focus of a run, as it will let players eventually put together builds that feel like they can break the game. It all makes for a multiplayer game that looks lighthearted and chaotic.
Lort is set to release in the fourth quarter of 2025. It will release on PC and be compatible with Steam Deck.
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.