Publisher 2K has released a comparison trailer for its upcoming first-person shooter compilation BioShock: The Collection, highlighting the soon-to-be reissued trilogy’s boost in visual fidelity.
The trailer showcases the opening moments from the original BioShock, giving players an early look at a remastered Rapture while teasing similar improvements for sequels BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite.
Announced earlier this year, BioShock: The Collection is a digital and retail compilation of 2K’s classic BioShock trilogy. The three games will be bundled with all previously issued DLC, including BioShock 2‘s acclaimed expansion Minerva’s Den and both entries in BioShock Infinite‘s episodic alternate-universe series Burial at Sea.
BioShock 2‘s multiplayer campaign appears to be missing in action, as BioShock: The Collection specifically limits its bundled bonuses to “all single-player add-on content.” DLC such as the original BioShock‘s Challenge Rooms and add-on weapons will make the jump to BioShock: The Collection, however.
All three games will feature 1080p resolutions with frame rates “up to” and “targeting” 60 frames-per-second, suggesting that the trilogy won’t necessarily see consistent performance on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. All three games will also include redrawn art assets and textures from collaborative studio Blind Squirrel Games, in order to suit the advertised bump in resolution.
The original BioShock is a particular point of focus for BioShock: The Collection, as 2K revealed that the remastered version will include a new Museum of Orphaned Concepts area featuring prototype and abandoned ideas for the game. Players can also seek out golden film reels hidden throughout the remastered edition of BioShock that will unlock interviews with creative director Ken Levine and lead animator Shawn Robertson. Excerpts from the interview series will later be available via 2K’s YouTube channel.
BioShock: The Collection hits the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PCs on September 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.