Bioware’s online multiplayer loot shooter Anthem has gotten off to a rocky start. Beyond the expected bugs, the game’s overall systems could use some overhauls and Bioware listed job positions that will be focused on doing just that. The jobs are for game designers that will focus on item creation, combat balance, store management/rewards pipeline, and loot systems.
In mid-March, Bioware posted an update that acknowledged that Anthem has been a “rougher launch than expected” and stated that the company was dedicated to working on things mentioned in community feedback. It was said then that improvements to endgame loot, progression, and game flow were coming soon, seemingly on top of the many patches the team has already put out for Anthem.
Seeming to fall in with this plan, Bioware listed a handful of job openings on April 12: Systems designer (item creation), systems designer II (combat balance), systems designers I (store management and reward pipeline), and senior systems designer (loot systems). Poor rewards were a key to our three-star Anthem review, so it will be interesting to see what types of changes are implemented.
All of these roles are specifically for work in the Austin, Texas, or Edmonton, Alberta, Bioware studios to work on Anthem. There’s a new opening for a senior systems and monetization designer that appeared on the same day and is based in Austin, but Anthem isn’t explicitly mentioned in the job description. However, the role is focused on designing “experiences that combine the best of a continuously updated live game and BioWare’s immersive RPG experiences.”
This bodes well for those currently playing Anthem, those that have stopped since launch, and those still on the fence. Diablo 3 is a major example of a game that had a rough launch before turning things around with major changes to the game’s mechanics in the Reaper of Souls expansion. The Anthem dev team doesn’t seem to want to wait that long, as they’re gearing up for the Cataclysm event for late spring, but we at least can see that the team is seeking candidates that can help improve the game’s experience. If Bioware can right the ship as Bungie did with Destiny and Ubisoft did with The Division, it could attract new and returning players down the line.
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.