BlizzCon 2016 will head to Anaheim, California, on November 4-5, Blizzard Entertainment announced Wednesday. This year marks the annual fan convention’s 10th anniversary, and 25th anniversary of the developer itself.
BlizzCon, a weekend gathering for devoted fans of the developer’s games, including World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Overwatch, features discussion panels about the games, and often includes an announcement or two new on upcoming projects. (Last year, for example showed the first trailer for the Warcraft movie.) In recent years, the convention has also become an important event on the eSports calendar: Blizzard’s global championship tournaments for Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and World of Warcraft PvP all take place during the convention.
Tickets for the event will go on sale in two waves: one on April 20 at 7 p.m. PT, and another on April 23 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets to the event will cost $199. For players who can’t attend in person, Blizzard said it also plans to offer a “virtual ticket,” which will give fans access to convention live streams and the ability watch (or rewatch) parts of the show on demand. Blizzard said it will announce more information about virtual tickets later this year.
In addition to attending (or watching) the convention, BlizzCon ticketholders will get a “goodie bag” with some exclusive in-game items. Blizzard also said it plans to open an exclusive online store early with a selection of convention merchandise, so con-goers can buy their swag and get it shipped home instead of having to carry it around. Virtual ticketholders will also get access to the convention’s online store.
Blizzard will also host a charity dinner on the evening before BlizzCon. Those who attend the $750-per-plate affair, whose proceeds will go to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, will be able to chat up the company’s developers in a smaller setting. Tickets for the dinner will go on sale April 27 at 7 p.m. PT.
When the time comes, you can pick up your BlizzCon tickets right here. We recommend loading up the page early, because they tend to go fast.
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.