A bit more information regarding Gearbox Software’s long-awaited sequel has officially been revealed after an ultimately leak on April Fools’ Day threw a wrench in the rollout. Borderlands 3’s leaked release date, September 13, is confirmed and the video ad that leaked alongside the tweets did confirm some interesting news: Borderlands 3 will be exclusive to the Epic Games store on PC.
In the leaked video ad, Borderlands 3 mayhem played out with the Epic Games store logo in the bottom left corner. Along with the official confirmation of the release date, the pre-orders are live and the Epic Games store is the only option when selecting PC as the desired platform on the Borderlands 3 pre-order webpage.
Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to speak on the game’s distribution. He started by explaining that 2K/Take-Two Interactive has exclusive publishing rights, directing all those with concerns about the Epic Games store exclusivity to the publisher before stating that he, personally, is happy to shop at different stores, but sees exclusives as “fine when they come w/ advantages and when they are short — say, six months.” Pitchford also alludes to cross-platform play, considering it a prerequisite and stating that “Epic’s leadership with cross-platform support is helpful” to Gearbox Software’s interests.
Those who decide to pre-order will get the Gold Weapon Skins Pack with their version of the game. This pack includes a gold weapon trinket and gold skins that can be applied to more than 1 billion guns that will be featured in Borderlands 3.
There are four editions of the game available and a season pass is confirmed, as well. The Deluxe Edition packages the Retro, Neon, and Gearbox cosmetic packs, Toy Box weapons pack, and boost mods for XP and loot with the standard game. The Super Deluxe Edition adds the Borderlands 3 season pass on top of that pile of goodies. The Collector’s Edition adds physical items to the digital loot haul, including a Diamond Loot Chest Replica, 10 figurines, a Sanctuary 3 snap model, four Vault Key keychains, a cloth galaxy map, and five character art lithographs.
The season pass will include four DLC campaign packs, which will include new stories, missions, and challenges. It will also come with the Butt Stallion weapon skin, trinket, and grande mod. All of the DLC content for this pass will be released by September 2020. There’s no update on when the Epic Games store exclusivity deal will end, but released DLC should be available on other platforms once the time period passes.
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.