Treyarch took Gamescom as an opportunity to reveal some of the specific features that PC gamers can look forward to in the Windows port of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 6, 2015 (with PS3 and Xbox 360 versions following at a later date). The promised features include:
In light of some high profile disasters with recent AAA PC ports (most recently the Batman: Arkham Knight debacle), Treyarch has been firm in its professed desire to provide a fully-supported experience for PC gamers as well as their console brethren. This past Spring Treyarch head Mark Lamia told Polygon “if you’ve really invested in your rig, we want it to pay off,” emphasizing features such as 4K resolution support for high-end PCs and optimization for mid- to low-end setups.
This past Spring Treyarch also revealed the targeted minimum PC specifications for the game, far earlier than is normal for a game coming out in November. Apart from hefty memory requirements compared to other AAA PC releases this year, Black Ops 3‘s requirements are more or less par for the course. The recommended spec is still on the way, as the developer reiterated in the Gamescom announcement:
“As we add more optimizations and advanced graphics features, we’re re-evaluating our recommended spec, so stay tuned. Rest assured that our goal is to provide the best performance across the widest range of machines possible.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 continues Treyarch’s blockbuster FPS sub-franchise, taking the series into a dystopian near future featuring cybernetic augmentation, introducing superhuman abilities similar to last year’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Black Ops and Black Ops 2 are among the best selling games of all time on any platform, following closely behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for best-selling first-person shooters of all time, so anticipation runs high for the upcoming release.
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.