Call of Duty fans who bought a physical edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II are learning that the disc that comes with it doesn’t actually include the game. Instead, it’s a 72MB disc that enables a download of the full game.
According to a report from Eurogamer, fans received physical copies of Modern Warfare II a day before its official release and reported that the disc did not have the game at all. The digital version of the game has 150GB of data, which they had to download to their PlayStation 5 or Xbox consoles instead. The disc that Activision bundled into the box is essentially a download disc.
The practice of shipping a game with a download disc is nothing new. For instance, physical copies of Halo Infinite shipped in a similar fashion. Gamers and professionals have criticized the practice in the past, deeming it a hindrance to game preservation efforts, as there’s no way to truly own certain titles. There are plenty of other reasons for players to want a game on an actual disc. Some buy physical versions of games to free up storage space on their consoles. Others may not have the internet bandwidth to download a giant digital game fast enough.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II launches on October 28 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Whether or not you buy a digital copy of the game or a physical one, be prepared to have to download over 100GB of data.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.