Disconsolate Brits mourning the U.K.’s impending divorce from the European Union may take some solace in Civilization VI, in which Queen Victoria will lead the nation of England to glory once again. Reigning for over 60 years, Victoria ruled the British empire during the zenith of its imperial power, lending her name to an era and enduring as one of the most iconic and popular rulers in the nation’s history.
The English civilization’s primary special ability is called British Museum, boosting the number of archaeologists produced by their archaeological museums, and adding additional spots to hold the artifacts they bring back. England will always have a place to keep those Elgin Marbles that they “liberated” from Greece.
Two special units will help ensure England’s martial grip on the world. Sea Dogs (also known historically as privateers) were essentially pirates, employed by Elizabeth I to harass England’s enemies at sea, famously holding off the Spanish Armada in 1588. In addition to its general prowess in naval combat, the Sea Dog has a chance to capture enemy ships. For the land, England has Red Coat infantry units that can disembark from water without spending movement, and gain a bonus to attacking when not on their home continent.
Finally, England has a unique district, the Royal Navy Dockyard, which instills ships built there with bonus movement, adds bonus gold income to dockyards on other continents, and accrues Great Admiral points.
As in previous versions of the game England’s unique units and district give it a distinct edge in forming and defending intercontinental empires. However, its special ability allows England to use the spoils of imperialism to pivot towards a cultural victory, should they lose the taste for war as history rolls on.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI will launch for PC on October 21, 2016.
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.