It’s rare for Nintendo to invest in a new franchise these days, but it’s laying out the red carpet for Code Name: STEAM. Though the steampunk meets comic book story turned me off when it debuted at E3 2014, playing the game is a really fresh, yet familiar, experience that merges real-time third-person gameplay with turn-based strategy.
Developed by Intelligent Systems, the crew responsible for the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem series, the game pits you as a crew of heroes sent on missions by Abraham Lincoln, usually to stop alien attacks. The early levels I played are mostly about sneaking around destructible barrels and other obstacles, hiding, blasting aliens, and advancing toward a goal post of sorts (usually a green door).
The 3D environment is what sets STEAM apart. Because your viewpoint is limited by what each of your characters can see, it doesn’t feel like a traditional turn-based game. I found myself constantly using the right C-Stick (nub) on the New 3DS XL to look around and spot aliens (or coins, which fund upgrades).
You control each of your heroes (up to six of them) separately, moving each on a 3D field with a turn-based grid overlaid on top of it. How far you can move, and how many shots you can take, depends entirely on how much of your supply of steam each character has used. It’s refilled each turn, but moving and blasting uses it up. There are also advantages to holding onto some of your steam: If you have a few extra puffs left during the enemy’s turn, you can fire back when they try to attack your characters.
Each team member has his or her own weapons, which you can equip with primary and secondary functions. For example, I gave my healer, Tiger Lily, a shotgun so she could still deal some damage. One of my other characters had a crossbow that could also launch a grenade several squares ahead. Another team member, who was a sort of pink lion man (his name is “Lion”), could catapult himself into the air, surprising aliens by leaping over obstacles.
I wasn’t able to try them out, but you can use any of the four Fire Emblem Amiibos from Super Smash Bros. Wii U to put characters like Marth and Ike on your team. You cannot alter their weapons, but I’m sure Ike will do just fine with his sword. Keeping with Fire Emblem tradition, if one of these characters dies on the battlefield, you cannot revive it (just the Fire Emblem characters).
Code Name: STEAM is an odd duck, but once you immerse yourself, the gameplay is classic Nintendo. Like a plumber chasing a gorilla, Nintendo’s strengths rarely lie in its themes, but we grow to love its characters because of how fun the games are to play. That’s what STEAM feels like. It hits U.S. stores for 3DS on March 13.
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.