A U.S. congressman seemingly spent $1,302 in campaign funds on 68 Steam games, prompting an investigation by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It wasn’t a Steam Sale binge, though: turns out it was a combination of fraud and a teenage son.
Representative Duncan D. Hunter, a California Republican, listed the charges on his 2015 financial disclosure as “personal expense — to be paid back.” Hunter said through a spokesperson that the money will be refunded once the fraudulent charges are recovered.
Hunter’s teenage son used the wrong credit card to buy one game, Hunter spokesperson Joe Kasper told the San Diego Tribune. After that, several unauthorized charges were made on the card, meaning some fraudster out there is enjoying a padded Steam library subsidized by campaign donations.
Campaign funds cannot be used for personal purposes, which is what prompted the FEC to ask Hunter for clarification.
Between legislating and fundraising there’s probably not a lot of time for Hunter to be gaming, especially not 68 games in three months. So it’s unlikely he has enough time to play $1,302 worth of games. But the 39-year-old congressman and former Marine has talked about gaming in the past. He defended video games in the aftermath of the Newtown Connecticut shooting, arguing that video games aren’t the problem.
“The narrative that children and young adults today stare at television and computer screens, developing lethal skills through first-person gaming experiences, disingenuously portrays video games as having a corrosive influence,” Hunter wrote, adding that talk about video games is a distraction from parenting issues. “Targeting video games as the problem is nothing more than a distraction from the broader challenges presented by improper parenting and far more obvious triggers of violence.”
Hunter has until May 9 to respond to the FEC’s letter, which you can read here complete with a list of purchases (no specific games, sadly).
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.