The Game Awards is right around the corner, celebrating 2024’s best games. As luck would have it, Cyber Week is going on right now, and several of this year’s Game of the Year nominees were on sale for Cyber Monday. Some of those deals are gone, but let’s recap. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was $40, Astro Bot is still $50, and Metaphor ReFantazio was $50. Each of those games is worth it at full price, but the best deal was bigger.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Edition was on sale for $50. That was down from its usual $80 price tag. For that price, you’re not just getting the base game, but its excellent Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, too — an expansion so good that it’s up for Game of the Year at this year’s show.
That nomination has been a subject of debate since it was first revealed. Should a DLC really be eligible for Game of the Year? Isn’t it just more of a great base game rather than its own original creation? Those are fair questions, but Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t your average expansion. It’s a fairly massive update to the action RPG that adds a new open-world area full of bosses and entirely new systems. Some have argued that it almost feels like a full sequel. While that might be overselling it, you certainly are getting a supersized package here for $50.
And if you haven’t played Elden Ring at all? Well, then, this should really be in your cart today. FromSoftware’s brutal open-world game was our Game of the Year winner in 2022 for a reason. It’s a staggering accomplishment, mixing the standard Dark Souls formula with the freeform exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s mysterious, maddening, and beautiful. If you’re looking to buy the Game Awards nominee that’ll give you the most bang for your buck, it’s a no-brainer.
You really can’t go wrong with any of the discounted nominees, though. Both Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Metaphor ReFantazio are enormous RPGs that are worth their price tag. Though Astro Bot‘s discount is smaller if you’re weighing a time-to-value equation, it’s still the year’s most delightful game. If I had to make a second recommendation, though, I’d go with Balatro. The physical edition of the hit poker roguelike was down to $20 but is now back to $30. While the digital edition is still cheaper, you’ll get some fun physical cards for your money.
And my apologies if you were hoping Black Myth: Wukong would get a discount this Cyber Monday. The hit Journey to the West adaptation is still pricey at $65. Though to be honest, Shadow of the Erdtree will give you just about everything it has going for it as an action RPG and more. It’s the best pick of the bunch today.
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.