CD Projekt Red has been stoking the flames for months, preparing fans and enthusiasts for fresh Cyberpunk 2077 reveals during E3 2019. Such a highly anticipated game deserves a spotlight on the big stage and, with Sony not attending, that left only Microsoft’s briefing as an option. The team delivered, revealing a new trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 along with an appearance by a special guest: Keanu Reeves. Reeves is playing one of the characters in the game and also took the stage to reveal the game’s 2020 release date.
The new trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 showed off the male version of V, the lead character that players will be able to customize when they start their experience in the open-world RPG. It featured Jackie, a companion revealed in the previous gameplay demo, and his untimely demise all through a few cutscenes. While it didn’t involve gameplay, a different type of adversary was shown in the trailer. After a tense melee, a woman seems to hack into the player’s limbs and cause his right arm to malfunction. It will be interesting to see this in action in gameplay.
The first trailer closed with a surprise, introducing a new in-game character being played by Keanu Reeves. Reeves then took the stage to speak about the game and introduce a new teaser that shared the release date for Cyberpunk 2077: February 16, 2020.
Cyberpunk is a significant departure from CD Projekt Red’s bread-and-butter that has been established with the Witcher franchise. The Witcher and The Witcher 2 were linear third-person action RPGs, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt opened up the gameplay with large set pieces that felt like a connected open world. Cyberpunk 2077 goes full open world and the developers have stated there are a lot of verticalities to go along with the fully realized city where the game takes place.
The trailer that closed with the release date showed off new some gameplay, including traversal using a motorcycle, a whip-like weapon, and gunplay against various enemies. While these brief glimpses were intriguing, there’s still a lot about the game that remains to be revealed. With the February 16, 2020 release date set in stone, CD Projekt Red has a few more major events ahead where the developers can share more about what the gameplay is like, how big the game’s world is, what other vehicles players will be able to control, and more.
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.