Get your “Giant Enemy Crab” jokes ready: the latest fantastically weird creation from the PC modding scene swaps out every single texture in Dark Souls 3 with pictures of crabs.
This non-sequitur approach to texture modding highlights many background details that experienced players might otherwise miss, and if offers an even richer experience if you’re a SpongeBob SquarePants fan. “Are you feeling it now, Mr. Krabs?”
Offering only the explanation “So I replaced ALL the textures in Dark Souls 3 with a Crab…” the above mod captured by Limit Breakers showcases a version of Dark Souls 3 in which every in-game element has reverted to a crab-like state.
The mod’s pro-crab agenda extends to background textures, player models, clothing, and equipment, making for a hilarious juxtaposition with the game’s usual dark fantasy setting. It even goes so far as to replace menu and UI elements with crabs, making the experience that much more difficult to visually parse, much less play.
The true extent of this mod’s damage becomes fully apparent when the player enters Dark Souls 3‘s introductory area, the Cemetery of Ash. Normally noted for its oppressive, unfriendly atmosphere, the Cemetery of Ash has been transformed into a crustacean paradise where crabs unite to form craggy hills, valleys, and shell monuments.
Players who look to the heavens for answers regarding this mod’s existence will see the Cemetery of Ash’s oppressive skyline replaced with yet more crabs. In Limit Breakers’ mod, crabs are everything. They know all, they see all, and they comprise all.
Somehow making it to the game’s later Road of Sacrifices area, the player in the above video goes on to explore a world in which varied crab species have fully reskinned a normally hostile environment. The video then concludes with a boss battle that should basically be a foregone conclusion for anyone who has played Dark Souls 3 through to completion.
We need to give credit where it’s due: the retail version of Dark Souls 3 is frequently unsettling, but it can’t quite match the visual nightmare that is Limit Breakers’ unholy creation. Well done, crabs.
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.