THQ Nordic had one last surprise to close out its annual digital showcase Friday: a teaser for a new project in the Darksiders franchise, which might signal a continuation of the story it introduced over 14 years ago.
The teaser didn’t reveal any details. Instead, it’s a slow cinematic that pans over what looks like Hell, with three beasts roaring, their mouths filled with flame. This is the Charred Council, and they yell for the “horsemen.” According to a description on Xbox Wire, “It won’t be long until we reveal more about where the Darksiders series is going next, but for now, know this … the Four Horsemen will ride again.”
It’s unclear if this will be a proper sequel to the action-adventure hack-and-slash series. After all, the series hasn’t exactly followed up on the story from the very first Darksiders, and that might happen again. The original game followed War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Without getting too in the weeds about this series’ complex religious-inspired mythos, War was imprisoned by the Charred Council for starting the apocalypse early. After defeating the final boss known as the Destroyer, War decided to go to, well, war against Heaven and Hell. The cliffhanger ending shows that he won’t be alone, and instead will be joined by the other horsemen: Strife, Death, and Fury.
It’s an ending that very easily sets up for a sequel, but Darksiders 2 takes place at the same time as the previous game and follows Death as he works to clear War’s name. Meanwhile, Darksiders 3 also runs parallel with the first Darksiders but follows Fury. The developers at Gunfire Games also experimented with a different, Soulslike-esque gameplay style.
The last Darksiders release was Darksiders Genesis from 2019. The Stadia and PC release (although it was ported over to consoles later) moved the normally third-person game to a top-down perspective and was a prequel that starred Strife.
Since we’ve gotten games that starred each horseman, maybe it’s time for an actual chronological sequel. It’s unlikely that it’ll be a remaster, as Darksiders: Warmastered Edition was released in 2016, but you never know.
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.