The PC version of Death Stranding is no longer releasing June 2, 2020, as Kojima Productions temporarily shuts down during the coronavirus pandemic.
Following the brief development setback, the PC port of Death Stranding will now release on July 14, 2020, on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The extra month and a half will allow the team to fully comply with current pandemic regulations in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on April 7 and suggested nonessential employees work from home, stopping for short of a mandatory order.
The Tokyo-based studio also briefly closed in March after an employee tested positive for coronavirus. Current guidelines didn’t force Kojima Productions to close following the test because the employee wasn’t in the office when symptoms appeared. However, Kojima Productions took extra health precautions and has since reopened, with employees working from home.
Following the temporary closure of KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, we have had to delay the PC launch of DEATH STRANDING to July 14, 2020, to allow more development time amidst the current work-from-home orders in place. Thank you all for your patience and continued support!#keeponkeepingon pic.twitter.com/euOmebcdQj
— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) April 21, 2020
The Death Stranding PC release will feature a photo mode, a higher frame rate than the console version, ultra-wide monitor support, and exclusive Half-Life-based content. Players can equip a headcrab helmet on protagonist Sam Porter Bridges and wear the gloves from Half-Life: Alyx.
Every copy of the port will also come with a digital art book, Ludvig Forssell’s original soundtrack for Death Stranding, and several in-game bonuses. Players will be able to rock Ludens Mask sunglasses and gain access to a gold and silver power skeleton and an all-terrain skeleton. Those that pre-order will get HD wallpapers, an omnireflector cap, and a gold-and-silver speed skeleton.
With funding and development help from Sony, Death Stranding initially released as a timed PlayStation 4 exclusive in November 2019. Prior to launch, Kojima Productions revealed it would come to PC ine summer 2020.
The celebrity-filled game stars “The Walking Dead” actor Norman Reedus in its chief role and features Mads Mikkelsen, Guillermo del Toro, and even Conan O’Brien as supporting characters. Director Hideo Kojima’s first game since leaving Konami in 2015, it found success at the 2019 Game Awards, winning Best Game Direction, Best Music, and Best Performance.
According to the NPD Group, Death Stranding had a successful launch on PS4 and was the seventh best-selling game of November 2019, falling behind only Call of Duty, Star Wars, Pokémon, and Madden games.
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.