We’re in a lull between Battlefield games right now. Although EA confirmed that the next Battlefield is in active development, it does not yet have a release window. It’s also been a couple of years since the arrival of Battlefield 2042, which Digital Trends enjoyed, but is a divisive entry in the series overall. If you’re looking for another first-person shooter with similar large-scale action to fill some time during that wait, you’ll want to keep your eye on Delta Force: Hawk Ops.
Delta Force: Hawk Ops is Team Jade and TiMi’s revival of a classic tactical shooter series from NovaLogic. In practice, this franchise’s modern reinterpretation is a melting pot of modern near-future shooters. It has the visceral shooting of previous Delta Force games, multiplayer modes inspired by Battlefield and Escape from Tarkov, and operators with special abilities like XDefiant. It is not a particular standout in any one of those categories, but it offers up a good time as we wait for Battlefield to make a comeback.
The beta for Delta Force features two modes: Havoc Warfare and Hazard Operations. For fans of Battlefield, Havoc Warfare is the mode that you’ll want to check out. It’s a 32v32 mode where one team attacks and tries to capture enemy sectors while the other defends and whittles the opposing team’s forces down. It’s a well-trodden multiplayer shooter mode at this point — for good reason.
Like its peers with similar modes, Havoc Warfare captures the intensity of storming into enemy territory with a lot of other soldiers. It’s chaotic, but smart play and teamwork are key to success. Players are put into a squad of four, who can all revive each other and spawn on each other after death. If I was on the attacking side, I always waited as long as possible for a teammate to come and heal me so we didn’t waste any lives.
Delta Force’s maps aren’t as destructible as those in Battlefield, but they still felt well-designed, with plenty of lanes and choke points where intense shootouts can take place. While Delta Force does feel more like a military shooter than a hero shooter, it does feature Operators with special abilities. My favorite so far is D-wolf, who can travel across the large map faster with his motorized exoskeleton ability and deal massive damage with his Triple Blaster grenade launcher. I had the most fun with Delta Force when I was playing Havoc Warfare. It feels like the game’s killer mode and could be quite appealing if it launched long before the next Battlefield.
Delta Force also wants to appeal to players who enjoy hardcore extraction shooters such as Escape from Tarkov. It does that with its PvPvE Hazard Operations mode. In Hazard Operations, teams of three drop into large maps and must explore them, completing missions and collecting valuable loot along the way. If players die before they can extract out of the map, they’ll lose everything they collected. It’s a high-risk, high-reward mode that feels much more intimate and stressful than Havoc Warfare, especially when you come across another squad of players.
I tend to prefer extraction shooters that nix PvP, like Helldivers 2, so this mode has yet to click for me. If you’ve found yourself frustrated by some of the aggressive monetization changes that Escape from Tarkov has made recently, though, Delta Force presents a strong alternative. That’s exactly what Delta Force is shaping up to be. I don’t think it’ll be genre-leading in any significant way, but it offers up a well-made substitute for the likes of Battlefield and Escape from Tarkov.
Delta Force: Hawk Ops’ PC alpha will run throughout the rest of August, and you can gain access to it by requesting it on Steam or earning a code through Twitch Drops. Whenever this game is released, it will be free to play across PC, console, and mobile with cross-play.
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.