One of the most exciting upcoming releases for the Nintendo Switch is not a new game at all. Most gamers have already played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC or consoles, but it is hard to deny the thought of diving back into the snowy north on a handheld system. Now, we have our best look yet at how the latest iteration of the RPG performs.
Digital Foundry is widely considered to be the gold standard when it comes to technical analysis of how video games run on various pieces of hardware. As such, it should be very reassuring to anyone looking forward to the Switch version of Buy Now that the team described its performance as “excellent” when they were given a chance to put it through its paces at Gamescom 2017 this week.
Testing out the game in handheld mode, they observed that the port was free from many of the inconsistencies that both the original release and even the more recent remaster were troubled by. The resolution of the game appears to be a native 720p and its framerate is reportedly locked at 30 frames per second.
On paper, that might not sound like much but it is important to remember the context — Skyrim is an open-world game that has been subject to patchy performance on hardware that is more powerful than the Switch, so it is very impressive to see that this version of the game is looking so robust even in portable mode.
While Digital Foundry only got to spend around 15 minutes with the game, the publication managed to check out a good variety of different gameplay situations. During traversal and combat alike, its performance was consistently impressive.
The biggest appeal of Nintendo hardware is the company’s consistently excellent first-party output and, historically, we have seen a reduced emphasis on third-party releases as a result. However, the prospect of such a high-quality re-release of a well-loved third-party title certainly bodes well for the Switch’s ability to buck this trend.
Skyrim is poised to see something of a resurgence in the coming months — while there is no confirmed release date for the Switch version just yet, we do know that its virtual reality edition will debut in November.
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.