During the June 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft revealed Doom: The Dark Ages. It’s a medieval take on the first-person shooter series that’s typically set during contemporary times. It’s set to launch in 2025 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. The game will also launch on Xbox Game Pass.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel, with the Doomslayer donning animal fur and spikes on his shoulder-blade armor. With his trusty and classic shotgun, he’s ready to take down demons. However, he now has a new shield with blades that he can rev up like a chainsaw. The trailer shows the Doomslayer even throwing his shield at them like Captain America. He will also be able to ride a dragon at some point in the game, highlighting the fantasy elements of the game.
One interesting aspect of this game is that it’s not exclusive to the Microsoft ecosystem and that it’s also going to be on PlayStation. Microsoft purchased Bethesda back in 2020 and now owns id Software, the developer behind the Doom series. However, both Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal were multiplatform games before id Software got acquired as part of Bethesda, and now Microsoft is seemingly going to be consistent with past releases in the series.
Microsoft has already brought over four of its former exclusive games to rival platforms, PlayStation and Switch: Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, Pentiment, and Sea of Thieves. Other Xbox games are reportedly being considered as well, including Starfield, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade II.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.