When Dragon Ball FighterZ was revealed during E3 2017, fans were blown away by its art style. The cel-shaded look is the best we’ve ever seen, perfectly replicating the original 2D anime and earning Best Visuals from our Top Games of E3 2017 awards. In order to really appreciate the game, however, players need to see it in person, and Bandai Namco is making that happen with an open beta weekend two weeks before Buy Now releases.
According to Polygon, the beta will begin January 14 for everyone, and one day earlier for those with pre-orders. To be precise, it begins at 3 a.m. ET on January 13 for pre-orders, and at 3 a.m. ET on January 14 for everyone else. Players can fight to their heart’s content until 2:59 a.m. ET on January 16.
The Dragon Ball FighterZ beta is for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players only. While the game is still releasing on Windows PC, there will not be an open beta for those users.
Bandai Namco has not provided details on which characters and game modes will be playable during next month’s beta. The publishers have announced 24 fighters to date, most recently revealing Beerus, Hit, and Goku Black from the current Dragon Ball Super anime series.
As the God of Destruction, Beerus can create Spheres of Destruction. When they come in contact with an opponent, they explode. Hit’s signature technique in the anime is Time Skip, which allows him to jump ahead in time a fraction of a second. In Dragon Ball FighterZ, his move-set emphasizes striking, and his Meteor special attack stops time and unleashes a combo attack. Goku Black’s special capability is called Work of the Gods, which allows him to summon Zamasu to “blind” his opponent.
A new feature was also revealed (via Gamespot) for fans of the series. Called Dramatic Production, it shows unlocks scenes from the anime when certain conditions are met. These scenes will appear before and after a battle.
Dragon Ball FighterZ launches simultaneously for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 26. Producers haven’t ruled out a Nintendo Switch release quite yet. Check out our hands-on impressions and you’ll realize that it plays as awesome as it looks.
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.