Every Dungeons & Dragons quest seems to start at the local tavern. There you are, minding your own business, having a quick pint or two before heading home, when you get to talking with a friendly orc about a dungeon rumored to be nearby. Soon an elf joins your table, then a couple of dwarf brawlers, and before you know it, your little raiding party is headed for the hills, more than a little drunk and looking for some treasure.
If you’ve ever wanted to run your own bar frequented by characters straight out of a D&D game, then Epic Tavern might be right up your alley, a promising upcoming RPG/management game currently in Early Access on Steam. As the tavern owner (or “Tavernmaster,” as the devs refer to it), it’s your job to attract different wandering adventurers to your watering hole and then send them out on quests for gold and loot … or to their doom.
The first order of business is to build a respectable establishment and attract some adventurous clientele. This means providing the basics any rugged dungeon crawler would need, such as food, drinks, lodging, and the occasional barroom brawl. Eventually, as your relationships with your customers improves, you’ll get the opportunity to recruit them for various quests.
Run a nice medieval dive bar and you’ll attract even hardier adventurers for your expeditions. Your patrons run the gamut, from skillful mages to burly warriors to stealthy assassins. The quests themselves are reminiscent of a D&D-style campaign. Select a party with the skills you think they’ll need, equip them with weapons and armor, and send them off to do your bidding. On their return from a successful quest, they’ll reward you with cash, various items, and occasionally even tavern upgrades.
The game is the very first title from Hyperkinetic Studios, which nevertheless packs some industry veterans behind the bar. The development team features Tomo Moriwaki from Electronic Arts, Dave Padilla of Sony Pictures, and music composer Neal Acree (World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Starcraft II).
“Epic Tavern’s dynamic systems ensure no two players’ stories will be the same,” Rich Bisso, Co-Founder of Hyperkinetic Studios said in a press release. “We’ve built the tools so Tavernmasters can create and run the fantasy inn of their dreams and be at the heart of every adventure.”
The successful Kickstarter campaign for Epic Tavern raised 170% of its goal, and the early reviews on Steam are pretty positive. The game is generating some buzz in the industry and it’s currently available in Early Access on Steam for $25.
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.