The countdown website that Bethesda set up recently has ticked down to reveal the long-anticipated announcement trailer for Fallout 4, and it looks great! We will undoubtedly learn more at Bethesda’s upcoming E3 presentation, but for now we at least know that the game exists, and is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
It begins with the now-standard opening of panning out from a crackling black and white television set to reveal the ruins of 1950s Americana. A wayward dog leads us through a suburban house as it fades back and forth between the before and after of the nuclear apocalypse. The trailer actually gives us one of the most extensive looks yet at the pre-war Fallout world, up through people desperately clawing at a vault door as a mushroom cloud blooms in the background.
We are take a tour of standard Fallout sights and sounds: bustling settlements made of mismatched scrap, a deathclaw prowling a desiccated wasteland, power armor, Nuka Cola, and the open road. A few dirigibles and helicopters also dot the sky, implying that the Brotherhood of Steel or some other technologically-empowered organizations do exist. At the end the dog comes out to greet a wasteland wanderer, armed with a rifle and Pip-Boy, wearing a familiar vault jumpsuit (for Vault 111 in this case, which we also see earlier in the trailer).
Earlier rumors have suggested that Fallout 4 will be set in Boston, and while the trailer does not say anything explicit, a few glimpses of familiar landmarks indicate that is the case. First we see the statue of Paul Revere in front of the Old North Church where his famous “Midnight Ride” began.
A few shots later we get a glimpse of a glistening gold dome that is likely the top of the Massachusetts State House.
The Bunker Hill Memorial is looking a little worse for wear.
The USS Constitution, on the other hand, has apparently received a few upgrades in the intervening years.
There are likely a few other familiar locations for eagle-eyed Bay Staters. Have you spotted anything else? As a native Masshole myself, I am extremely excited to explore the postapocalyptic ruins of my childhood.
There is a pre-order page set up on the game’s official website, but the links to Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy just go to the previous Fallout games currently.
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.