Far Cry 5‘s story dealt with some very serious topics, including the dangers of joining religious cults and the power of indoctrination, but the game still featured plenty of silly characters. Two of these were allies Nick Rye and longtime favorite Hurk Drubman Jr., and they’ll step out of the background and into the spotlight for the game’s Lost on Mars expansion on July 17.
Hurk explains in the expansion’s teaser trailer that a “super hot being of dubious moral standing” has taken him to Mars, and it’s up to Nick to assist him and save humanity from an alien threat.
The teaser also gives us a brief look at Mars itself, which looks similar to the location in Destiny and is populated by arachnid martians hoping to tear Nick limb from limb. We also see pterodactyl-looking creatures flying across the sky, which should make battles a little bit trickier than they were in the main Far Cry 5 campaign.
Nick has access to some science-fiction equipment in order to defend himself, including a jetpack and the “Morphinator,” a weapon that turns enemies in explosive cows.
The previous Far Cry 5 expansion, which took place in Vietnam, currently costs $12, and Lost on Mars will be sold as a stand-alone for $10. Both expansions and Dead Living Zombies, which releases in August, are available as part of the game’s season pass. The pass also includes a copy of Far Cry 3: Classic Edition. The game was originally released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, while all subsequent games have been available on current-generation consoles.
If you don’t want to get Lost on Mars, its assets will still be added to the Far Cry Arcade mode, allowing players to create new multiplayer and single-player levels. Other assets in the mode come from Ubisoft games like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Watch Dogs, and the depth of the mode has led to some truly inspired creations.
Far Cry 5 is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The “Gold Edition,” which contains the season pass, is currently discounted on PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Plus subscribers get an additional discount on their purchase.
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.