Fe, a colorful adventure game set in a gorgeous Nordic forest, launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on February 16. The Zoink Games-developed title received its launch date during Nintendo’s “Direct Mini” event showcasing new and upcoming games.
Originally announced at E3 2016, Fe will launch as the debut title from the EA Originals program, an initiative designed to give exciting indie titles a prominent platform to prosper.
From both gameplay footage and information from EA, it’s clear that Fe looks to draw comparisons to other atmospheric and poignant independent titles such as Journey. The game asks players to experiment with the mechanics to create their own journey through the forest, rather than simply explaining each objective at hand.
Players control the eponymous fox-like creature in an interconnected forest heavily linked by sounds, with the ultimate objective of returning home. Both plants and animals can help guide you in the right direction and require players to learn their particular sounds to become allies. Learning new sounds and songs adds new abilities to Fe’s arsenal. Free-flowing player movement in the 3D world allows players to glide quickly across the terrain, although stealth mechanics will also play a role.
Even though much of the forest’s inhabitants will be friendly, an evil force called the Silent Ones seeks to chip away at the balance of the world. Little has been revealed about the nature of the Silent Ones, but perspective will be gleaned from “handcrafted short stories” scattered throughout the forest. Hidden clues will also lead up to revealing Fe’s mysterious origin story.
While Fe serves as the maiden voyage for the EA Originals program, it will be followed closely by A Way Out, a co-operative prison escape game from Hazelight Studios on March 23 on Buy Now , Buy Now , and Buy Now . Sea of Solitude, a third EA Originals title with an unannounced launch date, follows a young woman in an underwater city on a quest to discover why she has turned into a monster.
For all of the biggest reveals from the Nintendo Direct Mini, make sure to check out our roundup.
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.