Fortnite is bringing Marcus Fenix and Kait Diaz from the Gears of War series to the game. The characters will be available as skins in the Fortnite Shop starting at 7 p.m. ET today, along with other Gears-related goodies.
These two characters are only the latest additions to Fortnite’s Gaming Legends Series, which includes characters from Street Fighter, God of War, and Halo.
Most of the Gears content takes inspiration from Gears of War 4 and Gears of War 5, meaning that the characters match their appearances from those games. Kait’s bundle includes Reyna’s Pendant Back Bling, a family heirloom, and an additional “Winter Orange Style” outfit. Marcus comes with the Sonic Resonator Back Bling made to “map the underground tunnels of Sera.”
Marcus has an alternate outfit, too, but players have to log into Fortnite on Xbox to get it. Playing on an Xbox Series X or Series S unlocks the Matte Black color, which changes Marcus’ armor from gray to black.
The game will get other Gears of War-themed items, like a Breaker Mace Pickaxe, Thumper Pickaxe, and Butcher Cleaver Pickaxe. The Skiff Glider from Gears of War 5 appears as an equippable glider. Special emotes and sprays are available, too. Gears fans can purchase the Pickaxes, Glider, and the Knife Tricks Emote on their own or as an all-in-one Emergence Gear Bundle.
Fortnite will run Gears of War Delta One Quests from 9 a.m. ET on December 9 to 9 a.m. ET on December 17. Players who complete all the quests will receive the Crimson Omen Spray.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.