Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, a mobile title based on the popular HBO show, was unveiled to American audiences at The Game Awards 2024 by Netmarble and WB Games. While its mobile nature might initially be a turnoff, this title is much more ambitious than you’d expect.
That’s because Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is a full-on third-person action RPG based on a gameplay tease Netmarble showcased at G-Star in November. A press release accompanying this announcement provided even more details about the game. Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is set during the show’s fourth season and will follow a player-created character who becomes the heir to House Tyre. That’s a noble house from the North, so players become tied up in navigating the political battles of Westeros and fighting off the White Walkers with characters like Jon Snow. Players will be able to customize their character and play as a Sellsword, Knight, or Assassin to change up how the real-time combat looks.
Although Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is a mobile game, its combat will function much more similarly to a game like God of War: Ragnarok than most existing mobile games. Netmarble’s latest is part of a wave of recent mobile games that look much more polished and ambitious; the recently announced Monster Hunter Outlanders seems equally impressive. Of course, how microtransactions are incorporated into the game will make or break the experience, and we don’t know how those will work just yet. Still, it’s clear that mobile games aren’t as restrained from a gameplay perspective as they used to be.
Games of Thrones: Kingsroad’s appearance at The Game Awards also confirmed a release year in certain regions. It will launch in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East on iOS and Android sometime in 2025.
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.