Sony recently released a complete rebuild of one of the most iconic games in its PlayStation catalog. The Last of Us Part I not only reintroduced the world to one of the most essential gaming experiences, but showed off some of the best accessibility features we’ve ever seen. Now many of those impressive options are making their way to the upcoming God of War: Ragnarök.
The development team at Santa Monica Studio already shared more than 60 accessibility features coming to God of War: Ragnarök in May. These features include controller remapping, high-contrast mode, navigation and travel assistance, speaker names, and more. Now Ragnarök is taking a few cues from The Last of Us Part I with even more features that will open the game to as many players as possible.
Newer features include auto pickup, which allows players to automatically pick up items, and navigation assistance, which tells players where to go next using an arrow on the screen. High-contrast mode, previously announced, lets players apply different colors to items, characters, specific terrain, and more to improve visibility.
Other newly shared features include:
Rather than hoarding accessibility options, game developers have shown a willingness to share these innovations between titles. Last year, EA opened all of its accessibility patents, like Apex Legends’ unique Ping System, with its Patent Pledge. Reusing the best accessibility options from The Last of Us Part I will help make God of War: Ragnarök playable by an even broader audience.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.