Remember when Boss Team Games announced it was working on two games based on the 1978 slasher classic Halloween yesterday? Well, the studio followed up on that news today by revealing one of those games is a 16-bit action platformer, and it’s coming out in October.
WayForward Technologies has teamed up with Boss Team on the first two titles for RetroRealms, a new series of retro-inspired console and PC games. The first are ones based on Halloween and Ash vs Evil Dead, and both are set to release on October 18 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
“Everyone at Boss Team Games are huge fans of horror and getting to work with these legendary properties is a dream come true,” Boss Team CEO Steve Harris said in a press release. The studio had previously worked on the asymmetric 4v1 Evil Dead: The Game, and is working with John Carpenter on another Halloween title being developed in Unreal Engine 5.
RetroRealms: Halloween and RetroRealms: Ash vs Evil Dead are both 16-bit platformers. They’re not exactly movie accurate, but in the trailer, you can see familiar set pieces from each franchise; you can control Ash running his chainsaw arm through crowds of enemies or Michael escaping from prison and heading to the old Myers home.
“We’ve designed a whole new kind of gameplay that is unique to the RetroRealms titles and highlights the over-the-top gore and special abilities of these characters,” WayForward president Voldi Way said in the press release.
They’re standalone titles that are purchased separately, but buying both unlocks new features, including the ability to move characters from one to the other. What would it be like to have Michael Myers take out the demons from the Evil Dead franchise? There’s also a hub called RetroRealms Arcade where players can access the games, redeem in-game tickets, and check out other content.
Each RetroRealms game will cost $25 individually or for $50 in a Double Feature bundle, both of which are available for preorder. There’s also a Collector’s Edition that’ll cost $100 that comes with both games, DLC that adds Laurie Strode and Kelly Maxwell, a 12-inch Michael Myers plush, and other goodies.
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.