Halo 5 Guardians might not be coming to Xbox One until 2015, but you’ll have a chance to play some of it before this year is over in the planned beta. Due to kick off in December 2014, access to the Guardians beta is included with all purchases of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
In addition to bringing the four numbered Halo games to Xbox One for the first time, The Master Chief Collection also packs in the Halo: Nightfall live-action series, produced by Ridley Scott. It’s an episodic story, meant to serve as a bridge between the events of Halo 4 and Halo 5, with individual episodes to be released after The Master Chief Collection collection launches. The beta will kick off shortly after Nightfall‘s final episode, and run for a limited amount of time after that.
Neither Microsoft nor 343 Industries has revealed anything about Halo 5 Guardians, but we’re told that the beta will represent a broad swath of what to expect from the finished product, in terms of the gameplay. Expect more details to emerge on the Guardians beta as December draws nearer.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.