Spartans who are fretting about where to preorder Halo 5: Guardians, determining which preorder incentives they get, can rest easy: All preorder bonuses can be unlocked in the game through regular play. 343 Industries studio head Josh Holmes confirmed via Twitter the other day that while preorder packages guarantee that you will have those particular weapons, armor, and skins when you start, everything can be earned through regular play, regardless of where you bought the game.
https://twitter.com/JoshingtonState/status/613463164445814784?s=09
This bucks current trends in publishing, wherein the bonus in-game items, skins, and even whole missions with which particular retailers reward customers can only be purchased by other players as DLC some time after release, or are included in a subsequent Game of the Year edition if players want to wait. Players have become increasingly frustrated with the practice as it has trended towards walling off larger and larger sections of the game based on where they purchase it. 343 Industries dialing it back to this model is a refreshing change of pace.
As for the particular bonuses you can look forward to eventually, no matter where you buy it:
Guardians is the latest chapter in Xbox’s flagship saga of power-armored soldiers and aliens jumping around and shooting each other for sport. What started as a Mac-exclusive real time strategy game in 2001 evolved into one of the defining first person shooters of the 21st century, and a pillar of all three Xbox consoles’ libraries. This is 343 Industries’ second original, numbered entry in the franchise, having taken the torch from creator Bungie starting with Halo 4.
Halo 5: Guardians comes exclusively to Xbox One on October 27, 2015.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.