The upcoming cooperative mode for Halo Infinite won’t include online matchmaking. Players assumed this feature was lacking due to co-op being in beta, but it turns out, online matchmaking won’t be available when the mode launches in full later this year.
This news comes by way of an Xbox representative, who told GamesRadar you’ll have to team up with friends to play Halo Infinite cooperatively.
“Online matchmaking will not be available with final co-op,” the representative said. “We encourage you to continue to use the Halo LFG and the new Discord voice call feature on Xbox to find players to party up with as you continue playing the beta.”
While the Halo LFG is certainly active, having to search for other players via a third-party website is a barrier that could prevent users from experiencing the game cooperatively.
Those who are part of the Halo Infinite Xbox Insider Program have access to a beta version of the co-op campaign, allowing them to check it out before its final release to the general public.
Halo Infinite launched for Xbox in December 2021, but did not include a cooperative campaign. Developer 343 has been working on the cooperative mode while also supporting the free-to-play competitive online portion of the game. The co-op mode was originally supposed to launch earlier in 2022, but was delayed, and now 343 is hoping for it to be finished by August 2022.
In addition, the beloved Forge mode — which allows players to create their own maps — was also absent when Halo Infinite released. The Forge mode will supposedly launch later in 2022.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.