If you’re an avid player of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, it probably feels like forever since the last major expansion for the game, Goblins vs Gnomes, was released. Two PvE expansions have been released in the meantime, sure, but whereas Goblins vs Gnomes added more than 120 cards, Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain only added a measly 30 cards each.
Fear not, as Blizzard announced the second major expansion for Hearthstone yesterday. The Grand Tournament adds 132 new cards, including new spells, weapons, and Champions, all of which should bring a refreshing bit of change to players’ decks.
With the new cards also comes a new ability known as Inspire. “Utilizing your Hero Power while a minion with Inspire is on the board will result in one of any number of effects,” Blizzard writes in the blog post announcing The Grand Tournament. These effects include gaining +1 to attack or adding a random spell card to your hand.
Also coming in the expansion is a new gameboard. This doesn’t change anything about how the game is played, but according to Blizzard, “you’ll be able to find all of the appropriate amenities to ensure that your tournament experience is a pleasant one!”
Even if you haven’t purchased any of the card packs, you can still manage a look at them. “As with previous expansions and Adventures, Grand Tournament cards will be included in the Arena on launch day, even if you still haven’t added them to your personal collection,” Blizzard writes. Arena rewards are changing too, rewarding players with Grand Tournament, Goblins vs Gnomes or classic card packs instead of just Goblins vs Gnomes packs.
If you can’t wait to start throwing money at Hearthstone again, Blizzard has a solution for you. Starting next week, players will be able to prepurchase a bundle of 50 Grand Tournament card packs for $50. The packs will remain sealed until the expansion officially launches, and the offer ends once The Grand Tournament is officially released.
The Grand Tournament opens next month. For more information, see Blizzard’s website for the expansion.
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.