Guerrilla Games’ post-post-apocalyptic, robot-dinosaur-hunting action RPG Horizon Zero Dawn completely knocked our socks off when it was revealed last year at E3. The game was originally scheduled to release exclusively on PlayStation 4 sometime in 2016, but according to a recent post from the developer on the PlayStation blog, we’re going to have to wait a little longer — until February 28, 2017.
“It wasn’t an easy choice to make,” wrote Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst. “We know many of you have been anxious to play the game since we first announced it. However, we also want to ensure that Horizon Zero Dawn lives up to the visuals and gameplay quality that our games are known for. The new date affords us the extra time required to deliver fully on our ambitious vision for Horizon Zero Dawn.”
The announcement brings with it a new trailer, featured above, which focuses on the game’s protagonist, Aloy, a bad-ass huntress who bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Game of Thrones’ favorite wildling spearwife, Ygritte. The trailer provides our first insight into Aloy’s background as an orphan foundling, taken in by a tribe of humans as a baby but never fully trusted as one of them (except, apparently, by her adopted father, who taught her how to hunt). No doubt the course of the game will see you uncovering secrets about both Aloy’s own origin, and the mysterious events that cut humanity down from living in great cities to huddling around fires in caves, ousted from the top of the food chain by towering, robotic beasts.
While on the one hand we’re disappointed that we will have to wait even longer to get our hands on the game, ultimately we would rather play something released with the developer’s full confidence. We’ll be spending some more time with Horizon Zero Dawn next week at E3, gathering more info that should help tide us over until next February.
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.