Before the game came out, we learned that Doom: The Dark Ages was abandoning its multiplayer mode to focus squarely on delivering the most brutal and satisfying single player campaign possible. The Doom games have always had great campaigns, especially after the reboot, but having that multiplayer component gives you a lot more to do after you’ve conquered every demon and found every secret. Unless you’re playing the game through Game Pass, you might be a little hesitant to purchase a brand new game if it is only going to last you the weekend before you’ve beaten it. We’ve played through every level, found all the secrets, and unlocked all the upgrades in Doom: The Dark Ages to tell you exactly how long this game is.
To start, difficulty will always play a factor in how long it takes you to beat a game, but that’s especially true in a game like Doom: The Dark Ages. However, we can do a good job at estimating your playtime assuming you’ve chosen the difficulty level that gives you a challenge, but doesn’t have you stuck on encounters for half an hour or more.
Doom: The Dark Ages has 22 chapters, many of which feature large open areas you are free to explore and hunt for secrets, collectables, and the like. Playing naturally, looking around for some optional stuff but not trying to 100% every area before you move on, should average out to around 45 minutes per chapter. If you do want to find it all, bump that number up to an hour or slightly more.
That means, for the average player, Doom: The Dark Ages will take somewhere between 15 and 20 hours based on our experience with the game. Completionists who want to find every secret, master every weapon, and do all the optional objectives are looking at around 40 hours of playtime.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.