XDefiant is a compelling first-person shooter that Ubisoft has positioned as a direct competitor to games like Call of Duty, and it seems to be paying off so far with plenty of buzz about the game. Now that it’s available for everyone to dive into, excitement is at an all-time high, so it makes sense that you may be wondering what the hype is all about. Of course, with game prices getting so expensive these days, you may also be wondering whether it’s going to cost you to check out XDefiant. We’ve got some good news for you below.
Put simply: Yes, XDefiant is a free-to-play game. You can download the game on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or PC right now and jump into some matches without paying a dime.
However, like similar free live service games, such as Fortnite or Apex Legends, XDefiant is monetized via microtransactions. This means you can purchase things like character and weapon skins, animations, and more using real money — though Ubisoft has promised that these are purely cosmetic and will never grant a competitive advantage to players who buy them.
Unsurprisingly, XDefiant also features Battle Passes, a common system in the free live service realm where players pay a small fee to access a reward track. This can be leveled up during a specific window of time (usually a few months) to earn in-game cosmetics, weapons, and more. Check out XDefiant‘s Preseason Battle Pass for a taste of what to expect from the game going forward.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.