Ryu Ga Gotoku and Sega have announced that both Judgment and Lost Judgment will be coming to PC via Steam on September 14. The releases are significant, considering a talent agency reportedly was blocking the series from coming to PC due to mods.
In Judgment, protagonist Takayuki Yagami must solve a murder mystery where the perpetrator has been murdering Yakuza members around the city of Kamurocho and gouging their eyes out. In the sequel, Lost Judgment, Yagami’s journey takes place in both Kamurocho and Ijincho as he solves another murder case but is linked with an additional bullying incident that spans several decades.
Judgment is currently available on Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Lost Judgment is also available on those platforms, minus Stadia.
Fans have been wondering about the mysterious absence of PC versions of both games since Sega typically launches their games on all relevant modern platforms. Reportedly, a talent agency called Johnny & Associates wanted to block the game from being on PC due to the platform’s ability to mod assets. This was reported to protect actor Takuya Kimura, who provides his likeness for Yagami. As such, people speculated about the future of this Yakuza spinoff and whether Lost Judgment could be the final game starring Yagami. The PC audience is enormous, as even Sony has come around to publishing its older PlayStation exclusives on the platform.
However, now both Judgement and Lost Judgment are coming to PC, opening up its player base even more. Ryu Ga Gotoku is also currently working on Yakuza 8, the next game within its mainline franchise that will continue to follow Ichiban Kasuga which will release in 2024.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.