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In terms of adorableness, Kinectimals is easily the top-rated game for the Kinect. Basically you choose a wild cat that you adopt, and then you explore an island with it, playing mini-games and interacting with it along the way. You can play games with your adopted cat, pet it, and teach it tricks.
This game is geared specifically towards children — anyone else that plays it will have trouble even getting through the tutorial, which is painfully long. Once the forced explanation on how to play is finished, the game opens up a bit, and kids will probably have a blast interacting with the island. The animations and movements of your cat are top-notch, and while there is no real story or singular theme, kids should enjoy the simplicity of the games.
The Kinect is used fairly well in Kinectimals. Voice recognition is used, and the camera is also utilized, albeit in an inconsequential manner. The interaction with your pet shows glimpses of what the Kinect might be able to do one day, as you lean to move around your pet, and scratch behind its ears and under its chin with both hands while it reacts by purring to signify what it likes and doesn’t. It isn’t a very deep game, but it is a solid entry for children (and only children).
If you’re interested in the Kinect system then check out our Microsoft Kinect review.
(This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360 on a copy provided by Microsoft Studios)
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.