In August, Life is Strange fans were able to return to Arcadia Bay thanks to the release of the first episode of its prequel series Before the Storm. Now, developer Deck Nine issued a trailer for the second installment in the episodic adventure, which released on Thursday, October 19.
Both Chloe and Rachel were already going through some testing times in their family life in the first episode, and things only get more complex in this follow-up. The pair discusses making a break for it but there is some business to be taken care of before that can happen.
Chloe ends up running an errand for Frank Bowers, a drug dealer who will be very familiar to anyone who played through the original Life is Strange. The tasks take her into the seedy underbelly of Arcadia Bay and put her in considerable danger.
As the presence of Bowers might suggest, the second episode of Before the Storm features plenty of callbacks to the characters and locations we saw in Life is Strange. Deck Nine used the first episode to distinguish this new run from what went before, but it’s interesting to see the two seasons becoming more intertwined.
The studio had an unenviable task on its hands taking the reins from Dontnod Entertainment, the team that was responsible for the first game. The second installment looks to live up to the strong start that the premiere episode got off to, adhering to and expanding upon what’s already been established about Arcadia Bay.
The release also brings about an important technical addition to the experience, allowing players to select a 4K resolution on the PlayStation 4 Pro.
“Although PC players have been able to enjoy the game in 4K resolution since the release of episode 1, we are happy to announce that PlayStation Pro owners can now play all episodes in 4K by offering a ‘high-resolution’ mode,” Deck Nine’s Vice President Jeff Litchford said in a statement. “Alongside PS4 Pro support, Xbox One X users will also see 4K support later this year.”
The second episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm is available now for the Buy Now , Buy Now , and Buy Now .
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.