Nintendo is bringing yet another iconic Nintendo 64 Legend of Zelda game to its subscription service in February. Come next month, Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers will have access to The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Nintendo Switch Online is Nintendo’s paid membership that allows players to access online multiplayer, voice chat, cloud saving, and a library of Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo titles. Its new Expansion Pack tier adds Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games to this library.
Majora’s Mask is the 12th game being added to the Nintendo 64 portion of the expansion pass and is set to join the others in February. The classic Zelda title follows behind the library’s last addition, Banjo Kazooie, which is available today.
It seems that Nintendo is adding one game a month if its current scheduling is anything to go by, which may call the value of the added tier pricing into question for subscribers. However, there’s also just a small number of quality Nintendo 64 games worth adding to the library, which may make the “one game a month” model a sensible call.
The pass’ previous issues may outweigh the positives of the program. For players who are already put off by Switch Online’s $50 pricing tier for Expansion Pack, the slow drip of game additions only further brings the value of the subscription service into question.
Currently, Expansion Pack adopters can access 11 different Nintendo 64 games. Here’s the current list of games as of January 2022.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.