A new augmented reality game from Niantic is on the way, and this time it’s being created in partnership with Marvel and will feature plenty of iconic faces from the comics. The game was announced today during Disney & Marvel’s games showcase and has a 2023 release window.
Niantic is the king of mobile AR gaming experiences. The studio brought the world titles like Pokémon Go and the recently shuttered Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. This is the first time the team is collaborating with the Marvel franchise.
Niantic’s press release for the game describes it as “the first Marvel game where players become their own unique Marvel Super Hero,” noting that “Marvel World of Heroes breaks new ground by extending gameplay into the real world as only Niantic games can. The game is designed to be a social game experience and pits players, their friends, and their iconic Marvel Super Hero allies against Marvel Super Villains and interdimensional threats.”
The press release also states that players will create their own super identity and origin story. Once this is done, they are tasked with patrolling their neighborhoods to “foil crimes, complete Super Hero missions, and thwart interdimensional threats.” In doing this, players will level up and unlock equipment and abilities and team up with actual Marvel heroes like Spider-Man and Wolverine. What is precisely entailed in these tasks of foiling crimes and more is still up in the air.
Players can use their phones to join up with their favorite Marvel heroes in Marvel World of Heroes when it releases in 2023.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.