When Sony first revealed Dreams during its E3 2015 Press Conference, it was like nothing that came before. Its painterly style was surreal, making each world a literal canvas for players to create their own. But after missing this year’s E3 and Sony’s Paris Games Week presentation, many are wondering if the game had been quietly canceled. Despite its absence, developer Media Molecule says that Dreams is very much alive.
According to the studio’s Halloween-themed Twitter account, Dreams might be coming sooner than people expect. “Congrats to all the WWS [Worldwide Studios] teams showing at PGW [Paris Games Week],” reads the post. “Those amazing trailers are getting us extra excited to share news soon.”
Anticipated fans were quick to reply to the post, asking how much longer they will have to wait. Media Molecule responded to each fan, stating “this year” again and again.
Backing up their claims was Sony’s senior vice president of Worldwide Studios, Michael Denny. “It is still in development and it is still very, very exciting,” Denny said in a statement to VG247. “It’s going to be massive, it’s incredible, we’ve shown lots of it before. When we come back with it again — that will be fairly soon, without putting any dates on it — it’s going to blow people away.”
Media Molecule’s last game was Tearaway: Unfolded for the PS4. Just as whimsical as when it first appeared on the PlayStation Vita, Tearaway takes players into a papercraft wonderland. Both versions of the game take full advantage of the platform. On Vita, players push their finger through the back touchscreen, take pictures, and cut out shapes to stick to their character. The PS4 offers a companion app for cutting out shapes, but also uses the controller to light up dark areas.
With Dreams, the studio fully embraces the creative side of their past games. Everything from the ground to the characters can be created and animated from scratch. Such a robust creative system can be overwhelming to new players, so it’s no wonder that they are taking their time. If the developers really expect to share more before the end of the year, then Sony’s PlayStation Experience 2017 would be the next likely place.
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.