Microsoft kicked of its E3 2017 press conference with the official reveal of the Xbox One X, and to show off the power of the new hardware, we were given our first glimpse of the high-spec Forza Motorsport 7. Racing games have long since set the standard for high fidelity graphics on consoles, and this title looks set to be no exception.
Developer Turn10’s creative director Dan Greenawalt appeared on stage to reveal that a brand new Porsche supercar was set to be unveiled at E3, as part of the multi-year agreement the studio recently inked with the manfuacturer. The Porsche 911 GT2 RS was then brought on stage, making its official debut, before we saw its in-game equivalent.
Pro drivers Shannon McIntosh and Verena Mai were then introduced to show off some of the game’s multiplayer action. McIntosh took on a circuit on the outskirts of Dubai, whereas Mai was tasked with the world-famous Nurburgring in Germany.
Forza Motorsport 7 will aparrently run at a native 4K resolution at a “rock-solid” 60 frames per second. The track set in Dubai certainly showed off these high-end visuals, with crystal clear skies stretching out to the city skyline far in the distance.
However, the game looks even more impressive when its various different weather conditions come into play. Dark clouds loom large over the racetrack, and when rain comes, realistic puddles of water are left on the road surface.
Greenawalt stated that these weather effects are dynamic, and will change over the course of a race. For instance, you might see clouds begin to break, with sunlight beaming through as a result.
Forza Motorsport 7 is scheduled to release on October 3, 2017, and will be available for both the Xbox One and Windows 10, although it’s clear that the game has been developed with the extra muscle of the Xbox One X in mind.
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.