Minecraft fanatics have a new excuse to return to their custom-built worlds with this week’s launch of the Exploration Update, a free expansion that adds an array of new enemies, items, and quests.
The Exploration Update is tailored for players who enjoy trawling Minecraft‘s untamed wilderness in search of treasure, as new elements like map traders and llama caravans make player-led expeditions more likely to yield rare equipment and other valuables.
After installing the new Exploration Update, players will soon meet the Cartographer, a new villager type that doles out treasure maps in exchange for emeralds. Treasure maps lead players to all-new locations and dungeons that have sprouted across Minecraft‘s worlds since the game’s last content-expanding update.
Players who follow the new treasure maps carefully may stumble across seaside Ocean Monuments, which contain deadly Guardians that give up valuable resources when defeated. Well-equipped explorers will also want to check out Woodland Mansions, a new location type festering with magic-wielding “Illagers.”
Minecraft veterans who successfully clear a Woodland Mansion of enemies are awarded the Totem of Undying, a rare item that automatically saves players from perilous situations that would otherwise mean death. The Totem of Undying activates when a player’s health meter empties, restoring them to full strength after unexpected enemy ambushes and long falls.
Wilderness survival also becomes a safer prospect with Monday’s launch of the Exploration Update, as players can now saddle wild llamas to build a protective caravan train. With multiple llamas in tow, explorers will have little to fear from the monsters that roam Minecraft‘s worlds, as befriended llamas will automatically target nearby threats and chase them off with spitballs.
The Exploration Update is available as a free download for the Windows 10 and Mac versions of Minecraft. Equivalent updates for the console versions of Minecraft are coming soon.
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.