Minecraft gets its next update on June 17, bringing the Chase the Skies update and the Vibrant Visuals overhaul to all Bedrock players. Minecraft fans have requested a visual update for years, and while some rumors suggested one might arrive on the Xbox One, it never came to fruition.
Vibrant Visuals is more than just a graphical update. It overhauls lighting, allowing sunlight to stream through the leaves of trees and reflect off the water’s surface. The update gives each biome a distinct atmosphere, and it also makes enemies that much more intimidating. Spiders were creepy enough without their eyes glowing in the dark. It’s important to note that Vibrant Visuals doesn’t change how the game functions, however; it’s strictly cosmetic, even if it does create a more tense atmosphere in certain areas.
Unfortunately, Vibrant Visuals only applies to Bedrock players. Anyone playing Minecraft Java will have to wait, but at least you’ll still get access to the Chase the Skies update. Chase the Skies introduces craftable saddles, something that has been sorely missing from the game. Until now, the only way to obtain saddles was through loot chests in temples and mineshafts. That made faster travel options limited until players stumbled across one.
That said, the most exciting part of the update is the Happy Ghast. Ghasts are mobs that inhabit the Nether and fling fireballs at you, often when you least expect it. With Chase the Skies, players can find dehydrated ghasts that can then be rehydrated in the overworld, saddled, and used as flying transport.
Chase the Skies brings loads of new features and gameplay changes that make Minecraft even more approachable, like easier-to-craft leads and the ability to lease multiple entities together at once. You’ll now be able to create your own caravan of llamas, just like the wandering traders.
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.