In a move sure to disappoint horror movie fans who were looking forward to the upcoming addition of the Xenomorph from Alien and Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Kombat Pack 2 will not be coming to the PC version of Mortal Kombat X. NetherRealm Studios’ community specialist, Tyler Lansdown, dropped the news in a forum discussion on testyourmight.com: “Mortal Kombat XL and Kombat Pack 2 will available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One only.” (via Reddit)
The news follows on the recent trailer for the Kombat Pack 2 and includes the revelation of Mortal Kombat XL, an expanded version of the game that bundles all DLC. In addition to the Xenomorph and Leatherface, the second Kombat Pack adds returning character Bo Rai Cho, an obese, drunken kung fu master, and Triborg, a new character that hearkens back to previous series robots Sektor, Cyrax, and Smoke.
Developer NetherRealm Studios has also recently announced its plans to finally update the netcode supporting Mortal Kombat X‘s online play. The netcode used since launch has been a frequent point of contention in the community, too often creating lag that makes online play unfeasible, a situation that is unacceptable for one of the genre’s leading franchises in this day and age.
NetherRealm has opened up registration for a beta to test out a new netcode that will function similarly to the system used by GGPO (Good Game Peace Out), a proprietary middleware netcode created by fighting game community leader Tony Cannon to provide a nearly lagless experience for competitive online fighting games. It is not clear whether this update would also be applied to the PC version, but given the apparent lack of content support, chances do not look good.
This is not the first time in recent memory that publisher Warner Brothers incurred fan ire over PC versions of their AAA console games. Last year PC sales of Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight were suspended for a period of time because the port was so glitchy that it was unplayable.
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.