Citing “community feedback,” the EA has recently made some tweaks to the progression system in Need for Speed Payback. In a post on the official Reddit forum, developer F8RGE acknowledged that the company has “been using Community feedback, along with our own in-game data and have come up with a number of changes, many of which are in the process of going live.”
While the complaints about the Star Wars Battlefront II loot box system were much louder, Payback players have also been critical about the game’s microtransactions and the difficulty inherent in unlocking new parts and upgrades.
EA first rolled back some of the difficulty for unlocking Battlefront characters and then ultimately ditched the loot box system altogether. Although microtransactions remain in Payback, it’s at least not so arduous to unlock progress.
According to the post, these are the changes you can expect to notice:
As a tip, you are also encouraged to recycle the speed cards for tokens, and to buy out all the parts from the tune-up shop and recycle them.
“We believe that owning a garage of customized cars is part of the essence that makes Need for Speed what it is,” Ghost Games said in a subsequent post on the official Need for Speed blog.”
The blog post also explained that Air Suspension was found in shipping crates less often than other modications due to there only being one type of Air Suspension, while most other modifications have multiple types.
Additionally, the rewards for competing in a Ranked Speedlist have been improved. Winning a Speedlist will now guarantee you receive a car part, while just participating gives you a 50 percent chance of receiving one.
F8RGE noted that this is just “phase one,” and that further changes are planned for the future regarding parts available in the tune-up shop.
Microtransactions may be here to stay, however, as Ghost Games producer Marcus Nillson argued recently in an interview with Rolling Stone. “It’s clear prices haven’t really gone up,” he says. “That’s clear. I also know that producing games is more expensive than it has ever been.”
He points out that the vanity items mostly just save you some time if you purchase them with real money. “The bottom line is that it’s very hard to find this golden path that’s liked by everyone,” he said.
First announced back at E3, Need for Speed Payback is a more story-oriented take on the venerable franchise, with a Fast and Furious vibe and a huge open world to explore. It’s available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Update: Added information from official Need for Speed blog post.
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.