Not to be outdone by the Switch 2 itself, the already great Pro Controller is getting an upgrade. The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller will launch on the same day as the console, that’s June 5, and will bring some much needed improvements for gamers to take advantage of. The key features to get excited about are an audio jack, the new C button, and back buttons!
Visually the Switch 2 Pro Controller looks a lot like it’s predecessor, with a cool black finish. This time around, however, we have a silver accent on the shoulder buttons that brings to mind Xbox’s Elite Controller. In the center, the C button has been added to let players use the Switch 2’s new GameChat feature to talk and share screen capture with friends.
An audio jack at the bottom of the controller will let you connect headphones, which might not sound like a super high tech upgrade but feels welcome all the same. I personally can’t tell you how many times I wish every controller had this feature, as it makes connecting some high quality headphones to a console that much easier.
The big addition is of course back buttons! The new GR and GL buttons are placed on the inner grip of the control, as many high end controllers have featured in recent years, in order to give players more input customization. Nintendo confirmed that the Switch 2 Pro controllers back buttons can be assigned any other input. I can already imagine how much easier it will be to use Tears in Elden Ring thanks to this.
For all the other news out of the Switch 2 Direct, check out our liveblog.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.