Did you pick up a Nintendo Switch during the holiday season but find you are growing sick of the one or two games you got with it? If you’re looking to stock up on games for the handheld hybrid system, GameStop has some deals on games that you can’t pass up.
From January 3 through January 10, GameStop is offering a selection of downloadable Switch games for 30 percent off, and they’re all first or second-party titles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Octopath Traveler, Splatoon 2, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, and Arms are all available through the promotion for $42, and they’re all worth picking up for any die-hard Nintendo fan.
Of the games included, Octopath Traveler is the newest. The role-playing game combines 2D pixel art sprites with detailed 3D environments to create an effect unlike any other game on the system, and its combat system prioritizes tactics and resource management over blindly leveling your party members. It also happens to have one of the best soundtracks on the Switch, and if you’re looking for a game that can keep you busy for weeks at a time, it’s the perfect choice.
3DS owners can get in on the fun, as well, with big discounts on some of the system’s biggest games. Kirby Triple Deluxe and Yosni’s New Island are on sale for $14 each, while Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, Fantasy Life, and Mario Party: The Top 100 each cost $28. As with the Switch games, they are download codes rather than physical releases.
If you are looking to pick up physical cartridges instead, Target is offering similar deals, as well. All of the Switch games mentioned for GameStop are available for the same price at Target, and there are also savings available for third-party games. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is down to $50, and NBA 2K19 is down to just $30. Most items are available to ship, and almost all of them were in stock at our local Target store, as well.
Nintendo doesn’t generally offer its games for less than their standard MSRP in retail stores, so this is a great opportunity to build up your library for cheap. Aside from New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, 2019 will start a little more slowly for the system, so you’ll have plenty of time to get through your new purchases.
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.