Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 will launch with cross-progression across all platforms. The publisher released an explainer on Overwatch’s official website on Tuesday, telling players everything they need to know about cross-progression and merging their accounts before the sequel launches on October 4.
All Overwatch 2 players will need a Battle.net account to play the game, regardless of their platform. Starting on August 16, Blizzard will let players choose the console accounts they want to merge into their Battle.net account. By doing this, players can carry all the items and progression they gained in the first game over to the sequel, regardless of the platforms they’re playing on.
That said, there are some caveats. Players can only merge one account per platform, so players might want to link the account they spent the most on or have the highest ranking on to Battle.net. with the highest ranking or the most money spent. It’s also important that players link the correct console accounts to your Battle.net account and double-check them before confirming because players can merge them only once ahead of Overwatch 2′s release. If a player messes up during this process, they risk losing content that they paid for.
Once Overwatch 2 launches into early access on October 4 and all of a player’s console accounts are merged, they can unlink any of them from their Battle.net account at any time. However, there will be a one-year cooldown on linking any new accounts. PC players should have the smoothest transition, as all your progress from Overwatch will be automatically transferred to Overwatch 2 if both games are connected to a Battle.net profile.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.