Blizzard released the first official teaser for the upcoming 27th hero in Overwatch, the studio’s blockbuster competitive shooter. The game’s official Twitter account shared an “After-Action Report” about an old Overwatch operation in Istanbul. The report is written by Captain Ana Amari (the elderly Egyptian sniping healer who was the first hero added post-release) and describes an incident in which Reinhardt heroically saves Torbjörn’s life. Although the little piece of lore could also potentially contain information about an upcoming map or the return of the popular “Uprising” event from last year, lead designer Jeff Kaplan confirmed in a Blizzard forum post that there is a hint about the upcoming hero in there.
[DECLASSIFIED] After-Action Report: Operation “WHITE DOME” pic.twitter.com/fvnUQQEFDC
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) February 23, 2018
The most obvious potential hint for a new hero in there is the only name we haven’t seen before: Private First Class Emre Sarioglu. It’s a male, Turkish name, but otherwise the copy contains no clear hints about who he is or what his role was at the incident other than simply being present. Emre could simply be our new hero, with more details emerging about him in the coming week through subsequent lore teases.
More of a stretch, the name “White Dome,” which is attached to the operation, could also be a hint. Because it describes an incident in Istanbul, the obvious reference would be the domes that sit atop the city’s famous mosques in the Sultanahmet neighborhood. However, it also might be an oblique allusion to what hero 27’s powers may look like. The general consensus among the community is that 27 is most likely to be a tank or defense character, and the “white dome” might refer to some sort of shielding technology that the character utilizes.
Even without Kaplan’s confirmation, fans were fairly certain that we would be getting hints for the next hero around this time because of how consistent Blizzard has been in its release schedule for Overwatch. It’s been just about one year since they added the lovable robot tank Orisa to the game, and thus far the team has kept to mirroring the schedule from the game’s first year for adding new characters and limited events. The “Year of the Dog” event for the Lunar New Year is still currently running, with the next one being a revival of the “Uprising” PvE event, which first ran in April 2017.
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.