As many gamers are likely aware, PAX West 2017 is less than a month away. Set for September 1-4 in Seattle, this gaming convention is jam-packed with exhibitors, panels, and more.
Kicking off the event each year is a keynote delivered by a notable figure in the video game industry. This year’s Storytime keynote will be delivered by Bungie’s Destiny 2 director Luke Smith. Two years prior to joining Bungie, Smith published a feature as a news editor at 1UP titled Broken Halo: Five Ways Bungie Can Fix Halo 2. During his time with the developer, Smith worked as a systems designer for Halo: Reach and Destiny, lead designer for Destiny‘s raids, and creative director for Destiny: The Taken King and Destiny 2.
“Luke Smith has been around the block, and I can’t wait to pick his brain about it,” says Jerry Holkins, co-founder of Penny Arcade. “I’m also going to see if they need writers over there at Bungie, because I’ve written a lot of fan fiction under various pseudonyms and I’ve got a ton of great ideas.”
Like other conventions throughout the year, PAX West 2017 features a number of panels for guests to attend. Highlights include Gearbox Software’s Inside Gearbox, Monolith Soft’s Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and CD Projekt RED’s Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of The Witcher. A full lineup of panels throughout the course of the show can be found on the PAX West 2017 website. Those who are not attending can enjoy the panels live on Twitch.
The show floor will be packed to the brim with exhibitors. Big names such as Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Bethesda, Bandai Namco, and more will have a presence, in addition to a large number of rising independent developers. A full lineup of more than 200 exhibitors can be found on the Guidebook App.
PAX West was founded in 2004 in an effort to connect leading game developers directly to their fan base. It provides a space where gaming is celebrated through panels, demos, concerts, tournaments, and more. Since its foundation, PAX has expanded to include West, East, South, Australia, and Unplugged events.
For those looking to get tickets, the bad new is that PAX West 2017 tickets are sold out and media registration has closed. The good news is there are many more PAX events still to come, not to mention Gamescom 2017 in Cologne, Germany, later this month.
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.