Pikmin 4 will come to Nintendo Switch sometime in 2023, one decade after the last game in the series. This news comes by way of the September 2022 Nintendo Direct. While it’s unknown when the game will launch or what all of its new features will be, we do know the game will include a new camera perspective.
Nintendo released a very short, 34-second teaser trailer for the new game showing off the gorgeous environment, along with the deadly Bulborb, and of course, the lovable Pikmin. It’s unclear if this new entry will feature new Pikmin types, or which new planets you’ll get to visit, but Nintendo will surely show off more before its release.
The game’s new perspective allows you to play from the Pikmin’s point of view, which is a first for the series. It’s likely the game will still play like the previous installments, with an emphasis on commanding the Pikmin around large, colorful planets.
Interestingly, in 2015, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told Eurogamer that Pikmin 4 was in development and nearly finished. “We can confirm that Pikmin 4 is in development but that is all we can confirm at present,” Miyamoto said. “It’s actually very close to completion. Pikmin teams are always working on the next one.”
However, it seems that its development was rebooted in 2019 or so, according to insider Emily Rogers. Evidently, the game suffered from development issues at the time, not unlike Metroid Prime 4, which also restarted development in 2019.
The previous game, Pikmin 3, launched for the Wii U in 2013, so by the time the next entry releases, it will have been a decade between installments.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.