Fallout 76 was kind of a dud with fans when it launched in 2018 — and Bethesda Softworks has made many improvements since then. Now the publisher is hoping to lure players back, offering a free play weekend starting Thursday.
Starting at noon ET on Thursday, May 14, and running through noon on Monday, May 18, players can download and play Fallout 76 — and its expansions, including the most recent, Wastelanders, for free on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
Current players will earn double experience points for the length of the free trial weekend.
Critics and many players were not kind to Fallout 76 when it initially launched. The game had several bugs and the multiplayer focus didn’t sit well with many longtime fans of the game. Bethesda immediately acknowledged the criticisms and got to work improving the game. The culmination of that work is Wastelanders, which overhauled the in-game world of Appalachia, adding human NPCs, and new quests.
The expansion has been widely praised, with IGN saying “Fallout 76 is starting to feel like a true Fallout game. … New human NPCs bring a healthy dose of personality and interaction to the world and the new storyline is far more engaging because of them.”
The asterisk to that review is that most of the new story content is only available to players who are level 20 and above. New Fallout 76 players will have to grind like anyone else. That could frustrate some, but changes to the introductory content make it easier to reach that level.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.