PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is already one of the biggest multiplayer games of 2017, even though it’s still in early access, with its official release recently pushed back to the end of the year. The experience hinges upon tense alliances made between competitors, but a new video demonstrates what happens when players attempt to get along with one another.
The clip, produced by gaming commentary channel DooM49, places 50 players in a map and sees them engage in a variety of different activities that don’t involve killing one another. They take part in a destruction derby, go for a quick swim, and even engage in a little target practice.
If you’re not familiar with Battlegrounds, it’s something of a spiritual successor to the popular “Battle Royale” mod for DayZ and other multiplayer titles. Up to a hundred players parachute onto an island, and from there on out they’re locked in a deadly contest to gather the best gear and kill off all their competition.
Brendan Greene — better known as PlayerUnknown — was the original creator of the mod, and he eventually decided to turn the game type into its own standalone game. Battlegrounds was the end result, and the title has already amassed a passionate fan base since it was released via Steam early access in March 2017.
The nature of the game means that players can never truly be sure of who they can trust, as anyone they meet in the game world could easily stab them in the back and steal their hard-earned gear. With up to 100 players in a game, forging partnerships with others can be the key to victory, even if these friendships are often quite fragile and temporary.
The high-stakes gameplay of Battlegrounds means that players aren’t typically afforded the opportunity to stop and smell the roses. The actual objective of the game is completely forgotten in the video by DooM49, leaving combatants to demonstrate just how much madcap fun there is to be had within the confines of the map.
If this clip has whetted your appetite to try out Battlegrounds for yourself, the game is available now via Steam early access, and is scheduled to hit the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at some point in the future.
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.