Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the generation-4 remakes for the Nintendo Switch, are nearly here. Trainers will be headed back to the Sinnoh region in the long-anticipated reboots to battle Team Galactic, encounter either Dialga or Palkia, and become the region’s Pokémon League Champion.
Needless to say, Pokémon fans are chomping at the bit to get their hands on one, or both, or these games when they release on November 19. If you want to kick off your Sinnoh adventure on launch day, you had better pre-order.
There are a lot of different ways to pre-order Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, with several unique bonuses depending on which retailer you pre-order from. Let’s break down your options.
If you’re just looking to pick up a single version of the generation-4 reboots, there are a couple bonus options on the table.
Nintendo: Digital pre-orders of either individual game at $59.99 come with a Manaphy Egg and 12 Quick Balls.
Pokémon Center: If you pre-order either version of the game from Pokémon Center, you’ll receive a bonus gift of one plush keychain featuring a Sinnoh first partner Pokémon — Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup. The plush keychain you get will be chosen at random. If you’re ordering multiple copies in hopes that you’ll nab your favorite starter or all three, know that you may get the same Pokémon twice.
If you’re a Pokémon super-fan or trainer dead set on completing your Sinnoh Pokédex solo, you’re going to want to snag both versions of the game. Nintendo is offering a Double Pack that includes both titles. Unfortunately, there’s no price discount for the Double Pack, but there are quite a few unique pre-order bonuses depending on your selected retailer.
Nintendo: A digital pre-order of the Double Pack at $119.99 comes with a Manaphy Egg, 12 Quick Balls, and 200 Poké Balls in each game. A physical pre-order of the Double Pack at $119.99 comes with a Manaphy Egg and 12 Quick Balls.
Pokémon Center: If you pre-order the Double Pack from Pokémon Center, you’ll receive plush keychains of all three starter Pokémon: Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup.
Best Buy: If you pre-order the Double Pack from Best Buy, you’ll receive an exclusive keychain that features all three starter Pokémon: Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup.
GameStop: If you pre-order the Double Pack from GameStop, you’ll receive a set of two pins featuring the legendary Pokémon Dialga and Palkia.
Walmart: If you pre-order the Double Pack from Walmart, you’ll receive a set of three pens featuring all three starter Pokémon: Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup.
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.