While it took longer than most years, Activision has finally revealed and opened up pre-orders for this year’s installment of the mega-popular Call of Duty franchise, this time titled Call of Duty: Vanguard. Jumping back to their old stomping grounds of WWII, we have finally gotten our first glimpses of what this game will be like via Warzone, as well as the release date of November 5. While anything beyond the setting is still mostly shrouded in mystery, most people know what to expect from this franchise by now in terms of gameplay, multiplayer, and campaigns.
As is to be expected from a massive title like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Activision is offering the game in a few different editions that each offer their own bonuses at different price points. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that pre-ordering is the only way to get into the multiplayer beta for the game ahead of launch. For all the other details on what each edition is, how much they cost, and where you can buy them, we’ll give you all the details below.
Pre-orders for Call of Duty: Vanguard are up on the three major platform-exclusive storefronts, those being the PlayStation store, Xbox store, and on the PC through Battlenet. No matter what platform you are pre-ordering on, you will have the choice of three different editions, except PC only has two for reasons that will become obvious in a moment. For now, digitally pre-ordering is the only way to go, so you will either need to log into your account and go to your platform’s storefront on your PC, or into the store via the console itself to find the edition you want and pre-order there. Here’s how each edition breaks down.
This edition is available for all three platforms and is your most basic version of the game. It comes with a copy of Call of Duty: Vanguard, early access to the previously mentioned multiplayer beta, a Mastercraft Blueprint to use in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, the operator Arthur Kingsley to use in Cold War and Warzone, and the Frontline weapons pack. Bear in mind, however, that if you pick this edition on either PlayStation or Xbox, you will only get the last-gen version of the game, meaning PS4 or Xbox One. It will run you $60.
This edition is exclusive to PlayStation and Xbox players since, well, PC doesn’t really have multiple generations to pick from. Aside from all the perks of the Standard edition, this version gives you the option to play on either last- or current-gen systems, so PS4 and PS5 or Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, as well as five hours of 2WXP to use. Like most current-gen games, it will set you back a bit more at $70.
Finally, we come to the big boy, the Ultimate edition. Naturally, you’ll get everything from the previous editions, including both gen versions if you’re on console, but two important extras. First is an extra five hours of 2XP, but also the Vanguard Battle Pass Bundle. While we don’t know exactly what this bundle will entail, for hardcore Call of Duty players, it will likely be worth the $100 to lock down.
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.