First revealed with a cinematic trailer at E3 2016, the Bethesda-published reboot of Prey caught our attention for looking like Dead Space by way of the Shocks (both System Shock and BioShock). The first gameplay trailer, shared at the recent QuakeCon event, has only piqued our interest further.
Set in the near future, you control Morgan Yu aboard the space station Talos I in lunar orbit. Experiments in enhancing humans with alien DNA have (predictably) gone horribly awry, and as the first recipient of these abilities, it’s Morgan’s responsibility to survive, understand, contain, and escape the alien threat that has taken over the station.
Human Head Studios developed the original Prey in 2006, and had been working on a sequel for several years before publisher Bethesda canceled the project. The new Prey, which is more of a reimagining than a sequel or a remake, has been instead developed by Dishonored creator Arkane Studios.
Just as Dishonored‘s systemic, stealth gameplay encouraged an improvisational approach to problem-solving, so, too, will Prey give the player a wide range of tools with which to survive and no obvious correct answer. Morgan will adopt more alien abilities throughout the course of the game, adding a layer of role-playing game customization to how he plays. For instance, in footage shown at QuakeCon, he assumed the ability of object-imitating mimic aliens to turn himself into a mug and roll through a narrow space.
Arkane has proven itself a smart and skilled developer with Dishonored, which is easily one of the best games of its console generation. Using that knack for tight, interlocking gameplay systems and compelling world-building for science fiction survival horror is an exciting proposition, and we’re very intrigued to learn more as its development continues.
Prey will arrive some time in 2017 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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.