Sony is adding the long-requested ability to play PlayStation 2 games on its PlayStation 4 console, the company recently confirmed to Wired.
It appears that the feature has already been quietly rolled out. A PS4 console bundle that is now available includes, along with the recent Star Wars Battlefront, a variety of classic Star Wars games: Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. The last three games in that list were originally released for PS2. Digital Foundry reported for Eurogamer that they appeared to not be adapted ports, but were in fact running in their original form through software emulation.
There are no further details about the emulation beyond Sony’s confirmation. We still don’t know when it will roll out more broadly, how many games will work, or whether it will require downloads or if you will be able to insert PS2 CDs directly.
Emulators use one computing platform to simulate the software and hardware environment of another, generally less powerful platform in order to run older software. Both the PS2 and PS3 launched with some backwards compatibility for their preceding consoles (although not all subsequent iterations of the PS3 did), making the PS4 an exception for not including the option. Microsoft made waves at E3 with its announcement of Xbox 360 backwards compatibility coming to the Xbox One, which just rolled out widely in the most recent system update.
Skipping back one generation further makes sense for Sony, since the PS2 was the dominant console of its generation, and remains among the best-selling consoles of all time. Its lineup includes all-time classics like God of War 1 & 2, Final Fantasy X, and Shadow of the Colossus.
At the time of this writing, Sony has declined to comment any further on the PS4’s emulation 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.