After an exciting lineup at PAX Prime, Razer continues to spread the Chroma lighting love throughout its peripherals, but that’s not all that showed up at IFA. After eight years on ice, Razer has reintroduced the Diamondback, a unique mouse with a huge following.
The Diamondback has an unusual long, narrow body that appeals to a wide array of grip types, and it’s ambidextrous so no one has to miss out. The design was praised highly when it launched in 2004, and was the first example of an optical sensor in a gaming mouse. To this day, a classic Diamondback is tough to find, but that won’t be the case soon.
This time around, everyone will have the chance to enjoy the Diamondback, and it’s been equipped with modern technology. New rubberized grip pads help you keep a hold of the sides, and two buttons on the left are easy to access for left handed players as well. Chroma is introduced in the form of a band that runs the outside of the mouse. It’s been souped up under the hood as well. With a 16,000 DPI sensor and 0.1mm lift-off distance, the Diamondback is a seriously premium gaming mouse, and you can pre-order now for just $90 to have it in October.
On the mobile front, Razer’s Orochi laptop gaming mouse now has Chroma, and improved Bluetooth for better response times and battery life. It’s also packing a 8,200 DPI sensor, but is still rated for 60 hours of continuous gaming. On the outside, the Orochi has an improved metal top and a re-shaped silhouette to match its advanced internals. At $70, it’s definitely on the high-end side for a mobile mouse, and you can pre-order now for an October release.
And last but not least, Razer takes the Kraken gaming headset to the streets with the Kraken Mobile. Available in six neon colors, the Kraken Mobile features 40mm drivers and a lightweight fit, and now also includes a detachable in-line microphone and controls for iOS devices. It’s priced at $90 and is already rolling out to shelves and the Razer store.
For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.
I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.
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.