In what could either be a clever tease or an inadvertent mistake, jump pads are starting to appear across Kings Canyon in Apex Legends, particularly in the Market area of the map. This has led many users on Reddit to speculate that the next legend, thought to be Octane, will arrive in the coming days.
According to leaks, the jump pads are related to Octane’s Ultimate ability. Octane’s Ultimate lets them deploy jump pads on the map that launch players into the sky, according to a leaked screenshot shared on Reddit earlier this month. How they wound up on the map is a mystery, but it seems likely developer Respawn is doing a Fortnite-style tease, slowly introducing new elements into the world to create excitement.
It appears to be working, too. Numerous Reddit posts showcasing the jump pads have more than 1,000 replies. To add to the curiosity, Respawn developers have joined a few of the threads, offering various coy responses such as the smirking emoji. The developer responses don’t exactly suggest this was a mistake.
On top of the jump pads, other users are seeing what appears to be a server refresh screen. Additionally, some are saying they cannot view the Legends, perhaps because a new character is currently being added to the roster? By the time we checked for ourselves, everything looked normal on PlayStation 4, though.
A promotional image of Octane leaked last week. Octane looks much like the Psychos from Borderlands. Along with the jump pad ultimate, Octane has a tactical ability called Adrenaline Junkie which lets him move 30 percent faster for six seconds and a passive that restores health over time. Described as a “High Speed Daredevil,” Octane is thought to be the first Legend to launch alongside the season one Battle Pass.
Neither EA or Respawn revealed exactly when the Battle Pass will arrive, but it is expected sometime this month along with seasonal rewards. The arrival of the jump pads has led many to believe the pass will be available very soon. Four Apex Legends seasons are currently planned, with each featuring new Legends, weapons, and loot.
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.