On Wednesday, Madrid-based developer Tequila Works revealed that its exploration-driven desert island puzzler Rime will arrive for consoles and PCs in May after spending more than five years in development. Originally announced as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, Rime will see a multiplatform release at launch, arriving simultaneously for the PS4, Xbox One, and Windows PCs via Steam.
In Rime, players control a young boy who finds himself stranded on a mysterious island after a storm dashes his ship against its shore. The island appears to be uninhabited, though its surrounding environment reveals countless progression-blocking puzzles constructed by an unknown entity.
Throughout the adventure, players must use environmental objects to solve puzzles by building bridges, reflecting beams of light, and changing the time of day, among other included mechanics. During their journey, players will also dive into underground pools, suggesting that deeper secrets lie hidden beneath the island.
Rime will make its long-awaited debut in May following a series of development setbacks and funding issues over the course of its development history. Initially greenlit as an exclusive title for the Xbox One, Microsoft eventually rescinded its publishing offer, leaving the game without a platform to call home.
Rime later resurfaced as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, though developer Tequila Works afterward opted to “reacquire the rights” to the game in order to pursue a multiplatform release through its new publishing partners Grey Box and Six Foot.
Tequila Works first found success with Deadlight, a side-scrolling survival horror game that originally premiered in 2012 via Xbox Live Arcade. A remastered version, Deadlight: Director’s Cut, later arrived for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PCs.
Rime will launch digitally and at retail for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PCs through Steam on May 26. A port for the Nintendo Switch is also in the works, but a release date for Nintendo’s platform is not yet known.
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.