After much teasing, and a lot of prodding by the community, Psyonix has officially announced Rocket League for Nintendo Switch at the first Nintendo Treehouse from E3 2017. The follow-up to the cult hit Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars made its debut in the Summer of 2015, and has become a constant presence in the gaming community ever since — and now it’s gone portable.
Right out of the gate, the Switch version of Rocket League will feature all the game modes and features found in the other versions of Rocket League. Since release, the team at Psyonix has added a bevy of new game types, including Hockey, volleyball in the form of Dropshot, and a number of rotating modes. It will also sport cross-network play, although between what systems is still up in the air.
There’s also a raft of customization options, from tires to hats, and Nintendo users will see some exclusive Mario and Luigi hats, among other exclusive cars that the team wasn’t ready to talk about today. The Nintendo Switch version of Rocket League will feature some unique features for the console, including local wireless multiplayer, presumably so players can sit around somewhere with out dedicated Wi-Fi and get their game on.
The multiplayer title is a big grab for Nintendo, which is looking to bolster not just a larger game library for the Switch, but a selection of more precise, competitive games. With the upcoming debut of Arms, a boxing game, and Splatoon 2, which already has a rich following and competitive scene, Rocket League should feel right at home by the time it releases later this year.
There’s no exact release date for Rocket League on Nintendo Switch, but a release window of this holiday season was mentioned. There are clearly more details forthcoming about the port, and we’re excited to hear more about it, possibly even on the showfloor during our continuing coverage of E3.
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.