Players will get to sail the open seas in Skull and Bones, an online open-world adventure set during the golden age of piracy. Ubisoft announced the upcoming game at its E3 2017 press conference on Monday.
Set on the Indian Ocean in 1721, players will take control of their own ship as they join a community of pirate gangs. During the quest for fame and fortune, pirates can build powerful fleets, customize ships, prey on trade routes, and take down rival pirate non-player characters or other online players.
There are multiple ways to play in the world of Skull and Bones. Solo players can raid the Hunting Grounds alone or team up with other players to tackle larger prey. By entering Disputed Waters, captains can fight other naval ships in a variety of game modes.
This marks the first game for Ubisoft Singapore, which previously developed Assassin’s Creed Unity alongside nine other studios. It is best known working on the ocean and naval gameplay in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Going a step beyond those naval battles, Skull and Bones utilizes weapons, spyglasses, and even the wind as players stalk and destroy their enemies.
This was just one of many announcements made during Ubisoft’s E3 2017 press conference. Other announcements include Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and The Crew 2. On Sunday, the next entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise was revealed during Microsoft’s Xbox briefing. Assassin’s Creed: Origins takes place earlier than any entry in the series to date and will reimagine aspects of the series.
Skull and Bones will be released in fall 2018 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Owners of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X can expect enhancements. Those interested should sign up for the Beta on Ubisoft’s website.
For more news coverage from E3 2017, keep can eye on our E3 roundup page throughout the week.
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.