Sony has announced its initial lineup of games that will benefit from the added processing power and improved display capabilities of its upcoming PlayStation 4 Pro console, including standouts like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Rise of the Tomb Raider.
PlayStation 4 Pro owners will also see performance improvements in upcoming releases like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Sony detailed its many planned hardware improvements for the PlayStation 4 Pro console during a lives-treamed presentation Wednesday, revealing that players can expect a faster GPU, improved processing power, and display capabilities that support high-dynamic range and 4K resolution.
A number of previously issued PlayStation 4 games will be updated to support the PlayStation 4 Pro’s capabilities, including Sony’s downloadable Infamous: Second Son spinoff Infamous: First Light, Warner Bros’ open-world action game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Sony notes that select games will be given performance-boosting software updates after the launch of its upgraded hardware, making them “forward compatible” with PlayStation 4 Pro consoles,
Publisher Activision also plans to support the PlayStation 4 Pro at launch with an optimized version of its upcoming first-person shooter Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Activision will also issue a software update for last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 that will enable faster frame rates on PlayStation 4 Plus consoles.
Many of the PlayStation 4 Pro-compatible titles showcased during today’s event are slated for release in 2017, including BioWare’s spacefaring RPG Mass Effect Andromeda, Guerrilla Games’ sci-fi third-person shooter Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Sony Bend’s zombie apocalypse action game Days Gone.
Sony revealed that it will upgrade “more than half a dozen” first-party games with support for PlayStation 4 Pro-specific features. A number of undisclosed third-party publishers are preparing similar updates for dozens of additional PS4 games, according to Sony.
The PlayStation 4 Pro console will be priced at $400 when it hits retail on November 10.
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.