The success of Stardew Valley, an indie farming and lifestyle sim, caught a lot of people off guard when it launched earlier this year. This one-man passion project, a spiritual successor to the Harvest Moon franchise, quickly topped Steam’s sale charts when it was released, selling more than a million copies. Now that the post-launch madness has died down a bit, creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has had time to recuperate and look forward to the game’s future, which will involve co-op multiplayer, loads of new content, and console ports, according to a recent developer blog update.
Updates until now have focused on bug fixes and quality of life, so the upcoming version 1.1 will be the first major infusion of new content, focusing particularly on the late game. The full list of planned features (which is, of course, subject to change) includes:
In addition to 1.1, Barone also plans to add support for co-op multiplayer, as well as ports for Mac, Linux, and consoles. Publisher Chucklefish will be handling the ports, freeing up solo developer Barone to focus on adding new content to the game.
“This will allow me to focus on creating new game content for version 1.1, which I will continue to do entirely on my own,” said Barone. There is no word yet on a time fame for either version 1.1 or any of the additional promised features and versions.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.