Stardew Valley console and mobile players will want to start a new farm soon. The long-awaited 1.6 update is finally available for all platforms on Monday, bringing with it a new farm type, more dialogue with NPCs, new events, and too many other things to count.
The 1.6 update launched for PC players on March 19, so console and mobile players have been waiting almost eight months for the release. In July, developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that it was taking longer than expected. The following month, he wrote in another post that the ports have been the “primary focus” for the team. He had even stopped working on the Stardew follow-up Haunted Chocolatier to get the console and mobile updates finished.
The reason they took so long is because, according to Barone, it takes longer to update the console versions with bug fixes. He wanted to get all fixes ironed out on PC first before ensuring console and mobile were ready.
“The truth is, I didn’t expect console to take this long, but there have been technical issues with the porting process. I was originally hoping it would be maybe, 1 month apart max. At any rate, I feel bad about it,” he wrote.
Do note that there is currently a bug where opening the coop door day one on a new Meadowlands Farm will cause your chickens to disappear. Barone wrote on X that you can think of it as a “wild coyote,” but in actuality, a fix is in the works. Barone also said that the PlayStation version in Europe is “not working” but the team is looking to address this “ASAP.”
If you’re hopping into the console or mobile port today, congratulations! Here’s a tip: Make sure to start a new save with the Meadowlands Farm to truly get a sense of the new additions, especially the new festivals and events. It’s also worth it to see how this new farm type, which comes with blue grass and a chicken coop, changes up the game.
Barone also released a small 1.6.9 update to all players. It isn’t as extensive as 1.6, but there is some new content in here, including a Lost Items Shop where players can pay a mysterious new friend 10,000 gold to buy items you can’t re-obtain if lost — statue decorations, furniture, cosmetics, and even a new item that’s just listed as “???” on the official wiki. There are also new Easter eggs, and even hidden cheat commands.
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.