The Xbox One already has the excellent-looking pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves coming later in March, but Microsoft’s console will be getting another impressive console exclusive just a short while later. State of Decay 2 hits Xbox One and PC on May 22, and it’s cheaper than you might expect.
The release date was revealed via IGN as part of the site’s month-long “IGN First” program, which will give us new details on the game all through March.
A gameplay video was released alongside the announcement, showing off smooth third-person combat as well as a sampling of the disgusting zombies you will be fighting. Though somewhat similar in structure to Capcom’s Dead Rising series, there is much more emphasis on survival in State of Decay 2. You’ll have to manage resources at your settlements and gather survivors, but you won’t have to do so alone, as the game supports four-person online cooperative play. Each player will still maintain their own “personal community” of characters, but they’re free to drop into others’ games at any time.
State of Decay 2 will not feature one large map, but instead three separate maps — each is about the size of the original game’s map, and developer Undead Labs said this decision was made to avoid having déjà vu set in too quickly. As an added bonus, it will make it easier for the studio to add additional locations in the future, which should help to keep the game’s player count high.
State of Decay 2‘s standard version will set you back $30, while the “Ultimate Edition” will cost $50. This version of the game includes early access to State of Decay 2 as well free access to two pieces of DLC and the remastered State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition. The game was originally released as a digital game on the Xbox 360 in 2013.
When Buy Now releases on May 22, it will be as an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so buying a digital copy for one platform gets you the other for free, complete with cross-save support. Undead Labs has also hinted at a Steam version, if you prefer to not use the Microsoft Store.
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.