Konami just announced Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, a package that will modernize two classic PlayStation RPGs. It will launch in 2023 for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
The first two Suikoden games were released in 1995 and 1998, respectively, for the original PlayStation. They were then made available for other platforms like the Sega Saturn and PC. Both games were also rereleased once before for the PlayStation Portable in a bundle called Genso Suikoden I & II in 2006. However, this version was never released outside of Japan.
The remake has enhanced visuals with improved lighting, cloud effects, and shadow animations. The art direction has been redesigned, breathing new life into the original’s style. The character portraits have also been redrawn and updated in HD by Junko Kawano, the artist who originally designed the characters in 1995.
More environmental sound effects have been added that weren’t present in the original version, including running water, wind, insect noises, and running footsteps. There are also some new quality-of-life features such as a dialogue log, auto-battle functionality, and double-speed battle capability.
The last mainline entry for this franchise was Suikoden V in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, and the last spinoff game was Gensō Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century for the PlayStation Portable, the latter of which was released in 2012 and never left Japan. Since then, the series has been dormant. However, Kawano, along with fellow series creator Yoshitaka Murayama, teamed up in 2020 to form the studio Rabbit & Bear to develop a spiritual successor to Suikoden called Eiyuden Chronicle.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.