To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Tetris, the best game of all time (you can’t change our minds on this), Digital Eclipse is releasing Tetris Forever, an interactive museum and collection that lets you play Tetris titles from across history, along with a brand new version.
Tetris Forever was revealed during Nintendo’s August Partner Showcase on Tuesday. It doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s planned for sometime this year. It’ll also be available across all platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and GOG.
The collection will, of course, feature a “recreation” of the original 1984 Tetris, along with the 1988 Famicom version, Tetris 2+ Bombliss, the multiplayer Tetris Battle Gaiden, Tetris 3, and others. There’s also a new Tetris, called Tetris Time Warp, which fits right in with the retrospective element of the collection by letting you switch between different gameplay and visual eras. It also supports up to four-player co-op.
The pack also has 90 minutes of new documentary video chronicling the game’s history and its creators, alongside an interactive museum element that lets you explore photos, video, and other archival materials. This all feels like the ultimate way to experience Tetris outside of an arcade or having a gigantic collection of separate titles.
The Atari-owned Digital Eclipse specializes in classic video games, and has made a name for itself over the past few years with collections that pack together games, videos, and more into “interactive documentaries.” Recent products include Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, which lets you play through 42 Minter titles, and The Making of Karateka, which not only offers up the original two game in the series, but also a game-like way to explore prototypes and video.
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.