It’s been less than a day since The Division went live, and there’s already a big, potentially game-ruining problem: a narrow doorway in an early communal area that players can block if they are so inclined. According to Reddit and other reports, some trolling players definitely are.
Early in the game, players automatically spawn in the game’s first safehouse, which has an exit doorway that’s only wide enough for one person to pass through. Reports suggest that players have been standing in the doorway to block others from moving forward and, in some cases, trolling them with jumping jack emotes. Eurogamer replicated and captured the predicament for your amusement in the following video:
This is not the first time that The Division has shown a lack of foresight with regards to griefing and allowing players to act in bad faith. During the game’s public beta in January, PC players were able to access and modify player statistics, because the information was hosted on individual player clients, effectively breaking the game for any player they interacted with.
Luckily, there is a work-around for the doorway griefing problem, albeit a janky one: Players can “phase through” characters blocking their path by running at them for a few seconds, according to one Reddit user. It may sound weird and possibly a little too easy, but the solution was endorsed by an employee from developer Massive Entertainment. Redditors noted that players trying this must run, not walk, and shouldn’t let up or turn around until they pass through.
If that doesn’t work for you, another Reddit user suggested using the cover system to highlight the wall on the other side of the doorway, then holding the button/key to “move to” cover, will also allow players to phase through characters impeding their progress.
The Division is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC today.
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.