Sony spotlights The Last Guardian‘s soundtrack as part of its latest wave of pre-release announcements, revealing that players will have multiple options when buying the game’s music digitally or physically via a vinyl release.
The publisher also revealed it has a custom audio mode in store for The Last Guardian, which is specifically tuned for players who own a PlayStation audio headset.
Team Ico’s The Last Guardian is set to hit the PlayStation 4 by the end of 2016, wrapping up a nearly decade-long development cycle. Similar in structure to the PlayStation 2 classic Ico, The Last Guardian puts players in control of a young boy who befriends a gigantic winged creature. Together, the pair journey through detailed environments filled with puzzles that must be solved cooperatively.
The Last Guardian‘s soundtrack is composed by Takeshi Furukawa, with in-game tracks performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Trinity Boys Choir, and London Voices at Air Studios. After The Last Guardian launches in December, players will be able to listen to its soundtrack via a PS4-exclusive app prior to its forthcoming iTunes debut.
“We’re happy to announce that a The Last Guardian Composer’s Choice PS4 Music App of the score featuring 19 tracks will be available separately at launch via the PlayStation Store,” Sony producer Dais Kawaguchi wrote in a blog post. “The soundtrack app supports both stereo and surround playback, and also allows users to export all the tracks as stereo MP3 files via a compatible USB drive. The soundtrack will also be available via iTunes at a later date.”
A vinyl release for The Last Guardian will also launch in December through indie publishing label Iam8bit. Pricing for The Last Guardian‘s music app and vinyl release has not yet been revealed.
Players who want to experience The Last Guardian‘s soundtrack during gameplay can opt for a custom audio mode, which Sony outlined as part of Thursday’s news. The mode requires a PlayStation headset compatible with the PS4’s free Headset Companion App and must be activated prior to starting the game. While few details regarding the mode are known, Sony notes that it will “deliver a fine-tuned audio experience engineered for maximum immersion.”
The Last Guardian launches exclusively for the PlayStation 4 on December 6.
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.