In July, publisher Activision released the first trailer for the upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. Reception from fans wasn’t great, with many claiming the game looked dated and boring. Last month, a new cel-shaded art style was quietly substituted in a set of new screenshots released by Activision.
Fans still weren’t happy. This time many complained that the game looked just plain weird, with some comparing the look to the Mortal Kombat games of the 16-bit era. That said, it was hard to judge the new look from a set of still images.
Now Activision has released a new trailer for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, and this one shows the new cartoonish look in action. Titled “The Skaters,” the video gives gamers an introduction to the skaters lending their likenesses to the game, though the security guard from the trailer released in July doesn’t make an appearance.
Reactions are still mixed, but overall the reception seems much warmer than was the case with the first trailer or the screenshots released earlier this month. While the look is a little strange in screenshots, in motion it seems to help distinguish the characters from the background.
The main complaint now seems to be that this isn’t the Tony Hawk of old. Fan favorite skaters from the earlier games are notably absent with the exception of Hawk himself, replaced by modern skaters like David Gonzalez, Lizzie Armanto, and Chris Cole.
The soundtrack for the game earlier this month drives that point home as well. While long-running punk band Anti-Flag has appeared in a Tony Hawk game before and Cloud Nothings would fit right in on the soundtrack of an older title in the series, the songs that fans fondly remember from the series are nowhere to be found.
We’ll find out how well the game stands up to previous entries in the series soon. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is out on September 29 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners will have to wait until November 10.
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.