This weekend at TwitchCon 2019, Digital Trends video producer Riley Winn took to the showroom floor to try out some gaming supplements. From G Fuel to Respawn, these drinks often promise players improved performance while gaming. You’ll often see video game streamers or e-sports players who are sponsored by one of these gaming-supplement brands drinking or taking them during long streams or at competitions — but do they actually work?
Well, we don’t actually know if they do, and honestly, they’re really just energy supplements marketed to gamers. But Winn did try a lot of them out, and the results are pretty on par with what you’d expect: Some were good while others weren’t so good. Winn ended up sweaty, jittery, and felt like he was going to puke. He ended up burning off a lot of that energy dancing at the end of it all, so we guess this experiment was good for something.
We don’t recommend doing this. Actually, we highly discourage it. We encourage everyone to take these supplements as advised on the packaging if you decide to try them at all.
Below is a list of all the gaming supplements we tried at TwitchCon and above is a video of Riley’s reaction to all of them.
TwitchCon is an annual convention in San Diego where Twitch streamers and fans travel from all over the world to attend. Featuring a variety of events such as meet and greets, e-sports competitions, panels, and even a cosplay contest, it’s a convention that invites people of all interests — whether it be gaming, autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), or watching episodes of Bob Ross — to come together and celebrate.
Just like last year, Digital Trends joined in on the festivities and caught up with a number of Twitch streamers for some fun interviews. Streamers Jericho, Ovilee May, Destiny, Nadeshot, and many more, took a moment out of their day to hang out with us and answer some interesting questions for your (and our) entertainment. Make sure to check back for additional TwitchCon 2019 content, as we’ll be posting more as the week goes on.
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.