Ubisoft is walking back another promised feature for its medieval melee combat game For Honor, revealing this week that the game’s single-player story mode requires a persistent online connection in order to function.
The sudden revelation arrives a few weeks before the game is set to launch worldwide, and directly contradicts Steam and Uplay listings that currently advertise an offline campaign mode.
Ubisoft’s latest For Honor retraction arrives after the removal of a promised split-screen multiplayer mode, a gameplay element that the publisher previously described as “a key feature.” While it’s likely that the absence of split-screen multiplayer boils down to a lack of internal development time or focus, the reasoning behind For Honor‘s always-online requirement is murkier.
Noticing a discrepancy between For Honor‘s advertised offline mode and pre-release box-art indicating a persistent online connection requirement, members of gaming forum NeoGAF contacted Ubisoft for clarification. The publisher later confirmed its intentions in a direct response.
“We can confirm that For Honor is an always online experience,” the statement reads. “Some elements of progression, which is hosted online, are shared across story and multiplayer modes. Players will need to be connected to the internet at all times to play For Honor.”
“For Honor offers an engaging single-player, offline campaign and thrilling multiplayer,” the game’s description currently reads on Steam.
Gamers and Ubisoft fans in particular are typically wary of online connection requirements for single-player experiences. Ubisoft previously attempted a similar DRM scheme with Assassin’s Creed II, demanding that players maintain a constant connection with Ubisoft’s servers in order for the game’s storyline to continue. In practice, the requirement ended up booting players from gameplay unexpectedly due to server instability. Ubisoft quietly scaled back Assassin’s Creed II‘s DRM following a fan backlash.
For Honor will launch for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC platforms on February 14, 2017.
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.