Sony revealed a new character from Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End in a short cutscene shown during The Game Awards 2015 Thursday night.In the scene, Nathan Drake literally bumps into a woman named Nadine Ross, who says she’s “not in the mood for games,” as she challenges him to a fight over a crucifix they’re apparently both looking for. Though Ross’ name isn’t mentioned in the clip, developer Naughty Dog confirmed her moniker in a tweet, adding that the character is voiced by video game voice acting mainstay Laura Bailey, who you may have heard recently in Halo 5 and Tales From the Borderlands, among others.
Sony described Ross as a “decidedly less than friendly character” on the PlayStation Blog Thursday, which seems like an understatement based on the clip. However, at the risk of speculating, Sony’s vague language and the pair’s banter seems to leave the door open for Drake and Ross to become friends down the line.
In Uncharted 4, a retired (and married) Nathan Drake returns to action when his long lost brother Sam returns to ask him for help tracking down a fabled pirate treasure.
The single-player news accompanied the start of the Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta, which opened yesterday and runs through December 14. Sony packaged codes for the beta inside Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, which compiles remastered versions of the first Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception for the PlayStation 4. The beta allows users to play a single game type, team deathmatch, on two multiplayer levels. In the beta, players can control some of the series’ central characters, including Nathan, Elena, Sully, Sam, Katherine Marlow, and Lazarevic.
Looking forward, Naughty Dog will host a panel with the voice acting cast of Uncharted 4 about making the game at Sony’s PlayStation Experience convention in San Francisco this weekend. Fans will be able to try Uncharted 4 multiplayer offering on the PlayStation Experience show floor, as well.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will be available on PlayStation 4 on March 18.
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.