Metallica fans got a rare look at the band’s canceled car combat game Damage Inc this week, as the first-ever gameplay footage from the scrapped project has surfaced more than a decade after it was originally announced.
Featuring gameplay in the vein of genre staples like Twisted Metal and Smuggler’s Run, Damage Inc was intended for release in the mid-2000s for PCs, the PlayStation 2, and the original Xbox before its sudden cancellation. An in-progress prototype version has since been discovered, and gameplay footage released this week gives fans a taste of what might have been.
Developed by the since-shuttered Black Rock Studio, creator of racing games like MotoGP and The Italian Job, Damage Inc would have featured a post-apocalyptic storyline in which players drove heavily armed, customizable vehicles across vast stretches of bombed-out wasteland.
Similar to the contemporary PlayStation 2 release Twisted Metal Black, Damage Inc featured high-speed vehicular combat mechanics at its core. Unlike many competing games in the genre, however, Damage Inc. allowed players to exit their vehicles and hijack their opponents’ rigs at any point during gameplay, Grand Theft Auto style.
Fans got their first glimpse at Damage Inc. in a prerendered trailer included with Metallica’s 2003 album St. Anger, which teased a 2005 release. Little else regarding the project was revealed in the years since, as Damage Inc. was canceled behind the scenes by publisher Vivendi Universal. Upon discovering a prerelease build of the game, YouTube channel PtoPOnline uploaded a brief snippet of in-game footage this week, marking the first time that actual gameplay from Damage Inc has been showcased publicly.
According to PtPOnline, the project was canned after developer Black Rock Studio merged with Climax Group, and licensing issues may have further delayed development. Black Rock Studio would later go on to produce acclaimed racers like Pure and Split/Second prior to its closure in 2011.
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.