Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has struggled to retain players due to odd gameplay decisions and controversial mechanics that have divided the community. A new feature, though, has players especially up in arms.
Recently, publisher Activision released an in-game store bundle that some players consider a “pay-to-win” option, stirring up criticism once again. The paid bundle, “Roze and Thorn,” gives DMZ players a free unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that temporarily reveals the locations of enemy players at the start of a match, immediately offering an advantage.
It’s easy to see what has fans miffed. The overpowered bundle gives players an advantage right at the start of a DMZ match. If a team of DMZ players all have this Operator equipped, they can coordinate to have three back-to-back UAVs running right at the start of the match, which can be devastating.
DMZ is Call of Duty‘s extraction mode, which requires players to earn loot and escape the map before the timer counts down. The map is filled with real players and AI bots, so there are plenty of ways to get eliminated early. Dying causes you to lose all the items you’ve earned, so the appearance of an early UAV can make or break a match for certain players.
Activision has done a decent job of addressing a large portion of criticisms from the community (although sometimes it takes a long time for it to issue fixes). However, since the pay-to-win store bundle is something players have spent money on, it’s unlikely we’ll see changes to it, so as to not upset players who purchased the bundle.
As part of Season 3, UAVs in DMZ were slightly nerfed, requiring players to wait a minute before utilizing UAVs. Though this is a step in the right direction, it still doesn’t do much overall, as players will still be able to spam their UAVs right after the one-minute countdown has elapsed.
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.