Multiple games were targeted for release on October 7, 2014 before moving to new homes. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor jumped forward a couple weeks, arriving on September 30. Dragon Age: Inquisition got a backward push, to mid-November. And in a game of chicken between 2K’s NBA 2K15 and EA Sports’ NBA Live 15, it was EA that blinked first; Live 15 is an October 28 release now.
Even after all of that shifting. there’s still plenty to choose from this week. Let’s take a look.
PS3/PS4/Windows/X360/XB1 (October 7)
Visual Concepts had one of the most beautiful games available when Microsoft’s and Sony’s new consoles launched in late 2013, and the studio’s latest basketball sim looks like it’s poised to deliver the same level of eyeball-pleasing experience. NBA 2K15 is likely to handle as well as other recent iterations of the series, but with one more year to build a game for current-generation hardware, the real question is how much of a visual uptick can be expected.
Visual Concepts has owned the realm of video game basketball for multiple years now, and that dominance doesn’t seem like it’s going to abate at all in 2014.
PS3/PS4/Windows/X360/XB1 (October 7)
In space, no one can hear you scream. But on your living room couch, with a Xenomorph running your avatar through with its pointed tail, everyone can hear you scream. Alien: Isolation is a survival horror take on Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi series, from the Creative Assembly. There’s just one monster hunting you throughout the story, but it can’t be killed and it’s always trailing just a few steps behind you.
The Alien series hasn’t had a great run in video games lately, and Sega hopes Isolation will correct that. Using the original 1979 film as a springboard into what amounts to a sequel story is certainly a good start.
PS4 (October 7)
Evolution Studios is best known for its intense, arcade-style offroad racing series, MotorStorm, but the team takes a sharp U-turn in its PlayStation 4 debut. Driveclub edges closer to being a simulation and, more importantly, it focuses on road races. It also has a social bend in its titular clubs, which let players group up and put their successes toward shared goals.
There’s no Gran Turismo yet for Sony’s latest console, and that’s probably got a lot to do with Driveclub. The two games couldn’t be more different, but they share a similarly sleek sense of style and they both put as much emphasis on the culture around cars as they do on the cars themselves … just in different ways.
Linux/Mac/Windows (October 7)
For some, Halloween is about dressing up in costumes and filling a sack with candy (or toilet paper, for the tricksters, among you). You do that in Costume Quest 2 as well, but there’s a role-playing game wrapped around it. In this world, costumes transform their wearers into Hallo-warriors (YUP) while Creepy Treat Cards aid you in a battle against good hygiene. Because let’s be honest here: The true villain on Halloween is a toothbrush.
Costume Quest 2 is also coming to all of the consoles, but it’s not clear exactly when. You can get it on Steam starting this week.
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.