Publisher Electronic Arts and developer Omega Force revealed new details and the debut trailer for Wild Hearts, a new monster-hunting game that will release on February 17, 2023, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
The game takes place in the land of Azuma. It has been overrun with a type of yokai based on Japanese folklore, called Kemono, which has evolved along with their surrounding environments. There are different creatures ranging from plant-infused squirrels to massive beasts like the frozen Deathstalker.
There were other massive creatures mentioned as well, including the Kingtusk, Lavaback, and Earthbreaker. What separates Wild Hearts from other games in the monster-hunting genre is that players can build giant stationary weapons to place on the battlefield by utilizing karakuri technology. Players will need to lure monsters toward such contraptions as giant hammers and harpoons.
Wild Hearts will also support crossplay and up to three player co-op. Omega Force explains that it originally considered four player co-op, but capped it at three due to balance issues concerning the karakuri.
As Wild Hearts is not coming to the previous generation of consoles, Omega Force also says that it embraced the challenge of using new technology and maximizing the game’s performance. Koei Tecmo director Takuto Edagawa explains: “Specifically, we have improved the atmosphere by incorporating more accurate indirect light and increased density by placing higher-resolution fields, Kemono, and objects in the game.”
Wild Hearts joins an increasingly stacked February 2023 game release schedule. The month ALSI includes games like Dead Island 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Octopath Traveler II, Destiny 2: Lightfall, and Like a Dragon: Ishin!
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.