Koei Tecmo has released the first gameplay trailer for Team Ninja’s upcoming Soulslike title Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, showcasing the game’s Three Kingdoms time period and martial arts combat. If the footage is anything to go by, genre fans may be in for something very special when the game releases next year.
Revealed during Gamescom, the game’s first look trailer gives us our first look at the aggressive, fast-paced combat that seems to channel FromSoftware’s Sekiro more than Team NINJA’s own previous work. By the looks of it, some things are changing with this new title in its aim to set itself apart, though, such as the removal of the genre’s classic stamina gauge, which should allow players much more freedom to react quickly to enemy attacks. The footage shows off no shortage of evasion techniques, including vertical methods that also appear to interrupt foes in the process.
While the game will feature over 10 traditional weapon types for melee combat, development producer Masaaki Yamagiwa tells IGN that players can expect to also discover and use a variety of Wizardy Spells — the game’s take on magic — and multiple mythical Divine Beasts that can be summoned to aid the player in battle. We received a glimpse of the Vermilion Bird raining fire down on a group of foes in the trailer, and it definitely looks like a useful tool to break out when finding yourself overwhelmed.
Team Ninja rose to prominence thanks to 2004’s Ninja Gaiden and its sequels, but in more recent years, the developer has turned its attention to the popular Soulslike genre. With two entries in its successful Nioh franchise and an unexpected team-up with Square-Enix for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin under its belt, Team Ninja has been carving out a spot beside genre creator FromSoftware as an equal. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty seems poised to secure that title more than ever.
Koei Tecmo promises that we’ll see more of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty at Tokyo Game Show 2022 in September, including a playable demo on the show floor. Team Ninja also says that a gameplay trial is on the way, so if this exciting new Soulslike is on your radar, keep an eye out for that in the near future.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is slated for release in early 2023 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.
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.