Microsoft has revealed the first games headed to Xbox Game Pass in June, and the list includes a few significant titles that are likely to excite subscribers.
This week’s most notable Xbox Game Pass entries are Assassin’s Creed Origins and For Honor: Marching Fire Edition, both of which show Ubisoft’s commitment to extending its presence on Microsoft’s service. The prolific publisher has promised that a variety of other games in its library are on the way for subscribers before the end of the year, so this is apparently just a taste of what’s in store for now.
Additionally, fans of brutally challenging games will be happy to see Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection land on the service this week, which includes all three mainline games alongside all of their DLC costumes in a single package.
Here’s everything coming to Xbox Game Pass from June 1 through June 7.
Of course, it’s worth pointing out that Microsoft has stopped short of announcing anything coming to Xbox Game Pass beyond the first week of June, which is almost guaranteed to be due to its upcoming Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12. We can obviously expect plenty of brand-new game announcements and updates on previously teased titles like Starfield and Redfall during that event, but it’s also likely that Microsoft will announce some major games coming to Game Pass throughout the remainder of the month.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.