In conjunction with celebrating the fifth anniversary of its Xbox Live service, Microsoft has announced that it will begin selling games developed for the original Xbox game console via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Dubbed Xbox Originals, the availability will be tied to the upcoming December 4 update to the Xbox 360 Dashboard, and games will be on sale for 1,200 Microsoft points each, or about $15.
Titles scheduled for the initial rollout of Xbox Originals include Halo,Fable,Psychonauts, and Crimson Skies, with additional games scheduled to appear in the upcoming months. Microsoft hasn’t specified whether the games are significantly re-engineered for distribution and play via Xbox Live; for instance, the original version of Halo had its own online features.
The December 4 firmware update will also include new parental control capabilities, including a Family Timer feature that will enable parents to limit the total amount of time a child can play each day or each 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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.