Microsoft pushed a new set of expanded features and visual changes for the Xbox One operating system to beta testers and consoles connected to Xbox One Preview, the company announced Tuesday.
The first system update of 2016 will primarily introduce features meant to facilitate and encourage social engagement between Xbox users and their friends, according to a post on Xbox Wire. The new features include the ability to see who else is in a friend’s party before joining, a revamped Xbox leaderboard that compares friends’ total and 30-day Gamerscore, and expanded Twitch integration that adds a shortcut to a game’s launch tile if a friend is broadcasting it live.
On the cosmetic front, the update will see the return of the Xbox Avatar on Xbox One. Players can access and modify their avatars, a character connected to player profiles that was displayed prominently in early versions of the Xbox One dashboard, through the Xbox Avatars app. Similar to the app available on Windows 10 and mobile, players will be able to view and purchase outfits and items with for their Avatar, and will be able to preview changes to their avatar in real-time, and “try on” new Avatar items before they buy them.
The “suggested friends” list will see a substantial overhaul. Players will be able to check out more information about suggested friends, including their gamerpic, their real name (if the user has shared it), and a description of why they have been suggested. Players will also have access to a larger list of “suggested friends,” should they desire.
There will now be a trending topics tab that curates screenshots, live-streams, achievements and other informations from “the most popular topics across Xbox Live.” In the same vein, Microsoft will now integrate posts from Xbox News into players’ activity feeds.
Lastly, Microsoft will also test a handful of useful, though not especially glamourous feature updates, such as the ability to view tiles offline and hide games you really hate from the “ready-to-install” list
The features will be available for Xbox One Preview consoles Tuesday, and will push to Windows 10 PC and Xbox Mobile Beta users next 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.