If you’ve begun to feel like the ragtag soldiers of your guerrilla insurgency against the alien-controlled Advent government are looking a bit too square, Firaxis has you covered. The first of three announced DLC expansions for XCOM 2, Anarchy’s Children, arrives on March 17, according to a post from the developer. It will add over 100 new customization options to give your troops a distinct look.
As the name implies, the soldier customizations added in Anarchy’s Children are a bit more extreme than those included in the base game. These include new hair styles, face paints, armor, lower face props, decals, helmets, masks, and more, “with menacing tactical styles that run the gamut from post-apocalyptic to the downright deranged.” Paint-splattered and sporting spiky hair, gas masks, and goggles, the exemplary soldiers revealed in the announcement look to be right out of Fallout’s wasteland (or at least Burning Man).
Anarchy’s Children is included with two additional upcoming DLC expansions in the Reinforcement Pack, which can be purchased for $20. Arriving this summer, Alien Hunters will add new weapons, armor, and missions, including a confrontation with the “Ruler” aliens. Later in the summer Shen’s Last Gift will follow, introducing a new soldier class “with unique upgradeable weapons, armor and customization features,” along with a new narrative-driven mission. Both Alien Hunters and Shen’s Last Gift will also add more soldier customization options. Anarchy’s Children can be purchased à la carte for $5.
Can’t wait until March 17? Thanks to Firaxis’ fantastic support at launch, XCOM 2 has a vibrant modding community that has already produced some great additions to the game. For instance, you can give your troops all manner of helmets and accessories, make them look like Storm Troopers and anime characters, sound like Zap Brannigan and GLaDOS, or wear dapper top hats. My personal favorite is this selection of custom face paints that can give your soldiers the signature looks of Princess Mononoke, Imperator Furiosa, or David Bowie as Aladdin Sane, among others. If you play XCOM 2, but haven’t taken the plunge into mods yet, check out the Steam Workshop and you’ll be tweaking the game to your liking in a matter of clicks.
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.