How do you make a collector’s edition for a PC-only game? It’s not an easy question: Most collector’s edition box sets offer physical items —fancy game boxes, t-shirts, figurines, etc— to account for their heightened price tag, but most PC players seem to prefer buying digitally. Even with all the swag, there’s something inherently unsatisfying about opening a giant box set to find a small sticker with a Steam code.
XCOM 2 will sidestep that issue when it launches this February by offering a completely digital collector’s edition. 2K announced their premium bundle for the sequel, the “Digital Deluxe Edition,” Thursday. For $74.99, the collector’s edition includes both XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, the “Reinforcement pack” DLC, and the XCOM 2 soundtrack.
The “Reinforcement Pack” is a sort of mini season pass, comprising three sets of DLC. First, the “Anarchy’s Children” customization set, which will be available next Spring. Packs two and three, “Alien Hunters” and “Shen’s Last Gift,” will be available over the summer, adding a single mission, new customization options, weapons and armor. “Shen’s Last Gift” also adds a soldier class. Players who buy the normal version game will be able to buy the “Reinforcement pack” for $19.99.
2K also announced that players who pre-order either version will get a “Resistance Warrior” pack, which adds extra customization options, including headgear and war paint, as well as an extra “survivor of the old war” character at their disposal at the start of the game.
We recently got the chance to try XCOM 2, so check out our impressions if you’re planning on pre-ordering or picking up the collector’s edition of the game, which will be available on Windows PC February 6, 2016. Mac and Linux versions will come from developer Feral Interactive at a later date.
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.