The award-winning Xbox exclusive Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is branching out and coming to PlayStation 5 this summer. Developed by Ninja Theory, Hellblade II picks up after the first game, following the titular character into a richly detailed world of Viking myth and lore.
Dom Matthews, studio head at Ninja Theory, announced the news today via a YouTube video. “Today, on the one-year anniversary of the release of Senua’s Sage: Hellblade II, we’re excited to share some news with you on the game,” he says. “We’re so happy to tell you, our fans, that Hellblade II will be coming to PlayStation 5 this summer. This version of the game will include some new features that will also come to Xbox and PC at the same time as an update.”
The original Hellblade was available on PlayStation 4, but Xbox acquired Ninja Theory in 2018. The sequel was slated as an Xbox exclusive, but the studio says it is pleased to bring its PlayStation fans back to Senua’s ongoing story.
Ninja Theory didn’t specify what the enhanced features would include, but don’t worry. They’re coming to existing platforms as part of an update with the launch of the PlayStation 5 version of the game.
Both Hellblade games have positioned themselves amid a brutal world and used that setting to explore mental health. Rather than focusing on over-the-top gameplay, Hellblade II takes a more narrative approach and tells a tightly-focused story in roughly seven hours or so of playtime.
The title’s focus on narrative won it a nomination for Best Narrative and Games for Impact at The Game Awards, and it brought home the prize for Best Audio Design and Best Performance by its lead voice artist. Use of binaural audio means different sounds play in different ears, and the quiet whispers of voices that aren’t there, combined with Senua’s sometimes ragged breathing, make the series one of the best depictions of serious mental health issues ever seen in video games.
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.