I’ve got some Black Friday recommendations for gamers.
Thank you
But before I get into that, Happy Thanksgiving. It was a big year for GamesBeat and we have a lot to be grateful for. Thanks to GamesBeat CEO Gina Joseph and our team, we were able to spin out as an independent company this year. Thank you for your support, whether it comes in the form of reading our journalistic stories, becoming a member of our community or attending our events. We have a lot of gratitude and are glad you are coming along on this journey with us.
I’m thankful for my editorial colleagues at GamesBeat, including Rachel Kaser, Alex Lee and our freelance writer David Jagneaux. I think back 17 years and I can’t say that GamesBeat has ever had a better year. Thanks to those who spent a long time with us or made pivotal things happen for us, like Dan Hsu, Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti. And thanks to VentureBeat, which supported us for a long time. We appreciate the support of the game and tech industries.
It’s not an easy time for media, but we’re glad we took the extra step of building a community of supporters because that’s what’s helping us survive and thrive now. And now, without further ado, here’s my recommendations for Black Friday, regardless of whether they’re on sale now or not.
ARC Raiders
ARC Raiders is a chill shooter game with a lot of human elements that make it so compelling. It’s multiplayer only, and so there is no long backstory or single-player campaign story. Still, it has environmental storytelling that tells you that the world has ended and the machines have taken over the surface of the planet. Fortunately, humans survive underground and Raiders sneak to the surface and scavenge to bring to those below ground. Yet the strength of the game is in its design, not its story.
You’re underpowered at the outset compared to the AI beasts above — either flying machines or land-based. They can easily take you out and summon a horde of enemies to overwhelm you. So you’re afraid of what’s above you or what’s behind a door. Yet you should fear humans more.
The proximity chat allows you to speak to parties near you. You can say, “Friendly,” and most people at the outset would leave you alone. Or they can trick you, pretend to be friendly, and then betray you and shoot you in the back when you are about to escape. You get to choose what kind of human you’ll be in the world of ARC Raiders.
Ghost of Yotei
Ghost of Yotei is Sucker Punch’s second game in the series that began with Ghost of Tsushima, set in the samurai era of Japan, is a tale of revenge. Although it takes place in an open world of the Yotei region of Hokkaido, you can stay with the story of revenge. It is set in 1603, after Japan’s civil wars, when Hokkaido was known as Ezo. You play as Atsu, who witnesses and yet survives the brutal murder of her family. She grows up, fights in the civil wars, and becomes a mercenary. Many years after the murders, she huts down the Yotei Six, the antagonists responsible for her family’s killing. Atsu embodies Onryo, a ghost seeking vengeance, but she learns the cost of her anger and the possibilities of redemption. The swordplay is amazing and yet easy enough for mainstream gamers to enjoy it. The landscapes of Japan are so colorful and breathtaking, and the characters so well done.
HP Omen League of Legends Limited Edition laptop
HP’s Omen 16 League of Legends Laptop is a new test for laptop gaming. It’s a quiet machine.
The laptop just came out, and I’ve played ARC Raiders on it on hotel Wi-Fi. And it worked fine. It sports a 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-14650HX processor, 32 GB of RAM and 64-bit Windows 11. It can run at 240Hz in 2560 x 1600 resolution, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU with 8GB of GPU memory. It’s far beyond what League of Legends requires, as it can lock above 144 FPS at high resolutions. It’s got a terabyte of storage on an SSD and it has a 16-inch IPS WQXGA display with 500 nits of brightness.
Battlefield 6
Electronic Arts redeemed the Battlefield franchise this year with Battlefield 6, which was four years in the making by four studios. Though the manpower involved was smaller than Call of Duty’s, EA managed to make a hugely differentiated cinematic experience that have resulted in so many “Only in Battlefield” clips shared on social media.
The quality of the destruction and vastness of the battles is so incredible that it sets a new bar for realism in the shooter experience. There’s no superhero stuff here, and any bravery or combat victories here are distinctly human. Because the game is grounded in reality, you can get hit from anywhere — the skies, from tanks or snipers or close-combat gunners. It is a grim reminder that the odds of surviving on a modern battlefield are low.
The campaign could be better, but it’s also better than past campaigns with actual characters. It’s not as polished in single player as Call of Duty, but multiplayer is amazing. And it has an excellent RedSec battle royale mode. Bonus: It has a lot of free content this week.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
This game makes my top ten list every year, and I can understand if gamers are weary of it after so many years of annual releases. But this year’s Black Ops 7 continues the story from last year’s game, only it’s set in 2035. The sci-fi setting is well done, enabling the use of new gear for manueverability like the grappling hook, exoskeleton jump and wingsuit.
There are new experiences with the DAWG and RHINO scorestreaks, and while the sci-fi guns are new, they feel just like Call of Duty weapons that suit the arena-style close combat of soldier versus soldier that sets this game apart from Battlefield.
It allows you to earn Prestige points no matter what you do, including multiplayer, campaign, Zombies and even the arcade zombies game Dead Ops Arcade 4. It’s also got a three-player co-op campaign with a compelling story that holds your attention for longer than Battlefield 6. The Zombies Ashes of the Damned experience is pretty compelling as you take your truck Ol’ Tessie and drive to different locations in the storyline.
The Skirmish mode enables big map fights where the wingsuits come in handy, and the Endgame of the co-op campaign takes you to the open world map of Avalon, marrying it with the multiplayer mode. There were 18 multiplayer maps at launch including the return of favorites like Hijacked, Raid and Nuketown (19th map).
ModRetro’s Chromatic
The Chromatic handheld device came out earlier this year with the single-minded intention of matching the screen of the Game Boy Color. Coming soon: The ModRetro M64 console that plays Nintendo 64 cartridges with modern enhancements. Founded by Oculus/Anduril creator Palmer Luckey, this handheld system claims pixel-perfect accuracy for the original GameBoy Color and Game Boy screens. It isn’t the prettiest you’ll see with resolution of 160 x 144 on a 2.56-inch IPS LCD, but it brings back that retro feeling. The nostalgic game offerings include Rayman, Atari’s ’90s Rewind Collection, Dragonyhm and First Contract protocol.
The Hivemind Swarmed: Conversations on Gamergate, the aftermath, and the quest for a safer internet
This oral history book by David Wolinsky came out a year ago. It doesn’t pretend to draw conclusions about Gamergate, which was such an ugly and murky episode for the gaming industry that most people couldn’t agree on what it was. It was either a gamer-led hate campaign against women in the game industry and “woke” policies or a quest to clean up the corruption of game journalism and its cozy ties to the industry. Wolinsky didn’t accept simple narratives and talked to many game industry people who lived through it for more than 600 hours through his Don’t Die podcast. He sees it as something we should all remember, even if we are so glad to leave it behind us.
Final note
I, for one, am thankful to have these among the choices for holiday gaming. Once again, Happy Thanksgiving.