The bigwigs who want AI-generated NPCs and writing think you’re too dumb to appreciate a good story—don’t prove them right

As I sit here, watching Saber Interactive’s CEO have a normal one about how generative AI dialogue can totally improve videogames, I can’t help but grit my teeth in the same, enamel-grinding fashion I have ever since companies like Ubisoft started promising a future with AI-powered “neo-NPCs.” If you’d believe the hype, these things are…

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This Solitaire game is so tiny it can load from a QR code, which is just what I need in the age of massive games and expensive storage

At a time when game file sizes are growing ever larger and disk space is astonishingly expensive, I increasingly appreciate the value of a small game. And they don’t come much smaller than TinySol, a solitaire game so diminutive that it can be loaded from a QR code. TinySol is the creation of vintage computer…

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Stalker 2’s imminent free update aims to make the sequel more atmospheric and less relentlessly hostile: ‘The Zone isn’t one constant gunfight’

You could tell that Stalker 2 was a true sequel to 2007’s survivalist FPS in that it was as broken as it was brilliant. GSC Game World succeeded in delivering the seamless open world it has spent two decades striving toward, but players’ exploration of Chornobyl’s exclusion zone was hindered by bugs, broken quests, and…

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Disney says that Kingdom Hearts is now a ‘billion dollar franchise’

In an investor-focused article on the Walt Disney Company website, the entertainment giant revealed an achievement that caught me off-guard: Kingdom Hearts, the mesmerizingly strange Final Fantasy x Disney crossover series, numbers among the company’s “billion-dollar franchises.” The article, “How Games Are Helping Shape Disney’s Next Chapter,” looks to be a combination victory lap/game plan…

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WoW’s haunted: Players report that their disconnected friends’ characters are starting to play the game on their own

Disconnects are an unpleasant fact of life in an MMO, and if you play WoW long enough you’ll start to recognize the telltale signs indicating one of your adventurer colleagues has fallen afoul of a network hiccup: They might simply halt in place mid-combat. If they were moving when the connection dropped, their character might…

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Thimbleweed Park 2 is happening because Ron Gilbert’s friend knows a rich guy who’s a big fan of the original and wanted more

BloombergHave you ever said to yourself, ‘If I was rich I’d get Looking Glass Studios back together and have them make a proper goddamn Thief sequel!’? Or, you know, whatever game gets you really wound up about such things. It’s a pleasant fantasy, but not something that ever actually happens—except, apparently, in the case of…

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