General Gaming News

[Raid]

I think we'll see a trend of gamers shifting towards just making do with older hardware because they're being priced out of replacing it. If developers can continue implementing frame gen technology that extends the life of older GPUs, all the better, though it's worth noting that the people designing that software have a vested interest in your buying their hardware.

[eny]

Discord quietly going public


https://www.reuters.com/business/chat-p ... 026-01-06/

[Raid]

Fuck. Let's enjoy it before it's filled with ads and they start charging for voice chat.

[DjchunKfunK]

It'd be good to see a Digital Foundry analysis of them, but I think Chris is right that VRAM is going to be the problem regardless of whether graphics are handled by the CPU or a dedicated GPU. Faster memory is encouraging, though.

The future of graphics cards looks rocky at best, and integrated graphics could be a compromise, but it'll still be expensive and it'll likely be at a lower tier than we're used to.

For sure VRAM is still something that will cost money but SOCs make savings in multiple areas compared to making a dedicated GPU so there are offsets that can be made. There is a reason consoles and handhelds go down this route, as it's a good cost effective way of producing graphical grunt. There are multiple hurdles that still stand in the way and it may not end up going this way but I do think there are some good developments being made in this area and if it leads to pressure on graphics cards makers than all the better.

[Lenny Solidus]

https://metro.co.uk/2026/01/06/sony-pat ... -26109619/

Rather than have developers program the solutions for tricky levels or puzzles into it, the AI model will be trained on not just your own gameplay, but also footage posted to social media and streaming sites like YouTube and Twitch.

From that, the AI ghost supposedly learns how the game is played and can determine an optimal solution. The patent mentions two distinct modes: a guide mode, where the ghost shows the solution for you to copy, and a complete mode which does as the name suggests.

[Wrathbone]

I could be way off the mark as to Sony's intentions, but I'd have thought it'd be of more use to them as a QA / testing tool than as something gamers would use. Automated testing is standard in software development these days, and an AI bot that can test substantially more permeatations of playing a game than a human tester could in the same time is something that would be genuinely useful in identifying issues.

[Lenny Solidus]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... this-year/

We never did get the highly anticipated StarCraft Ghost, so this is very interesting to hear about. Plus Dan Hay is involved as lead reportedly who gave us games such as FarCry 3, 4, 5, Primal and Blood Dragon - it will most certainly probably be open world based.

[Wrathbone]

Peter Molyneux's final game (according to him), Masters of Albion, is coming out in April:



It looks decent at first, until it turns into a zombie horde defence game. There's a lot going on, to the point where it seems a bit messy.

It occurred to me that Molyneux's last announced game, the NFT nightmare that is Legacy, fell completely off the radar, so I looked into it. Apparently it did launch in October 2023 to little fanfare and made $54m in NFT sales*, and then Molyneux disowned it in an interview with Edge last year because everyone hates NFTs. Did he do the honourable thing and return the money, now he's decided NFT games are a hideous idea in principle and the NFTs he sold in Legacy are functionally worthless? No, of course not. He used it to produce Masters of Albion.


* Technically these were NFT sales made in 2021, before the game launched. The actual amount made from game sales or NFT sales since launch is presumably negligible.

[Sly Boots]

Pretty much lost any residual respect for Molyneux when I found out how badly the guy who won his 'click on the block, the prize will change your life forever' stunt (can't in good conscience call it a game) got treated.

[Animalmother]

Isn't every game he makes "his last game" until he announces another one a few years later?

Pretty much lost any residual respect for Molyneux when I found out how badly the guy who won his 'click on the block, the prize will change your life forever' stunt (can't in good conscience call it a game) got treated.

What happened with that again? I do remember an article about it somewhere and even the writers were assholes about the guy who won.

[Sly Boots]

Isn't every game he makes "his last game" until he announces another one a few years later?

Pretty much lost any residual respect for Molyneux when I found out how badly the guy who won his 'click on the block, the prize will change your life forever' stunt (can't in good conscience call it a game) got treated.

What happened with that again? I do remember an article about it somewhere and even the writers were assholes about the guy who won.

Basically got completely fucked off and forgotten:

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-god-who-p ... eux-forgot

[Wrathbone]

I love this quote:

"That's when they made us play Godus for three hours straight. It was our choice when to get up and stop playing, but I didn't want to seem rude."

Poor Bryan.

[Sly Boots]

I love this quote:

"That's when they made us play Godus for three hours straight. It was our choice when to get up and stop playing, but I didn't want to seem rude."

Poor Bryan.

[Wrathbone]

Just found this on Curiosity's wikipedia article, which neatly rounds off the debacle:

In March 2017, Molyneux stated that Godus was not profitable and Henderson would therefore not receive money. As of 14 December 2023, Godus is no longer available for purchase on PC, never having left early access. The 'god of gods' role was never implemented and Henderson never received his due prize.

[Animalmother]

Yeah thats the article I remember reading before. This...

I have lunch with Bryan Henderson in The Southern pub on Edinburgh's South Clerk Street. He cuts a thin, gangly figure, dressed in unremarkable smart casual garb. There's nothing outlandish or particularly noticeable here. The January air is cutting, and Bryan should have wrapped up warmer, I think. He travelled by bus from his home on the other side of the city, near the airport. I suspect it took a while.

Didn't like that.