Metaphor: ReFantazio, the newest game out of Japanese video game company Atlus’ Studio Zero, owes a lot to the Persona games that came before it. From the mind of longtime Persona designer Katsura Hashino, it’s a sprawling role-playing game that combines dungeon crawling with social sim elements, using a daily …
Read More »How to Preorder the PS5 Pro (Before a Scalper Bot Does)
We’re barely done with the years-long period where it was almost impossible to get your hands on a PlayStation 5, and now Sony is launching the PlayStation 5 Pro. It has a more powerful graphics processor, better AI upscaling, and tons more storage, with a higher price to match. If …
Read More »‘The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’ Trades Tropes for New Tricks
Nintendo, after nearly four decades, is taking The Legend of Zelda somewhere new. With Echoes of Wisdom, the video game company not only builds on the experimentation of its last Switch release, Tears of the Kingdom—it also does something no other Zelda title has done before: Give the princess power …
Read More »Meta’s $300 Quest 3S Headset Significantly Lowers VR’s Buy-In Price
The Quest 3S, Meta’s newest mixed reality headset, will be out in the world soon. If you’re familiar with the features currently offered by Meta’s VR headsets, then the only surprising thing about the new hardware will be the price. But it’s reverse sticker shock: The new Meta Quest 3S …
Read More »This New Pac-Man Machine Brought Me Closer to My Teen Kids
Pac-Man is a classic arcade game that deserves all the love. Guiding an abstract mouth around a ghost-patrolled maze in pursuit of dots is pure joy. As good as it is, I never imagined the greedy yellow circle would bring my family closer together, but that’s exactly what happened this …
Read More »A Game Designer Hid a Gold Trophy in the Woods. Let the Treasure Hunt Begin
The muddy trail levels out and we stop to catch our breath. Which is good, because hiking with my eyes covered has been a pain in the ass. A voice says: “You can take your blindfold off now.” I squint as I get my bearings. Then, after a bit more …
Read More »Nintendo Is Suing ‘Palworld’ Creator Pocketpair
Palworld, colloquially known to fans as “Pokémon with guns,” is in hot water. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced Thursday that they’ve filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Tokyo against Pocketpair, the company behind the game, claiming Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights.” The lawsuit isn’t completely unexpected. In Palworld, players …
Read More »Sony’s $700 PlayStation 5 Pro Is Finally Coming in November
Sony’s PlayStation 5 mid-cycle upgrade, the PS5 Pro, is coming November 7. Lead PlayStation architect Mark Cerny revealed the console today during a brief video presentation. “Simply put, it’s the most powerful console we’ve ever built,” Cerny said of the $700 device. It’s been four years since the PlayStation 5’s …
Read More »The Death of ‘Concord’ Offers a Bleak Look at Gaming’s Future
Earlier this week, after warping across the galaxy for 90 hours in a sentient spacecraft, Twitch streamer John Wissmiller realized that Concord was the best first-person shooter he’d played in a decade. “The gunplay was crunchy, the movement was smooth, and the progression felt rewarding,” he says. “I was even …
Read More »New AI Model Can Simulate ‘Super Mario Bros.’ After Watching Gameplay Footage
Last month, Google's GameNGen AI model showed that generalized image diffusion techniques can be used to generate a passable, playable version of Doom. Now, researchers are using some similar techniques with a model called MarioVGG to see whether AI can generate plausible video of Super Mario Bros. in response to …
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