Quincy Surasmith is a radio journalist and actor, but you may also hear his voice and never realize it. That’s because he’s been the voice of Thai-speaking cartoons, chattering background crowds, and characters without major speaking roles. It’s not all glamorous. “I’m making grunting noises, getting beat up by some …
Read More »Researchers Tested AI Watermarks—and Broke All of Them
Soheil Feizi considers himself an optimistic person. But the University of Maryland computer science professor is blunt when he sums up the current state of watermarking AI images. “We don’t have any reliable watermarking at this point,” he says. “We broke all of them.” For one of the two types …
Read More »‘EA Sports FC 24’ Is Just ‘FIFA 24’ in a Different Jersey
Breakups are hard. They can also be freeing. Just ask the producers of EA Sports FC 24. After a messy divorce, the long-running video game FIFA has got a rebrand, bringing a 30-year relationship to an end. In 2021, soccer’s governing body said it would refuse to let EA Sports …
Read More »What If the Robots Were Very Nice While They Took Over the World?
The Morrissey had the right melodrama in his limbs, and his voice was strong and pained. I was at Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan to see a Smiths tribute band. I tried to get Morrissey’s acid yodel in my throat, to sing along. I am human and I need to be …
Read More »What Makes a Video Game Remake Actually Worth Playing?
2023 has been full of high-profile video game remakes and remasters: Dead Space, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Advance Wars, System Shock, and so on. Some of these have been crowd-pleasing surprises, the kind of thing that sets social media ablaze during a reveal in a Nintendo Direct. Others come …
Read More »Welcome to the Golden Age of Console Strategy Games
Ensemble Studios had spent nearly a decade mastering the real-time strategy genre when it became a victim of its own success. Its 1997 debut, Age of Empires, had been an instant hit and spawned several beloved sequels and expansions that cemented the studio’s glowing reputation. Imitators—some novel, some slavish—quickly appeared …
Read More »The Biggest Revelations From the Microsoft Xbox Leaks
In what’s being cited as the biggest leak in the company’s history, Microsoft revealed a massive amount of information about forthcoming Xbox refreshes, next-gen systems, and more after uploading a series of unredacted documents to a court website as part of the ongoing Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft case. The …
Read More »The Squelchy, Messy Art of Video Game Sound Effects
“Step into my office,” says Joanna Fang. OK, but to the untrained eye it's a kleptomaniac's hoard: rolls of Astroturf, mud and moss, wooden planks, violin bows, smashed keyboards, plastic boxes brimming with shoes, a full armory of axes and swords, a sand pit, a bamboo fence, rocks, half a …
Read More »The Expanse Marks Telltale Games' Return to Form
This summer, Telltale, the studio behind critically acclaimed titles like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, released it’s first game since its rebirth. Developed in concert with Deck Nine, the studio behind Life Is Strange: True Colors, the new game is a story set in the universe of …
Read More »Can 'Monster Hunter Now' Pull Niantic Out of Its Slump?
On his walk toward Niantic’s office in the Bay Area one day, senior producer Sakae Osumi noticed everyone staring up. There was an eclipse happening, as good a reason as any to tilt back and gaze into the sky, but Osumi had another thought: What if a team working on …
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