The Algorithm Age

Neil Druckmann will not have anything to do with season 3 of The Last Of Us TV show, as he returns to work at Naughty Dog full-time. Naughty Dog is one of the most respected video game developers in the world but they’re certainly not the most prolific. They haven’t made a completely new game since The Last Of Us Part 2 in 2020 and they only announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet as recently as last December. Despite very little of it having been shown, the fan response so far has been muted and so with another secret game also in development, studio head Neil Druckmann has announced he’s stepping away from The Last Of Us TV show at HBO and won’t be involved in the third season. Perhaps not coincidentally, he’s taking his leave after a less rapturous reception for the second season, which started to deviate considerably from the plot of the original game – which Druckmann himself co-wrote. ‘Now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to N...

EA is allegedly spending a huge amount of money to ensure Battlefield 6 is as popular, if not more so, than Call Of Duty . While EA hasn’t officially shown much of its next Battlefield game, dubbed Battlefield 6 by fans, some people have been able to try early builds of it through private test sessions. Unsurprisingly, screenshots and videos from these sessions were shared online , against EA’s instructions, but they did generate positive buzz among fans; something the series desperately needed after the underwhelming Battlefield 2042 . The strong first impressions belie a tumultuous development, with reports suggesting that developers are worried EA is setting its expectations too high. In fact, it’s said the company hopes Battlefield 6 will attract at least 100 million players, over an undisclosed period of time. This comes from a report by Ars Technica , which spoke with current and former EA employees about Battlefield 6’s progress, with ‘very few people’ ...

Quick Links Edens Zero Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Lost Soul Aside Borderlands 4 Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Digimon Story: Time Stranger Pokemon Legends: Z-A The Outer Worlds 2 Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Pathologic 3 The Witcher 4 The Elder Scrolls 6 Dragon Quest 12: The Flames Of Fate Role-playing games have been a staple of the gaming industry for more than three decades. Each month, the genre tends to welcom...

The Thursday letters page reacts badly to the Xbox layoffs, as one reader agrees that Rematch is not real competition for EA Sports FC. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@.co.uk Blame game I think these latest job cuts will be the final straw for many people when it comes to Microsoft . They have been failing so badly for so long it’s got to a point where I think they’re already irrelevant for a lot of folks, but this has got to be the final straw. Or at least it should be, because the final straw should be Phil Spencer, and all his horrible friends, leaving Xbox and brand new management coming in (or Microsoft just shutting it down, which is actually looking increasingly likely in the long term). I just do not understand why this man still has a job. When hundreds of other developers get dumped for the crime of simply existing why is Phil Spencer, who has overseen two failed generations of consoles, still in charge and appeari...

Rockstar Games has surprise-released a brand new update for Red Dead Online adding in four new missions, all comprising spooky, supernatural, or science-infused circumstances. Known as ‘ Strange Tales of the West Vol. 1 ‘ this content update is the first the game has received in a very long time, sparking hope for fans of the long-running MMO adventure. Prior to this sudden update, many players thought Red Dead Online was truly dead. It appeared Rockstar Games had ceased all support, with proper content updates drying up several years ago, and fans mostly left to make their own fun in the game. The reality is Red Dead Online was never as popular as brother game Grand Theft Auto Online , and so it’s received bare bones support during its lifespan. Now, suddenly, players have plenty more reasons to pop in, as Red Dead Online leans into the supernatural lore of the Red Dead universe. Notably, Red Dead Redemption also leane...

The least that can be said for "M3GAN 2.0" is that it concerns itself with real things. Though it's more or less a comedy - as well as a cyber thriller and an action film - it's grounded in something serious: the threat posed by artificial intelligence. The movie doesn't sugarcoat the situation. It stipulates that every technological advance since the beginning of time has been used for military purposes and then postulates what would happen when AI gets more advanced and more weaponized. It also reminds us, in vivid terms, of what we already know - that we, as a species, are "catastrophically unprepared" for this and that capitalism won't save us. Indeed, this time the profit motive may be leading all of us off the proverbial cliff. Further, almost in passing, it shows some of the dangerous seductions of AI such as a disabled man who can suddenly walk or a tech billionaire who becomes more productive thanks to a chip in his brain. Ever s...