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"I want room to make a wrong turn": Following Samson dev's bankruptcy, its founder is considering how AI might factor into new studio plans
PC

"I want room to make a wrong turn": Following Samson dev's bankruptcy, its founder is considering how AI might factor into new studio plans

Over the weekend, Swedish reports revealed that Samson studio Liquid Swords have gone bankrupt less than a year after releasing their debut crimebrawler. Founder and former Just Cause lead Christofer Sundberg subsequently confirmed that Liquid Swords are headed for closure. However, he was also quick to make clear that he won't be disappearing from game development, announcing plans to form a new studio that he's now offered a bit more insight on. Read more

Combolands will take away all your free time
PC

Combolands will take away all your free time

Combolands blends together Balatro-styled score mechanics with a mini city-builder, that has you chasing scores and placing down tiles. It's delicious.Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Dawn of War 4 clearly loves the Warhammer 40K strategy games that came before, but it misses that they loved to reinvent themselves
PC

Dawn of War 4 clearly loves the Warhammer 40K strategy games that came before, but it misses that they loved to reinvent themselves

I may have set my expectations for Dawn of War 4 too high, but it's a series that, to my mind, never retreads the same ground. It's therefore been disappointing to feel, having played it across two its campaigns that this long-awaited sequel may have taken too few risks - or been too reverent of the games that came before. Read more

"AI is a technofascist, anti-human and anti-art project", says creator of lefty tech satire Future? No Thanks!, before explaining why he used it anyway
PC

"AI is a technofascist, anti-human and anti-art project", says creator of lefty tech satire Future? No Thanks!, before explaining why he used it anyway

Prominent capital-p Political game developer and left-wing academic Paulo "Molleindustria" Pedercini has revealed that he used generative AI tools for aspects of recent ecosocialist satire Future? No Thanks!. According to Pedercini, "a tiny fraction of its code was written with AI support" towards the end of the project, specifically to assess and fix bugs. The game also uses text-to-speech voice-acting for a couple of characters, generated with ElevenLab software, with Pedercini noting that th

Further Xbox layoff rounds reportedly planned for this month, November, and January, while a Game Pass overhaul is in the works
PC

Further Xbox layoff rounds reportedly planned for this month, November, and January, while a Game Pass overhaul is in the works

Further rounds of layoffs as part of Xbox's ongoing efforts to eventually have fed 3200 people into the furnace are reportedly planned to take place during this month, November, and January. The company previously made clear more cuts, following on from two rounds of mass layoffs already this year, would be coming at some juncture. Meanwhile, an overhaul of Xbox Game Pass is reportedly in the works and sounds aimed at offering subscribers more control of which individual aspects of the service

OpenXR gets a cross-platform Spatial Windowing API
PC

OpenXR gets a cross-platform Spatial Windowing API

Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality under the OpenXR umbrella continues levelling up, with a new Spatial Windowing API that sounds exciting.Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Subnautica 2's next major update adds "the scariest region we've ever done", together with frog mechs and a very welcome tweak for dashing
PC

Subnautica 2's next major update adds "the scariest region we've ever done", together with frog mechs and a very welcome tweak for dashing

Bracingly moist open world survival game Subnautica 2 is embarking on the "voyage to early access 2.0" - this being developer Unknown Worlds' excitable term for the next round of updates, which will include a new region, creature, and Tadpole chassis, plus some tweaks for biomods and creature behaviour. I like Subnautica 2 and am happy that Unknown Worlds appear to be enjoying some stability, after all the firings and ChatGPT-abetted lawyer-wrestling over publisher earn-outs, but I really hate