Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine Productions and the mind behind games such as Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Grim Fandango, spoke on AI during an interview with Twitch streamer Cressup earlier this week.
Cressup asked Schafer: “I’m interested as a writer, what are your thoughts on AI and the games industry. Are you worried? Is it a tool you can ever see yourself using?” to which he replied that while he was impressed by the tech, the result left a lot to be desired.
“I [honestly] can’t figure out how they do it, I’ve had it explained to me, I know about machine learning and [neural networks],” he said. “I still can’t believe they’re outputting this writing that looks like human writing. So it’s really impressive on that level.” However, Schafer goes on to say that …
The flagship graphics cards of recent generations have been trending upwards in maximum power consumption. The RTX 4090 can pull more than 450W, the RTX 3090 Ti could do the same, while AMD’s RX 7900 XTX is rated for 355W. Factory overclocked models are typically a bit higher than that. But those are rookie numbers. It’s been reported that Nvidia’s next generation GB200 AI accelerator can pull up to 1,000W.
The source of the 1,000W claim is a statement made by Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke during Dell’s Q4 2024 earnings call (via The Register). He’s as likely to be in the know as anyone, so this 1,000W claim is no mere rumor.
Clarke’s actual quote is “Our characterization in the thermal side, you really don’t need direct liquid cooling to get to the energy density of 1,000 w…
Not content with accelerating graphics performance with AI via its various DLSS technologies and in designing GPUs themselves, Nvidia is now using AI to improve graphics drivers and further boost performance by up to 30%. Well, that’s the latest rumour.
According to CapFrameX (via OC3D), maker of frame time analysis tools, Nvidia is working on AI-enhanced graphics drivers. Performance boosts of up to 30% are mooted, with the average performance benefit a more modest 10%.
CapFrameX reckons we could see the new AI-enhanced driver in the first quarter of this year. If accurate, there’s not long to wait.
Of course, the very notion of what even constitutes AI. An actual machine learning technique? A really good algorithm? A coffee machine that turns on automatically? There …
Sim Wong Hoo, who founded Sound Blaster producer Creative Technology in 1981 and remained at its head ever since, has died. A statement released by the company said Sim “passed away peacefully” on January 4.
Creative Technology—known as Creative Labs in North America—was a groundbreaking player in the early days of PC gaming thanks to its long-running series of audio cards. After initially launching as the Creative Music System in 1987, the famous Sound Blaster line debuted in 1989, and quickly took over the market: Ad Lib, which prior to the arrival of Sound Blaster cards was the effective standard for PC gaming audio, lost so much ground so quickly that it was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1992.
The Sound Blaster series evolved through multiple generations a…
We’ve been very impressed with the new Steam Deck OLED, and it’s a rather lovely thing to behold once you get one in your hands. However, I’ve been spending a bit of time with the original recently and it’s still a fantastic way to bring PC gaming with you wherever you go. It certainly doesn’t feel like an ageing product, and we’ve just spotted the 64GB version has dropped to just $349. That makes it an incredibly cheap entry point for someone looking to get into PC gaming, and may just make those of you on the fence decide to jump into the wonderful world of handheld gaming goodness.
Let’s not forget that the OG Steam Deck gets the same performance as the newer model, so your games will still run just as well on this as they would the OLED version. And while we loved the new scre…
Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see, one chants out between two worlds: Twin Peaks is on PC. Not officially, mind you; I’m talking about the demo for Twin Peaks: Into the Night, a fan game based on the classic David Lynch and Mark Frost soap opera that’s just hit Itch.io.
The demo is free, and you can download and play it right now if you’ve got a spare 500 megs on your hard drive. It’s done in that swimmy, lo-fi PS1 style that’s all the rage nowadays, which actually ends up working very well to capture the off-kilter, dreamy, something-is-seriously-wrong-but-I-can’t-say-what vibes of the original TV series.
“Created as an homage to good old ’90s games classic [sic],” reads the Itch description, “Twin Peaks: Into the Night is a fan game adaptation …
The Chinese Room has given us an incredibly brief look at the second of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’s four launch clans. After showing off the Brujah last week, we’re now getting a glimpse of the Tremere, Bloodlines’ gothy blood mages.
Like the Brujah reveal, The Chinese Room isn’t giving much away, making me wish these reveals would have been left until the studio was up for giving us more details about the game itself. The teaser, above, gives us a taste of their blood magic, weaponising said blood and flinging it at enemies, while the accompanying blog offers some idea of how they play.
As a mage, you aren’t going to be a frontline fighter, with the Tremere playstyle favouring those who are happy to keep their distance, “making enemies scream …
An Overwatch 2 player has discovered a new glitch with Mercy that allows players to hold an entire lobby hostage and, in theory, game competitive matches as well as annoying the hell out of everyone. YouTuber nsbunited describes themselves as an “Overwatch glitch hunter”, and the Mercy bug was discovered while experimenting with a known element of the Blizzard’s FPS: During the earlygame countdown, Overwatch will teleport players who escape the starting area back into the starting area.
This particular feature is called the “spawn escape mechanic” and has been used in the past to uncover other glitches, most notably the Genji’s pet dragon glitch (which also had the ability to lower other players’ frame rates). And as nsbunited puts it, “Mercy can hold Paraiso lobbies…
Refresh your Wordle game with our tips, see a tough game in a new light with a clue written especially for the September 9 (812) puzzle, or skip straight to the best bit with today’s answer. Everything you need to win today’s Wordle is on this very page.
I’m not sure if today’s puzzle could have gone any better for me if it had tried. I found a good selection of yellows, then a heap of green letters, then today’s Wordle answer. I know I’ve had wins turn up faster than that in the past, but it always feels a bit more fun when it flows the way this one did.
Today’s Wordle hint
A Wordle hint for Saturday, September 9
If you were today’s answer people would say you were blessed or had good fortune. Winning something completely by chance would be cons…
Win today’s Wordle with our help. There’s a brand new hint for the July 23 (1130) puzzle just below if you need a clue, and if that doesn’t work out there’s no reason why you can’t take a cheeky peek at Tuesday’s answer. You’ve got this—and if you haven’t, we’ve got you.
I made things infinitely more difficult for myself today by getting all caught up on one word that almost but definitely didn’t fit the clues I had. That kind of shoved everything else, including all of my usual puzzle solving thoughts, straight out of my mind. Once I actually looked at the letters I had available the answer soon turned up—weird, eh?
Today’s Wordle hint
Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, July 23
Sharp and pointy ends are the thing to think about toda…