Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A few hours ago, reports surfaced that Larian are making use of generative AI during development of their new RPG Divinity – specifically, to come up with ideas, produce placeholder text, develop concept art, and create materials for PowerPoint presentations. In the same Bloomberg article, Larian CEO Swen Vincke sought to balance these revelations with the promise that Divinity won’t directly contain any AI-generated materials, commenting that “everything is human actors; we’re writing everything ourselves.”

As with generative AI in gamedev generally, the disclosure has sparked anger online – anger that is all the sharper for the love that has hitherto been directed at Larian, creators of amazing fantasy RPGs with sexy bears and demons. Inevitably, some of the outrage is from people who appear minimally familiar with game development, and in a few cases, haven’t read the report in full (unhelpfully, it’s behind Bloomberg’s paywall). Some of it, though, is from other game developers.

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Friends, it is time to break into Jeff Bezos’s bunker and steal his porn. Jeff Bezos – so sorry! I mean J### B#### – doesn’t need his porn anymore because he’s dead.

Unfortunately, the bunker is now full of “RICH MAN DEATH RADIATION”, making it unsafe for humans. Fortunately, the people’s pervert committee have supplied us with some remote-operated drones that are capable of firing clones of themselves in the direction of the camera. To secure the B#### smut, you must accordingly point and click-hurl yourself around the bunker’s surprisingly soft and hazy confines.

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Larian’s new Divinity RPG should spend a lot less time in development than their previous Baldur’s Gate 3 – or at least, that’s the dream. CEO Swen Vincke wants to release the game in “three to four years”, which seemingly includes an early access period.

For context, we first heard that Larian were officially working on a new game (two, actually) back in April 2024. Here, let me run those numbers through Rock Paper Shotgun’s in-house Mirror of Fate. Gosh. Assuming I have performed the rituals correctly, that means Divinity will launch out of early access in 2027 or 2028. In less positive news, Larian are reportedly making limited internal use of generative AI for tasks such as concept art development and internal presentations.

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Larian’s new Divinity game is a turn-based CRPG that both builds on their achievements from Baldur’s Gate 3, and follows on from the events of Divinity: Original Sin 2. So sayeth Swen Vincke, studio CEO, in an interview with RPS following the project’s bloody and bawdy announcement trailer at the Game Awards last week.

Concrete specifics remain few as of writing, but I can tell you that this is perhaps more reboot than sequel. It’s an attempt to firm up and clarify Divinity’s narrative universe, both for returning Braccus Rex devotees and for Baldur’s Gate 3 players who’ve yet to try Larian’s non-D&D games. It’s also going to allow for more “freedom” than any Larian game before, thanks partly to running on a new version of Larian’s in-house engine tech. Ah, the eternal videogame promise of more freedom. I’m mostly just here for the piggies.

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Sorry I’m late, I’ve got to drop off my non-existent offspring at the place where they learn their times tables soon. Before that, which of you wants to be dunched and bumped into a spin, as mud and discarded metal are flung about like a tornado’s hit a scrapyard? This is the question asked by Wreckfest 2‘s latest update, which finally gives middle-aged mums and dads a suitable ride in which to wreak havoc.

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Many moons ago in the early ’90s, I grew up with a copy of the Nintendo Power strategy guide for Ninja Gaiden II. That excellent tome contained bios on all of the game’s enemies, and I recall being entranced by one in particular: a gourd-like axe-wielder named Pumpkin Head.

Fast forward 35 years, and Pumpkin Head returns as one of the many villains in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a spirited revival of 2D Ninja Gaiden lovingly crafted by The Game Kitchen. More specifically, he shows up in the first stage to chuck an array of blades at new hero Kenji, who wears a blue costume that’s only a few degrees removed from series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa’s classic attire.

Frankly, Ragebound is the best that 2D Ninja Gaiden has ever been, sprinting a delicate tightrope between homaging the past and offering something new.

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What’s that I hear? Tinkly piano and the crashing of waves. Oh, it’s Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s first major expansion, which devs Team Cherry have just announced will be coasting up to the shore some point next year. It’s called Sea of Sorrow, and as such looks to contain plenty of somber staring into the splashy swell.

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Today sees the release of the Arc Raiders Cold Snap update, which douses the popular sci-fi extraction shooter in glittering snowfall. Ah, how gorgeous the flakes twinkling above the Spaceport gantries. How beautiful the frozen lakes of Dam Battlegrounds. It’s definitely a mite nippy all of a sudden, though, isn’t it? Best take shelter in that bunker before your fingers and toes turn Uncommon green and Rare blue.

Oh dear, there’s another player inside that bunker and she won’t let you in. Still, perhaps if you start shouting the patch notes through the door she’ll relent out of curiosity? Very good, let’s begin.

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I do not know if a black hole is something we should feed. Ostensibly they are things (anti-things? I’m not a black holeologist) that I would like to be far away from, given what I’ve heard. And yet here I am, having tinkered around with the demo for A Game About Feeding A Black Hole, which is a game about feeding a black hole, left with the feeling that this is not only a thing I can do, but find tranquility in.

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Truth be told, I haven’t played all that many games this year, who has the time! There was one I couldn’t miss out on, however, which was Silent Hill f, the first properly new entry in the series for many years, and one with some pedigree behind it, Higurashi and Umineko writer Ryukishi07. I ended up reviewing it for this here site, and liked it very much then, and perhaps more now. There were some great lessons to be learned, and in a recent interview, Ryukishi07 put some of those lessons into succinct, quite lovely words.

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