I want Grand Theft Auto 6 to be good, and if I had to bet money on it, I’d guess it likely will be. The world is weird right now, and I want both you and me to enjoy driving a car into a man. It very much sounds like it’s got Stephen Root from Barry in it! I love Stephen Root from Barry!
But, god, am I feeling some kind of way about it constantly sucking all the air out of the room. It feels less like we’re looking forward to a game, more that we’re in thrall to a captor that knows it can command attention whether it earns it or not. ( I do not believe Red Dead Redemption 2‘s excellence earns uncritical hype for all future projects, lest we forget Cyberpunk). There’s plenty that can be said about the recent trailer, but if I had to sum up my own misgivings with it, it’s that it has an air less of “look at this cool thing we made, we can’t wait to share it with you”, more dick-swinging swagger, a cocksure sense of, well, you’re going to buy this anyway, here’s some absurdly good-looking beer to tide you piggies over.
Nintendo has disputed accusations it used AI-generated images to create billboards in Mario Kart World.
Rumors began to swirl when a Nintendo Treehouse livestream gave us a closer peek at the upcoming racer a few weeks back. Eagle-eyed fans pointed out that a handful of in-game advertising boards looked a little strange, with images of a construction site, a bridge, and a peculiarly tall car all raising eyebrows.
Of course, many pre-release titles include placeholder graphics that won’t be included in the final product, but Nintendo refuted claims that anything, even in its pre-release game, was AI-generated, saying in a statement to Eurogamer: “AI-generated images were not used in the development of Mario Kart World.”
Generative AI is one of the hottest topics in the creative industries right now and a burning issue within video game development itself. Apart from ethical and copyright issues, labor unions have expressed concern about the potential for generative AI to replace jobs, and video game performers have called for increased protections against its use.
In an interview with The New York Times, Miyamoto brought up AI himself as an example of something where Nintendo would rather do things differently than its peers.
“It might seem like we are just going the opposite direction for the sake of going in the opposite direction, but it really is trying to find what makes Nintendo special,” Miyamoto said.
“There is a lot of talk about A.I., for example,” he continued. “When that happens, everyone starts to go in the same direction, but that is where Nintendo would rather go in a different direction.”
“We have decades of know-how in creating the best gaming experiences for our players,” Furukawa added. “While we are open to utilizing technological developments, we will work to continue delivering value that is unique to Nintendo and cannot be created by technology alone.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 fans are rejoicing after the developer handed modders the keys to its internal editor, sparking hope it could ‘do a Skyrim’ and last for years with user-generated content.
Game director Dmitry Grigorenko took to the Space Marine 2 modding Discord to announce what he described as “our biggest milestone yet in supporting the modding community.”
Developer Saber Interactive has released the official Integration Studio for public use. This is the same editor the developers use internally for all gameplay development. This first release lets modders work with everything from level scenarios to game modes, tinker with AI behavior, abilities and melee combo logic, user interface and HUD elements, and make much of the general modding work with Space Marine 2 faster and easier.
“Not long ago, I promised we would support the modding scene — and we meant it,” Grigorenko said. “Watching this community grow, push boundaries, and create incredible experiences has been both inspiring and humbling. We’re excited to see what you build next — whether it’s a cinematic campaign, wild new game mode, or something we never saw coming.”
To get the ball rolling, Grigorenko released jokey concept art for a “Fishing With Daddy Calgar” mini-game, below, which is technically possible now with these tools. Calgar is Marneus Calgar, the leader of the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines.
To find out what the Space Marine 2 modding community plans to do with this editor, I had a quick chat with Tom, aka Warhammer Workshop, the modder behind Space Marine 2’s excellent Astartes Overhaul. Fresh from releasing a mod that enables 12-player co-op in Space Marine 2, Tom told me that he now has access to all the scripting tools that control what happens in any particular mission, as well as for all the different game components like weapons and abilities.
This means modders could, for example, create a Space Marine 2 roguelite mode where modders spawn in one of the swarm sequences from the campaign with nothing but a combat knife, and progressively spawn bigger and tougher enemies, with percentage chances to spawn weapons, ammo, and health on death. “Killing a Carnifex might grant you a Heavy Bolter,” Tom suggested.
As for a brand new cinematic campaign, Tom said that while a Chaos campaign would “definitely” be doable, cutscenes are trickier because modders so far do not have access to the animation tools necessary.
However, Tom is currently planning on adding new factions to Space Marine 2, including the Tau and Necrons, as the modders have the rigs that will fit those. Meanwhile, the Space Marine 2 modding community is racing to actually make the Fishing With Daddy Calgar mini-game mod Grigorenko challenged them to.
Reaction from Space Marine 2 fans is hugely positive, and with good reason. While Space Marine 2 is well-received and has gone down as one of the best-selling Warhammer video games of all time, it is relatively limited in terms of its official offering. That is to say, it contains three factions only: Space Marines, Chaos (a mix of Chaos Marines and some Tzeentch Daemons), and the Tyrannids. Players had hoped for DLC that might extend the faction roster (the Space Marine 2 campaign teased the Necrons), but can now take matters into their own hands.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
I started writing this piece as a sort of “oh, this was cool!” bit of game archaeology after seeing a post from Scott Krol – who shares consistently fascinating bits of ephemera on video and tabletop games – on the physical bits that came with 1984’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy adventure game.
“Infocom, known for their brilliant text adventures, was the first company to put physical items in with their games,” writes Scott. “In fact, Infocom were attributed as the first to coin the term “feelies” for physical goodies that came with the game”.
We love the little GWPs (gifts with purchase) that Lego likes to drop with certain special sets from time to time, and this latest one is an absolute doozy for us Nintendo fans.
The Switch 2 isn’t just getting brand new games, but its online service will also be receiving a special update adding the GameCube library. While it’s set to start with only a handful of games, Nintendo has already teased some others.
Still, we’re sure there are many other requests – so Alex and Zion have now chimed in with 10 games Nintendo Life would like to eventually see show up on this classic Nintendo library. This includes both first and third-party games as well as some safe picks and dream releases.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I’m currently reading Dorothy Parker, who did more for the language than I’d previously though. I’m having quite regular moments of “oh, she said that”. More proof, if any were needed, that the soul of wit is as much depression and alcoholism as it is brevity.
This week it’s game city design expert and author of Virtual Cities, Konstantinos Dimopoulos! Cheers Konstantinos! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
We are back with another edition of Box Art Brawl! Are you ready to rank some cover art?
Last time, we took a look at 1080° Avalanche for the GameCube, and the results were an absolute blowout. The European / North American design took a staggering win, claiming 80% of the vote and leaving the Japanese variant with the remaining 20%. Oof, an avalanche indeed.
