I don’t know who out there was excited for the Borderlands movie, but boy howdy, this is a rough one. After a so-so first trailer in February, a new preview clip at IGN’s summer showcase stunned me with a kind of charisma void that’s actually impressive in its own way.

I’m pretty neutral on Borderlands overall. I played a lot of Borderlands 2 back in the day, like a lot of people⁠—you know, back when a movie tie-in would have made more sense. But with its colorful, deformed art, abundance of lore, and established voice actors for various characters, wouldn’t an animated adaptation a la Arcane or Cyberpunk Edgerunners have made more sense as a first stop? It certainly would have been cheaper than paying actors like Tilda Swinton, Jaimie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black (speci…

I try not to be a Funko Pop hater guy⁠. It’s always struck me as one of those “edgy” opinions that’s actually quite pedestrian⁠—”Oh please, tell me more about which nontraditional picks you actually consider to be Christmas Movies.” Most of the time, I endeavor to have no opinion either way on the ubiquitous vinyl tchotchkes. But now it’s personal: they brought Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords into it.

Yes, Gamestop is now offering exclusive Funkos based off RPG powerhouse Obsidian’s first game, which is basically Planescape: Torment in space, was made in ~14 months, didn’t really have an ending until fans restored one, and remains one of my PC gaming first loves. Why this of all games?

I find myself contemplating these chib…

Today in “making videogames is hard” news: Respawn’s journey to track down a bug that caused months of audio issues in Apex Legends. Grenades that don’t explode, guns that don’t shoot, damage that has no source, and months of agonizing investigation—all apparently caused by a single line of code added in Apex Legends’ Season 16 update.

As outlined in a thorough Reddit post by Respawn community manager Amy Thiessen, the trouble began at the start of Season 16 in February. The studio had started getting reports of “disappearing nades” in Apex. Respawn soon determined that grenades weren’t “disappearing” exactly, but they would sometimes fail to explode despite damaging players.

“This had not occurred during our Season 16 playtesting, could not be reproduced internally af…

Watch On

A new roguelike invites you to do some terrifying and claustrophobic diving in caves beneath the sea, which is either the least appealing thing you’ve ever heard of or an exciting premise for a spooky game with probably very little space in between. In Feed the Deep you go diving beneath the waves to find resources that you use to keep the cosmic horrors slumbering beneath the world doing just that: Slumbering. As opposed to rising from the depths and devouring mankind and all that.

Though it starts a bit slow, Feed the Deep is an interesting exercise in game design. You’re consistently making risk-or-reward choices as you explore and backtrack in winding cave systems on a limited tank of oxygen, all with the goal of maximizing the resources you pull out and avoiding host…

I love Thief: The Dark Project so much I push for its inclusion in the PC Gamer Top 100 every year (and sometimes I get my way). Seems like Thomas Porta loves Thief too, as demonstrated by the footage of his upcoming stealth game Serpens: Eternal Thievery. As well as a gameplay trailer there’s a video from the current alpha (embedded above), which shows the first 10 minutes of torch-snuffing abbey exploration and has convinced me to add Serpens to my wishlist. 

The level has a hand-drawn map, opens with a religious quote, and has fireplaces to crawl through. There’s a light gem in the interface, NPCs hum to let you know where they are, and conveniently placed boxes can be climbed on. Torches can be put out, guard’s bodies picked up, and doors are highlighted when you’re close…

Improve your daily Wordle game with our selection of general guides and tips, read a helpful hint designed to nudge you in the direction of today’s Wordle without giving the game away, or simply scroll or click straight to the January 5 (565) answer—however you want to win, I can help you achieve it.

One…two… three… four… fi-oh no just four greens. Luckily for me, there was only one possible alternative answer after that initial miss, so I was able to clear today’s Wordle nice and early. 

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Thursday, January 5

Hair or fur that is smooth, glossy, and well cared for can be described as today’s answer. This word can also refer to someone or something that looks exceptionally…

Update: The ESRB has released a statement clarifying that this technology does not “confirm the identity of users,” nor it it intended to scan the faces to minors to determine whether they’re old enough to purchase particular games. It only uses images to determine the subject’s age in order to ensure compliance with COPPA privacy requirements. 

“To be perfectly clear: Any images and data used for this process are never stored, used for AI training, used for marketing, or shared with anyone,” the ESRB said in its statement. “The only piece of information that is communicated to the company requesting VPC is a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ determination as to whether the person is over the age of 25.”

Original story:

Remember a couple years ago, w…

Sail through your daily Wordle with our help. We’ve got some great tips if you’d like to give your everyday guesses a refresh, a clue for the April 23 (1039) puzzle if you’d like some guided assistance, and today’s answer only a click or scroll away if you’re struggling. However you want to play, we’ve got your back.

This game was led by all the grey letters I kept finding, today’s Wordle answer unearthed more by a harsh narrowing of possibilities than any handy green letters I happened to find. I didn’t mind too much, as it worked out brilliantly for me, the right word turning up with plenty of guesses left to spare.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, April 23

In a more general sense, today’s answer means to roam or wander, al…

The advent of AI in game development is a touchy subject. Witness, for instance, the reaction to a promotional tweet for System Shock in which publisher Prime Matter used the Midjourney AI software to imagine what the game’s evil AI Shodan might look like. (Short version: It did not go over well.) There are also very understandable fears that AI could be used to replace some—maybe many—game development jobs: Blizzard, for instance, recently applied for a patent on an AI system intended to generate in-game art.

Now Ubisoft is wading into the fray, and based on a statement in the company’s FY 2022-23 year end report, it sounds like it’s ready to jump in with both feet.

“As the world adopts Generative AI at a record pace, GDC 2023 demonstrated its immense potential …

We got a brief taste of Final Fantasy 16 today, in the form of a 19-second clip that was meant to show off Torgal, the game’s canine companion. But poor Torgal’s been overshadowed, and instead, we’re all focused on something far more controversial. Rather than concentrating on our furry friend, players are only interested in one thing: That squeeze hole.

For the love of god, don’t Google that. I’ll just tell you what it means. Apparently, at some point in the recent past, ‘squeeze hole’ became the accepted nomenclature for those times when you have to shimmy through a gap in a videogame in a way that conveniently masks a loading screen. I’m pretty unhappy about such terminology, but this is the world we’ve made and now we have to live in it. 

Regardless, you’d …