Thursday news, the finla third part:

Call of Duty's latest crossover is somehow its most ridiculous yet: Cheech and Chong are coming to Warzone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/call-of-dutys-latest-crossover-is-somehow-its-most-ridiculous-yet-cheech-and-chong-are-coming-to-warzone/
At first I thought this had to be an April Fool's joke fired early, or perhaps a build-up to one coming next week. But I double-checked with the company, and it's true: For reasons I absolutely cannot fathom, Cheech and Chong are coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone.

Lawyer warns game developers about 'unlawful game design' as 'dark patterns' lawsuits rise
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/dark-patterns-in-games-gdc-2024/
When I think of game design that might be "unlawful," I think of gambling, but things aren't so simple these days, warns Eric Weiss, a trial lawyer who defends companies from class action lawsuits and other disputes. The US Federal Trade Commission is on the lookout for so-called "dark patterns" in software and websites, and Weiss says that game developers should be very careful.

You can't sue us for making games 'too entertaining,' say major game developers in response to addiction lawsuits
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/video-game-addiction-lawsuit-motion-to-dismiss/
A string of six videogame addiction lawsuits have recently been filed against Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Roblox, Epic Games, Rockstar, and other major game developers and publishers. The complaints, which were all submitted to courts within the past 12 months, claim that game developers are intentionally making players addicted to their games.

Stardew Valley gets another new patch that fixes the 'creepy face' bear and makes new cabins paintable
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/stardew-valley-gets-another-new-patch-that-fixes-the-creepy-face-bear-and-makes-new-cabins-paintable/
Stardew Valley's big 1.6 update went live last week, but work on the game hasn't stopped, or even slowed down by the looks of it. Creator Eric Barone rolled out a new 1.6.3 patch for the PC version of the game today that makes a pretty hefty number of fixes to the game.

Flagging megacorp Embracer Group is now selling off Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two for $460 million
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/flagging-megacorp-embracer-group-is-now-selling-off-gearbox-entertainment-to-take-two-for-dollar460-million/
Swedish games behemoth Embracer Group bought Gearbox for $1.3 billion back in 2021. Just over three years later, Embracer Group is divesting Gearbox Entertainment to 2K Games and Rockstar parent company Take-Two Entertainment for $460 million. The acquisition is expected to finalize by the end of June.

Arrowhead implores Helldivers 2 players to temporarily stop using its most destructive weapon yet: Snowballs
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arrowhead-implores-helldivers-2-players-to-temporarily-stop-using-its-most-destructive-weapon-yet-snowballs/
War is hell, and the debasement and corruption of its participants only accelerates as humanity invents new, more spectacular, and more terrible weapons with which to prosecute it. Helldivers 2—with its arsenal of Breakers, Dominators, and Redeemers—is no different. But even Super Earth has limits, as Arrowhead has now implored Helldivers everywhere to refrain from using the game's most unintentionally destructive weapon of all: snowballs.
In a post to the Helldivers 2 Discord earlier today, Arrowhead community lead Katherine Baskin told troops to "avoid having snowball fights!" due to their sheer deadly potential. Not militarily deadly, mind you, technically deadly. It turns out that hucking snowballs around is crashing people's games for reasons unknown.
>> On a sadder note, a player has died and other players are mourning him. And he may get a

Remedy comms director says upcoming live-service Control spin-off is 'for fans we don't have yet' as he muses on 'how challenging the co-op multiplayer space is'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/remedy-comms-director-says-upcoming-live-service-control-spin-off-is-for-fans-we-dont-have-yet-as-he-muses-on-how-challenging-the-co-op-multiplayer-space-is/
Late last week, we got some news on Remedy's multiplayer control spinoff, Condor, which is set to be a "service-based fixed price" game. And while Alan Wake 2's success helped bolster support for this upcoming game as well as others like Control 2 and the Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes, Remedy knows that development won't be straightforward—or at least the communications director does. 

'Nobody is born toxic' says Journey's creative director while preparing to launch the kindest MMO on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/nobody-is-born-toxic-says-journeys-creative-director-while-preparing-to-launch-the-kindest-mmo-on-pc/
After the critical success of its emotional, musical adventure Journey in 2012, Thatgamecompany's creative director Jenova Chen had aspirations to reach a much broader audience of players. Journey was popular on console, with an audience that Chen jokingly described as men in their 30s who were conveniently journalists and awards judges, but "teenagers hated Journey," he said. I must have been an outlier. 
So Thatgamecompany decided to make an MMO, a genre that's definitely popular with teens, but rarely synonymous with the wholesome, friendly experiences with strangers that Journey was known for. During an interview at GDC earlier this month, Chen told me all about the challenges of designing a non-toxic social space in Sky: Children of the Light, just ahead of its PC launch.

3 days after Helldivers 2 dev's CEO denied the existence of heavy machine guns, they now exist: Introducing the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon and the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/3-days-after-helldivers-2-devs-ceo-denied-the-existence-of-heavy-machine-guns-they-now-exist-introducing-the-las-99-quasar-cannon-and-the-mg-101-heavy-machine-gun/
Earlier this week, the CEO of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead Games flatly denied the existence of heavy machine guns—Johan Pilestedt has track record of being tongue-in-cheek, though it's not clear whether he accidentally blurted out some Super Earth secrets or fired a knowing wink our direction, here.
Turns out, we are getting not one, but two heavy weapons to help us in our march against the bots: the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon and the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun (HMG), which are both available in-game right now. 

And that's all for this week. With Easter and all that there won't be more news until Tuesday. Until then, have a great time!

Hey guys. I am back from getting married! I'll start doing hardware news from next week.

Welcome back!

I hope you enjoyed your honeymoon.

I thing the most disruptive thing within next few years in how games are made (especially RPGs) will be implementation of non-scripted AI NPCs, who are powered by motivations and goals, and systemic based worlds. Once you get that into games, pretty much whole game design paradigm will change drastically. So all this coding to make "narrative LEGO" and "n+1" will be very outdated very soon (and this is the reason why I think next Elder Scrolls is nowhere near being complete, since I'm certain they want something like that in that game).

Thanks, it was really awesome.

Also thanks for covering the hardware news for me while I was gone! Really appreciate it

We've been hearing devs talking about the AI of their NPCs for years, and now they have the tools for it. But it will still ask for a lot of work from the devs, giving them a personality and a story and a whole lot more, and because of that I don't expect a lot of games to really shine in that aspect. My guess is that most will do the bare minimum and call it a day.

Still, those narrative LEGOs and n+1 will have a place, as the devs will have to create the stories and boundaries for the player and the NPCs. AI will help with that, hopefully, but it won't replace them.

I was going to say that it's been my pleasure, but I'd be lying. I'm glad you had fun and that you've come back so I don't have to do "your" news again.

Lol fair enough

Oh, I don't know - we already have games that are letting NPCs do whatever they want (according to their motivations) and that reflects in gameworld. Dwarf Fortress being prime example. City 20, upcoming survival RPG being another. So if you figure out how to make plot triggers, let the systemic world just exist, throw player into it and let them achieve goals in any way they want, while interacting with that systemic world and AI NPCs, it would be quite different than any notion of classic game design so far. And eventually add an AI Game Master, and you have radically different experiences than what we're used to in video games.

Not saying classically designed games won't still be viable path to take, but with such NPCs, all of the sudden you have much different view toward designing everything. Pretty similar to what I once said in some BotW discussion - if you make a game where axe can chop wood (and that means ALL wood), and make all doors wooden, then your view on the game design needs to be quite different than in game where axe can chop only some wood and all doors are artificially impervious to it.

Ton of bundles in March from both Humble and Fanatical, redeemed so many games damn lol

Edit: Sad that Indie Gala is just a shell of what it was years ago - bundle wise.

What you said, "games that are letting NPCs do whatever they want (according to their motivations)" is what I meant by motivation and story/background given to the NPC, etc. Those things will still need to be put in place by devs to follow the story they want to create in the game and to make sure the player experiences the game the way they want. That's where the n+1 or whatever they want to use to describe it comes into play.

The AI Game Master isn't something I see happening anytime soon, and maybe never at all in some games (why would a game like DOOM need that, for example?).

And now that you mention the axe and wood/doors, I'd love to see AI used to create more interactive worlds. How many times has any of us wanted to enter huts, houses, stores or whatever in a game but we can't because the devs only designed the outside? How cool would it be to let AI design the interiors of all those places in a way that makes sense and doesn't repeat, freeing devs to do the rest of the work. It's one of the few good things AC: Unity had, the option to enter through some houses or buildings as a shortcut, making the city feel more real.