A brief, nightmarish glimpse into the future of "AI-powered" gaming

Counter Strike 2 Update “Rug Pulls” Collectors out of BILLION$$$ Link: https://www.dexerto.com/counter-strike-2/cs2-skin-update-rug-pulls-collectors-as-1-billion-wiped-from-market-cap-3273322/ New CS2 update will let you trade 5 lesser value items of a covert rarity, and then trade them up for a Knife or Glove. Knifes are CS2 gold and have traditionally been worth THOUSANDS. Some creators are apparently upset because their knife collection isn’t worth nearly as much as they were before. Should’ve SOLD your knives before Valve dropped the update LMAO. Over 5000 Steam Games… fail to even make back the $100 publishing fee Link: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/over-5-000-games-released-on-steam-this-year-didnt-make-enough-money-to-recover-the-usd100-fee-to-put-a-game-on-valves-store-research-estimates/ A true nightmare for the average indie game developer. You publish a game, pay Valve $100, and then hope you can earn enough to make a living. But the horrors of game development only begin AFTER you release the game. Many indies come out and find success, but for every success, 100 must fail. But worst yet, some of these games don’t even make back the flat $100 fee Valve charges to even publish a game on Steam. One can only know the true horrors of indie game development whilst living as a starving artist during development. ChatGPT Atlas - An AI Browser Nightmare Link: https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-atlas/ It exists. James will try it out in the BONUS episode. Halo: Campaign Evolved… or Devolved? But either way, coming to PlayStation Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/24/halo-campaign-evolved-answering-the-big-questions/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSjbIM0iegY To Celebrate Halo moving to Unreal Engine 5, they’re doing a full on remake of Combat Evolved, which is coming day 1 to Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Steam. They promise THIS time, 2-Player splitscreen co-op on console, with 4-Player Cross-platform online co-op. They’re also giving you a brand new set of prequel missions featuring Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson. There are some features coming from later Halo titles coming to Campaign Evolved, such as the ability to sprint (which is an option to disable), hijack vehicles, use weapons usable from later in the series such as the Energy Sword (which was not possible in Halo 1). But there are concerns about a couple of things, such as changed art designs, the move to Unreal Engine 5, and implementing features & weapons from later Halo games. Exclusive Games “Antiquated”… Next Xbox to be “Premium” and “High-End” Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/exclusive-games-are-antiquated-xbox-president-says/1100-6535625/ https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/next-xbox-wont-be-cheap-sarah-bond-teases-a-very-premium-high-end-next-gen-console-experience Sarah Bond, President of Xbox says that people are moving past the idea that games should be limited to a single platform or store. Do you agree? Given the Xbox Series X we had for years went UP in price, one can only imagine how much more a new gen Xbox would be, assuming they don’t leave the market like we think. AI Games are “Going to be Amazing” Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/s/nxDeOlYcYe https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/1981406315693187430 https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/1981798226635190641 Dead Internet “Theory” in full force here. AI Bro generates this CINEMATIC EPIC “gameplay” footage full of crazy shit no competent dev would actually leave in. It’s going for this sort of gritty realistic cinematic style but it’s full of goofier shit than most cartoony or anime games. Fedora will allow for AI-Assisted Contributions (With Disclosure) Link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-Allows-AI-Contributions The Fedora Council has made their judgement. AI-Assisted Contributions to the project will be allowed… with proper disclosures. The big question is how will you hold anyone accountable for AI-Assisted code? And most importantly, how can you tell code is AI if someone who’s good at coding actively hides any sort of telltale signs of AI code? New Memory Standard - SOCAMM2 nearly ready for prime time Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/nvidias-homegrown-memory-design-is-nearly-complete-and-standardized-jedec-says-socamm2-will-replace-the-bespoke-socamm1-standard-that-nvidia-created SOCAMM2 is a new physical standard for memory backed by Nvidia and designed for use in next-gen AI servers. Current iterations make use of LPDDR5X memory, and are said to consume only 1/3 the power of an RDIMM module of an equivalent size while approaching the performance of memory modules soldered directly onto a motherboard, without introducing much signal loss from say a DRAM slot. This standard would also be installed parallel to the motherboard in question, rather than perpendicularly. Ideally could this be a new memory standard that PC handhelds should strive for? We buy a barebones PC handheld with no storage and memory, but then we supply our own SSD and SOCAMM2 drives? 📢 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a comment, and follow us on your favorite podcast app. Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/cw/OffTheConsole Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/dVkKcZH2Qy #SteamController #gamingnews Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant