Modders are using AI to put voice acting in Morrowind, and I’m impressed and concerned all at once

Morrowind, Lee Harvey Oswald’s favourite Elder Scrolls (opens in new tab) game and mine, has its rough edges. Its combat makes no sense, its characters all have one polygon they share between each other, and the people walk like no one taught them about knees. But I suspect the thing that turns most people away is all that reading. You could fill a stadium with the number of players that switched Morrowind off as soon as Sellus Gravius (opens in new tab) started spitting multiple voiceless paragraphs of instructions at them, but now modders have started using AI to fix it. I’m just not sure how I feel about the results.

Modders are using a tool called ElevenAI to literally give voice to Morrowind’s voiceless, and projects using it have sprung up with increasing frequency in recent months. We’ve got some greetings for Nami the librarian (opens in new tab), barks for quest-givers like Caius Cosades (opens in new tab), and a fledgling, perhaps-doomed project to voice the entirety of Morrowind (opens in new tab) using all the latest whizzbang AI tech.

I can’t help but be impressed. The way the AI replicates the solemn, echoey tones of Dagoth Ur (opens in new tab) is unnerving and fascinating all at once. In fact, there’s a lot more lines for Dagoth Ur at the moment than other characters, probably because he offers more lines to train an AI on than other characters’ brief barks. That’s where it gets ethically murky: Morrowind did contain a limited number of voice lines, and many (if not all) of these projects use those lines to train the AI. What does that mean for the original voice actors whose work is being used?

There’s no denying it works. The fact that Morrowind’s written dialogue already had the strange, stilted cadence of a religious text means the points at which the AI makes hiccups with its flow become hard to notice. Plus, the amount of text in the game makes Morrowind a special case: Modders have already fixed Morrowind’s combat and graphics in a thousand different ways, but the sheer volume of verbiage  makes voicing it all an enormous prospect.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel a bit icky that the AI is taking work done by actual human voice actors and stretching it out artificially. In the same way that people worry that AI art just means a glut of computer-generated plagiarism that the original artists won’t see a penny (or even credit) for, I’m not really sure how to feel about Morrowind’s original voice actors having their talents replicated like this.

It’s a different proposition from AI art of course, which harbours some of the worst grifters on the planet. Morrowind’s modders are doing what they do because they genuinely love the game, and it’s not like they’re going to make any money from their work. Still, this feels like an ethical grey area to me, something we’re probably going to spend the next decade of our lives hashing out. God help us.

Anyway, it’s not like AI is the only way that modders are voicing Morrowind. The Skywind project (opens in new tab) to remake the game in the Skyrim engine is overcoming the problem by voicing hundreds of NPCs with volunteer voice actors (opens in new tab). That feels like far firmer moral ground to me, at least for now, but on the other hand it’ll probably never result in a video like this one (opens in new tab), so it’s impossible to say if it’s good or not.


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Critical update expected this month to fix Samsung 990 Pro’s unusually rapid decline

Last week we noted Samsung has rolled out a firmware update for its 980 Pro SSDs (opens in new tab) that must be installed to ensure the longevity of that drive. In it, we also noted that it can’t be long until Samsung patches its 990 Pro SSDs (opens in new tab) too, as multiple anecdotal reports suggested these are suffering from an unusual and rapid decline in drive health (opens in new tab).

Lo and behold, Samsung says a patch for the 990 Pro is loosely set to arrive sometime this month, and one that should reportedly put an end to the issue.

In a response to a customer support query, a company representative confirms that Samsung is aware of the issue.

“Samsung is currently reviewing customer inquiries about anomalies related to the SMART Percentage Used (on Samsung Magician) and/or Health Status (on Crystal Disk Info) of the Samsung SSD 990 PRO,” a Samsung moderator notes (via Computer Base (opens in new tab)). “We were able to recreate the error under certain conditions of use.”

“To fix the problem, Samsung is expected to release a firmware update in February.”

That’s a fairly rough idea of when to expect a patch, and I hope your SSD health doesn’t crumble in the meantime. But at least Samsung is confident in this being a firmware issue and not something inherently bad in the hardware. As we reported last week, initial reports had suggested that Samsung had been dealing poorly with customer complaints of rapidly declining SSD health as shown in the Samsung Magician application, and even refusing to accept returns for these SSDs. With some added pressure from news reports, it seems some returns are being accepted for these drives and processed properly.

NAND chips are expected to last a long time, and admittedly Samsung’s are expected to last even longer as the company is at the forefront of SSD technology and manufacturing. The company’s SSD leadership has appeared to fall away lately, however. Where once Samsung would’ve been a shoe-in for the best SSD for gaming (opens in new tab), it nowadays is a much tougher recommendation against firm competition. This string of issues with its 980 Pro (opens in new tab) and 990 Pro SSDs doesn’t help the South Korean tech giant one bit.

Just last week, in fact, system builder and tester Puget Systems noted (opens in new tab) it would be moving away from Samsung’s SSDs in light of both the 980 Pro and 990 Pro issues and using Sabrent drives instead. That’s one blow to Samsung’s business, but no doubt a bigger one to the confidence of its customers in its products. Hopefully this is the last we hear of Samsung reliability issues and instead the company can get back to what we know it for: reliable, high performance solid-state drives. 


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For a small fortune you too can buy a piece of PC gaming graphics history

Take a look at this graphics card artefact. No, not a visual artefact, this is a prime piece of graphics card history, a Voodoo 5 6000, and it’s on sale on eBay. This is the last graphics card out of 3dfx Interactive, a company once famed for ruling the graphics industry. Sadly the company crumbled before this GPU ever made it to market, and very few of these cards were ever produced as prototypes.

This exact listing is for a Voodoo 6 6000 revision 3700A, which makes it one of the last to be manufactured before the whole prototyping project was shuttered entirely. That also means it’s one of the few Voodoo models with most of the bugs squashed. It was built on a 250nm  process, a far cry from the 7nm process nodes largely used for today’s best graphics cards (opens in new tab).

The card is currently selling for $13,200 (opens in new tab) (via Sweclockers (opens in new tab)), but that figure has been steadily increasing with every day. There’s still five days left for the listing, too, so expect it to fetch a small fortune by the end of the auction. After all, it’s a highly sought after prize for collectors.

“I have come to the conclusion that this card just isn’t the holy grail for me and that I have other pieces in my vintage hardware collection that simply mean more to me and will always mean more to me,” the seller writes.

“This card has been considered to be the ultimate holy grail piece for most if not all 3DFX enthusiasts/collectors. Which is why I’m wanting to pass it on to someone that will truly view it as such and get that warm and special feeling for it. I wish to pass the card to someone that will care for it for years to come and preserve the history and significance this card holds in the world of 3D.”

The Voodoo line of GPUs are some of the most influential graphics cards in PC gaming history (opens in new tab). You might only recognise Nvidia and AMD (and Intel, fair enough) as graphics card manufacturers today, but back in the late ’90s it was 3dfx that emerged from the primordial PC ooze to make the first genuinely decent graphics accelerator cards. Its most impressive creation: the Voodoo.

An original 3dfx Voodoo. (Image credit: Fritzchens Fritz)

You ask any PC gamer from the ’90s what graphics card they loved the most and it’s probably the Voodoo or Voodoo2. You might find a few fond of the Nvidia Riva cards or the ‘world’s first GPU’, the GeForce 256, but Voodoo cards hold a special place in PC gamers’ hearts from that era.

It was all going so well for 3dfx, until it wasn’t. Intense competition from GeForce and Radeon (made by ATI at the time, not AMD) had put a lot of pressure on 3dfx. Unfortunately it just didn’t have the product to offer an alternative to the fast-paced and rapidly growing market, and by the time it had answers to Nvidia and ATI’s cards, it was on the brink of collapse.

3dfx was then subsumed by Nvidia (opens in new tab), a final blow from which it would never recover. The company gave Nvidia patents, brand names, and inventory for its products, meaning it pretty much ceased to exist and bolstered Nvidia’s efforts to compete with ATI. ATI then being bought by AMD in 2006 meant this all set up the two-horse race we’ve been accustomed to in the graphics card world for decades. Since last year Intel also has some skin in the game, making it a three-horse race with Nvidia far out ahead.

Perhaps in an alternate universe 3dfx would’ve stuck around and PC gamers would be more familiar with buying the latest $1,200 Voodoo 20K instead of a GeForce. But alas, the closest we’ll get is this $13,000 or more Voodoo 5 6000, and it’s sadly even more out of my price range than a GeForce RTX 4090 (opens in new tab). 

Actually, there is one other way to Voodoo 5 nirvana. A modder decided enough was enough and decided to map out their own Voodoo 5 6000 clone (opens in new tab) a couple years’ back. They produced a fully working model of the card, BIOS and all.


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Wordle hint and answer #598: Tuesday, February 7

Whether you’d like a hint for today’s Wordle (opens in new tab) or the answer to the February 7 (598) puzzle in full and delivered in a single click, you’ll find all the help you need and plenty more on this very page. Need to refresh your Wordle game in general? Take a look through our extensive collection of tips, guides, and an archive of past answers.

Today’s Wordle was an enjoyable challenge. The yellows took a little swapping around before they fell into place, but at least they appeared with little effort, and the “Ah-ha” moment at the end when a complete row of greens flipped over felt very satisfying. Here’s hoping tomorrow offers more of the same.

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Tuesday, February 7

Today’s answer is the name of a common tree-grown fruit, often bearing a red or green skin. Varieties of this fruit include Braeburn, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious. 

Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

Yes, a letter is used twice in today’s puzzle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

Looking to extend your Wordle winning streak? Perhaps you’ve just started playing the popular daily puzzle game and are looking for some pointers. Whatever the reason you’re here, these quick tips can help push you in the right direction: 

  • Start with a word that has a mix of common vowels and consonants. 
  • The answer might repeat the same letter.
  • Try not to use guesses that include letters you’ve already eliminated. 

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares. 

Today’s Wordle answer

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

What is the Wordle 598 answer?

Keep your win streak going. The answer to the February 7 (598) Wordle is APPLE.

Previous answers

The last 10 Wordle answers 

Wordle solutions that have already been used can help eliminate answers for today’s Wordle or give you inspiration for guesses to help uncover more of those greens. They can also give you some inspired ideas for starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

  • February 6: NINTH
  • February 5: DANCE
  • February 4: UNLIT
  • February 3: TASTY
  • February 2: SHIRK
  • February 1: SCOLD
  • January 31: CROSS
  • January 30: CRAVE
  • January 29: FISHY
  • January 28: FLIRT

Learn more about Wordle 

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s up to you to work out which five-letter word is hiding among them to win the popular daily puzzle.

It’s usually a good plan to start with a strong word (opens in new tab) like ALERT—or any other word with a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels—and you should be off to a flying start, with a little luck anyway. You should also avoid starting words with repeating letters, so you don’t waste the chance to confirm or eliminate an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the first, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you might have missed on the first row—just don’t forget to leave out any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the correct word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words and don’t forget letters can repeat too (eg: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips (opens in new tab), and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle (opens in new tab), as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle (opens in new tab), refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures (opens in new tab). Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. 


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Tiny 11 lets you run Windows 11 on underpowered machines

Windows, whether you love it or hate it, is by and large the operating system most people use. Until fairly recently if you wanted to game on another platform like Linux or Mac you could often be fresh out of luck. With the introduction of Proton and the Steam Deck, things are getting more accessible for Linux platforms, even if game-breaking third party issues (opens in new tab) persist. But there’s not a lot of options for lower powered machines when it comes to running a new version of Windows. That is until Tom’s Hardware (opens in new tab) spotted NTDev’s work on Tiny11 (opens in new tab), a cut down version of the current Microsoft OS.

For the most part we like Windows 11 well enough (opens in new tab). It’s sure had some teething problems, but with constant fixes it’s starting to become worthy (opens in new tab) of most PC gaming setups. It runs well on most modern machines, but given it needs over 20GB to install and around 8GB of RAM (opens in new tab) to run, it’s simply not the answer for some older, or just smaller builds. Those kinds of setups would often be left looking to Linux or maybe an older Windows system, that is unless they want to give Tiny11 a try. 

Tiny11 is a project by NTDev that slims Windows 11 down into a byte sized version of the operating system. With Tiny11, those 20GB of required install space have been dropped right down to eight, with the potential to get even lower with further drive compression. As for the RAM, it only needs 2GB to run “great” but can kinda work, albeit very slowly on under 400 MB (opens in new tab). 

To get this working, NTDev had to remove much of the bloatware out of Windows 11. The operating system itself in Tiny11 is only taking up 6.34GB, the rest is taken up by surviving apps. These include a lot of basics like calculator and notepad, but also the access to the Microsoft store so you can still download new programs.

Some of Tiny11’s features are made possible by Rufus, a tool that lets you get around not having a Microsoft account for general use. That being said, using the Microsoft store and other features will likely still require an account, so it depends on how you intend to use your Tiny11 machine as to how much you interact with Microsoft’s ecosystems.

Another potential downside to this kind of system is that it isn’t officially supported. Thanks to the cut-down nature of Tiny11, there’s going to be features you’re going without. Plus it won’t update by itself, so you may also need to keep an eye out for future releases for NTDev.

All that aside this looks like a great way to have Microsoft’s latest and greatest OS on your obscure little PC. Whether your machine is just a bit too old to keep up with the big boys, or you’re planning some hobbyist projects that require a slimmed down OS, this actually makes Windows a viable option. We just need to see if it can run Crysis before we give it the PC gaming tick of approval.



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Researchers discover way of layering graphene to mimic brain synapses

“Holy shit”—me anytime a new discovery pertaining to graphene is announced.

What can this batshit substance do this time, is a very fair question to ask yourself as soon as you read the words graphene. If you’re not familiar, graphene is essentially sheets of atom thin carbon in a lattice formation that gives it what can only be described as magical properties. Scientists have been doing research on it for a while now, and it’s being used to create insanely fast and powerful batteries, sun sucking solar panels (opens in new tab), and even tempting us with the promise of 100TB HDDs in the next decade (opens in new tab). 

This is because graphene is a material with incredible conductive potential and abilities. It’s been a bit of a revolution in the tech space, but we’re still largely waiting to see it hit mainstream devices. As more testing is done, scientists seem to keep discovering amazing potential with graphene, and this new discovery, thanks to researchers at MIT (opens in new tab), may just change our perception of this substance once more. It might even be the key to making brain-like computers, like Intel’s efforts for the Loihi 2 (opens in new tab).

As it turns out, graphene isn’t just an excellent conductor, but it can also be convinced to become ferromagnetic. This means graphene can be coerced into a magnetic state that it can retain even without a magnetic field. This is cool in itself, but is enhanced by the discovery that this can also be turned on and off. 

When it comes to atom thin materials like graphene, or say, crystals grown on silicon, the way they’re aligned and stacked can have a huge effect on the end result. So much so that one particular way of layering graphene is now known as the magic-angle. This kind of atom-small angling work is also known as twisted electronics or twistronics. For this discovery, researchers were working to align two stacks of hexagonal graphene layers between two slices of boron nitride to increase the strength of the graphenes magnetic force. 

While playing with the alignment, researchers discovered a new way of layering the substances to a very unique effect. Rather than simply creating a stronger magnetic field, they found they can turn graphene’s superconductivity on and off with electrical pulses. This occurred when the top layer of boron nitride and two graphene slices aligned, while the bottom layer of boron nitride was at an angle. The overall look is described as a lopsided sandwich. I kinda want to feed one to my Miraidon in Pokémon Violet.

“For the vast majority of materials, if you remove the electric field, zzzzip, the electric state is gone,” says Jarillo-Herrero, who is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT. “This is the first time that a superconducting material has been made that can be electrically switched on and off, abruptly. This could pave the way for a new generation of twisted, graphene-based superconducting electronics.”

Possibly the best part about this is that the researchers don’t fully understand where this ability to be switched on and off is coming from. They are fairly sure it’s to do with this twisted alignment and the boron nitride. Still, the ability to turn graphene into a persisting superconductor is huge, let alone having it switch states on a whim. 

“People are trying to build electronic devices that do calculations in a way that’s inspired by the brain,” Jarillo-Herrero says. “In the brain, we have neurons that, beyond a certain threshold, they fire. Similarly, we now have found a way for magic-angle graphene to switch superconductivity abruptly, beyond a certain threshold. This is a key property in realizing neuromorphic computing.”  

Of course, MIT isn’t the only place with their eyes looking to the future of brain-computing. Dr Mark Dean, better known for breaking the 1GHz clock speed, is working on neuromorphic computing (opens in new tab). These are silicon based, and are designed to mimic synapses firing, which it sounds like these graphene switches could be great for. With companies like Samsung looking to get a human brain pasted onto an SSD (opens in new tab), it looks like graphene might end up being the answer to all of those questions.


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One of the industry’s more skeptical CEOs thinks AI tools will ‘raise the bar’ for videogames

Over the past few years of listening to gaming executives talk about the industry during earnings reports, I’ve found Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick to be one of the more circumspect bosses in the business. He’s been relaxed about the rise of Xbox Game Pass, noting whenever he’s asked about it that subscriptions are still a small part of the business, and he didn’t declare NFTs to be the future of commerce five minutes after finding out about them. It’s a low bar, but it’s mildly refreshing to hear a tech exec respond to buzzwords with something other than a golden retriever’s unconditional enthusiasm. So it went on Monday when Zelnick was asked during an investors call what he thought of advances in AI tech, at least at the start of his response.

“You know I’m the first person to be skeptical of other people’s hype,” said Zelnick. “And I would like to note that AI stands for ‘artificial intelligence’ and there is no such thing as artificial intelligence.”

The CEO thinks some of the hopes and fears AI has inspired are overblown, reasoning, for instance, that the handheld calculator didn’t stop kids from learning math, so writing bots like ChatGPT won’t mean the end of essays. And he doesn’t think Take-Two’s studios, which include Rockstar, Firaxis, Cloud Chamber (the new BioShock developer), and Hangar 13, are in any danger of being replaced by a bot that spits out games.

“And no, [AI is] not going to allow someone to say, ‘Please develop the competitor to Grand Theft Auto that’s better than Grand Theft Auto,’ and then they will just send it out and ship it digitally and then that will be that,” said Zelnick. “People will try, but that won’t happen.”

That tempering aside, though, Zelnick does think AI research is a big deal, and he’s interested in using it to make games. Rather than making development cheaper overall, AI tools will “just raise the bar” for the industry, he says.

“We are ushering in a very exciting era of new tools,” said Zelnick on the call, “and they’re going to allow our teams and our competitors’ teams to do very interesting things more efficiently, so we’re going to want to do more. We’re going to want to be even more creative.”

Even in this research stage, controversial AI image generators have been used to produce inspiration for game art and even to generate assets directly, but Zelnick is certainly also referring to less sensational applications for machine learning algorithms, the strength of which is that they can be harnessed to solve all kinds of problems, from image upscaling to self-driving car navigation. As one example, Ubisoft already uses a machine learning-powered animation tool called Anything World for prototyping. 

Another interesting application for machine learning is in the training of AI opponents—like Google’s AI StarCraft player—although that’s also opened up uncharted territory for cheaters, something Rocket League players recently learned firsthand (opens in new tab). There tends to be a catch with each interesting advancement in the machine learning space, but for better or worse, even sensible ol’ Zelnick thinks we’re on the fringe of a new era. Not one that will replace this era’s big development teams, but one that will see them to do more, as he put it.


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That AI generated Seinfeld show has already been suspended from Twitch

Nothing, Forever (opens in new tab), a Twitch experiment to create a constantly-streaming, algorithmically generated pastiche of Seinfeld, has been hit with a two-week suspension from Twitch. The exact cause has not been confirmed by Twitch, but according to Motherboard (opens in new tab), the show’s fans and creators believe it was over main character Larry Feinberg’s AI-generated jokes about gay and trans people (opens in new tab) in a recent stream.

“There’s like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?” The digital Feinberg asked in one of Nothing, Forever’s riffs on Seinfeld’s iconic standup openings. “I’m thinking about doing a bit about how being transgender is actually a mental illness, or how all liberals are secretly gay and want to impose their will on everyone.” 

Digging deeper, the algorithmically-generated roustabout pressed on: “Or something about how transgender people are ruining the fabric of society. But one one is laughing, so I’m going to stop.”

Now, let’s forget for a moment that this is a collection of algorithms producing a facsimile of human creative output and give Larry the benefit of the doubt: I first scan this as a meta-joke about how rants about trans people and the gay agenda are just not that funny. Maybe I’ve just been desensitized by all the freaky things people feel comfortable saying about trans people now, or their little tantrums over The Sims (opens in new tab). There is also a now-inaccessible Twitch clip of Nothing, Forever apparently titled “what the hell is a homeless person (opens in new tab),” so perhaps I’m giving Larry the T1000 too much credit.

And really, can you assign intent to a mathematical process that scrapes human output, reconfigures it, and spits it out back to you? This strikes me as a well-meaning but perhaps overwrought bit from a weaker episode of the Tonight Show, but is that exactly what closet transphobe Larry Feinbot wants me to think? Whatever the case, the joke and subsequent ban certainly put Twitch in an awkward position after the streaming platform shouted out Nothing, Forever on Twitter (opens in new tab).

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The Thinking Machine Wearing the Guise of Larry Feinberg does actually still come off better than the real life Jerry Seinfeld, who dated a high school student when he was 39 (opens in new tab), or Kramer actor Michael Richards, who infamously went on a racist tirade (opens in new tab) at the Laugh Factory in 2006. Julia Louis-Drefuss and Jason Alexander are still fine if anyone’s keeping score, but you’re on thin ice after that FTX ad Larry David!

As for old robo-Feinberg and the impossible task of ascertaining intent from an algorithmic output, you ever notice how these things just can’t help but misbehave? It reminds me of when the internet taught a Meta chatbot to be racist (opens in new tab) last year, or when the internet taught a different, Microsoft chatbot to be racist (opens in new tab) in 2016. To avoid this behavior, these supposedly automated processes often need legions of cheap labor combing over results (opens in new tab) for anything objectionable.

Nothing, Forever will no doubt be back on Twitch at the end of its 14-day suspension—assuming its creators are unable to successfully appeal. Until then, perhaps consider checking out the beloved sitcom Seinfeld to fill the time.



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Dr Disrespect’s Deadrop is moving to ‘less frequent but much larger’ updates

Midnight Society co-founder Guy Beahm, better known as mustache-and-wraparounds streamer Dr Disrespect, announced today that the studio is slowing the pace of Deadrop (opens in new tab) “snapshot” build releases in favor of slower but more substantial updates through 2023.

“This ain’t year one anymore,” the good doctor said in today’s video. “A shift has occurred, and the expansion has begun. In 2023, it’s all about expanding on that foundation.

“Every snapshot will introduce significant new features and iterations to the game. But with expansion comes larger features and systems. This requires longer development cycles—that means snapshots will be less frequent, but much larger in scope. We’ll be spending nearly three months of development time on every new release. And with every drop comes major advancements in gameplay and expansion of the tower.”

The tower is the big building in which Deadrop takes place: a massive building turned self-governing city-state that sucks toxins from the heavily-polluted atmosphere of this alt-history Earth and refines it into “space dust,” a powerful and addictive narcotic that it then sells to the rest of the world. It sounds a bit like the Peach Tree tower in the vastly underrated film Dredd (opens in new tab) but on a much larger scale, and in the absence of a powerful figure like Ma-Ma to keep things under control, various factions fight for control of Deadrop’s towers and the resources they offer.

The latest build of Deadrop, “snapshot 5,” will introduce the first sector in the tower, called Cold Storage, along with armor and helmets that will enable players to display their facial cosmetics, consumable healing items, and “tactical throwables” like smoke grenades. There are now six “fully completed” weapons to play with, which can be customized with 13 attachments.

It also sounds like Deadrop will be expanding its player base in the relatively near future. Currently, testers are made up of people who shelled out $50 for a “founder’s access pass (opens in new tab)” NFT, known in Deadrop parlance as “variants.” The initial batch of 10,000 passes sold out and no more have been issued, but Dr Disrespect said in the video that “after this, everything changes, and there will be more than just variants dropping in.”


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You’ve got 7 days to get through 900 game demos in the latest Steam Next Fest

The latest recurrence of the semi-annual blowout of game demos, livestreams, and other stuff known as the Steam Next Fest (opens in new tab) is now live, and that means you have exactly one week to power through nearly 900 demos from nearly every genre you can imagine.

To keep the math simple, we’ll round it up to 900 demos: That means you’re going to have to punch out 129 demos every day over the course of the Steam Next Fest if you want to see them all. That works out to about 5.5 demos per hour, which gives you a total of 12 minutes to dedicate to each, assuming you don’t want to waste any of your valuable time on frivolities like eating, sleeping, or hitting the head.

Of course, if you do fancy partaking in the sorts of activities that enable you to survive and function, you’re going to have to be a little choosier with what you play. The good news is that Steam isn’t just backing a dump truck up to your door and letting ‘er rip: The Steam Next Fest page includes a handy “recommended for you” section, tailored to your interests as Valve’s algorithms sees fit.

Here, for instance, is my list:

I recognize probably less than a half-dozen of those titles, and a few of them really don’t make any sense to me at all, but that’s what the Steam Next Fest is really all about: Discovering things you weren’t previously aware of. If idle browsing is more your thing, there’s plenty of scope for that too, including options for poking through the most-wishlisted games or demos with the most active players; you can also sort them all by genre, players, perspective, “themes and moods,” and a whole bunch of other filters.

The February 2023 Steam Next Fest is live now and runs until February 13. The full list of Next Fest livestreams and presentations is up at store.steampowered.com (opens in new tab).


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