A Ukrainian video game is shattering records since its release on November 20, despite many delays and its being a target of a Russian disinformation operation. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the latest edition of a game series that started in 2007 with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl, developed by GSC Game World, a Ukrainian video games studio. The game surpassed one million downloads and 117,000 concurrent players within 48 hours of its release, making it the most successful Ukrainian-developed title to date. Yet, that landmark achievement in the country's gaming industry was bittersweet. Former GSC Game World developer Volodymyr Yezhov, who worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and was known by the nickname "Fresh", was killed in combat near Bakhmut in December 2022, while serving in the Ukrainian military.

EA's Patent Pledge is a commitment to providing royalty-free IP to the gaming industry at large, and a promise not to enforce EA patent infringements for the accessible technologies the company offers. The 23 new technologies include six audio and sound technologies, as well as a new opensourced photosensitivity analysis plugin for the Unreal Engine 5 builder. The plug-in allows designers to test their games using EA's IRIS tech in real-time -- IRIS makes gameplay easier for people with epilepsy or other photosensitivities. The audio patents include tech for improved and simplified speech recognition and more personalized speech options, including text-to-speech in the voice of video game characters and machine-learning powered voice aging. These options make in-game expression more inclusive for gamers.

Nightdive Studios, the developer behind remasters of Star Wars: Dark Forces and System Shock 2, have surprise-launched a remaster of 2002 cult-hit The Thing. The upgraded game is available now for PC, Xbox One and Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, and to stream through NVIDIA GeForce Now. Originally developed by Computer Artworks, The Thing is a third-person shooter that acts a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1984 film The Thing, following a United States Special Forces team that's sent into the film's arctic base to investigate what happened there. Outside the source material, the game is best known for its trust, fear, and infection systems. How you play can impact whether in-game characters trust you, think you're The Thing or turn into The Thing themselves.

AI algorithms capable of generating a simulated environment in real-time -- represent one of the more impressive applications of machine learning. In the last year, there's been a lot of movement in the field, and to that end, Google DeepMind announced Genie 2 on Wednesday. Where its predecessor was limited to generating 2D worlds, the new model can create 3D ones and sustain them for significantly longer. Genie 2 isn't a game engine; instead, it's a diffusion model that generates images as the player (either a human being or another AI agent) moves through the world the software is simulating. As it generates frames, Genie 2 can infer ideas about the environment, giving it the capability to model water, smoke and physics effects -- though some of those interactions can be very gamey.

EA has just made 23 accessibility patents open-source, as reported by Game Developer. This means that other developers throughout the industry can use the technology at no cost. The news comes after EA made a pledge back in 2021 not to sue rival companies for co-opting these types of tools. As of today, third parties can openly use a whole lot of patented tech to improve accessibility for users. This includes new speech recognition tools, simplified speech tech in games and the ability to create personalized speech detection algorithms.

We've got a little bit longer to wait until Secret Level, the gaming-inspired animated anthology series from the Love, Death and Robots team, debuts on Prime Video. But Amazon is ramping up to the launch by offering some solid freebies for Prime members on many of the games that inspired episodes in Secret Level. Roguelike masterpiece Spelunky and story-laden space adventure The Outer Worlds are must-haves if they aren't already in your library. And if that wasn't enough free stuff, a code for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II in the Amazon Games App will also drop on December 12. Those Prime Gaming members using the Amazon Luna streaming service will also see the addition of Mega Man 11.

Stardew Valley fans, there's been an update on the developer's highly awaited next game, Haunted Chocolatier. But before you get too excited, remember these things take a SquidFest's worth of work to create. The farming/role-playing game's designer, Eric Barone, who works under under the alias ConcernedApe, published a blog post on Wednesday checking in about Haunted Chocolatier's development and reminding fans that it takes time to make a game like this from scratch -- and notably solo. Barone said he'd been working on the recently released Stardew Valley 1.6 update, originally announced in April 2023, which meant he had to bench Haunted Chocolatier for a moment as he added new content and fixed bugs. But the developer said he has "created a'vertical slice' of Haunted Chocolatier, essentially a skeleton of the game with most (not all) of its bones in place."

SAVE 200: As of Dec. 5, the Hisense U6 Series 65-inch 4K Smart TV is available for 497.99 at Amazon. If you're looking for a high-performance TV that doesn't blow your budget, the Hisense U6 Series 65-inch 4K Smart TV is what you need. Currently priced at 497.99 at Amazon, this limited-time deal knocks 200 off its regular price of 698. What sets the Hisense U6 apart is its impressive Mini-LED backlight technology. This contrasts exceptionally with a Full Array of Local Dimming, offering the deepest blacks and brightest highlights.

Ubisoft's first-person shooter XDefiant, which launched less than six months ago with some success, will shut down on June 3, 2025. As part of that, the studio will close three production studios and lay off 277 employees. New downloads, player registrations, and purchases will no longer be available starting today, However, Season 3 will launch as planned and servers will remain online until June 3. Players who purchased the Ultimate Founders Pack or bought anything in the last 30 days will automatically receive full refunds within eight weeks. "Despite an encouraging start, the team's passionate work, and a committed fan base, we've not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market," said Ubisoft's chief studios and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert. Ubisoft confirmed that it will close its Osaka and San Francisco studios while ramping down its Sydney site.

Japan is planning to implement artificial intelligence to police anime and manga pirating websites that the pop-culture powerhouse accuses of costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue every year. There are at least 1,000 websites illegally offering free downloads of Japanese content, mostly its globally renowned manga graphic novels, a group of domestic publishers claimed earlier this year. But under a 300 million ( 2 million) pilot program proposed by the Cultural Affairs Agency, AI will scour the web for sites pirating manga books and anime, using an image and text detection system. But human moderators can "barely keep up" with constantly proliferating illegal content, the agency said in a written statement. It is inspired by a similar project in South Korea and, if successful, could also be applied to other illegally shared films and music. Japan, the birthplace of comic and cartoon epics such as "Dragon Ball" and video game franchises from Super Mario to Final Fantasy, sees the creative industries as a driver for growth on par with steel and semiconductors.