If you've ever become "stuck" in a game, the new Microsoft Edge Game Assist for Windows offers a pretty convenient way to help yourself out: Simply look up a hint while playing. Microsoft debuted this new system as a beta during the holidays last year. Now, it's part of Microsoft Edge itself, provided that you have the current version, Edge 132 or higher. For those of you who want a "pure" gaming experience, don't worry. Edge Game Assist doesn't just launch itself, and it actually seems rather helpful when you invoke it.

Rhiannon Bevan of game news site The Gamer has covered the steps last year's gaming blockbuster Baldur's Gate 3 took in dealing with explicit scenes as an example of a modern game "getting it right". She says games are increasingly taking explicit scenes seriously "and not just using them for titillation". But it came with the risk that performers may not be comfortable with the work. Baldur's Gate 3 addressed this by employing intimacy co-ordinators - dedicated members of staff tasked with ensuring the well-being of performers in explicit scenes. Its developer used one intimacy co-ordinator to look after performers voicing intimate scenes, while another looked after those who were also miming actions to be digitised into the game.

In London last night, the 20th Bafta games awards celebrated a year that was stacked with critically acclaimed games. Taking place against the backdrop of an unprecedented year of layoffs and studio closures in the gaming industry, acknowledged by Bafta chair Sara Putt in her speech at the beginning of the evening, it was a much-needed night of recognition of the creative efforts of the video game development community. The sprawling Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing game Baldur's Gate 3 won five awards, including the public voted EE players' choice award and best game, alongside music, narrative and best performer in a supporting role (won by Andrew Wincott for his role at the devilish Raphael). Nintendo picked up the family and multiplayer awards for the exuberant Super Mario Bros Wonder, and technical achievement for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Alan Wake 2, the arresting, idiosyncratic horror game from Finnish studio Remedy, won artistic achievement and audio achievement.

Bafta has announced the nominations for the 20th Bafta games awards, which will take place in London on April 11. Leading the pack this year are Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 with 10 nominations; Spider-Man 2 with nine; Alan Wake 2 with eight; and six apiece for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Hi-Fi Rush, a colourful music-based action game from Japan's Tango Gameworks, picked up five nominations, as did Mintrocket's breakout hit Dave the Diver. Bafta has been celebrating video games' creative achievements alongside those of the film and TV industries since 1998, formerly as the Bafta interactive entertainment awards, launching the Bafta games awards in 2004 as its own event. The awards are voted on by a combination of Bafta's professional membership and by selected specialist juries, with the EE's players' choice award decided by a public vote.

AMD was the first company to deliver x86 laptop chips with NPUs for AI acceleration last year -- now, at CES 2024 it's doing the same for desktops. The company's new Ryzen 8000G processors, which debuted today in Las Vegas (but have already been leaked by retailers), are once again NPU pioneers among x86 desktop chips. And on top of that, the company claims its built-in Radeon 700M graphics are the fastest ever seen on a desktop chip. While the Ryzen 8000G chips aren't AMD's most powerful desktop offerings -- the Ryzen 7700X and above all offer higher clock speeds, core counts and onboard cache -- AMD says the new processors could be compelling options for gamers trying to build capable systems on a budget. The fastest model, the Ryzen 7 329 8700G, is an eight-core chip running between 4.2GHz and 5.1GHz, sporting Radeon 780M graphics.

The Dungeons & Dragons video game Baldur's Gate 3 has become a cultural phenomenon, winning countless accolades including Game of the Year. One of the game's biggest fans is science fiction editor John Joseph Adams, who has played Baldur's Gate 3 for more than 1,000 hours. "It's absolutely an amazing game," Adams says in Episode 557 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "I think it's the best game I've ever played." Adams thinks that the story and writing compare favorably to some of the best books and movies he's ever experienced.

The Game Awards is over and done with, leaving an empty theater in Los Angeles and plenty of happy game developers placing pointy statuettes on their mantels. To that end, Larian Studios and its massively successful RPG Baldur's Gate 3 was the big winner of the night, taking home the prize for game of the year, player's choice, best multiplayer game and more. Remedy's Alan Wake 2 was also on fire, winning best game direction, best narrative and best art direction, among others. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom paraglided away with the statue for best action/adventure and the RPG Sea of Stars won for best indie game, with Cocoon being awarded best debut indie game. Now that the actual awards are out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.

Remember how it felt the first time you played Dungeons & Dragons? The first time you felt that creative spark of being part of a collective storytelling experience? You and your friends were each equal parts author and reader of a living, breathing story that existed only at that table, and only in those moments. There's no other word that quite does that feeling justice. Watching people play D&D in shows like Dimension 20 is definitely fun, but you're always part of the audience, not a participant.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a game about making choices. Encounter an imposing, demonic creature in the depths of a cavernous underground temple and, depending on how the player has created their character, the monster may be convinced to kill off its hellish accompanying soldiers and even banish itself back to the inferno. The enemy might also be defeated more conventionally, with slashes from a sword and blasts of electricity, knocking over barrels of grease and setting the battlefield on fire. Find the player character tasked with retrieving an important item locked away in a well-guarded room and it's possible to sneak in to retrieve it, perhaps lie effectively enough to be granted entry, or, once again, simply turn everything surrounding that protected room into a bloodbath. The Baldur's Gate series began in 1998, created by BioWare, the studio that would go on to make popular role-playing series Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Next month, Disney's immersive Galactic Starcruiser "Star Wars hotel" in Florida will shut down, less than two years after opening. Best known for being horrendously expensive – $4,809 for a couple for two nights, or a mere $1,500 a person if you fit four to a cabin – most have dismissed the Starcruiser as yet another of Disney's recent spendthrift follies. When I heard the news of its closure earlier this year, I rushed to book one of the remaining cabins. My path into the games industry was by playing alternate reality games (ARGs) that mixed real-world actors and events with online gameplay; I'd go on to make ARGs such as Perplex City and, more recently, augmented reality games like Zombies, Run! Even though I hadn't been impressed by the Starcruiser's marketing, I was desperate to see what an estimated $350m budget had produced.