Feedback comes across a YouTuber's efforts to build a large language model in Minecraft and is impressed at the scale of it - even if it doesn't quite live up to its promise to blow your mind in spectacular fashion There are few things Feedback appreciates more than a truly committed hobbyist: someone who happily spends months or even years building something that is of no practical use whatsoever, just to be able to look at it or play with it. For those who might be unfamiliar, Minecraft is an open-world game in which everything is made up of cubical blocks. Players dig into the ground to collect cubes of useful minerals, which they can use to build things. For instance, they might build a house so that the monsters that come out at night can't get them. Or they might go big.

Large language models (LLMs) exhibit probabilistic output characteristics, yet conventional evaluation frameworks rely on deterministic scalar metrics. This study introduces a Bayesian approach for LLM capability assessment that integrates prior knowledge through probabilistic inference, addressing limitations under limited-sample regimes. By treating model capabilities as latent variables and leveraging a curated query set to induce discriminative responses, we formalize model ranking as a Bayesian hypothesis testing problem over mutually exclusive capability intervals. Experimental evaluations with GPT-series models demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior discrimination compared to conventional evaluation methods. Results indicate that even with reduced sample sizes, the approach maintains statistical robustness while providing actionable insights, such as probabilistic statements about a model's likelihood of surpassing specific baselines. This work advances LLM evaluation methodologies by bridging Bayesian inference with practical constraints in real-world deployment scenarios.

Warner Bros Discovery recently shut down a trio of game studios, including the well-regarded Monolith Productions. This has put one of the coolest game mechanics of the 2010s in limbo. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's excellent Nemesis system is locked behind a patent owned by Warner Bros all the way until 2036, according to reporting by Eurogamer. The Nemesis system was featured in both 2014's Shadow of Mordor and the follow-up Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Simply put, it's a gameplay mechanic in which enemies remember previous encounters with the protagonist.

Wonder Woman will be starring in her own game developed by Monolith Productions, a studio best-known for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The new game was announced at The Game Awards on Thursday. Monolith Productions describes the game as a "single player open-world action game will introduce an original story set in the DC Universe and allow players to become Diana of Themyscira in the fight to unite her Amazon family and the humans from the modern world." It will be a third-person, open-world action game, and it will also feature the Nemesis System made popular in the Middle-earth games that lets you build connections with friends and foes in the game. However, we don't know when the game might come out, or even a release window. Wonder Woman has had a resurgence lately due to Gal Gadot's portrayals of her in the Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984, and other movies in the DC Comics universe.

Monolith Productions, the studio responsible for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, is working on a new game in the Wonder Woman franchise. It features an original storyline where players will "become Diana of Themyscira in the fight to unite her Amazon family and the humans from the modern world," Monolith says. Publisher Warner Bros. Games showed off a teaser for the new project during The Game Awards. Wonder Woman is being billed as "a new third-person, open-world action-adventure" game, according to Monolith, and really, that's no surprise. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was a third-person action RPG with the Nemesis System, a clever orc-management mechanic, tacked on top of it.

Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, has been around for more than a decade. The procedurally generated survival sandbox is constantly evolving, playing host to everything from speedrun challenges and political dramas to lessons. But it's best known as digital Lego-- and it's seen some incredible creations over the years. For most, it's a time-consuming hobby, but a few have parlayed their passion into a professional career. Here are some of the most spectacular Minecraft creations that took years to build.

Although a project 16 years in the past, the aftermath of "Battle for Middle-earth" made overt what happened behind-the-scenes as the video game industry grew from small teams to major productions involving hundreds. Lasting fallout from the game's creation made long hours and developer treatment an issue warranting attention. "Battle for Middle-earth" became the catalyst for studios to begin rethinking their approach, in part due to widespread public outcry and young developers realizing their workweeks were anything but normal. Even a decade and a half later, crunch is still prevalent in the industry. Earlier this year, CD Projekt Red's extended development of "Cyberpunk 2077" raised ire after the studio reneged on an earlier promise to avoid crunch, forcing six day workweeks on its employees.

Director Peter Jackson on Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" series: "I'd like to try to be of assistance." Amazon has landed a prime franchise on which to build an online game: the Lord of the Rings. Amazon Game Studios will jointly develop the free online game with Hong Kong-headquartered Leyou Technology Holdings, which owns several game studios including Digital Extremes, maker of sci-fi role-playing action game "Warframe." There is no release date for the console and PC game, a massively multiplayer online action title à la "World of Warcraft." Last year, Athlon Games, an L.A.-based Leyou subsidiary announced it had reached a deal with Middle-Earth Enterprises to create a game based in J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit-laden universe during the time before the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Humble WB Games Classics Bundle offers exactly what you'd expect: The hits. The bundle offers some seriously great PC games from classic franchises like Batman, Mad Max, and Middle-earth, and better yet, they're available for a ludicrously low price--just $12 to unlock all seven games included in the bundle. But Humble lets you pay what you want for its bundles, giving a portion of the proceeds to charity, and even $1 will let you in on some action. The $1 tier unlocks Batman: Arkham Origins, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition, and Scribblenauts Unlimited. Paying more than the average donation--currently sitting at $4.12--gets you DC Comics brawler Injustice: Gods Among Us, the open world Mad Max adaptation, and Bastion, a breathtaking action RPG that topped many games of the year lists when it released.

"Two rings to rule them all, two rings to find them, two rings to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." Thus opens Middle Earth: Shadow of War, or at least that's how it would open if there were any justice in the world. See, 2014's Shadow of Mordor ended with our half-ghost/half-man protagonist Talion née Celibrimbor [Three-year-old spoiler] defeating Sauron in hand-to-hand combat and announcing his intention to paradoxically forge a second One Ring. And he does just that to open up this bigger and better sequel. I've played the first six or so hours of Shadow of War ($60 on Amazon) so far--enough to reach Act 2 (of 4) and start dominating orcs.