The real value of knowledge lies not just in its accumulation, but in its potential to be harnessed effectively to conquer the unknown. Although recent multimodal large language models (MLLMs) exhibit impressing multimodal capabilities, they often fail in rarely encountered domain-specific tasks due to limited relevant knowledge. T o explore this, we adopt visual game cognition as a testbed and select "Monster Hunter: W orld" as the target to construct a multimodal knowledge graph (MH-MMKG), which incorporates multi-modalities and intricate entity relations. W e also design a series of challenging queries based on MH-MMKG to evaluate the models' ability for complex knowledge retrieval and reasoning. Furthermore, we propose a multi-agent retriever that enables a model to autonomously search relevant knowledge without additional training. Experimental results show that our approach significantly enhances the performance of MLLMs, providing a new perspective on multimodal knowledge-augmented reasoning and laying a solid foundation for future research.

It's easy to feel a bit beset by doom these days. The other week, I watched the heinous AI-generated "Trump Gaza" video and was so appalled that I impulse-bought a kayaking guide book. It felt like the only sane response was to take to the water and paddle away. Video games are a reliable antidote to existential doom, but layoffs, corporate homogenisation and AI slop are all encroaching on my safe haven, making it more difficult to get a brief reprieve from what's happening in the outside world. Thank God, then, for the Bafta games awards nominations, which reliably remind me that video games are pretty great, actually.

Hillsdale Middle School summer students lined up on opposite sides of the school cafeteria. They were getting into position to have a battle, one they had been preparing for through a summer of math, reading and problem solving activities. The battle would not be between the students but between robots, which the students programmed to turn and move in specific ways by writing code. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics teacher, Jenny Stump, counted down. While the actual battles -- there ended up being multiple rounds -- only lasted a few minutes each, weeks of preparation went into building the skills necessary to execute the activity.

Hillsdale Middle School summer students lined up on opposite sides of the school cafeteria. They were getting into position to have a battle, one they had been preparing for through a summer of math, reading and problem solving activities. The battle would not be between the students but between robots, which the students programmed to turn and move in specific ways by writing code. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics teacher, Jenny Stump, counted down. While the actual battles -- there ended up being multiple rounds -- only lasted a few minutes each, weeks of preparation went into building the skills necessary to execute the activity.

The Tokyo Olympics opening kicked off early this morning, and the parade of nations, where athletes walk through Japan's Olympic stadium, had a Japanese twist. A medley of videogame music, orchestrated, formed the soundtrack for the parade. It all kicked off with the main theme from Dragon Quest -- which sounds pretty Olympian outright -- followed by hits from Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, Nier, Sonic, Chrono Trigger and, er, eFootball. There are some notable omissions -- no Nintendo songs (Pokemon? Zelda?) being the biggest one -- but some Street Fighter II songs might have fitted well into the competitive theme.

Food has always played a vital role in video games. From Pac-Man's bonus fruits to Mario's magical mushrooms, it has provided everything from sustenance to supernatural abilities – and in games such as Cooking Mama and Overcooked, food preparation became a genre in its own right. Game developers, like the creators of cooking programmes and recipe books, have discovered that well-presented food is irresistible – even when we can't eat it. In the modern games industry, where detail and authenticity are paramount, the depiction of food has become an art form. Kaname Fujioka, executive director on Capcom's fantasy adventure, Monster Hunter: World, says: "We design the ingredients and recipes based around the grade of the food, as well as any seasonal events it may be tied to. Since we're unable to showcase the most important elements of food (taste and smell), we have to alter, exaggerate or potentially deform the visuals in a way that conveys that as best as possible. In order for players to believe that the visuals look'delicious', a lot of fine-tuning is done on details like the colour, lighting and softness."

A series of missteps put Microsoft in second place before the Xbox One even came out. While it's likely to remain there until the next generation begins, there are a lot of people out there who have never experienced what the console has to offer. With the Xbox One X having a clear advantage over Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro when it comes to gaming on a 4K TV, there's never been a better time to jump in. While not all the games on this list are Xbox exclusives, every game is at least better on Xbox than PlayStation, provided you're playing on a One X. Studio MDHR's Cuphead is as beautiful as it is challenging -- and it's very beautiful. Half bullet-hell shooter, half platformer, half classic boss rush... wait that's too many halves.

Cry it out from the rooftops: we survived 2018. And in this long, complicated year, a few games stuck out as the best, the most interesting, the most surprising, of the year. Whether you're catching up over the holidays or just looking for fuel to argue with your friends, here are our picks for the best videogames released in 2018. Games are a vast and varied field, friends; so are opinions. Monster Hunter has, for a certain variety of player, been a big deal for years.

Tech columnist Marc Saltzman gives his take on the best family-friendly video games of the year. Parents who feel they're fighting a losing battle against Fortnite are turning to addiction treatment programs. "Fortnite" may have commanded much of the attention paid to video games in 2018, but plenty of other releases arrived to occupy lovers of the interactive medium. With the calendar turning toward 2019 and the game industry getting ready for its next generation of consoles, USA TODAY's Eli Blumenthal, Brett Molina, Marc Saltzman and Mike Snider offer a look at a few of their favorite video games of the year that was. Technically, it launched more than a year ago, but 2018 has undeniably been the year of "Fortnite."

In recent years, members of the alt-right have, in blog posts and in YouTube videos, courted young men who share an interest in video games. This scheme has proved effective. Last month, a YouTube user uploaded a clip from the recent blockbuster video game Red Dead Redemption 2, a cowboy playpen set in the late-nineteenth-century American Southwest. In it, the player guides his character toward a computer-controlled suffragette who is campaigning for her right to vote, and punches her unconscious. The video, titled "Beating Up Annoying Feminist," has been viewed more than 1.7 million times, with a chorus of support in the comments below. This kind of trolling can easily escalate.