While it's unclear if mainstream PC users are actually using Microsoft's Copilot AI, the company claims that businesses using MS 365 Copilot are seeing plenty of benefits. According to a Microsoft survey, Copilot users at Honeywell save up to 92 minutes per week, while customer service agents at Teladoc are saving up to five hours a week by using the AI tool to draft responses to questions. Now that we're a year beyond the MS 365 Copilot launch (at a costly 30 per seat), Microsoft is eager to throw more AI features at corporate drones. Most intriguingly, Microsoft is upgrading its Business Chat app, which so far has been a way to interact with Copilot's across your emails, calendar entries and other data, alongside data from your organization. Now it's getting better collaboration with the addition of Copilot Pages, which will serve as a sort of "multiplayer" way to share AI generated content with your coworkers.

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.

Since its release in 1993, id Software's DOOM franchise has become one of modern gaming's most easily recognizable IPs. The series has sold more than 10 million copies to date and spawned myriad RPG spinoffs, film adaptations and even a couple tabletop board games. But the first game's debut turned out to be a close thing, id Software cofounder John Romero describes in an excerpt from his new book DOOM GUY: Life in First Person. With a mere month before DOOM was scheduled for release in December 1993, the iD team found itself still polishing and tweaking lead programmer John Carmack's novel peer-to-peer multiplayer architecture, ironing out level designs -- at a time when the studio's programmers were also its QA team -- and introducing everybody's favorite killer synonym to the gamer lexicon. Published and reprinted by permission of Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS. In early October, we were getting close to wrapping up the game, so progress quickened.

Regular readers will know that I find video games' ability to pull people together to be one of the most interesting things about them. I have a weakness for stories about outsiders finding each other, and games make that happen with charming regularity. I once wrote about a long-distance couple who stayed connected by playing Dark Souls, wrestling with that game's opaque online matchmaking to ensure that they could always find each others' summon signs, hidden in a nook behind a wall or under a distinctive vase. And I'm fascinated by how Eve Online has attracted a particular flavour of person – usually science-fiction-obsessed, very often in some position of power in real life – to create an intergalactic community that mimics the economics and power structures of our own, but with extra skullduggery. Online gaming has brought us so much in this regard: people have formed lifelong friendships through all kinds of video games, from World of Warcraft to No Man's Sky.

It's been just under nine years since Titanfall landed on the PC and Xbox, and just under nine years since publisher Electronic Arts has been underutilizing one of its most interesting and promising franchises. With the rumor that EA has canned a third Titanfall game after years of development, I think it's time we look back on what this game was, what it could have been, and lamentably, what it never will be. What is Titanfall right now? Part of the first wave of Xbox One titles and one of the console's very few exclusives, the original Titanfall was the first game developed by Respawn Entertainment, which was founded by former executives of Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward. It made a splash from its introduction at E3 2013, wowing gamers with a mix of fresh, parkour-infused multiplayer shooting and the titular Titan mechs as a fresh addition to the genre.

Online multiplayer has become part and parcel with many video games these days, but finding something you can play on the couch with a loved one has gotten tougher. If you're looking for some cooperative fun, though, we can help. Below are 25 of the best couch co-op games we've played across the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Note that we're focusing on genuine co-op experiences, not games that have local multiplayer but aren't truly cooperative in practice. Even still, our list encompasses everything from platformers and puzzlers to RPGs and arcade shooters. You know the broad strokes of any Super Mario game by now. Within the series, though, 3D World stands out for using a largely fixed camera and levels that are more semi-3D than the totally open spaces of games like Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Galaxy.

Players have a myriad of choices in how they want to play "Modern Warfare II." You can select the classic team deathmatch, domination, hardpoint, or free-for-all modes that we all know and love. You'll be rewarded for rushing around the map, dropping a few enemies, dying, and respawning to do it all over again. Or you can opt for larger-scale maps on Invasion or Ground War, leaving ample room for snipers and camping. You can still run and gun in these modes, of course, but it's quite frustrating when you run to a point for five minutes only to get mowed down by entrenched enemies.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Brett Molina's off today, but I'm being joined by our colleague, Tech column's Marc Saltzman.

While nothing is stopping you from playing horror games at any time during the year, there's something extra special about scaring the pants off yourself during the month of October. Horror games are an equally fun alternative to cramming into an amusement park horror maze, and for the cost of a ticket, you can buy several games that provide many more hours of scares. Whether you like slashers, ghosts, psychological horror, or anything in between, these video games are sure to get you in the Halloween spirit. Alien: Isolation is the ultimate horror video game for the season. Set 15 years after the events of the first Alien film (1979), you assume the role of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, and quickly find yourself exploring an abandoned space station.

Microsoft offered a fresh look at Halo Infinite during its E3 2021 presentation. To start, developer 343 Industries shared a new clip from the game's single-player campaign, showing off a sequence where Master Chief navigates a section of a low-gravity level with his new grappling hook tool. He then meets a new artificial intelligence that looks like Dr. Catherine Halsey and in turn Cortana. Just as he takes the AI with him, the clip ends. Microsoft then showed off a first-look at Halo Infinite's multiplayer.