It is possible for artificial intelligence to create a video game. Contrary to popular opinion and hopes for humanity, an AI came up with the basic design for a video game called Candy Shop Slaughter. The game has all of the elements needed for success in the competitive mobile game industry. Games are thriving despite the pandemic and video game jobs are growing in spite of the competition from automation. Video games are a creative art, and it's hard to believe that a machine can come up with the kind of creativity needed to make such a work.

Team-based multiplayer shooter Overwatch is getting a sequel: and interestingly for fans, it'll bring story missions into the game for the first time. According to Blizzard, it will also "redefine what a sequel means". Which is quite a claim for an online shooter. Unveiled with a crowd-pleasing cinematic trailer at annual fan convention BlizzCon last week, Overwatch 2 will introduce PvE missions in an all-new story mode, as well as a new core competitive mode, Push, a six-versus-six PvP team battle, which sees teams compete to have a robot push the map's objective to their opponent. Before now, the original 2016 first person shooter focused on PvP gameplay, with spin-off comic books and animated shorts filling in backstories for the popular crew of ragtag leads.

When developer Telltale Games laid off most of its staff in September, it temporarily retained a skeleton crew to finish up work on a Netflix version of Minecraft: Story Mode. The first three episodes of the "interactive adventure" are now available on the streaming platform. The adaptation is not so much a fully-fledged game as a choose-your-own-adventure experience -- you don't actually move protagonist Jesse around, for instance. Instead, you're occasionally given choices on how to move the story forward. The series starts with a character named Petra guiding you through a brief tutorial before asking whether you'd like to play as a male or female version of Jesse.

The new game from Mojang answers the eternal question, what if Minecraft and Gauntlet had a baby? Minecraft: Dungeons is a brand-new game inspired by classic dungeon crawlers like Wizardry and Ultima Underworld, and it turns the series' traditional formula on its head. Instead of providing a vast, open canvas where players can let their imaginations run wild, Dungeons is an adventure game filled with discrete quests, characters, items and enemies. It still looks like classic Minecraft fare, complete with cube-headed characters and 3D swords with jagged, pixelated blades. While players are free to explore this new blocky universe, Dungeons is decidedly not an open-world game.

TellTale's'Minecraft: Story Mode' is coming to Netflix in 2018. Minecraft: Story Mode is coming to Netlfix later this year. That's not a new TV show, it's a video game developed by TellTale, the studio behind the popular Walking Dead games. Of course, whether TellTale makes games or "interactive stories" is up for debate, and Netflix is insisting that the company doesn't consider this a video game. "We don't have any plans to get into gaming," a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement.

Telltale Games has announced that it is bringing "Minecraft: Story Mode" to Netflix as an interactive show later this fall. The video game developer also revealed that it is developing an entirely new game that's based on the hit Netflix series "Stranger Things." "We're delighted by the response we're seeing to the idea of'Minecraft: Story Mode' coming to Netflix in the fall as an interactive adventure. Separately, we're thrilled to confirm that Telltale is developing a game based on'Stranger Things' that we'll publish to consoles and computers at a later date," Telltale Games said on its Twitter page. "Our partnership with Netflix is something we're incredibly proud of, and while we don't have anything more to share right now, we're excited to reveal details on these projects later in the year."

Netflix has reportedly signed a deal with Telltale Games to bring simplified versions of its popular titles to the streaming service. The company confirmed to TechRadar that the first of these will be Minecraft: Story Mode, which will appear on the platform, followed at some point by a new Telltale game based on the Stranger Things series. These might not be'games' as we think of them. Sources told TechRadar that Minecraft: Story Mode will appear in a five-part episodic form and Netflix confirmed to them that the game will appear "in an adapted form." It may appear on the platform as early as later this year, and will be playable using any remote control with directional and select buttons -- ideally, users won't need any more hardware to enjoy.

In a matter of weeks, Europe's biggest annual soccer competition, the Champions League, went from one video game franchise to its bitter rival. When UEFA ended its partnership with Konami, an agreement that allowed Pro Evolution Soccer to offer the club tournament, it was only a matter of time before EA jumped on the chance to add the competition to its FIFA franchise. The addition of Champions League will undoubtedly give FIFA 19 more depth, especially in its "The Journey" story mode, but the updates to gameplay are equally as important. Don't get me wrong, Champions League is a great get for FIFA. When you consider EA just added the World Cup via a free update a few weeks ago, the addition of UEFA's club tournament means the top two competitions in the world (as far as most soccer fans are concerned) are now available in the same game.

The second episode of Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two will be released on August 15th and like the first episode, it will be available for download on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices. Entitled "Giant Consequences," episode two takes up where the first installment left off -- Jesse and company have brought back a lost adventurer, a powerful device and an enemy that the team needs to find out more about. And their next adventure takes them into an "icy unknown." Along with the announcement of the second episode's premiere date, Telltale also revealed that the first season of Minecraft: Story Mode will be available on Nintendo Switch beginning August 22nd in North America and August 25th everywhere else. It includes the five episodes of the original season pass as well as the three bonus "Adventure Pass" episodes.

Worry not, because our Five to Try column is here to spotlight the Play Store's most enticing new picks. Minecraft: Story Mode's second season leads the week's offerings, as Telltale's episodic affair builds a fun narrative from the block-building sensation. Elsewhere, the official Shake Shack app is finally on Android for mobile ordering, Hinge puts a different spin on the familiar dating app, The Lion's Song is an intriguing indie adventure, and freemium game Valerian: City of Alpha can get you ready for the upcoming sci-fi flick. Give these a look, and if you need even more recent picks, then loop back on last week's column as well. Minecraft is beloved for its open-ended design, letting players build their own adventures in blocky worlds--but last year's Minecraft: Story Mode handled most of the heavy lifting with a five-part episodic adventure series.