It’s been less than two months since Kickstarter updated and outlined its policy on AI art, and it’s already not going well.

The policy states that while Kickstarter is “on the side of creative work and the humans behind that work,” projects will be approved based on “what those tools are, and how you’re planning to use them.” The rest of the policy does not explicitly forbid AI generation in Kickstarter projects. Instead, it broadly asks for full transparency.

The issue remains, however, that AI art tools need heaps of reference material to work. They only function if they’re hooked up to a database, one which allows the program to make (very accurate) guesses as to what it should make in response to a prompt. While the end result may look bespoke, for many artists th…

Palworld, currently the world’s fourth largest religion, has a cheating problem. In a post on Twitter, the official Palworld account announced today that “Currently, some players have been confirmed to be cheating on the official server.” The good news? Pocketpair just released a patch to fight back. The bad news? It might take a while to get a proper handle on it.

Palworld’s 0.1.3.0 version hit Steam earlier today, containing  “countermeasures against various cheats and exploits,” but in an earlier tweet Pocketpair said that “It is currently difficult to completely prevent all cheating immediately,” meaning the problem likely remains in some capacity. “We will continue to focus even more on security and aim to create an environment where everyone can play with peace of mind,…

During the State of Play conference, Sony announced that popular prestige-action sequel God of War Ragnarök would finally be coming to PC in September. The PC version will have unlocked framerates, upscaling, super ultra widescreen support, and will include the Valhalla DLC as well as the New Game+ mode added post-launch, as Sony’s blog post explained. 

And then, in a footnote at the bottom, it added “Account for PlayStation Network is required.” The Steam page and Epic page corroborate this, saying: “PlayStation Network Account required, subject to the PlayStation Terms of Services and User Agreement.” They then link to the PlayStation Network terms of service.

This presumably means God of War Ragnarök will be unavailable in the 177 countries and territories …

The long-time PC gaming hardware soothsayers at Jon Peddie Research have a new note out predicting tough times for the industry in the short to medium term before returning to growth in 2025.

But there’s a catch. JPR reckons mid-range gaming hardware is going to flatline while both the high-end and low-end segments experience a decent uptick in 2025.

JPR’s numbers also demonstrate just how huge the hardware frenzy was in 2021. According to their numbers, the overall PC gaming hardware market turned over a massive $68.5 billion in 2021, dipping to $42 billion in 2022. 

JPR forecasts $37 billion this year, $41 billion in 2024, and then $47 billion in 2025. Drill down into those figures and it’s clear just how big an impact demand for high-end hardware had in 2021. Read more

As US chip export sanctions continue to be enforced, there are signs that the Chinese AI chip industry may be feeling the strain. Two of the country’s leading chip manufacturers and designers are showing signs of struggle, and as the restrictions continue to put the squeeze on China’s chip manufacturing and development sector, it seems that the industry may be feeling the effects.

The CEO and co-founder of Chinese AI GPU manufacturer Biren Technology, Xu Lingjie, has recently resigned (via Tom’s Hardware), while Cambricon, a leading AI chip developer considered to be a key player within the industry, has been laying off staff since last summer, with its market value said to have nearly halved since it went public in 2020. 

While Cambricon’s issues have been long-standin…

Following yesterday’s surprise assault on the Xzar system by the Automaton menace, the helldivers are in shambles. Squads are failing Planet Defense campaigns in droves as players complain that the new civilian rescue missions are way too difficult. Helldivers 2’s galactic war is changing at a pace we don’t usually see in a multiplayer game: As players complete one conquest, developer Arrowhead then triggers new planetary conflicts as lightly narrativized events.

24 hours into the war’s new front, a red progress bar that’s longer than a blue progress bar suggests the robots are winning. With just four hours remaining on the countdown above the planet Draupnir, Super Earth might suffer its first major loss.

Is a (non-Terminid) bug to blame? Possibly. Just hours after yesterda…

Originally released in 2005, and developed by the Ukrainian studio Deep Shadows, Boiling Point: Road to Hell is an extremely buggy, flawed, and some would claim unforgettable open world FPS. It arrived at a time when open worlds were relatively uncommon and, well, kinda showed why: the game was absolutely overreaching in its goals, and pratfalled at nearly every turn. Now it’s being re-released on both Steam and GOG.

Get a load of the Steam store description. “Upon finding out his daughter has been kidnapped in the pseudo-South American country of Realia, Saul Myers, a veteran of the French Foreign Legion, must head to Realia on a rescue mission.” Saul Myers himself is a candidate for most forgettable protagonist ever, but that’s of a piece with a cast that includes the likes of v…

Thinking back on 2020 now is a bit of a weird experience, like looking back on a time that never was. Amidst all the turmoil in that particularly difficult year, there were at least some GPU launches to keep us busy while we weathered the storm, and of particular note was the launch of several of the RX 6000-series of AMD GPUs. 

We’ve just spotted a version of a particular stalwart of that generation, the Radeon RX 6800, in the form of the XFX Speedster SWFT 319 RX 6800 for $380 at Walmart, and even today its still got the sort of performance that gives some of the more modern cards a run for their money.

For a start, check out that VRAM, all 16GB of it. VRAM has been a bit of a contentious issue in more recent times, what with a fair bit of backlash for the RTX 4060 Ti…

If you need a quick clue to help you win today’s Wordle, you’ll be pleased to know we’ve got a fresh one just a short scroll away. And if you don’t? Scroll anyway, and either take a look at our general tips or take away the pressure with the answer to the May 2 (1048) Wordle.

I’m not sure I could be more annoyed with myself right now—today’s Wordle could have given me a lightning-fast win in two if it weren’t for one letter. Maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day, and today was just a test run? I suppose there’s only one way to find out.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, May 2

Amongst other things, today’s word can describe a sharp cut with a knife, or the result of a controlled cut through a piece of fruit or meat. Bread …