Xbox wants its AI Copilot to be your gaming friend
But there are other options. Plus my thoughts on Atomfall and Eternal Strands!
Today was an interesting day to write about video games. AI is a hot topic across all industries, but today, Xbox and Microsoft have brought it to the forefront. In a new Xbox Podcast, two executives shared their plans to give Xbox users an AI assistant, using Microsoft’s Copilot branding. The idea is that players can call on their assistant during gameplay to help them learn how to play, help them overcome a tough challenge, or even what kind of amounts to coaching.
I wrote about this topic on Gamepressure if you would like to read more. My main concern was how this would impact players who are growing increasingly isolated since the pandemic. I feel it myself sometimes. It’s easy to stay in your bubble.
Copilot will be designed to help during gameplay, but will also focus on recommendations. It will aim to help people figure out what kind of game they would like to play depending on their past preferences, mood, and other immediate goals.
I get it. Finding time to play video games is tough. It is not fun to realize you’ve spent time on a game you don’t click with. But we don’t need AI to solve this problem for us. Gaming can be a community. In many places it is. In my circle, I tend to be the one who recommends games to most of my friends, but that’s just because I do this for a living. I am tapped in. But there are countless ways to learn about great games from other people. Read some reviews. Follow people who talk about games on social media (I highly recommend BlueSky over the other site). Find people that share your interests and tastes.
Or, if you don’t want to do that but still want to avoid AI-powered human replacements, check out Ludocene. It’s pure coincidence that I stumbled across this Kickstarter page on BlueSky just hours after writing about Xbox and Copilot today, but it feels right.
Ludocene is a dating app for video games. Sort of like a deckbuilding card game, you begin to curate your deck of games you like, which tells the app what games to recommend. The app has been built using human-generated data added over five years, not a huge slushpile of data added over a few days. The Kickstarter campaign has ended (the app reached its funding goal) but you can still jump in with a late pledge. It costs about $11 (exchange rates?) to gain immediate access to the app, or you can wait for it to be free sometime this August.
This is not a sponsor or an advertisement. God, I wish I could make money off of this. I think this is an interesting idea and couldn’t help but think about how it just happened to show up on my radar after a morning spent questioning why I would want an AI to recommend a video game to me. If you want to read more about Ludocene, check out their Kickstarter page or the article I wrote for Gamepressure.
Further Reading
Pokemon Legends: Z-A has been criticized for its flat, bland environments. Some people think the upgrade of the Switch 2 will change that, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
What I’ve Been Playing: Atomfall & Eternal Strands
It was posted the day after last week’s newsletter, so I couldn’t share last week. But now I can tell you I got to play Atomfall, an upcoming survival-action game developed and published by Rebellion, the team behind the Sniper Elite series.
You can read much more of my thoughts on Gamepressure.
This game brought me back to the fun I had playing Skyrim. It plays a lot on stealth. You are easy to kill in this game, and there are loads of people and creatures that would be happy to be the ones to do it. So, when I found a bow, I was brought back to the classic “stealth archer,” which was an oh-so-common build in the Skyrim days: the perfect balance of fun and effective.
But don’t let that comparison fool you, this is much more science fiction than fantasy. And it’s very British. It takes place in Northern England and all the characters have fantastic accents. Atomfall launches for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC on March 27th. It will also launch day one via Xbox Game Pass.
The other game I’ve been starting to get into lately is Eternal Strands. This comes from Yellow Brick Games, an indie studio founded by a former Dragon Age developer. But this game, much like Atomfall, doesn’t quite fit into what you might expect when you think of an indie game.
The story of Eternal Strands follows a band of weavers, magic users who have been ostracized from the world after a cataclysmic magical event. They find themselves inside an ancient city that had previously been magically sealed for centuries. You play as Brynn, an apprentice learning to be the group’s point, someone who scouts for resources to keep the group going. Scout out key locations, create a map of this long-forgotten world, and learn to use magic to help you fight enemies and explore.
Eternal Strands shines in a few aspects. One is the freedom with which you can use your magic. I’m only a couple hours into the game, but the ice ability already has shown several uses. Create a path through treacherous terrain, freeze enemies in place, build an ice wall to block projectiles, or give yourself ice blocks to toss at enemies. That’s just what I’ve been able to do from the start. Apparently I will be able to upgrade this ability too.
If you’ve played Shadow of the Colossus, which, if you haven’t, you absolutely should, then this next part will intrigue you. Eternal Strands also shines in its combat with enormous enemies. You are practically an insect to these enemies. To deal damage, you need to climb onto them, clinging on as they try to shake you loose, dodging their hands as they try to grab you, and attack the weak points of their armor to expose the weakness underneath.
Jump onto their arm as they try to punch you, jump onto their legs as they try to stomp you, or create your opportunity by freezing a limb to the ground.
Finally, I am enjoying the dialogue with the unique cast of characters. Talking to them has so far been worthwhile. I learn more about this fantasy world and my role in this group, and have genuinely engaging conversations. There are some dialogue options here and there, but nothing that drastically changes the story.
I am very much looking forward to playing more of Eternal Strands. I know I’m early in the game, but I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I am. Plus, this isn’t a short game, like Fowl Damage, which I recently reviewed, so it will take some time to get through the whole story. Eternal Strands is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’s also available via Xbox Game Pass.