AlexanderTheGreat

Voice acting legend Jennifer Hale, who's appeared in the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, and more, has commented on the ongoing video game strikes and the threat of artificial intelligence.

Hale told Variety that "AI is coming for us all" and is a key factor behind the current Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, though something that makes things particularly difficult.

"The truth is, AI is just a tool like a hammer," she said. "If I take my hammer, I could build you a house. I can also take that same hammer and I can smash your skin and destroy who you are.”

Hale continued: "If you use something that originated in our body or our voices, can we please get paid?” Because now you’re using technology to take away our ability to feed our kids.

"What I wish everyone would do was keep asking the actual question, which is: 'There’s a lot of money being made here. Where is it going?’ And in the current setup, the way our system operates, and this whole idea of shareholder supremacy, it’s flowing to the 1%. If you flow so much money, you can’t even feed the people who made it possible."

Hale revealed in October 2023 she was paid just $1,200 for her role as Naomi Hunter in the original Metal Gear Solid, a game which eventually grossed $176 million for publisher Konami (and is still making the company money through myriad re-releases).

The disparity between Hale's alleged payment and the success of Metal Gear Solid is "indicative of what's happening in modern culture", she said, adding she hopes the standard for these payments changes.

Many voice actors have expressed how AI adds to this disparity, as companies can now generate voices and other work without having to pay anyone but the companies behind the AI itself, despite them pulling from real people like Hale.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead Doug Cockle similarly expressed caution and frustration at the growing presence of artificial intelligence within the video game industry, calling it "inevitable" but "dangerous".

Cissy Jones, a voice actor known for her roles in Disney's Owl House, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and more, has started a company called Morpheme.ai to let voice actors embrace AI and gain control of their own voices going forward. Though the odds still appear stacked against them.

Voice actors have previously called out AI-generated explicit Skyrim mods, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate voice actress Victoria Atkin called AI-generated mods the “invisible enemy we're fighting right now” after discovering her voice was used by cloning software. Paul Eiding, the voice actor behind Colonel Campbell in the Metal Gear Solid series, also condemned its use.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard developers have answered the most urgently thirsty questions about the RPG fourquel, confirming that there will be a Baldur's gate 3-style toggle to turn nudity on and off during the game's more frisky scenes.

"There is a toggle for on/off nudity," game director Corinne Busche said in a recent Discord Q&A. "That is one of the settings we have - and we'll be going deeper into settings and accessibility as we get a little bit closer to launch."

Busche elaborates that the character creator will also let players customize Rook's underwear, or underclothes, to decide "whether that exposes your chest or your breasts." Dragon Age: The Veilguard's default option is to have nudity turned on, though, "but at any point, you can toggle the setting to be non-nudity and it will overwrite your undergarments."

Since Baldur's Gate 3 set players loose to seduce vampires, bears, and any other manner of vaguely sexy fantasy denizens, there's definitely been an uptick in interest over how romantic RPGs are now - to the point where Busche previously teased nudity in The Veilguard like it was a sparkly feature.

While we know that topless nudity is definitely a thing in this version of Thedas, confirming whether "bottom nudity" was also featured apparently veered too closely into spoilery territory, as the studio said it wants fans to discover that for themselves when the time comes.

In less thirsty news, BioWare recently revealed all of Dragon Age: The Veilguard's different editions for when it finally comes out on October 31. The Collector's Edition is a whopping $150, includes tons of fun merch, but not the game itself. Meanwhile, the Deluxe Edition got the EA special with 23-exclusive cosmetics, pre-order armor, and three art book editions.

After our first taste of Borderlands 4 with the Gamescom announcement trailer, the devs took to the stage at PAX to talk a little bit more about the upcoming loot shooter. They didn't reveal a whole lot of concrete details, but they did confirm that the new game will stick to series tradition with four new Vault Hunters, and provided a bit of insight into their design philosophy on the new characters.

"We will have four brand new Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4," chief creative officer Randy Varnell confirmed, to the mock surprise of the developers gathered on the PAX stage. Every Borderlands game up to this point - even the Pre-Sequel - has introduced four new playable characters that essentially serve as player class selections, so the new game won't be a dramatic departure in that regard.

"When we look at the Vault Hunters, the first thing that we always try to look at is 'what are some fundamental promises and fantasies that players might have that we want to explore?'" creative director Graeme Timmins explained. "Some examples might be - starting way back on BL1 - like a soldier fantasy. Straightforward, FPS-style character, carried on to Axton. Another premise might be our Sirens. Our Sirens speak to a mage or sorcerer fantasy in our very sci-fi world."

Between each game, Timmins said, Gearbox aims to keep the core identity of these class archetypes while providing fresh twists on that formula. "Our Sirens have been very ranged in some of their abilities, but then in BL3, we wanted to flip that concept from what Maya was, to Amara - she went more physical and melee based. So even though we have some similar promises, we think it's important that we switch it up and not do just rote designs, game to game."

Timmins believes that managing approachability and complexity are very important for designing each set of Vault Hunters. "I think our RPG side of the game is so important," he said. "Just like our first-person side, where we're always looking to expand and add depth, we're doing that on the RPG side, but we don't want to do that at the cost of complexity. I always look at our characters and [try to] understand, between their action skills, how much management might be happening when you press the action skill button. Is it just fire and forget? That's great - it's a simple return on your investment. Or to get the most value out of this character, do you have to manage your action skill?"

We'll find out how this all plays out in practice when Borderlands 4 launches sometime in 2025.

Here's the latest list of Xbox Game Pass announcements for September 2024. We're expecting more games to be announced for September as the month rolls on.

September 3 - Star Trucker - Console, PC, TBD

September 4 - Age of Mythology: Retold - Console, PC, Cloud

September 5 - Expeditions: A MudRunner Game - Console, PC, TBD

September 11 - Riders Republic - Console, PC, TBD

September 17 - Train Sim World 5 - Console, PC, TBD

September 20 - Frostpunk 2 - PC

September 24 - Ara: History Untold - PC

Along with these, we'll be losing two batches of games from Xbox Game Pass in September 2024. Neither of these have been revealed as of yet, but we've made some predictions about what might leave

It's been two years since Mafia developer Hangar 13 confirmed it was working on a new entry in its open-world crime series, and the time has finally come for it to be revealed to the world. It's called Mafia: The Old Country and is heading to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC next year.

While 2016's Mafia 3 shunted the series forward in time to the late 60s (the first two games spanned the 1930s, 40s, and 50s between them), The Old Country is going backward, presenting players with a "gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily."

"Fight to survive in this dangerous and unforgiving era," teases the scant bit of blurb accompanying today's teaser trailer, "with action brought to life by the authentic realism and rich storytelling that the critically acclaimed Mafia series is known for."

In the aftermath of rumours about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming to PS5 next year, former Xbox exec Major Nelson has defended Microsoft's Phil Spencer on the recent strategy change over at Xbox.

With Indiana Jones potentially being the next big Xbox-developed game to launch on other console platforms, fans have begun questioning Xbox's leadership - and the decisions that Phil & co. are taking right now. Major Nelson has responded to one of these questions on Twitter, simply stating that Phil is "running a business" for Microsoft, that's all.

I'm a huge proponent of all games being multiplatform. But I'm worried only Xbox is going to do it, then stop making hardware, and leave all of us die hard Xbox veterans with 15+ year accounts hanging out to dry because"business"...

It's back!

Today's Gamescom Opening Night Live pre-show kicked things off with a bang - it was announced that a brand-new game in the Sniper Elite series known as Sniper Elite: Resistance will be coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2025!

You can get a look at the debut trailer up above, and we'll throw more details down below.

Shattered Space, the highly anticipated upcoming DLC for Bethesda's Starfield, will officially be releasing on September 30.

The announcement was made today at gamescom Opening Night Live, where it was also revealed that a new vehicle, the Rev-8, will be made available in a free update tonight. We got to see the vehicle in action in footage unveiled at gamescom, showing off some fun world exploration.

Shattered Space, too, got a brief tease in the footage, although it didn't show too much outside of a darker tone, with much of the focus begin on the Rev-8.

Shattered Space got its first trailer back in June during the Xbox Games Showcase, and it'll focus on a mysterious new faction called House Va'Ruun. "Investigate a frightening cosmic threat, explore a new planet, and find unique weapons, spacesuits, and gear in this all-new adventure," Starfield's official website explains in a page dedicated to the Shattered Space expansion.

Bethesda confirmed it was working on the story expansion in 2023, but we've been waiting for a release date since then. It's set to arrive both on Xbox and PC.

We gave Starfield a 7/10 when we reviewed it last year, writing at the time that it "has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist."

Maybe it's true, maybe it's not.

The big Xbox story on social media right now relates to the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and it concerns a rumour that's been shared by content creator NateTheHate - who says the game is going to PS5 in 2025.

Specifically, it's mentioned that Indiana Jones will launch for Xbox and PC at some point this December, while the PS5 version will arrive in the first half of next year. Here's a look at the tweet that's causing all the fuss:

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