Happy New Year, gamers! Welcome back to the WIRED Games newsletter, the first of 2023! Did you have time to play anything awesome over the holiday break (assuming you had time off, that is)? Maybe you scored some cool games for the holidays, or some gear to play your favorites? I spent a good chunk of that time building a new gaming PC, so I'm pretty stoked to turn up the graphics settings in some of my favorite titles and see how they look. So if I scurry off in the middle of the workday to fire up Destiny 2, don't mind me. But this isn't about me, it's about you! While we may have been off making merry for the holidays, we did have some great stories scheduled to run while we were away to keep you entertained. For example, Megan Farokhmanesh ran down WIRED's top games of 2022, including bangers you know like Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok, but also sleeper stunners like Tunic and Vampire Survivors. And those are just the games that made the list—we could have made it much, much longer. Next up, Eric Ravenscraft tried to spend the holidays—and throw a holiday party—in the VR spaces that companies like Meta (formerly known as Facebook) want you to call "the metaverse," but in reality are little more than proprietary virtual spaces that pale in comparison to their video game counterparts that have existed for years. Sure enough, it didn't go very well. Meanwhile, I know streamers and other content creators who threw massive holiday parties with hundreds of people in places like VRChat. Eric's piece touches on why the hype (and money) Meta has thrown at products like Horizons crumbles at the slightest interrogation. In other "technologies that could actually be used for good if people cared to," Matthew Smith has a great rundown on how AI and machine learning are being used to develop more realistic, human-behaving NPCs and more convincing, challenging bosses in video games. It's a wonderful read, one that gives me some hope that with the right applications, these technologies can make the things we love even better, rather than strangling entire industries to death. And speaking of making things better, Pearse Anderson went to the Geological Society of America conference and talked with geologists, paleontologists, and other ancient Earth scientists, and they all agreed: We deserve better video game dinosaurs. And they have some great ideas—many of which they shared over a bottle of Kraken rum—on how to make in-game dinos better, more complex, and more realistic. Many of them have their own games! When we started WIRED Games back in 2020, the people who make the music for our favorite games were one of the things that captured my fascination. That's still true, and this piece from Mat Ombler where he sits down to talk with the three legendary composers is worth your time. Behind the incredible soundtrack to Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope are names like Yoko Shimomura, Grant Kirkhope, and Gareth Coker, all of whom you've heard before, even if you don't know their names. Finally, but by no means least, Omar Gallaga tells us how you can build a huge PC game library for free—or at the very least, for very little money—assuming you have the patience to wait for free games to land, and are willing to play titles that might be a little off the bleeding edge. You'll see some familiar tips in here, but all combined, you'll have more than enough to play and keep you busy if you're looking for something new, but your wallet is still recovering from the holidays. Now then, that should be more than enough to welcome you back from the holidays! As always, operators are standing by at games@WIRED.com if you have questions, game suggestions, or anything else. I hope the new year looks bright for you, and even if it doesn't, I hope it will be anyway. See you right back here next week! |
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