Anmeldelse: X-Men '97 Sæson 2 - Mere af det gode

Thanks to the Steam Release Bot on Bluesky, I am now aware of Kryonull, a game that bums me the hell out. Not only were a majority of its assets AI-generated, but the visual novel is being sold on Steam for a ludicrous $100 US, or £90 in the UK.

Kryonull is a particular bummer because its core idea is actually quite interesting, and the one thing about it that isn't AI generated⁠—at least if you take its disclosure at face value⁠—is the script. The visual novel's plot sounds like a bit of hard sci-fi goodness: A small, manned mission to Europa has to make snap decisions with major consequences as it makes first contact with something under the ice. afnews.co.za

That's rad. Unfortunately, it all falls apart from there. Under the AI-Generated Content Disclosure section of the store page, developer NovelkaGames offers the following whammy: "All images and voices in the game, as well as on the store page, were generated using AI." AI slop and wasted potential⁠—often in the same project⁠—are far from unique on Steam. What makes Kryonull particularly repulsive is that price tag.

Kryonull is translated in English and Russian, perhaps providing an indication to its country of origin. But according to SteamDB, its price in rubles still converts to $53 US. I don't think I'd want to exchange any money for an AI-generated game, but 50 bucks is well into "I'm insulted by the suggestion" territory⁠. There's no benefit of the doubt to make Kryonull make sense.

As it stands, Kryonull gets to be an unfortunate example of the river of effluence coming out of Steam, the price of it being an open platform where anyone can share their game. Increasingly more open-ish, given Valve's compromises with payment processors and occasional unforced, confounding prudishness.

Kryonull did remind me of two, much better games you should check out instead: South Scrimshaw Part One, and Water Womb World. Both are experimental, short, sci-fi games like what Kryonull promises, but with actual effort and craft put into them.

South Scrimshaw is a Planet Earth-style nature documentary about whales on an alien planet, and I've always let myself overlook its AI-generated voiceovers on account of its brilliant writing, hand-drawn visuals, and the fact that its solo developer made it while working a day job as a dishwasher.

Water Womb World is a surreal horror game about a religious fanatic looking for proof of God at the bottom of the ocean. I haven't played it yet, but MandaloreGaming's review on YouTube got me to buy it. The former game is completely free, while the latter is just two bucks.

Owlcat is an insanely busy RPG dev: It's currently developing Mass Effect killer The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, CRPG Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy, and new add-ons to 2023's Rogue Trader as it celebrates 10 years of build sicko multiclassing. The latest Rogue Trader add-on, The Infinite Museion, was accompanied by a massive patch to the massive RPG.

The major changes, to my eye, were a balance pass to Rogue Trader's biggest glassjaw wimps: Operatives, Assassins, and Uralon the Cruel. The two classes (or "archetypes") have widely been regarded as the game's weakest. While far from unplayable, Operatives were hands-down outclassed by the RPG's other ranged damage archetype, the Soldier, while Assassins similarly couldn't measure up to the beefier Executioner.

Now, both classes' keystone abilities work during bonus turns, like the ones granted by the Officer class. Rogue Trader's ruleset, especially at higher difficulty, is all about maximizing or abusing bonus turns, so the classes being able to do more with them could prove transformative. Additionally, Owlcat just buffed the Operative's abilities overall.

Uralon the Cruel, meanwhile, is a bad guy Chaos Marine antagonist who can join your squad on suitably bad guy Chaos dude playthroughs. So far, so good, but mechanically, he was quite booboo compared to other story characters and even generic mercenaries. Owlcat has significantly buffed Uralon through his stats, scaling, and loot pool.

There are a great deal more changes and bug fixes⁠—shout out to my favorite individual note, "Interacting with objects at the cultist hideout at Rykad Minoris no longer endlessly causes trauma"—but no nerfs, as far as I can tell. I appreciate that Owlcat isn't punishing players who rock some of Rogue Trader's more ludicrous builds, like Bladedancer-Executioners.

We were tough on Rogue Trader in our initial review, but Owlcat's games have tended to age like fine wine thanks to post-launch support. I'm currently elbows-deep in playthroughs of Pathfinders Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous both, and they're probably some of my favorite CRPGs, period. Once I'm done with them in about 100 hours of collective roleplaying from now? It's time I got down to brass tacks with a new guy in Rogue Trader, a monster RPG I've dabbled with, but yet to finish.

Palworld's irreverent 'Pokémon with guns' conceit won it all sorts of buzz, but also attention from Nintendo's infamous lawyers—Palworld developer Pocketpair was sued by the big 'tendo back in 2024 over a few Pokémon patents for around $66,000 in damages—a small payout for such a big company, but with an apparent aim to bleed Pocketpair for millions more just fighting the suit.

It's been nearly two years since then, and while Palworld remains one of the most played games on Steam, Nintendo is poised to get less than half what it initially wanted. That's if it even wins, which it very well may not, according to IP expert and former Blizzard employee Florian Mueller via games fray (thanks, IGN).

"This litigation is no longer about anything serious in commercial terms," Mueller wrote. In the article, Mueller explains that much of Palworld's commercial success came from before the relevant patents were approved, and damages couldn't be awarded for any sales that came after any potentially patent-infringing mechanics were patched out. "So it’s only a short window, with a limited sales volume (and territorially limited to Japan), for which Nintendo can seek damages."

Of course, it's also possible that Pocketpair's "numerous invalidity challenges and non-infringement arguments" pay off and Nintendo gets nothing. Either way, the court will express an opinion on Nov. 9 later this year, and whatever is decided, Mueller said the most Nintendo can get is 5 million yen, or around $30,000—"chump change for either party, and just a rounding error compared to Nintendo’s litigation expenses."

Nintendo's action against Palworld and its broader patent strategy around the popular monster-collecting RPG have both proven controversial. Last year, videogame patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon called Nintendo's newest Pokémon-related patents "an embarrassing failure of the US patent system" that "should not have happened." Pocketpair hasn't shied away from all this chaos, going so far as to announce a familiar-sounding card game even as it fought the lawsuit.

It's refreshing and perhaps surprising to hear that Pocketpair will make it out of this largely unscathed. Regardless of whether the suit was reasonable in the first place, the threat of litigation and its associated costs can often be too daunting for non-Nintendo-sized companies to face.