AI is coming for game development, and Microsoft wants to make sure you know it. Over the weekend, the company released an AI-generated remake of Quake 2 and shared it with the world. I took the time out of my day to see what it was about, and, as expected, it was a load of nothing.
Sure, it runs—after about 10-15 minutes of waiting for the game to “load”—but that’s about all it does. It’s a janky, unplayable mess that feels heartless. In fact, it’s nothing more than an insult to everyone who actually cares about the games industry and the history of it all.
“Copilot dynamically generates gameplay sequences inspired by the classic game Quake II,” Microsoft said in its description of what it released. “Every input you make triggers the next AI-generated moment in the game, almost as if you were playing the original Quake II running on a traditional game engine.”
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Powered by what Microsoft calls a “World and Human Action Model” or WHAM, the Quake 2 AI “remake” demo barely runs and is as unresponsive as trying to play a game with your controller turned off. There is no meat behind it and there’s no sense of feeling. All it does is try to generate a new area of a level every time you turn a corner. That means, if you want to backtrack and go elsewhere, chances are you can’t because it’s changed.
Games are a beautiful art that let you tell stories and have experiences in ways that no other medium can give you. This…this is nothing more than a waste of resources and money.
I’m not going to go too much more into this “demo”. It doesn’t warrant any further thoughts or impressions. If you want to play it yourself, you can find it, but you’re better off staring at a wall. Or, better yet, go play the original Quake 2 instead.
What do you think of the AI-generated Quake 2 “remake”. Let us know your thoughts down below and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming forums.
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