Conspiracy: Tower Defense

Gaming hardware is more expensive than ever. There’s a few different reasons things are as bad as they are, but regardless of how we got here, there’s no denying it’s an absolutely terrible time to be in the market for a new gaming console or PC. Even worse is the realization that there’s no going back.

More than 27 years ago, Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace released in theaters, ushering in a new wave of fandom for one of the most important media franchises of all time. Since the film's release, one relic has been a constant: the Pepsi vending machine on Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh. It has remained and kept stocked with drinks ever since then, but it appears that has finally changed as part of some bizarre prank or heist. Below, you can see what the vending machine looks like--or looked like, depending on its fate. The graphics have faded over time but it's still drawing in thirst

Sega's newly announced Crazy Taxi: World Tour game is among those made in part with generative AI, and now the franchise's original creator, Kenji Kanno, has defended his studio's use of the controversial technology. He told Kotaku, via a translator, that the game's artists would use generative AI to generate ideas, and then they would "draw the actual thing." "So actual creators, everything from programming to assets, everything is made by an actual human. It’s only used as a reference for them to look at and then they would actually create the actual thing that would go into the game," he sa