Experienced a Gaming Session with the AI Analogue of 'Quake II': Insights Shared
Experiencing AI-Powered Quake: A Wild, Wacky Ride
AI tools are everywhere, including gaming, and Microsoft's latest offering is no exception. The company's experimental version of Quake II, powered by AI, is here, and I've given it a spin. Here's the lowdown on this bizarre, ephemeral gaming experience.
Stepping into the AI-generated gaming world
When you boot up the "Copilot Gaming Experience," you're hit with a popup warning you the game is rated M and that you're indeed 18 years or older—despite M-rated games being 17 and up. Take this as your first sign that something isn't quite right.
The game loads in a small window at the center of the screen. While it's recognizably a video game, it feels off. You can ease into a first-person perspective, with an animated hand holding a pistol in the bottom-right. You've got health and ammo counters, a weapon indicator, and you can tell you're in a room. But the overall experience is unsettling, and it gets worse once you take action.
A dreamlike gaming experience (but not in a good way)
There's a full second delay between you pressing a key on your keyboard and the action taking place on-screen. Lag would be one thing, but it's far from the only issue. When you do move, the environment shifts, giving the sensation of nothing around you is stable. Enemies may appear as you move around a room, suddenly and without fanfare.
The gameplay somewhat resembles SuperHot, as when you stop moving, nothing happens. Enemies don't attack, and in fact, they freeze up entirely. But when you take an action, things change. A monster may move, shape-shift, or attack, or perhaps the room itself will shift entirely.
Instability and inconsistency mar the game
Sometimes, enemies disappear when you run past them or dodge their attacks. Your health bar won't decrease as expected, and it won't take long for you to notice the numbers jumping around. Even if your health hits zero, your character won't fall, and there'll be no game over screen.
The AI can game-break at any moment, like when I was about to enter a hallway, did a 360-scan, and found myself in an elevator loading screen that never finished. Another time, I found myself in an entirely different room, losing health for no apparent reason.
A playable randomizer?
The game is powered by Microsoft's WHAM model, which aims to guess what should be displayed frame-by-frame based on human gameplay data. But is this really the way forward for video games? In its current state, the AI-generated Quake experience isn't fun. There's no objective or challenge, just a game that feels like a randomizer, with no rhyme or reason to the action.
Perhaps, with time, Microsoft will offer a more polished version of this experience. Maybe there'll be more consistency as you move around the map. And certainly, there's potential for AI to transform the gaming industry, particularly with streamlined production and dynamic, adaptive gameplay. But for now, it seems we're still going to need flesh-and-blood game developers.
AI in Gaming: The Future Awaits
While the current state of AI-generated video games may have its limitations, it's a promising field. AI can automate content creation, enhancing graphics, and recreate classic games with modern visuals—all while speeding up development times.
As technology advances, we can look forward to more innovative games with unique, procedurally generated content. AI could revolutionize the industry by offering increased efficiency and scalability, but it still requires human oversight to ensure artistic integrity and narrative depth.
Still, when it comes to video games, fun should always be the number one priority—and in its current state, the AI-generated Quake experience falls short on that count.
- The AI quake II game, powered by Microsoft's WHAM model, feels unpredictable, like an ephemeral dream, with randomized gameplay that feels more like a randomizer than a traditional game.
- In the AI-powered Quake II experience, the gameplay is inconsistent, featuring lag, enemies that appear suddenly, and plenty of instances where the game breaks, such as being trapped in an elevator loading screen or teleporting to a different room without warning.
- Despite the unconventional nature of the AI-generated Quake II game, the good fortune of playing it leaves one wishing for more consistency and polish, embodying the idea that, for now, we will still require human game developers to maintain the artistic integrity and narrative depth that are essential for truly fun gaming experiences.
