The success of Silent Hill 2, and the announcement of several other projects, begs the question: How serious is Konami about revitalizing its most beloved franchises?
We've all been there: You sit down for one episode of a reality TV show, and six hours later you're sitting guiltily on the couch, blinking the screen-induced crust off your eyeballs.
Okay. Maybe you haven't been there like our team has. But it's likely you have at least one guilty pleasure, whether it's playing video games, reading romance novels or getting swept into obscure corners of TikTok. It turns out that experiencing – and studying – pleasure is not as straightforward as it might seem. And yet, pleasure is quite literally key to the survival of humanity. So today on the show, we explore the pleasure cycle: What it is, where it lives in the brain and how to have a healthier relationship with the things that make us feel good.
Want more on the brain? Email us the neuroscience you want us to talk about at shortwave@npr.org! (Also please email us if you would like to gush about any of the books you've been loving — romantasy or otherwise!)
Is the future of artificial intelligence in video games playing out in a cyberpunk ramen bar? Tech companies would like you to think so, but game writers aren't so sure.
Before last month, no human had ever been known to beat the original Nintendo version of Tetris. Artificial intelligence had done so, but then came Willis Gibson, who only needed 39 minutes.
When a video game store closed in 1998, hundreds of sealed Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis cartridges were stored and forgotten. Now, a collection of the top-graded items has been appraised.
Games probably won't rot your kid's brain. But kids do need guidance in using them wisely. Here's how to help them, starting with spending some of your own time in the games your kids can't put down.
British regulators blocked Microsoft's purchase, thwarting the biggest tech deal in history over worries that it would stifle competition in the fast-growing cloud gaming market.
Over two years after the PlayStation 5 was released, Sony announced the shortage is finally over. Consumers should "have a much easier time" finding a console, an exec said.
Jerry Lawson would have turned 82 on Dec. 1. Google is celebrating the late engineer with a Doodle on its homepage, made up of several interactive games that users can customize themselves.
Online gaming companies are barred from offering their services to minors except for an hour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. New rules also require players to sign on using their real names.
