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Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 knew how to lay on the camp. But it wasn’t only known for having some of the most delightfully cheesy cutscenes this side of The 7th Guest. Red Alert 2 was also an acclaimed real-time strategy game for its time, and it’s still perfectly playable today. Want to see for yourself? It’s now as easy as opening your browser.

The Chrono Divide project (via PC Gamer) lets you play the 2000 RTS in Chrome, Edge, or Safari. Although it supports Firefox, too, its developer says it should be avoided if you want “good performance.” It even works in mobile browsers.

Chrono Divide supports cross-platform multiplayer using all the original maps. (You can use some mods, too.) In fact, according to PC Gamer, multiplayer is about your only option. Red Alert 2’s single-player campaign modes (where you’ll encounter those “so bad, they’re good” cutscenes) are still a work in progress.

“The project initially started out as an experiment and was meant to prove that it was possible to have a fully working, cross-platform RTS game running in a web browser,” the project’s website reads. “Now, with a playable version already available, the end-goal is reaching feature parity with the original vanilla ‘Red Alert 2’ engine.”

You can take it for a spin on the Chrono Divide webpage. You’ll need to import the original game files to begin. (The website automatically inserts a link to them on the Internet Archive.) But we won’t fault you if you’d rather opt for watching Red Alert 2’s fabulously corny cutscenes below.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/you-can-now-play-command–conquer-red-alert-2-in-your-browser-213815557.html?src=rss 

A major selling point of the Xbox Ally and Ally X is that they ship with a full screen version of Windows that plays nice with handheld PCs. As part of the company’s recent Xbox Partner Showcase, Microsoft has announced that the Windows “full screen experience” or FSE is finally rolling out to all other Windows 11 handhelds starting November 21.

For the most part, FSE lets you live inside a touch and controller-friendly version of the Xbox PC app, rather than the normal Windows desktop. The launcher collects games from a multitude of game marketplaces like Steam and the Epic Games Store, and gives you easy access to Game Pass, if you subscribe. As part of Microsoft’s customizations, FSE also uses less resources, and offers simpler ways to switch between apps and setup Windows for the first time. 

All of these tweaks are supposed to make using Windows easier without a mouse and keyboard, and closer to what you’d get from a console. In comparison to SteamOS, which has gone through countless updates since Valve launched it alongside the Steam Deck in 2022, FSE still has a long way to go, but pushing the software to more devices could force Microsoft to iterate quickly.

While PC handheld owners will reap the benefits of these improvements first, Microsoft’s announcement also mentions the company plans to bring the experience “to more Windows 11 PC form factors through the Xbox and Windows Insider programs soon.” That could lend further credence to reports that the company plans to make the next Xbox an expensive PC rather than a traditional game console.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/microsoft-brings-the-xbox-ally-xs-full-screen-experience-to-other-handhelds-211500288.html?src=rss 

Preservation has become a pressing topic for games in this era of digital-only releases and games-as-a-service. So it’s wonderful to have a big win in archiving a trio of seminal text games for the ages. Microsoft announced today that the code for Zork, Zork II and Zork III will be made available open source under the MIT License. The company’s Open Source Programs Office, Xbox and Activision all contributed to the effort. “The goal is not to modernize Zork but to preserve it as a space for exploration and education,” Microsoft team members wrote in the blog post sharing the news.

They’re works well-worth studying. The first Zork was a milestone moment for parser games that still inspires the present-day interactive fiction community. Not only was it a unique experience of narrative and puzzles, but the accomplishments of the Z-Machine virtual machine it ran on helped make Zork easily available to players on multiple platforms during the rise of personal computers in the 1990s. There are still modern Z-Machine interpreters out there (or you can buy and play all three Zork titles the normal way thanks to the similarly preservation-minded folks at Good Old Games).

The code for many famous text games made by Infocom was released on GitHub in 2019, but the rights still technically belonged to Activision, which could have issued a takedown. This move keeps the code for this iconic Zork games available for the ages.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/microsoft-has-open-sourced-the-zork-trilogy-of-text-games-213519368.html?src=rss 

CloverPit is one of my favorite games of the year so far, and it just arrived on Xbox without prior notice. As revealed during Thursday’s Xbox partner showcase, Panik Arcade’s nightmarish take on the ills of capitalism and gambling is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. You can play CloverPit via the cloud or the Xbox PC app too, as it’s on Game Pass Ultimate and Premium as well as PC Game Pass.

On the surface, the game is pretty simple. You’re locked in a rusty room that looks like something out of Silent Hill 2. There are only two ways out: through the door or into a pit. You’ll plummet into the latter if you fail to pay off your rapidly-increasing debt. You’ll be using a slot machine to try to earn enough money to keep your run going.

As you do with poker hands in Balatro, the whole idea is to bend the rules of the slot machine in your favor using an array of totems and other perks (the developers say they don’t actually like gambling). There are more than 150 items to experiment with. As in many roguelites, finding synergy between them is key.

CloverPit is a blast. Figuring out a great combination of items and swapping others in as needed is what the game is really all about. There’s nothing quite like going from getting a few coins on a single spin to millions in no time at all. Panik Arcade nailed the one-more-run feeling that’s core to a good roguelite. It’s not much of a surprise that the studio and publisher Future Friends Games have sold more than a million copies of the game on Steam in just a few months, and now console and cloud players can see what all the fuss is about.

Panik Arcade also took the opportunity to tease a CloverPit expansion, which is coming soon on Xbox and Steam. Matteo Gonano, one of the game’s two developers wrote in an Xbox Wire post that the Unholy Fusion DLC “will let players combine charms in wild, experimental ways to create brand-new synergies and chaotic new combos. It’s both an expansion and an invitation to break the game – all over again!“

I thought I had broken free from this dopamine generator. I thought I’d have a lot more time to check out all of the other games I want to. But as soon as that DLC drops I’ll be diving right back into CloverPit, ready to hear that “let’s go gambling!” voice line many, many more times.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-engrossing-cloverpit-suddenly-lands-on-xbox-and-game-pass-200500902.html?src=rss 

After what was apparently a successful testing period, OpenAI has announced that it is rolling out group chats in ChatGPT to “all logged-in users on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans globally over the coming days.” The company first started testing a way to collaborate with peers directly inside ChatGPT around a week ago in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan.

Once you start a chat in ChatGPT you can invite other people to join (up to 20 in a chat), either with their existing ChatGPT account, or one they make after clicking the invite link. Beyond being able to prompt ChatGPT together and react to each other’s messages, the features of group chats appear to be deliberately limited. OpenAI says that the content of group chats aren’t stored in ChatGPT’s memory, and any person can be removed from a chat by any person, save for the creator.

OpenAI was reportedly working on its own version of a text-based social media feed in April. That X competitor has yet to materialize, but the company has brushed up against social features in other ways.

For example, the Sora app that OpenAI launched in September competes directly with TikTok in terms of form and its ability to provide passive entertainment. Group chats in ChatGPT might not replace an app like Messenger, but it does offer a similar AI messaging experience to what Meta’s been playing with in Instagram, and its using a chatbot the average person likes a lot more.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-group-chats-roll-out-to-everyone-202038918.html?src=rss 

Google just unveiled its Nano Banana Pro image generation platform, which is also going by the name Gemini 3 Pro Image. The company promises this is an improvement over previous versions of the software in nearly every way. Google says it will “turn your visions into studio-quality designs with unprecedented control, flawless text rendering and enhanced world knowledge.”

The text rendering portion seems to have gotten a big upgrade here, as Nano Banana Pro can create context-rich infographics and diagrams. The software can render legible text on top of a pre-existing image, making it a good option for generating posters and stuff like that. Google says that this feature is available in multiple languages.

Google also says it can blend multiple elements into a single composition, with the ability to use up to 14 images at once. There are plenty of new editing controls. Users can select and edit any part of a created image. This can be used to adjust camera angles, change focus, adjust the color grade and even swap out the lighting from day to night.

Images created with Nano Banana Pro will have C2PA metadata embedded. This should, in time, make it easier to spot generative AI or deepfakes out there in the world. We’ll have to see how that plays out. TikTok recently announced it would be using this metadata to better label AI-generated content, of which it currently does a very bad job at.

Nano Banana Pro is actually free to use. Free users are limited to a daily quota of images, with the number expanding for Google AI, Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers. Just open up the Gemini app and create an image, but be sure to use the “Thinking” model. It’s also available in Search and NotebookLM for some subscribers. This is all part of the recently-launched Gemini 3 model.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-nano-banana-pro-image-generator-leverages-gemini-3-for-improved-visuals-and-text-rendering-185505073.html?src=rss 

Co-op horror game Reanimal will be released on February 13, 2026. If you simply can’t wait until Valentine’s Day to have an eerie experience with a fellow horror-loving person, you can check out a demo that dropped today. The announcement was part of the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, but you can also try the demo on PC and PlayStation 5.

We got a first glimpse at the next creepy creation from Tarsier Games, which made the first two installments of the Little Nightmares games, last year during Gamescom Opening Night. With Reanimal, players will need to work together to navigate dangerous terrain and escape a very unpleasant-looking island. This team has a great sense for how to create dread from the clever use of scale and proportion, as the two tiny children try to survive whatever spooky situation they’ve been pushed into.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/reanimal-will-arrive-just-in-time-for-a-spooky-valentines-day-191523944.html?src=rss