The Finals from developer Embark Studios has made quite a splash for a new free-to-play shooter. During its launch week, it pulled in well over 225,000 players on Steam alone and has retained a solid number of players in the following weeks. It's a fast-paced and robust shooter that's all about tearing down maps to come out as number 1, but it's also a game that was close to being passed over by the development team.
Embark Studios: AI let devs "do more with less" when making The Finals
12.12.2023 - 16:10 / gamedeveloper.com / Ai
Embark Studios' The Finals is a free-to-play online shooter that brings the Battlefield series' level of mayhem and destruction to an over-the-top team-based reality TV-style competition. After several months of playtests, The Finals is out, and the impressive technology behind its environmental chaos is now on display.
But as The Finals marched toward release, critics zeroed in on how Embark Studios (which is owned by Nexon) used generative AI technology to create in-game dialogue. As described by audio engineer Andreas Almström, text-to-voice AI allowed the studio to generate dynamic reactions by in-game characters, including in-universe commentators responding to the match.
Ahead of the surprise launch of The Finals at The Game Awards 2023, we spoke with Embark Studios creative director Gustav Tilleby, senior environment artist Joakim Stigsson, and brand director Sven Grundberg about using new tools to enhance the over-the-top action—including AI—and how The Finals disrupts the typically sacred rules of engagement for multiplayer games.
Blending the gameplay of an extraction shooter and team-based multiplayer with the "levolution"-style map destruction from the Battlefield series, The Finals channels those fixtures of competitive gaming into a high-energy game show that feels made for the Twitch.tv generation.
As teams of show-boating ruffians battle it out over cash and bragging rights, the battleground combatants enter won't be the same one they close the game on as bullets, explosions, and other methods of brute force reshape the combat zone in real-time.
According to creative director Gustav Tilleby, The Finals is about offering a more dynamic pace for a multiplayer game that puts its stylized, over-the-top competition into focus. "We have a lot of inspirations and touchstones for this game, such as The Running Man, The Hunger Games, and, of course, Squid Game. But one of our big inspirations was the classic arcade game Smash TV, which has a certain playfulness to it that we took to," said the creative director Tilleby. "When you eliminate someone, they explode into coins and all that stuff."
“For The Finals, the style and tone of the game is built around pillars called appeal and brutality. It's about being inviting [and] playful. The Finals is set in a game show, but it has this explosive action that brings a lot of physicality and energy to the game."
Along with scaling buildings and leaping off jump pads, the combatants can punch holes through walls, drop cash boxes by blowing out the floor beneath them, and cut off enemy shortcuts by blocking or destroying paths. This aspect gives The Finals somewhat of an immersive sim element to its flow, and Embark Studios' creative director even cited The
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
polygon.com
26.12.2023 / 19:41
Netflix teen shows are trying to let ace characters come out and explain themselves
Until my early 20s, I believed I was a “normal” sex-haver. I assumed any guilt or repulsion I felt after intimacy was a universal experience. It wasn’t until a year ago that, after hearing me mention that I had repeatedly dissociated after kissing various Tinder dates, my friend said: “You know what asexuality is, right?” I stuttered, offended; of course I knew what it meant, but only in that “jock calling the nerd asexual because he won’t ever get laid” way. She called my bluff and showed me a video from an asexual YouTuber who echoed many of my secret opinions about dating and intimacy. This set me on the path to find as many video essays about asexuality as possible, which explained that I wasn’t broken or in need of the “right person”; my love would just come from somewhere besides sex. Any blueprints for where I might find it or what that love might be instead were a mystery, as I quickly found that asexual representation in media is an absolute travesty.
pcgamer.com
22.12.2023 / 13:15
Five Nights at Freddy's Roblox game debuts by accident because series' creator 'approved a skin'—devs say it was a beta, then nuke its Discord over unholy NSFW content
Five Nights at Freddy's, a cultural gaming giant big enough to have its own movie (that was apparently Just Okay, according to critics) has come toRoblox—wait, hold on a second, it's gone. Now it's in beta? Oh, but the beta's been «taken down for a few weeks.» Err.
gamingbolt.com
22.12.2023 / 07:41
THE FINALS Gets Stronger Anti-Cheat, Balance Changes with Patch 1.4.0
Shortly after announcing that it would be working on reducing the number of cheaters in competitive shooter THE FINALS, developer Embark Studios has now released a major update for the game. Numbered at patch 1.4.0, the update brings with it “major changes” to anti-cheat detection.
pcinvasion.com
20.12.2023 / 21:08
All The Finals patch notes 1.4.0: Buffs, nerfs, and more
Embark Studios finally released patch notes 1.4.0 and it includes a substantial nerf to Heavys that I was praying for. Lights kind of got away scot-free in this one (which I’m happy about), but here’s what The Finals patch notes 1.4.0 include.
gamesradar.com
20.12.2023 / 13:43
The Finals patch 1.4.0 brings long-awaited Heavy nerfs and ant-cheat improvements, rings in the season with a festive update
Just in time for Christmas, Embark Studios has released The Finals patch 1.4.0, bringing festive fun, anti-cheat improvements, and – perhaps most importantly to the FPS game's community – nerfs for the meta-dominating Heavy class.
techradar.com
20.12.2023 / 13:14
Mass Effect lead writer says he didn't want to do more with the series after the Legendary Edition: 'Why tempt fate?'
Former Mass Effect lead writer Mac Walters has reflected on his time at BioWare and explained why he decided to leave the studio earlier this year.
gamesradar.com
20.12.2023 / 12:42
As cheating in The Finals swells, FPS dev shut down the idea that a region locking Asian servers is the solution: “Cheaters are in all regions”
The Finals developer Embark Studios has shut down a frequent request from its community to introduce region locking to combat cheating in the hot new FPS.
pcgamer.com
19.12.2023 / 18:20
The Finals might be a bit less sweaty now it's cracking down on cheaters
Embark Studios' The Finals is one of the most interesting multiplayers to come along for a while. It's also a brand new game from a new studio, and it unsurprisingly has some issues at launch. Alongside its underwhelming AI-assisted voiceovers, weird bugs, and questionable balance at the start of Season 1, as Morgan has pointed out, it's a sweaty beast, placing major emphasis on multi-way competitive shooting that can overly rely on being the twitchiest trigger finger, and neglecting the tactical potential of its fantastic destruction tech.
gamesradar.com
19.12.2023 / 17:46
The Finals isn't getting a content roadmap because the FPS' devs only want to "make promises we can keep"
Like many live-service FPS games, The Finals is getting a drip feed of new content and battle passes to keep things fresh. Unlike many of those games, developer Embark Studios isn't committing to any content roadmap to let you know what is coming and when.
techradar.com
19.12.2023 / 14:36
Embark Studios says The Finals bug stopped it from 'banning cheaters efficiently'
Embark Studios is improving anti-cheat measures in The Finals following player feedback.
gamesradar.com
18.12.2023 / 21:29
As cheats infest The Finals, devs say a bug stopped them from "banning cheaters efficiently," but now they're "re-upping anti-cheat measures"
The Finals developer Embark Studios has apparently been struggling to ban cheaters due to a technical hitch, but with a solution to this annoying "bug" now in sight, it sounds like cheaters' days may be numbered.