Balatro is the best game of 2024 – its anonymous creator may never release another

The true motivation of a computer scientist developing a game-playing AI is not dissimilar to that of a parent spending valuable time and energy raising a child. It is an act of creation. Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein, upon contemplating his creature, said, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures

known simply and profoundly as the Main Event. Certain televisual imagery of the WSOP lingers in the mind. Baseball-capped men in sunglasses and logoed sweatshirts. Teetering piles of gaudily colorful chips. Incantations of the words “all in” accompanied by elbows out, palms in pushing motions. Dealers wearing vests, painstakingly dealing flops, tu

Key Question: “Is this game novel enough?”