Reviews
Reviews from Vance on Gaming, shaped by its Gaming focus.
Reviews from Vance on Gaming, shaped by its Gaming focus.
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The Real AI Revolution in Gaming is in QA, Not Upscaling
While The Suits push AI upscaling as a crutch for poor optimization, female-led engineering teams are quietly building the AI infrastructure that actually matters: automated bottleneck detection that catches frame-time spikes before code ever ships.
Elias VanceMarch 7, 2026
The 2026 Optimization Recession: Why Games Are Getting Slower While Hardware Gets Faster
GPU generations are barely moving the needle where it counts, yet games keep getting heavier. After a decade in QA, I can tell you exactly who killed optimization culture — and it wasn't the graphics artists.
Elias VanceMarch 6, 2026
AI Upscaling, Procedural NPCs, Shader Optimization: Why Games Are Crashing in 2026
Studios are shipping AI infrastructure without the QA frameworks to test it. A former QA lead breaks down the three systems currently breaking in shipped games—and why your team won't catch them until 200,000 players already have.
Elias VanceMarch 5, 2026
Slay the Spire 2 Early Access: A QA Lead's Cold Assessment
Mega Crit just launched Slay the Spire 2 into early access. Before you buy in, here's a former QA lead's honest audit of whether this is a proper vertical slice or another ship
Elias VanceMarch 5, 2026Shader Compilation Stutter Is Still Shipping in 2026. You're Paying for It.
A 60 FPS average means nothing when your frame-time graph spikes to 200ms in a boss fight. UE5 shader compilation stutter is still a shipping decision, not a mystery bug, and players keep eating the cost.
Elias VanceMarch 4, 2026