Image: Mark Hachman / IDG
Microsoft Edge Game Assist has worked its way through Microsoft’s development cycle, and has been released for everybody. It’s your new tool for solving those pesky puzzles in your favorite PC games.
Even though we associate “Microsoft” with “Windows,” Microsoft has numerous little platforms that it bolts features on to. Microsoft Edge Game Assist is one of these: It’s a specialized hint tool for Game Bar, a Windows gaming feature that’s been around for over half a decade with a steadily advancing feature set that includes performance tools, screen capture, and more.
Microsoft Edge Game Assist bolts Edge to Game Bar. Instead of forcing you to stop what you’re doing and start typing terms into search boxes, Game Assist “knows” what game you’re playing and opens up what you might call a specialized hint browser. I went hands-on with Microsoft Edge Game Assist in January, where I launched it alongside Baldur’s Gate 3 to see what sort of tips it could offer.
At the time, Microsoft Edge Game Assist supported just a handful of games. Now, the list of games that Microsoft Edge Game Assist supports has grown quite long from newer games like Split Fiction, Avowed, and the “new” The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, to more interesting strategic choices like Hearts of Iron IV. Each of the games has been enhanced with tips and guides, Microsoft says.
Personally, I find all of this fascinating, because Microsoft seems to be converging on an AI-powered game assistant that will steer you to some of your favorite games’ more challenging puzzles. Game guides are one thing; bringing them into the game is another. But combine this with the new (and somewhat mediocre) talents of Copilot Vision, and the future clearly is an AI assistant who can see what you see and offer advice. Give it a year or two.
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.