Extreme weather gives video games a powerful adversary

This image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Helene on Sept 26, 2024. Game developers are rendering atmospheric conditions with similarly obsessive detail, requiring players to battle extreme weather alongside other more conventionally animate foes. — Photo by Handout/NOAA/GOES/AFP

The storms start off small in the vehicular survival game Pacific Drive. Raindrops fall on the windshield, as lightning cracks ominously in the distance. In a few minutes, the pristine Olympic Peninsula will shake with nature’s full terrible force.

Hollywood has long portrayed extreme weather, and 4D screenings of the summer hit Twisters bludgeoned viewers with wind and water in gyroscopic seats.