dmir

It’s always this.

I remember some post from years ago by a person saying that Elon Musk seems like a genius up until he starts talking about something you’re familiar with.

Thanks to the Internet, I think it’s gotten both more difficult to hide your own stupidity unless you’re careful with your tracks (the power-hungry often aren’t) and easier to absolutely flood the discourse so that your inferior cognitive abilities are either lost or overshadowed by something else (like Trump doing everything he, unfortunately somewhat successfully, to keep people busy talking and thinking about so much more other than his ties with Epstein).

And it keeps showing with the political and corporate leaders. The smarter ones from the latter, unfortunately, mostly seem to be psychopaths and/or sociopaths, very keen on leading the former where they need them (currently supporting AI and preparing the bailout, curbing the competition before, probably staring jaw-dropped at the news of “AI going rogue” and how can be the end of humanity and all).

Imma beat the dead horse and say that out of all dystopias, Idiocracy (2006) turned out to be the most accurate.

Someone named rabber could be talking about more dire measures than piracy when referring to stealing. Never know.

Can’t believe I’m about to find out what happened to the rest of the world outside Australia in the MAD MAX universe by living through it myself!

Battlefield + Counter-Strike.

Battlefield for scale and gameplay, Counter-Strike (like, 1.6) for paying for everything on your loadout, including guns, attachments, grenades, ammunition, other utility, and whatever vehicular stuff goes into this, because of the Battlefield aspect.

Times are tough, but I think a security architect is one of the positions that lets you choose an employer based on morals as well, because it pays well, and if Flock is already considering you, you probably have experience and money to pursue some integrity.

Pretty much this. I’ve been living under authoritarianism my whole life and such things are just clear as day.

Same reason so many social media or tech CEOs don’t really let their kids use the product: they know it sucks and it’s not good for you nor does it respect you or your data, they know how important privacy is - just not for you your privacy and data.

If you can’t make the decision for yourself, especially such a inconsequential one, probably just rolle the dice or something. It can even be fun when you define multiple criteria and roll of each, ending up doing something that you already might have anyway, because it’s in your pool, but there’s still kind of discovery here, like you stumble upon something from your own collection.

I’d prefer to leave the ambiguity completely out of the equation here!

Gotta be so careful with what your mat says…

Sugar free drinks are taxed at 20c/l

Does that include artificial sweeteners? I have some sort of prejudice against them that I couldn’t substantiate with research, but one thing is certain: none of them felt good to me.

I am much happier with drinking less sweet beverages overall, but made with regular sugar. Actually tend to spend less that way, even if I pay more for less - I just happen to be buying that much less frequently that way.

I love Remedy games, but Alan Wake 2 makes me think they’re not that into performance and optimization. Control mostly did okay in this regard probably thanks to being developed before such a heavy reliance on upscaling and ray tracing.

I think we have reasons to suspect that Control Resonant is going to both be a fantastic action game with some great worldbuilding, and run pretty terribly.

Stuff like this makes me think that upgrading my GPU is actually not as daunting, because how powerful the upgrade will be is going to be heavily negated by some games’ architecture.

That actually makes me wonder how come there’s relatively few such universes and stories arouns, given that suits and highly-secretive special forces are actually pretty popular in fiction. Maybe I’m overestimating the interest in such fiction.

I would like more stuff like Control and Men in Black, especially in gaming, with deep and explorable lore and world. But I think such stories basically happen as a response to something, like the SCP and the likes being a phenomenon rather than somethin (easily) reproducible, and Men in Black being a metaphor for migration and assimilation more than anything. At some point, there’s just nothing else to say about a thing from a given angle, and instead of feeling fresh and welcome and exciting, a new entry to a theme feels stale and meaningless, completely lacking anything interesting or captivating.

Which, I think, is what Control Resonant seems to try and do right by going outside The Oldest House and turning to a different kind of gameplay and worldbuilding. I think we’ll still be able to uncover stuff through reading and optional dialogue, but I doubt it will have the same form or extent as the first game.

Speaking of Control Resonant - are you even interested in it given this shift? Please be careful with plot details, as I haven’t finished the first game yet.

I was really into SCP when it came out, and it was such a gift. Probably my favorite third-person shooter, both for its atmosphere and combat. I especially like the amount of stuff to just read and get absorbed in the lore, wonder at how the place used to look like under non-crisis circumstances.

Great screenshots! Really capture the enigmatic feel that invites you to explore the world.

Any people waiting for the sequel here, how do you feel about combat in the upcoming game? Seems like it’s going to be more melee-focused, which isn’t my thing, but I like and respect that they’re trying to do something different as opposed to making more of the same thing. That’s the same reason I love the DOOM series - that variety helps each entry have its place instead of feeling like a DLC essentially.

Absolutely not, I hope.

The impact on the minds and the constant push for the thing for all the wrong reasons are enough for me to keep hating it.

The senile presidents, ministers, MPs and other officials are salivating so hard right now.

Very much this.

I remember being so excited for cloud gaming as a kid, before the term was coined or the concept was widely there - I just kept thinking to myself how cool it would be to be able to play any games I want on my less-than-capable PC. Couldn’t even imagine the tech actually arriving one day.

And by the time it did, I’ve become so disenchanted with technology that reaches mainstream, because you’re just so right: it becomes a very aggressive money-making machine that treats you without any respect and only wants more.

I would rather pay more for less thanks to the rampocalypse, play with stutters and terrible FPS on lowest settings, than let a Take-Two CEO and others have us rent games and computing power.

What you’re describing is exactly what I’m wondering. Maybe I’m just not too deep into the topic, but it seems so arbitrary to me that they went with the whole isolation thing in the first place for no reason that I can see, other than the “oh no, it’s hacking stuff!” narrative being pre-planned and orchestrated for.

In other words, I am siding with the accusations of this whole wave of “AI” suddenly hacking into stuff, with different models from different companies wondrously doing the same thing one after another, being a publicity stunt that one company started and others, as they do, copying just to stay relevant.

Although I feel like maybe I’m going Chuck McGill here because I am very biased.

Am I just stupid for not believing that any of the models actually did any of that on their own? I feel like the companies behind them start claiming crazy shit like this every time people start questioning “AI” more and/or losing interest. Isn’t that how OpenAI dropped Sora amidst the dwindling hype to keep the investors hooked? Now it’s back to scary stories about “AI” being so good and advanced that it’s about to hack everything and what, actually think for itself?

There is no X big enough for me to press to doubt this enough.

OpenRA on PC (I totally suck 😅)

I’ve been gaming for decades and still suck at RTS. So bad that I have been eyeing various titles without daring to approach them. Wish you luck and believe in yourself - don’t miss out on the fun like I do!

GTA V on PS4 again but I consider getting it for the Steamdeck 🤔

I’ve been playing some games on Steam Deck with the goal of making greater use of the trackpads for movement and a combination of camera and a multi-button menu (mouse as default, action menu layer on click that is removed upon click release in the layer itself). It’s incredibly fun when you configure it right! Truly feels like a new way to experience something familiar - greatly recommended.

The Talos Principle.

Been sitting in my library for a while. Kept holding off because I wanted to use my brain less during leisure, but puzzle games just help me relax and bring me so much joy, even when I’m exhausted - really great alternatives to my beloved shooters, ESPECIALLY when I’m exhausted.

I’m loving this game. Super excited to play other titles in the series. Or even beat it again, this time in a different language just to learn it, because there’s just so much to read - which I also love.

And it’s loaded with secrets and Easter eggs. Some have made me mad, but very proud to finally discover. I’m at a point where I still wonder if all the secrets I have uncovered are indeed secrets, meaning optional and lead to something extra, or I’ve been fooled to believe I have free will and achieve something beyond the bare minimum. If you’re reading this and know the answer, please don’t reveal it, as going blind really makes this game shine.

And of course, loving the environments and the soundtrack. Such a pleasure after a work day or anything else you want to unwind after.