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Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is out! The 31 year old cult classic Avernum series is back as a unique indie RPG set in a vast underworld nation.
Fight a monster plague. Explore the depths. Be loyal or treacherous. Get rich and famous! Huge & full of fun.
store.steampowered.com/app/3882020/Av…
Fight a monster plague. Explore the depths. Be loyal or treacherous. Get rich and famous! Huge & full of fun.
store.steampowered.com/app/3882020/Av…
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I know Grand Theft Auto 6 is out and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
I started playing these with GTA3. Played these games for decades. I loved the cartoony gameplay and amorality. And then Rockstar's games just got heavier and heavier. Convinced they were saying Deep Things.
e in the series I haven't finished in many years. I got filtered by the flying section. Why did why wacky shooty game suddenly turn into a demanding flight sim? After piloting my plane into a hill 50 times, I gave up. It was a relief, as I was really tired of hanging out with its grim, aggressively unlikeable, utterly charmless protagonists.
(At least Niko Belik and his cousin were funny.)
And Red Dead Redemption 2? Can we finally say that game wasn't fun? With its repetitive, totally on rails missions? Obnoxious interface? The world's slowest, most awkward to control characters? Man, it was a struggle to plow through the back half of it. Snow effects were nice, though.
And now GTA6, the Biggest Game Evar, is almost out. With incredibly sparkly trailers featuring a truly disciplined lack of actual gameplay. Made in a time when the anarchic, offensive looseness of the older games is something game companies can no longer manage. AAA just doesn't do "silly" anymore.
Anyway, I hope it's good. I might buy it. Once it fully downloads, in 2029, I'll let you know what I think. :-/
I started playing these with GTA3. Played these games for decades. I loved the cartoony gameplay and amorality. And then Rockstar's games just got heavier and heavier. Convinced they were saying Deep Things.
e in the series I haven't finished in many years. I got filtered by the flying section. Why did why wacky shooty game suddenly turn into a demanding flight sim? After piloting my plane into a hill 50 times, I gave up. It was a relief, as I was really tired of hanging out with its grim, aggressively unlikeable, utterly charmless protagonists.
(At least Niko Belik and his cousin were funny.)
And Red Dead Redemption 2? Can we finally say that game wasn't fun? With its repetitive, totally on rails missions? Obnoxious interface? The world's slowest, most awkward to control characters? Man, it was a struggle to plow through the back half of it. Snow effects were nice, though.
And now GTA6, the Biggest Game Evar, is almost out. With incredibly sparkly trailers featuring a truly disciplined lack of actual gameplay. Made in a time when the anarchic, offensive looseness of the older games is something game companies can no longer manage. AAA just doesn't do "silly" anymore.
Anyway, I hope it's good. I might buy it. Once it fully downloads, in 2029, I'll let you know what I think. :-/
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GTA6, Best Case Scenario: Driving around Miami with my hot girlfriend driving fast cars on exciting chases.
GTA6, Worst Case Scenario:
GTA6, Worst Case Scenario:
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I finally watched Hellraiser. It was fine. A nice mix of sincere, goofy, and horrifying. An exceptionally moist movie.
But ... So it's about these demons that try to take you away to this infinite universe of pleasure and pain. Promising. And then all they ever do is hang people go-to move! Oh, look. Susan touched the cube. Get out the hooks!
Even the hicks in Texas Chainsaw Massacre had more variety in their repertoire than this. Disappointing lack of hustle and ingenuity in our demon overlords.
But ... So it's about these demons that try to take you away to this infinite universe of pleasure and pain. Promising. And then all they ever do is hang people go-to move! Oh, look. Susan touched the cube. Get out the hooks!
Even the hicks in Texas Chainsaw Massacre had more variety in their repertoire than this. Disappointing lack of hustle and ingenuity in our demon overlords.
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Just read my Notifications. It is starting to seem, sorry if I'm getting this wrong, like Hookraiser has a fairly serious fandom.
Also, I apparently really need to also watch Hookraiser 2: The Hookening. Alas, the series then falls steeply off with Hookraiser 3: Off the Hook.
Also, I apparently really need to also watch Hookraiser 2: The Hookening. Alas, the series then falls steeply off with Hookraiser 3: Off the Hook.
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I'm not saddened by this announcement. The sadness came over a decade ago, when I knew the Bioware I loved no longer existed.
Never forget: Great work isn't made by organizations or intellectual properties. Great work is made by geniuses. When the geniuses are gone, only the shell remains. From then on, you only get disappointment and the occasional vapors of greatness-that-was.
See also: Star Wars. Star Trek. Lord of the Rings.
Never forget: Great work isn't made by organizations or intellectual properties. Great work is made by geniuses. When the geniuses are gone, only the shell remains. From then on, you only get disappointment and the occasional vapors of greatness-that-was.
See also: Star Wars. Star Trek. Lord of the Rings.
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I'm a few hundred puzzles into Order of the Sinking Star, and it is, indeed, fantastic. Yes, it's a box pushing game, but it plans to be the LAST box pushing game. No meat will be left on the bones.
The puzzles are really well put together. Compact. No extra elements. You are sible situation and you have to explore the capabilities of the few parts you are given and figure out a new way to use them. Really ingenious stuff in here.
Highly recommended. I've already gotten well over the $30 worth, and I have a LONG way to go.
The puzzles are really well put together. Compact. No extra elements. You are sible situation and you have to explore the capabilities of the few parts you are given and figure out a new way to use them. Really ingenious stuff in here.
Highly recommended. I've already gotten well over the $30 worth, and I have a LONG way to go.
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I looked at Steam Next Fest, and some of its 8000 (!!!) demos. They did indeed look awful AI-sloppy. Today the algorithm switched to showing games that had lots of interest, so most of the AI won't be seen unless you look for it.
This is, indeed, successful curation. Done the ctual players picking games they like.
I've seen people online call for Steam to be more active in curation. This can't happen! For Steam to sort through 8000 demos and figure out the "good ones" is not a solvable problem. If it was solvable, they would have done it years ago.
The answer to the AI "problem" is: Things will just be worse now, and there's nothing that can be done about it. But, I mean, it's indie video games. What makes you think things have to be better?
This is, indeed, successful curation. Done the ctual players picking games they like.
I've seen people online call for Steam to be more active in curation. This can't happen! For Steam to sort through 8000 demos and figure out the "good ones" is not a solvable problem. If it was solvable, they would have done it years ago.
The answer to the AI "problem" is: Things will just be worse now, and there's nothing that can be done about it. But, I mean, it's indie video games. What makes you think things have to be better?
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A pretty dire showing, but there are two winners here that arguably were the best pictures that year: Parasite and Spotlight.
Yeah, everyone is talking about how thoroughly mediocre Shape of Water and Green Book were. I liked Moonlight more than most.
But someone should point out what an excellent movie Spotlight is.
Yeah, everyone is talking about how thoroughly mediocre Shape of Water and Green Book were. I liked Moonlight more than most.
But someone should point out what an excellent movie Spotlight is.
Best Picture winners of the 2010s – which was truly the least deserving?
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Shape of Water wasn't even the best movie about a woman who has sex with a fish that came out that year.
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Jeff Vogel retweeted
New blog post about AI! Explains why you should make up your mind about AI now and never think about it again. Until it takes your job, or kills you and nobody takes responsibility.
Just because it's not alive doesn't mean things won't go craaazy!
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/why-would-we…
Just because it's not alive doesn't mean things won't go craaazy!
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/why-would-we…
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Jeff Vogel retweeted
Robert Carlock pointed towards the Homonym game show as his favorite cut-away gag in 30 Rock and yeah it's one of the best.
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Someone responded to my Magician's Nephew tweet by wondering if it would be a Starship Troopers sort of adaptation and now I can't stop having billion dollar ideas.
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We are currently in high level negotiations with the swarm. We have offered it 3 barrels of fresh electrons a week if, in return, it does nothing to impact World of Warcraft: Forever latency.
We discovered and communicated with a Chinese AI agent fleet. We believe this is the first time that researchers have ever made contact with a rogue agent fleet in the wild.
Nearly all prior public agent incidents (like the HuggingFace hack) came from American labs. These agents s evaluation research team, and they targeted Alibaba's Amap.
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New blog post about AI! Explains why you should make up your mind about AI now and never think about it again. Until it takes your job, or kills you and nobody takes responsibility.
Just because it's not alive doesn't mean things won't go craaazy!
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/why-would-we…
Just because it's not alive doesn't mean things won't go craaazy!
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/why-would-we…
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The Magician's Nephew may be my favorite Narnia book (well, after Dawn Treader). It's a mix of Christian analogy, slapstick comedy, and Lovecraftian horror, a tonal mix I am stunned Lewis pulled off.
This preview makes it look faithful to the story, and Gerwig IS a good director. Cautiously optimistic.
This preview makes it look faithful to the story, and Gerwig IS a good director. Cautiously optimistic.
The visual style here seems tremendously ill-conceived. I'm still going to go see it but the whole thing feels tremendously over-produced.
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I only learned about the movie Digger when I saw a news story that it was losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Then I saw people online saying it's actually good. So I went.
It is a very good movie, unlike anything I've seen before. It's a science fiction movie about how rom civilizational collapse, and the lies we will tell ourselves to deal with it, disguised as a climate change polemic.
It's dark, thoughtful, made with passion by a ton of super-talented people, visually gorgeous, and really under my skin. There is no way anyone could have believed it would be profitable. It's a labor of love that actually works.
If you ever complained about Hollywood only making superhero movies, I sentence you to seeing it. Or Wildwood (by beloved animation studio Laika), coming out soon, which I fear will also be heavily punished for differentness.
It is a very good movie, unlike anything I've seen before. It's a science fiction movie about how rom civilizational collapse, and the lies we will tell ourselves to deal with it, disguised as a climate change polemic.
It's dark, thoughtful, made with passion by a ton of super-talented people, visually gorgeous, and really under my skin. There is no way anyone could have believed it would be profitable. It's a labor of love that actually works.
If you ever complained about Hollywood only making superhero movies, I sentence you to seeing it. Or Wildwood (by beloved animation studio Laika), coming out soon, which I fear will also be heavily punished for differentness.
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It reminds me a lot of Brazil, another super-dark science fiction film that was seen by nobody in theaters and went on to be rightly recognized as a classic. So, if you haven't seen Brazil ...
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