Mel81x

I rate it very highly as a platformer. My only gripe with it is that it can be a bit short depending on how you traverse the map but I suppose thats true for any platformer.

These are both top tier platformers. Having finished them both they also offer very little resistance for total completion if you're into rewards and trophies.

Stunning.

Onto the next Murakami book I go.

If you've got the time its pretty long but quite good.

This game was something I wanted to play but I never got the time. On XB or PC?

I never say no to anything with a bass solo in it.

That is the most fascinating part and I suppose I am being harsh on the science of AI which is at its heart trying to mimic something organic the best way it knows how, by building models it can learn off. I too am curious to see how well it adapts to games it knows very little about in the future but i suspect we're a while away from that right now.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/google-develops-an-ai-that-can-learn-both-chess-and-pac-man/ Now, call me cynical but whenever I see AI try to play Chess or something as 'simple' as Pac-Man a part of me wonders how much AI is involved versus classic problem-solving. Lets think about it this way and use both games. Chess - Finite position/vector-based game. Only so many squares, only so many moves. Only so many permutations allowing a machine to see to what we may consider infinity till the next move is played. Realistically the only time the AI might kick in is if it learns the other player and then tries to adapt its game but even then the only real move that can trip it properly is the first move. So is it really AI? Not really but lets call it AI because that's cool and in-line with how tech is hyped. IBMs big show and its failure when a human beat it wasn't AI it was just poor problem solving and non-adaptability because lets face it if the AI was really present no human would have been able to touch it, period. Pac-Man - You'd imagine a game with the limitations of space like Pac-Man would be just like Chess then you realize that the ghosts have finite moves they can execute to achieve goals and more importantly they are non-adaptive so really this is once again problem-solving but with a slight twist. Your problem solving using four moving points to determine the best approach. So is it really AI once again? No. When does it become AI? When the ghosts stop becoming predictable and also use AI to beat the AI that is running Pac-Man. Then lets add that RAND (random number generator) so famously used in the 8-bit era to create the illusion that the patterns you were seeing were truly random. They really aren't, so once the AI pattern matches the seed generator it can go forever without flinching because the only thing the game has to ramp difficulty at that point isn't the ghosts its the speed of the game and with another machine playing on the other side that is never going to be a problem ever. Might be fun to watch though. In the end I think we generously throw this word AI around at things that aren't true AI. Adaptation is a key-factor yes but so is the process of elimination to determine a play-style that best mimics something that has the smarts to play the game. I also think games are the worst way to describe AI because they are finite in the way they can be played with some exceptions of course. Some of the best forms of AI are in language understanding and cultural adaptation with assimilation.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/12/reddit-clone-voat-home-to-hate-speech-and-qanon-has-shut-down/ Reddit alternative Voat shut down on Christmas Day, citing a lack of operational funding, and casting doubt on the abilities of other similar almost-anything-goes, "free speech" platforms to stay online in the long run. "I just can't keep it up," Voat cofounder Justin Chastain said in the shutdown announcement. Investment dried up in March 2020, he explained. "I personally decided to keep Voat up until after the U.S. election of 2020. I’ve been paying the costs out of pocket but now I’m out of money." ---- Whenever I read these stories I always wonder why there was no funding. Clearly there was a user-base to begin with just like Parler which is another cess-pool that probably needs to die a nice slow death but a part of me thinks the reason is that the funding cant truly be anonymous so the users shy away from getting involved.

Ghostrunner Its fast, its a lot of fun with a controller and the level-tree is superb. I think the level designs are just right with the amount of platforming and enemy eliminations. My only gripe initially was why they mapped the jump button to a shoulder button on the controller but as you play it more you realize that you aren't going to dice enemies fast if you're pushing the face-plate buttons versus the shoulder and trigger buttons.

So its you'll Manchester United and Everton. It is a funny season. Think about it this way. If you'll had beaten United you'll would have been level.

WW84 - 5/10 Think the shine of Diana trying to learn to live in the real world wore off quite early in the first WW but they still persisted with it. Strange choice really and the villains really could have been fleshed out a tad bit better.

Just finished DDD and I bought The Wild Sheep Chase now so that's next on the reading post Xmas.

Is this the same Renato who was once touted as an upcoming superstar?

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/12/apple-is-allegedly-working-on-a-passenger-car-breakthrough-battery-tech/ So you have to ask yourself a lot of questions here. Can a tech company with zero history in the automobile manufacturing business build a car? Maybe. History tells us differently based on how they've tried to enter various spaces but over time and a lot of trial and error they will make it work.

India is shutting down all flights to and from the UK as well starting tomorrow. I suspect over the next few days there's going to be more coming out from other governments as well.

The Wild Sheep Chase is actually my next book and for the same exact reason you mentioned. I just picked up Dance Dance Dance as I was travelling but I do plan on reading the sequel too.

Second. Picked it up when I was travelling. The first one is Norwegian Wood.

Currently reading

Pics from the recent dive/snorkel trip.

Nice little tribute to Alice in Chains and also are they starting to look more like aged truckers than metal musicians now?