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What a super game. It's rare when I get to really gush about a game, but this one is one of those! The content, the graphics, the controls, the story is a real gem. Might even say "magnificent." In the 1.0.6.0 version, It all works together beautifully. They took what they did in the first game, which was a good one, and markedly improved on virtually every aspect of the first one. At 120Hz 4k with ray tracing options and HDR tuned on, and the IQ options maxed out, the game is gorgeous--likely the best-rendered game I own...;) I cannot recommend this game enough as it is first-rate entertainment. (This is partly because of my new 42" Envia OLED monitor, which greatly improves the rendering universally, but the game itself is spectacular.) Yesterday I played for ~7-8 hours straight and saw only a single Arkansas crash the entire time, Freesync Premium OFF. I tried to stop sooner several times--but I couldn't...;) For 9070XT owners like myself, I want to make the following suggestion. Uninstall your previous drivers using the updated AMD cleanup utility (it works well and is newer than the last version I had installed, which didn't work so well with the latest Win11 builds), and then be careful to install the recommended Win11 Adrenalin 25.12.1 driver from the AMD site--the ~991mb version, the "b" version--(not the 1.64GB version, the "c" version). If you were having trouble with frequent driver timeouts, that's what mostly ended them for me. I was very pleasantly surprised! Also, one other thing that I did was to turn Freesync Premium OFF--something there seems to be interfering with the game engine and was causing driver timeouts every 10 minutes to an hour when I had mistakenly installed the "c" drivers.) I'm going to test Freesync Premium with the current drivers today to see if I get similar results, or whether the "b" driver fixes that particular problem.) I'll return to this post and edit in the results.

The only people that AI should replace are CEOs and politicians.

and a Festivus for the rest of us!

Wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

On AI use, sorry but I am hardcore in the opposite direction from most of you. Given my strong negative views of (most) humans (nature, capability, behavior), I can't wait for highly evolved AI systems to replace humans. I especially can't wait for AI systems to replace humans as drivers given the basic inability of most humans to properly operate an automobile.

Hehe, yeah, very much a part of my own large set of points that make me hate DnD mechanics. But at least they finally did away with fortitude, reflex, will saving throws, yet another one of those old stupid systems.

Won't stop companies from doing it. It's amusing to Vincke flounce about and catch heat, at least.

Happy Holidays!

TES VI will have AI generated NPC's, NPC conversations and quests. It will be total, complete, utter garbage.

At this point I think the worry - if one is worried - should be about AI effect shrinking/replacing jobs all over, from low-tier to upper management - not just artistic creatives. Although with potential population replacement crisis in some countries (not enough generational babies), not having enough "replacement" workers in many areas in 40-60 years could be a serious issue in terms of companies/economy and possible restructuring of such infrastructure systems - and by then AI/robotics might help in some fashion there. Maybe it won't happen but who knows anymore. Then there will be another baby boom at some point and they'll have to make jobs again. On the potentially bright side, 300 years from now AI could be part of what moves humanity closer to no money motivation of ST:TNG. "You mean you don't get paid???" Either that, or Skynet. Either or.

Didn't see one, so I figured I would create one, just to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you lovely saints, sinners, heretics, heathens, faithful, lost and found people out there. I haven't been active online much the last month and a half, because crunch time and projects going live at years end. Comes with the profession Hope you guys are going to enjoy some time off with family, friends, loved ones or favourite spider pet, whatever you fancy

I'm sorry but everyone is doing it now, even if they say they don't. It's more honest of them mentioning it than just going "nooooo, we would neeever use ai!!1" while the truth is that their devs sure as **** are using ai to some extend.

I don't count everything under one umbrella as they do. I was thinking of ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini. Image and Video generation is a separate thing in my head. Also I am really bother by the markets insistence of calling it Artificial Intelligence, when it ain't...

Im not trying to justify Trump removing Maduro because of the nationalisation\theft of American assets, that is a BS reason. But I support Maduro being removed because he has destroyed Venezuela and lacks legitimacy as a leader. If he had won the last election fairly then I wouldnt be supporting this regime change because my point would be " the people of Venezuela voted for him despite his policies". Removing Maduro is in the best interests of Venezuela as long as the regime change is done correctly with a new government that has support of Venezuelans and regional and international support. All these things currently exist or will happen once Maduro is gone But forced nationalisation can definitely be seen as stealing from a country, you could have a state owned global oil or mining company that gets nationalised from a regime And then even private sector companies generate taxes so you now denying the country that tax revenue But the main problem with forced nationalisation on any level is how it is implemented. All foreign investment works more or less the same way and it should be protected under all cost. The process is typically A government invites foreign investment the foreign investor has to spend large amounts of money setting up the business they hire local people which now have a job and spending power they create ancillary businesses associated with the investment they pay tax in the country on the revenue they generate That is how the country benefits and its massive. But then a government decides " we want to own asset " but they didnt setup it up and pay for the initial investment Its theft and there is no justification for it. Agreed on nationalisation is different because the investor agrees to the ownership change or a different revenue contract. Thats what happened in Botswana recently with De Beers and everyone is happy https://www.angloamerican.com/media/press-releases/2025/25-02-2025

I noticed Lee Pace plays McCone (I like that chr in the novel), which I can't decide if that's good casting or not. I have nothing better to do right now, perhaps I'll rent/watch it. And yeah ... wouldn't surprise me if they change the ending to be more positive re: main chr. I say that because I think it'd be hard to make it more negative than the novel. Unlike The Mist, the novel wasn't ambiguous. Haha. These films usually just make me want to pull books out of a box and reread them.

Peter Greene, 60 - chr. actor. Probably best recalled re: his unsavory role in Pulp Fiction, but for some reason I always think of his tiny role in The Usual Suspects or maybe The Mask.

update: I went out with Marisol and Aza, came back to the ship, and Inez was still standing on the landing pad. when I approached, it triggered the convo again. I'm just hoping the constant (Lie) response just to get out of the convo isn't doing something to my affinity with her even though I've finished her personal quest at this point.

After the 12/10 patch every time I land on Eden Inez yells at me about the Vox Relay. Even if she's not in my party; she appears outside the ship with the "I know it was you" (even though she was in my party for the actual relay quest).

Stereotypically you'd expect Argentina to elect the descendant of a literal literal nazi who fled Germany as president instead of Chile.

The problem with the hobbit/ gandalf plotline is that you fundamentally cannot really do anything with it to justify the time spent. Gandalf ain't going to kill Sauron or the Balrog or whatever; and it's got no overlap so far with other events*. I have some sympathy for the mystery box aspect, silly as it was, because that was clearly mandated by Amazon because the algorithm told them it drove engagement. Wheel of Time had exactly the same issue. The only issues I have with Numenor and Lindon/ Grey Havens is the scale factor I described earlier- just not enough people there to make them feel real. Plus weedy evil numenorean is complete caricature. I do have another Celebrimbor complaint after watching another episode. Firstly, I'm not sure why Sauron even needs rings if he's already powerful enough to make an extremely prominent and powerful elf- Feanor's grandson, iirc- quite literally hallucinate that everything is fine. And secondly, at that level of control why not eliminate the root problem and make Celebrimbor hallucinate that the Dwarf Rings are all fine, or that actually humans deserve rings- or why not make Adar hallucinate stuff and prevent getting ganked originally; the possibilities are endless. As previous, the plot has to happen in order for, well, the plot to happen so Celebrimbor has to be deceived somehow; but the way it's being done introduces a lot of unnecessary problems. *given the current trajectory I have a sinking feeling we may get a hobbit baby towards the end, who grows up to be buddies with Deagol.

so larian are start to use ai art as inspiration guess it is inevitable

chile choose self destruct when it is in better shape by south america standard guess they find the collapse of argentina somehow aspirational

Fallout 1 even had multiple timers. Water chip one and the 'invasion' one. And of course both could be modified by other actions too. There's a worse example from the same game, ie chapter 6. Your very soul has been stolen! But %charname% has all the time in the world to go do (nearly) every single side quest you could have done in Chapter 2 as well as a few C6 specific ones before doing anything about it... You can justify not going after Imoen quickly quite easily, even for a non evil character. You're clearly not strong enough just after escaping and need more resources; which works for either a good or neutral alignment. It's probably more difficult to justify going after her at all, if you're evil or selfish neutral. "Idiot gets herself captured again immediately after escaping? Sounds like her problem, not mine". Bit harder to justify being slothful or even tardy in C6 though. Does also have to be said, I think, that when you do have an imminently critical issue as a plot driver so make tardiness have consequences you do get a lot of people complaining- eg the Spirit Meter in Mask of the Betrayer.