Keyrock

The vertical cache announcement is interesting since it will allow AMD to greatly increase the amount of cache in future CPUs. They're stacking the cache copper to copper, so there really shouldn't be much, if any, added latency. Some apps, including some games, will gobble up as much cache as is available to them and translate that into tangible performance gains. This sounds like it could be ready for a Zen3+ early next year. If not, it's a fairly safe bet we'll see it in Zen4, whenever that comes out (late 2022 if I had to guess). If nothing else, this shows AMD aren't sitting on their hands while they're ahead.

The Lighthouse was indeed a pretty good descent into madness tale. I'm glad to see Robert Pattinson has been able to shed being the Twilight guy and emerged as a legitimately good actor. Kristen Stewart is still getting work, but she's a charisma vortex, she somehow manages to suck the charisma out of her co-stars and reduce the overall amount of charisma in a scene. I have no clue what any of the other Twilight actors are doing these days, I imagine B movies, if anything.

Jackie Chan looks disappointed.

Interesting that it's hardware agnostic, I wasn't expecting that. In theory, that should work in its favor as far as adoption going forward. If you are a game developer, do you support an upscaling technology that only works on a limited subset of one brand of GPU, or do you support a technology that works on a larger subset of both (presumably all 3 if/when Intel GPUs become more prevalent) brands? Of course, in the business world nothing is ever quite that straightforward. As per usual, I'll reserve judgement until it's out in the wild and there are independent benchmarks and, also, I can try it out myself.

I watched Double Down. It was every bit as baffling as Fateful Findings, perhaps more. There's a lot less acting in this movie, which, given the quality of said acting, is probably for the best. There's a ton of B roll with narration over it. This movie has 3 commonalities with Fateful Findings: A special (magic?) rock. So many laptops, none of which are functional. Neil Breen's character, Aaron in this case, is the greatest hacker. I'm curious to see if those same things pop up in his other movies. There's a lot of Neil running around in the desert and so many cans of tuna. There are attempts here at mystical, spiritual, and religious imagery that I'm sure have profound meaning in Neil Breen's mind but are perplexing, more than anything else, to the me. I went ahead and ordered Pass Thru; I should have the movie by the time I get back home next time in 3 to 4 weeks. /rubs hands together

You must gather your party before venturing forth.

In case you ever wondered what the difference between a great musician and a virtuoso is, the virtuoso can do things with his/her instrument beyond what are the normally established boundaries. Case in point: My man plays lead, rhythm, and percussion, at times all simultaneously, on a bass guitar.

Anthony Davis going down with an injury in game 4 is the least surprising plot twist of the entire NBA season. Hopefully he recovers, I would like to see everyone at full strength so the true best team can win, but, whether you're a Lakers fan or not, I think everyone was anticipating this may happen, given AD's history.

Me, personally, I loved Boyhood. As an aside, I miss The Nerd Crew. They haven't done one of those in a long time.

I watched Fateful Findings. First off, this is how the movie arrived: You know you're about to watch a top quality motion picture when it comes in a blank jewel case. What can I say about this movie... It's... It's baffling more than anything else. It's not a particularly funny bad movie, though I did get some laughs, particularly at the end, but it doesn't even come close to being as funny as Samurai Cop, for example (admittedly, that's an extremely high bar to clear). It's confusing, but in a strangely engaging way. The acting is awful, as expected. Stuff just happens. We go from scene to scene to scene with nothing remotely approaching set ups or transitions. Neil Breen plays Dylan, who's an author. When he was a kid he and his friend Leah found a box in the woods and it had a magic (?) rock in it. He has magic powers, I think (because of the rock?), and he's pretending to be working on a book but is instead secretly hacking into everything on his multitude of non-functional laptops to expose corruption. The whole thing is a confusing mess. The ending, though, and Dylan's stirring speech... *chef kiss* Magnifique! Also, if you ever wanted to see a naked Neil Breen in a tarp cave, I have some great news for you. I think I will order Pass Thru next. Sadly, he no longer sells Double Down nor I Am Here... Now, so I have no idea how I could procure those.

I made guac. Avocado, garlic, tomato, serrano pepper, bacon, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Preparing it fresh makes all the difference, it's exponentially better than anything premade at the store.

^ To be honest, I like the radio edit version of Knee Deep better. The album version outstays its welcome, it doesn't do enough different things to warrant 15+ minutes. It's a 5 minute song with 10 minutes of padding. I imagine there are live versions that are 15 or 20 minutes where P-Funk does enough improvising to make the entire run time interesting, but the album version doesn't do enough to justify the length IMHO. Similar case with the extended version of Flashlight. I like the shorter version of that song better.

Y'all need some funk

Nope. I have a pretty good 4K TV at home, why would I overpay for tickets and concessions and potentially have to listen to some random dip$#!+s talking over the movie. I'll pick my own dip$#!+s to talk over the movie at home. I'm SUPER excited to go to a live rasslin' show again, though. Hopefully soon.

I know that patriotism is frowned upon these days because stupid people don't understand the difference between patriotism and nationalism, but that brings tears of joy to my eye. Godspeed proud soldiers. /salutes

Not usually, but you can get some Puff Puff. Fun fact: In Yakuza: Like a Dragon you can get some Honk Honk, which is a very obvious reference to Puff Puff. You gotta love that they've kept this silly gag running for decades and it's now referenced in a completely different series.

The Bucks are clicking at the right time and I would love to see them go to the NBA Finals, but they're about to run into one of the most absurdly loaded teams ever assembled. The wealth of talent on the Nets is disgusting.

Bucks are looking good so far. I don't think they have the firepower to beat the Nets in the next round, but it should be a fun series. And yes, I'm already penciling in both teams to advance.

Company of Heroes 2 and its Ardennes Assault expansion are both free to keep on Steam for the next few days.

While I'm waiting for Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne to download, I'm going to post some classic MegaTen memes:

Sleeping Dogs was designed by a (sadly now defunct) Canadian studio and the game took place in Hong Kong. So, that's no and no.

^ All I get from that teaser trailer is that DQ12 will be fire-themed, which will make it the 3741004328th fire-themed game. I mean, what is there to say about it, it's Dragon Quest. Squeenix has 2 venerable jRPG series. One of them, Final Fantasy, has reinvented itself again and again, for better or worse, usually going in a more actiony direction. The other, Dragon Quest, has basically remained the same. There have been quality of life improvements and the formula has been refined a bit, but you can pick up a DQ from 25 years ago and it will play essentially the same as a DQ from today. I wonder if we'll get an Ichiban Kasuga cameo. I found it weird that Kasuga waxed poetic about how much he loved DQ in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I mean, I love DQ too, it's great, but why would SEGA promote a Squeenix series and not one of their own, like Phantasy Star, for example. I wonder if Squeenix will return the favor with a YLaD cameo or two. Super bonus points if my girl Saeko shows up for a cup of coffee.