brsrklf
@brsrklf@jlai.lu
- Comment on The Game Boy: A Technical Marvel of Handheld Gaming 1 day ago:
The Game Boy in particular was from Gunpei Yokoi’s design philosophy, “lateral thinking with withered technology”.
Honestly not a bad choice, especially for the time. Even if it was late in GB’s life, pokémon would have never worked on a system that eats 6 batteries in 3 hours.
- Comment on The Best-Selling Video Games Since 2020 3 days ago:
I consider the best “New” to be Wii by far. Good challenge, good level diversity, the right kind of chaotic fun in multiplayer.
The first NSMB was still very basic, and U was boring and uninspired. New Super Luigi U was the best part of U, at least it tried something, but too little too late.
NSMB2 felt like the worst example of “we need a Mario game now, pile up random shit until we have one”. I mean, they tried to have a gimmick in this one, putting it everywhere in theming and it’s… Collecting more coins than usual? And even then they don’t do anything with it.
By the way, of course everyone is allowed their opinion, but… 30 years later, still team SMB3.
- Comment on Didn't realize how hard MGS4's Disc Swap joke hit until I backed it up 3 days ago:
I had those. I am pretty sure they were huge because everything was mostly uncompressed.
I remember using a program to extract game data. Every environment was a literal bitmap image the size of the area, and there were additional bitmaps of the same size for each, where pixel colours were used by the engine to check where characters could walk, what part of the scenery is overhead, etc.
It was cool looking into the adaptive music though. Every track was split in multiple bits of like a dozen seconds, so for example if the battle theme needed to end it could branch into a specific ending variation seamlessly. I don’t think a lot of games did that back then.
- Comment on The Best-Selling Video Games Since 2020 5 days ago:
I liked it. It’s a decent attempt at refreshing 2D Mario, and some of the level gimmicks were quite fun. I think they’ve tried to recapture the effect of “every level a new idea” in 3D World, though I’d agree they were not as succesful in this one.
It’s a lot better than NSMB U IMO, that one was incredibly bland (especially after NSMB Wii, that one was great).
- Comment on Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI 1 week ago:
Some people even think that adding things like “don’t hallucinate” and “write clean code” to their prompt will make sure their AI only gives the highest quality output.
Arthur C. Clarke was not wrong but he didn’t go far enough. Even laughably inadequate technology is apparently indistinguishable from magic.
- Comment on Today in “Google Broke Email” 1 week ago:
I don’t even use gmail professionally and I was still using that.
Some (terribly implemented) services don’t allow changing e-mail on their accounts, and I have stuff I subscribed to aeons ago with a mail I am not using anymore.
Not that I can’t connect directly to that old crappy mail provider, but it’s very inconvenient.
- Comment on Didn't realize how hard MGS4's Disc Swap joke hit until I backed it up 1 week ago:
Most Wii games use single layer DVDs, but it had a couple Dual-Layer DVD games, obviously still a lot smaller than Blu-ray. Including Smash, Xenoblade, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and also that Metroid game that shall not be named.
It was not as transparent because it required a system update to support those… and because some Wiis with faulty disc drives had to be replaced because they couldn’t read them at all. I had to send mine to support.
- Comment on "When did video games become so violent and scary?" -Wreck-It Ralph 1 week ago:
In the 90s they put random English phrases instead of translating.
Bad example. The original line was already about shorts. It also became a meme in the series and lots of later episodes have some guy being enthusiastic about shorts around the begining of the game.
legendsoflocalization.com/…/pokemon-comfy-shorts-…
It’s true this sounds a bit more random in English than Japanese, but it was an attempt at translating it.
- Comment on Petlibro: Your Pet Feeder Is Feeding Data To Anyone Who Asks 1 week ago:
Your cat’s data belongs to the people, comrade!
- Comment on Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI 1 week ago:
Maybe they expected a slightly less angry response, but they probably don’t mind. They don’t care if their model looks bad, they definitely want it to be a talking point before everything else.
Like the recent article in Wall Street Journal dunking on their stupid “vending machine”. Or when they publish studies about how training the model to make bad code on purpose turns it into literally Hitler. They want people to talk about it.
- Comment on Through gritted teeth, Apple and Google allow alternative app stores in Japan 2 weeks ago:
Technically only the first four generations are set in “Japan”.
The ones after them are set in fantasy New York, France, Hawaii, Great Britain, and Spain.
- Comment on Devastated PC builder orders DDR5 RAM from Amazon, receives DDR2 and some weights — counterfeit 32GB kit a worrying sign of rising return and sales fraud 2 weeks ago:
Maybe I haven’t understood your point but it sounds like you’re describing people both acting maliciously and being stupid about it., so I don’t see it as a case of Hanlon’s razor.
Exchanging the item for another one that’s cheaper, even if it’s only $6 total, is still dishonest. The fact that it may not even be worth it for them in the end doesn’t change the fact it was an attempt to mislead. They were listing a product, and delivered another one.
- Comment on We Won't Be Covering ModRetro Products Moving Forward 2 weeks ago:
Hmm. Looks like it.
The wikipedia article on Homo floresiensis is wrong then. It quotes another article that says the lawyers were representing the Tolkien estate, but that article too was quoting Alloway, who apparently got it wrong. Unlike the Guardian they probably didn’t bother to check and correct the article.
- Comment on We Won't Be Covering ModRetro Products Moving Forward 2 weeks ago:
For some reason, the Tolkien estate had to tell paleontologists who nicknamed an homo species “hobbits” they had to stop doing so.
But a corporation is committing pure evil under the name “Palantir” or “Anduril” and, nevermind any kind of legal action, you can’t even hear a strong word from the estate.
I guess some targets are easier than others.
- Comment on Looking for 3D Platformer recommendations on sale on Steam 2 weeks ago:
I’ve played Penny’s Big Breakaway. It’s well made, and I had a bit of fun with it, but it’s not what I usualy look for in a platformer. It’s a very score-based game in which just going through a level is easy but the real challenge is doing it in style, by chaining moves and racking up combos.
- Comment on RAM and SSD prices are still climbing—here’s our best advice for PC builders 2 weeks ago:
Probably but with all the idiots fueled by sunken costs and desperate to prove they were right to invest, it could still last a long time.
I built a decent PC a couple years ago, and I don’t need to upgrade often since I don’t really care about cutting edge. So I kinda dodged a bullet, but, this sucks.
- Comment on Explained: Why you can't move Windows 11 taskbar like Windows 10, according to Microsoft 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, sounds like bullshit. I don’t even see why that particular concern would create more work on the OS’s part.
If an application fits “wonderfully” into the space it’s given, Windows did nothing but telling it the dimensions it needs to fill. And as you said those dimensions can vary wildly.
- Comment on Tencent ‘Horizon clone’ pulled from stores as Sony settles lawsuit 2 weeks ago:
I mean, that setting alone shouldn’t be enough to claim copyright infringement, but the visual identity of the Tencent game looks way too close to Horizon. And since apparently they tried to get the licence and failed, it’s even harder to see it as anything but an attempt to make “I can’t believe it’s not Horizon”.
They could have made it look different enough that it would be considered at most heavily inspired and there would be nothing wrong with it.
I certainly don’t think Sony needs defending, but yeah, I can’t say that result is surprising.
- Comment on Do we have No Man's Sky fans here? 3 weeks ago:
It’s not wrong, but the amount of random shit they added to it is enough to make a dive into it worth it to me, at least once in a while.
It’s certainly not deep, but there’s stuff to do, some room for creativity, and occasional funny weirdo creatures to encounter.
- Comment on Skyrim on Switch 2 ships with severe input lag and a huge 53GB file size despite being capped at 30FPS 3 weeks ago:
It’s Bethesda we’re talking about. They can definitely reach that level of incompetence without AI being involved.
- Comment on Skyrim on Switch 2 ships with severe input lag and a huge 53GB file size despite being capped at 30FPS 3 weeks ago:
I absolutely love XC1 and 3, and I enjoy XCX for everything that’s not its story, and…
Yeah I totally agree with you. XC2 is cursed on many levels. It’s the one I just can’t replay and it’s mainly because of its characters and degenerate quirks. You’ve played the worst game of the series by far.
- Comment on Don't mind me, just enjoying a perfect Wednesday evening 3 weeks ago:
Do you have coin for that khajiit’s wares?
- Comment on Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline 4 weeks ago:
My VR headset can create pretty accurate 3D maps of my environment like nothing, and it only uses cameras to do so, so I can imagine it’s doable.
Then, yeah, it doesn’t “make sense” for that thing to externalize that.
- Comment on Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline 4 weeks ago:
There’s something not working in this article.
They say it “makes sense” for the device to basically send the plan of your home to some online server, because the vacuum is not powerful enough to process this data on its own. This is already a bit horrifying to me, but okay.
And then when that guy blocked it out, the vacuum “worked for a while” before something sent the kill command through an update.
How come is it still working at all if navigation requires that server?
- Comment on Games you played inside video games. 4 weeks ago:
I am sure anyone who played Tears of the Kingdom did that at some point, but there are those koroks little guys you’re supposed to guide to their destination, generally by designing machines to carry them there.
Of course instead you just strap them to the most absurd rocket powered contraptions and play Korok Space Program.
- Comment on Ron Gilbert cancels RPG project due to lack of support and funding 4 weeks ago:
A bit weird indeed. I’ve played it on switch and it runs perfectly fine on it.
- Comment on Ron Gilbert cancels RPG project due to lack of support and funding 4 weeks ago:
I can kind of see that.
It was not a huge problem for me, but I play lots of metroidvania, and I am used to memorizing stuff for later. And for stuff that I know will be hard to remember, occasionally, I might take notes or screenshots of hints.
Though most of the time, there are more than one hint for a single quest. The game does a very good job at updating every related NPC dialogue when something has changed.
But if you want to find everything, yeah you have to talk to absolutely everyone. TWICE. Almost everyone has two lines of dialogue at any moment.
- Comment on Ron Gilbert cancels RPG project due to lack of support and funding 4 weeks ago:
I like CrossCode, but I am going to bat for Phoenotopia Awakening, one of the best game almost nobody has heard about. Slightly different perspective but similarly massive game full of secrets, puzzles, fun characters and a consistent world where even the tiniest bit of banter can lead you to discover something on the other side of the map.
- Comment on What’s Hiding Inside Haribo’s Power Bank and Headphones? 5 weeks ago:
Yeah, I would never even have considered those if I just encountered them with no other info.
I can get branding things that are maybe even tangentially related to their main activity, and then there’s a chance they’d want something at least decent. Possibly.
That one is so random I couldn’t imagine more thought went into it than tacking their logo on the cheapest thing they could buy.
- Comment on DAE name their characters by their official name? 5 weeks ago:
It doesn’t actually appear anywhere in game but Oblivion’s main character has an internal name in the editor. “Bendu Olo”. Very Geoge Lucas kind of name.