Wandering through a forest at night, you might be treated to a strange symphony of creepy cracking sounds. In some cases, the source of the sounds are the trees. Temperature changes, especially between day and night, can cause the wood in trees to expand or contract. — Read the rest

The post Mysterious and spooky sounds of the forest may be coming from the sky not the trees appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hey friends, welcome to this week’s show. Sorry for the delay in getting it out, I’ve been swamped at work and the week got away from me. So, this time, Spaz, Julie, Thorston, Jacob, David and I have one of our regular check-ins, where we talk about what we’re playing (which you can see below)...

The post SGJ Podcast #468 – Check-In appeared first on Space Game Junkie.

In the early 2010s an odd little shooter by the name of Metro 2033 emerged out of nowhere. Adapted from a similarly named sci-fi novel by author Dmitry Glukhovsky, it didn’t quite take the world by storm, but the story-driven FPS about a community trying to survive the nuclear apocalypse by hiding in the subway…

Read more...

When I last left off I was standing on a hostile planet where I needed to keep maintaining my life support and my environmental protection systems by feeding them oxygen and sodium regularly.  I had been briefly off planet for an inter-system flight from the radioactive planet where I started to the blazing hot planet where I ended up.  So hot the landscape literally erupts in flames.  The place is a constant blaze.

Shit’s on fire, yo

So there I am, fresh from space on a hot planet where just staying alive seems to be a bit of a chore.

This is where the somewhat odd slant of the game comes in.  Or maybe it isn’t odd.  Maybe that is just me.  But it felt, in retrospect, that they wanted to put you in the mind of walking up hill, in the snow… or maybe in the fire… both ways to school every morning before introducing a little relief.  They want you to appreciate the good life once you get there I guess.

I say this because the next thing on my tutorial list was to build a base computer, and a base computer unlocks housing.

Base computer time

The chromatic metal was a bit of a chore… I had to find a copper deposit and there were none close by… but once I solved that I was set.

The base computer actually stakes a claim on the planet which you can then build on.  That keeps others from encroaching on your base.  Good fences make good neighbors or some such, right?

Setting that up kicks off  a series of things to do, the first of which is to choose a base building material.

Base opportunities await

For whatever reason I chose wood paneling… literally the least science fiction looking of the options… for reasons I cannot recall even though it was only a few days ago.  Probably impatience.  It wouldn’t be the first time I made a choice because I was interested in the next choice.  But on a planet that is constantly on fire, wood seemed like the least practical choice I could have made.  Fortunately, it appears to be some sort of synthetic wood simulation that is, among other things, fire resistant, so no worries on that front.

You get a snap-to building mechanic that is somewhat akin to Valheim, though the pieces are bigger.  You can slap together a decent sized shelter on a 2×3 floor grid.  It was a little wonky in that “the pieces move relative to you if you move while trying to place them, but not at the same rate you move” sort of way.  But getting six floor sections, walls, and two doors was easy.  Getting the roof on… that was a bit of a chore.  I had to stand way back from the structure to get the roof to snap into the right location.

But once the roof was on and I went inside, I discovered that all buildings are climate controlled.  The incessant heat was gone.  I could stop worrying about my environmental protections.

Then it was time to build things in the base.  There was a research station from which I could learn more building ideas or addition machinery.  The tutorial pushes you down the machinery path, so I ended up with a generator, some wiring, a save beacon, and a teleporter.

The teleporter is online in my wooden building

The teleporter was intriguing, though it wasn’t connected to anything, so I couldn’t go anyway.  It is like that when you have the first bit of tech.

More immediately useful was the save point beacon which answered the burning question “how do I save the game so I can log off?”  I mean, the game writes a save point every time you exit your ship, but I am not always right next to my ship and at this point in my journey I had not been informed I could simply summon my ship to me.  It is less of a ship and more of a companion, but I’ll get to more of that in a minute.  So you go to the save beacon and save.  Easy as that.

So I ended up with a set of amenities in my base building… though I haven’t bothered to build the signal booster yet.

All sorts of things from the catalog

In part that was because the tutorial path suddenly forgot about my base and was once again hot to trot on my ship.  I had to venture out again to find something.  Somewhere there was a blueprint waiting for me.

The hyperdrive blueprint dispenser

Having found that the game was very keen that I get that hyperdrive built, because how can you see the universe on 30 Altairian dollars a day if you can get to the next star system with your hyperdrive.

Hyperdrives are cool, everybody has one, you should too!

The first item on the build a hyperdrive checklist was to purchase a microprocessor… and there were not a lot of stores on my burning planet.  So I was sent to the space station, there being on in every system, galactic infrastructure being a very important aspect of the game.

Space stations

That means getting in your ship and taking off… which meant fueling the ship, as there is always something running out of resources.  I did that, then took off and pointed the ship… well… up.  That is where space is.  There is a marker to follow to get you there.

Space stations are, but definition, off planet I suppose

Once out of the atmosphere it started giving me time to destination estimates, which were not promising.

An hour? What is this, EVE Online?

However, the game tutorial prompted me to press and hold the space bar… everything is press AND hold around here… to engage the pulse engine, which made for a more comfortable travel time.

Now that is pod racing

Fortunately the pulse engine was fueled.  I was in space and didn’t have it fueled at a later point and was short on an item to make the fuel, so had to slow boat to a station.  Only 20 minutes, but 20 minutes of holding down the W key can be a trial… though I did get to kill three pirates along the way.

Anyway, first space station trip complete.

An hour, 5 seconds, 30 seconds, time is an illusion

The time estimate were done by the same person who did the Windows file copy time estimates.  They are entirely accurate based on the situation at that instant, even if they said something else five seconds ago.

On arrival I needed to land at/in/on the space station, which, much to my relief, just grabs you and lands you when you arrive within proximity of its landing bay.  As I approached I had visions of my run at Elite Dangerous, something else that is almost a decade back at this point, which ended in very short order due to my inability to dock/land in the newbie tutorial baby steps space station. (I understand that is better now, but if you read the comments on that post it is all about getting the right joystick with HOTAS controls and… that just wasn’t going to happen, then or now.)

There I found the marketplace interface… the galactic trade terminal which, giving lie to its name, is a only for local sales.  The market is different in each system.

Insert units to continue

I did not have enough units… the unit of currency is the unit… so had to scrounge around and sell stuff I had to hand, but eventually I got the microprocessor needed to fix the warp drive on my ship.

The game was also telling me to go see the exosuit technology merchant for an inventory upgrade for my exosuit.  But the merchant had no such thing when I spoke to him.

Where is my upgrade dude?

Those who have played the game are laughing at me even now I bet, as the merchant does not have the upgrade.  Rather, it is that blue glowing display taking up the right quarter of the image above.  But it didn’t say go look next to the merchant, so I am still a bit salty… also, I had to Google the answer even though it was right in front of me multiple times.

Upgrade found

That little upgrade is available in every space station every day, so now my suit has more pockets than a tinker’s bag.  I love inventory space.

I also talked to all the locals on the station, but that is a tale for another time I think.

Then, having picked up my groceries and expanded my inventory, the game told me to use the station teleporter to get back to my base… “warp” was the term used, which seemed odd, but whatever… so I found that, opposite the trade terminal.

Not a stargate, don’t start that

Then I realized I had left my ship parked in the docking area.  Well, I guess if I can just teleport back, then maybe all my spaceflight will be done from space stations going forward.  That could be a thing.

So through I went and was back at my base.  Then the game told me to go fix my ship and I was all “GAME! You just told me to leave my ship behind at the space station” and the game suggested that maybe they had considered that situation, because when I went outside I found my ship parked around the back, having followed me home like a puppy or something.

Oh, there it is… also, still hot on Yardo

I get that your ship just always being there is a huge benefit, but it felt like a moment of “we’re just not going to talk about it” as the game glided on, sending me off to the next chore.

Anyway, I fixed the warp drive.  I could now, theoretically at least, travel between star system.  Also, one more thing to keep fueled.  Later I end up on a planet being hounded by sentinels and, in jumping into my ship to make my get away I am informed that one system or another needs to be replenished, like the scenes of the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes back.

At this point, which is not that far into my journey because I’ve been writing about other things, Potshot read my post about No Man’s Sky, which he also bought on Steam back in a past age, and he decided to get it running as well.

So the next entry will be about us trying to play together.

Reddit’s ‘monstavvvv’ has created an incredible cyberpunk city in No Man’s Sky that all players can visit and explore. This city features streets, bars, shops, apartments, a nightclub and a mini metro. And, as you will see below, it looks amazing. This project took monstavvvv a couple of months to create in Creative Mode. The … Continue reading A modder has created a cyberpunk city in No Man’s Sky, featuring streets, bars, shops, apartments, a nightclub and a mini metro →

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The Site

I did my complaining about WordPress early this month, so I can move on to something more upbeat for this section.  I got at least a bit of recognition this month from CCP as they included the blog in the Community Beat post published on July 5th. (The title says “July 7” which just says to me an American wrote the title and screwed up the Euro date pattern.  Swift?  I blame all things on CCP Swift now.)

Woo hoo!  I guess I have to set aside my usual “CCP only cares about Twitch streamers and the rare site they let into the community program” gripe for a while.  I mean, it is still true, but I can’t gripe about it for a few weeks now.

Hey, they didn’t just link to this blog, they also took a moment to link out to my other blog, EVE Online Pictures.  So it was a twofer!  That site saw an immediate boost in view!

From zero to 30 in just an hour!

I mean, maybe that wasn’t a huge boost, but when the average is zero, anything is an improvement.  (It looked like one person showed up and used infinite scroll to look at pictures until they got bored and moved on.)

And what prompted them to notice my work?  Was it my ongoing writing about life in New Eden?  Was it my monthly look at destruction from the MER?  Was it my criticism of their economic policy and their plans for null sec?  Was it my years of CSM election coverage?  Was it my posts about the Alliance Tournament?  Was it all the historical posts about wars in null sec?  Was it because I was bitching again about the in-game map?

Nope!  It was due to me repeating the story Asher Elias told at the fireside a while back about Ser Fukalite’s ship spinning medal… a medal which I am pretty sure was handed out by the community team.

So the lesson here is clear enough that I can put it in meme form.

You know what to do

You can close the loop if you just write about what the people who write the community outreach post are up to.  Look for more of that for sure!

One Year Ago

We got the announcement that Blaugust would be returning for its 10th edition.  We had a decent list of signups in advance.

I did a run down of my gaming in the first six months of 2023.

EverQuest and EverQuest II got quiet summer producer’s letters.

Blizzard’s Q2 2023 financials were all about Diablo IV.

In Wrath Classic I was indulging in the Call of the Crusade update.  That is always good for faction rep… and for heirloom gear for alts to come to Northrend.

The group gave heroic Gundrak a try and we didn’t quite have it in us.  That got us doing Wintergrasp for welfare epics… when we were not having desync issues.

I thought about flying in Wrath of the Lich King, probably the last expansion where it wasn’t a controversy.

Blizz was warming up for WoW Classic Hardcore with the proposed rule set.

CCP announced that the EVE Online 20th Anniversary Edition box was ready to order… though the shipping was going to be so expensive they pledged to give is PLEX in compensation.  CCP also gave us the roadmap to the CSM18 election.  I went over the June 2023 destruction from the MER.

In New Eden the drama of the Tranquility Trading Consortium kept on going with Vily changing his mind and declaring it would carry on, just as a PanFam-only business.

Pandemic Horde lost their irreplaceable Pochven Fortizar in Skarkon.

And I reviewed The Fountain War a decade after its end.

The Metaverse was still trying to be a thing, but even after pouring billions into Facebook Horizon Worlds, Zuck’s metaverse vision still lacked legs, both literally and metaphorically.

Twitter, which was still Twitter, was trying to limit the posting rate of non-subscribers.  Many thought for sure that would kill Twitter, yet it lived.  Only Twitter could kill Twitter I opined, and it couldn’t even manage that right.  At that point I had spent a month with Twitter alternatives and Facebook launched Instagram Threads.  I tried to sum up the different pretenders and the communities they were fostering.

And then Elon announced his master plan, to change the name of Twitter to X.  Jesus wept he is so dumb.

I did a brief wrap up of the 2023 Steam Summer Sale.

I was looking at old books on my shelf wondering what to do with them… besides read them again.

And I started off on my Telephony Tales series of posts.  That started with my misspent youth and calling payphones at the mall and yelling past the Popcorn Lady.

Five Years Ago

There was a Steam Summer Sale to write about, with its odd contest.

Daybreak was fiddling around and registering studio names with the USPTO.

Pokemon Go hit its third birthday. StarCraft got cartooned.

And it looked like Blizz was going to give people a mount every six months so long as they subscribed to the six month renewal plan.

CCP, after saying they would change the 1 million skill point starter pack, just kept on selling it so long as there was sufficient demand.  But at least it was limited to one per account.

Out in null sec space, it was all about the Drifters as the month opened up.  They changed up a bit, but the war we had in progress was already ruined.  We tallied up the damage and headed home.  We had chased PanFam out of Tribute and Vale of the Silent.

But the Drifters were just the start of what would be dubbed the Chaos Era.  CCP announced that local would soon be blacked out in null sec.  We got warnings it was coming.  And then it hit and CCP said it would remain in place indefinitely. (Which some people took to mean permanently.)  The idea came from Hilmar, though many people were going on about null sec being risk averse.

The big VNI nerf hit in there as well.  And a tax increase!  Good thing devs don’t need to run for re-election.

Meanwhile, CCP was trying to keep people in the game during the blackout with skill point handouts.  So many skill points.  And they had to clarify what they meant even.  But the online player count suffered all the same.

And I was on CCP about maybe building their own killboard or at least making SKINs for all the things.

Still, I did get some play time in New Eden.  We did a Triglavian roam with DBRB.  I went on a blackout roam. I moved a dreadnought around to a new deployment on my own, then lost it.  It was a suicide dread.

I tried out DOTA Underlords.

I had been fiddling around with tracking my game play time for six months.

And, finally, we were getting ready for Blaugust once again.

Ten Years Ago

There was a site put up by eBay about game return on investment.  Unsurprisingly, it indicated that used games are a deal in that regard, so you should go buy some on eBay.

There was the passing of yet another Steam Summer Sale.

SOE forgot to pay their domain name registration.  Wasn’t that fun!  Meanwhile, Landmark was available for a deep discount after the Steam Summer Sale, leading to speculation about its future.

SuperData Research was listing out the Top Subscription MMOs while not defining what they really meant by the term.

Anarchy Online introduced a PLEX-like currency, GRACE.

The community manager for LOTRO was busy telling raiders and PvMP players that they weren’t getting any new content because they added up to less than 10% of the player population.

I finished up Pokemon Y on the 3DS.

In my attempt at the loremaster achievement in WoW I ran through Desolace, Feralas, and Thousand Needles one week, Felwood and Un’goro Crater the next.  Then it was Winterspring, Swamp of Sorrows, and the Blasted Lands, the Cape of Stranglethorn, and the final bit of the Eastern Kingdoms.  I was on a roll.

in EVE Online we were commuting to Delve, where maybe there was going to be a war, and chasing Brave Newbies around (then getting pipe bombed) when there wasn’t anything going on.  That was back when we owned Delve.  Fights went on sporadically for a while and many a Rupture was sacrificed simply try a fresh doctrine.  So many Ruptures.  Apocs did better.

Meanwhile the Crius expansion hit New Eden, making industry better… it did get better, right?

In EverQuest, on the Fippy Darkpaw Time Locked Progression server, the vote to unlock the Underfoot expansion failed, making it the second expansion ever to get voted down, the first being Gates of Discord nearly two years before.

With that I was wondering what other MMOs might go for the retro nostalgia server thing.  Not WoW, I was sure of that at the time.  Since then though…

I was also on about housing in MMOs, what has really worked for me and what has fallen flat and why.  This included some projection as to what garrisons might end up being in WoW.

Our epic game of Civilization V saw expansionism and direct conflict with the Aztec empire.

Fifteen Years Ago

I won a contest.  Granted, all I got was a T-shirt.  But that was probably more than you got.  And it was due to a video game.

Mythic announced a version of Warhammer Online for the Mac.  Not sure that helped anything at all.

I was, as usual, asking silly questions like why does Tetris gets faster.  Okay, it was an analogy, but it was still silly.

Oh, and then there was the horse.  Remember the $10 horse?  I did a poll about it and everything.  Boy, that seems like small potatoes these days.  I mean, that was a cash shop game selling a horse for $10.  Now WoW and EQ2 will sell you mounts that cost much more.

Gary Gannon announced that GAX Online was going to close in August, bringing to an end that experiment in gamer community building.

I asked what people considered cheating in an MMO.  It included another poll.  I was doing polls that July.

I did a parody of Tipa’s Daily Blog Roll feature.  That is some pretty rich stuff in hindsight.

In EVE Online I got another step closer to mining perfection.  I was also fiddling around with a fit for a Dominix.

In World of Warcraft the instance group hit Violet Hold and Gundrak, but couldn’t get the team together for Halls of Stone, so went back and did some Burning Crusade heroics just for kicks.

Then the instance group took a run at Onyxia.  The old school Onyxia.  She’s since been remade.

My daughter somehow got to Dalaran at level 16… without having the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

And even as we were doing all that, we were starting to mull over what we should do once we were level 80 with no new expansion in sight.  It only took us a year to try another game.  At about that time, my hunter alt hit level 80.

I also dredged up the old Alamo Teechs U 2 Play Druid post from the WoW forums.  Philosophical question:  Would Alamo have posted that if RealID had forced him to use his real name?

And, finally, my daughter was trying to get me to help her make WoW videos to post on YouTube.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

Billy Mitchell got the first perfect score in Pac-Man, though his record has since been expunged due to accusations about cheating.

Forty Five Years Ago

The Sony Walkman was introduced and portable music has not been the same since.  A pair of classmates of mine had a father went to Japan on business regularly and who brought them each one of the brand new devices back from one of his trips.  Those were the first two I ever saw.  Blue and gray cases and headphones with bright orange foam padding for the ears.

Most Viewed Posts in July

1. Blackrock Caverns for Four
2. Return from Pokemon Go Fest 2024
3. I Sold a SKIN on the Paragon Hub!
4. Level 45 at Last in Pokemon Go
5. Stars Reach Appears on Steam and all the Default Social Media Outlets
6. Timing those Lucky Eggs for Friendship Milestones in Pokemon Go
7. Starting No Man’s Sky – My Ship is on Fire and I am Being Irradiated
8. June 2024 in Review
9. In Which We Bowl Over Blackrock Caverns
10. Averting a Black Ops Disaster
11. Answering Gaming Questions with AI – Finding a Warm Ocean in Minecraft
12. Tarisland – I Hate it Already

Search Terms of the Month

starcraft cartooned carbot deviant art
[Why Deviant Art?]

ttc-collective-agreement-2020
[I have some posts about that!]

gamer blogs
[pretty sure I’ve had my card revoked]

neg vs enad
[gen vs dane?]

zmud on windows 11?
[Haven’t gone there yet… maybe?]

Game Time by ManicTime

On the one hand, I did play a few more titles than usual this past month.

• EVE Online – 48.14%
• No Man’s Sky – 24.11%
• WoW Classic – 14.81%
• Valheim – 6.04%
• EverQuest – 4.01%
• Unnamed Beta – 1.50%
• Once Human – 1.31%
• Palia – 0.04%
• World of Warcraft – 0.04%

On the other, nearly 75% of that time was the first two titles, though No Man’s Sky was a surprise dark horse candidate.  But I cover that below.  It could have been a Once Human month.  I played that for an evening… and then was distracted elsewhere.  Meanwhile, I think I logged into WoW and Palia to claim a gift or a Twitch drop or something.  It was quick.

EVE Online

New Eden was at the top of the chart this month, thanks to several factors.  First, there was a new group formed in the Imperium to go out and pick fights in the middle of PanFam space, so that got me undocked.  Then there was the Keepstar bout in Catch.  That might turn into something next month, but in July it was mostly move ops.  I was recorded on 16 different fleets according to the participation dashboard, but at least 6 of those were just getting in to move ships from point A to point B.

A lot of my time in game was probably attributable to me logging in and doing the AIR daily goals for 12 days across seven characters, 5 Omega and 2 Alpha, to test that out.  Well, if the goal was to get entice me to log in more, op success.

EverQuest

Really, I am still subscribed, but all I am doing in the Overseer thing every day… and I have almost gotten all the achievements for that.  So I might be done here sooner rather than later.  My 25th anniversary spirit is waining.

No Man’s Sky

Kind of a surprise entry this month… or any month.  It came out in 2016, I played it for a short bit in 2017, and then haven’t really thought about it much since then, save for noting updates coming out every so often.  Then there was all the Stars Reach talk this past month, with pillars and being on Steam, and I started thinking about procedurally generated exploratory space games… and hey, here we are!  More to come on this too.

Once Human

I came very close to making Once Human a thing, mostly because I had picked it in our Game Critic Fantasy League, so I had a vested interest, and because I left Twitch tuned into Mind1 and he went and played it so I ended up with some Twitch Drops for it.  So I tried it for a bit.  It has its own interesting flavor.  But then all the Stars Reach stuff made me think about No Man’s Sky and I went there instead.

Pokemon Go

• Level: 46 (+1, level, 10% of the way to 47, 0 of 4 tasks complete)
• Pokedex status: 838 (+8) caught, 847 (+7) seen
• Vivillon Evolutions obtained: 16 of 18
• Pokemon I want: Two specific Scatterbugs; Sandstorm and Sun
• Current buddy: Annihilape

Valheim

I think I finally hit the wall here in the Ashlands.  But that is fine.  We got some good times out of this third run at the game.  It is my most played title on Steam.  I can feel good about moving on.

WoW Classic

I am feeling kind of the way I did with Burning Crusade Classic, that I have started to prove that my negative feelings for Cataclysm back in the day were not wholly unwarranted.  And we have six more months to go on this.  Our group still has a dungeons to run.  But logging in to level up alts and that sort of thing… not really feeling it for that.

Coming Up

Blaugust.  Next month is Blaugust so you can expect a Blaugust kick off post tomorrow to celebrate the first day of the event, with a run down of participants, probably with a bit of history and some reasons to join in.  Or maybe not.  I don’t know.

Then I have to figure out how to fill out the month… which is one of those things that is always daunting on the first day, and then when I get to the last day I realize I have a half a dozen more unfinished drafts in the drafts folder and didn’t even start on some things I felt I should have.

There might be a war of sorts in EVE Online.  We’ll see if the other side shows up I suppose.

Other than that, nothing is going on in August… wait, I am being told that there might actually be a release or two in August.

Yes, we’re getting the Janthir Wilds expansion for Guild Wars 2, which will bring with it player housing.  A very big deal there.

I think we’re getting a big update in EverQuest 2.

Oh, and Visionary Realms is said to be doing a pre-alpha beta test of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen in anticipation of early access in December… I think I have that right.  But you won’t hear about it here as this event is has been reported to require that participants not share, communicate, or deliberately imply information about their pre-alpha experience or involvement.  Public information on their website, however, is fair game and we’ll get to the plan for early access, oh you can just bet.

And I suppose I would be remiss if I did not mention The War Within for WoW.  Big new expansion.  Kind of a thing here in the game’s 20th year.

So, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.

Record scratch, freeze frame, the usual trope…

I guess that situation, but also in the situation of owning this title at all.  Well, I am, even if you’re not.

I went back to check when I bought No Man’s Sky, just to get at least some sense of when I put in the 25 minutes of total play time I had before I downloaded it to try again last month.  I purchased the game in August of 2017 according to my purchase history, when it was on sale.

Honestly, my purchase history is practically fodder for a blog post on its own.  Several, really.  Let me put NMS into some purchase context.

Summer/Fall 2017 purchases

That is some history right there.  Three purchases for my daughter, one of which was returned because I suspect ARK didn’t run on her iMac.  That was before I built her a gaming PC.

RimWorld, which is my third most played title on Steam, with 311 hours, and the name in game pack, which I totally did not get because they rejected all my entries, Doom, Civ VI, and MiniMetro show up before NMS.  Those were all Summer Sale purchases… well, Doom seems too late for that, but figures in the post I have about the sale, so maybe?  The latter three have, in order, 91 minutes, 14.8 hours, and 8.4 hours played.  Not bad, really, in a world of so many purchased and unplayed titles.

On the far side, in the autumn, there is Medieval Engineers, Space Engineers, EVE Valkyrie, Grim Dawn, and Vietnam 65, which have 75 minutes, 78 minutes, 5.1 hours, 3.4 hours, and 18.1 hours played respectively.

Is this really my Steam catalog?  Do I actually play the games I buy?  I am as surprised as anybody by this revelation.

And in the middle of all of that was No Man’s Sky, with 25 minutes of play time.  I guess I had other things to play.  But it wasn’t the best of times for the game, as I previously covered, so I might be excused for giving it a miss.

I even found my save from my original run at the game… Steam cloud save for the win.  I might have to go back and see what happened back on August 24, 2017… though the game says that save needs to be updated.  We’ll see.

But here we are in 2024, the game is about to turn eight, and I am playing it again.  All I knew when I started was that I didn’t like it seven years ago, but a lot has changed.

Now, in starting off down this path, I had a plan.  I was going to go through the game slowly and write a series of fairly granular views of the game as it took me through various aspects of coming up to speed… and then I got into it, found myself a dozen hours in, and now I feel like Iago Montoya.

Really, there is too much

So let me sum up in a bit of an initial speed run to get at least to a baseline from which I can continue.  I plan to do this in chunks still, but somewhat less granular chunks.  Also, I promise this will be the last time I get into the history of the game, that having been over-covered here and in my previous post. (I can also promise I will, at some point, break that promise.  Also, I am from Crete and all Cretans are liars.)

Again, I don’t remember how the game started in 2017… I have searched my brain, but have found nothing to trigger any old memories… so maybe what I am seeing now was there then, though something

But here in 20204… where I will attempt to stay going forward… NMS starts off with the classic shipwreck, amnesia scenarios.  I will occasionally mock these over-used, but I also recognize you do have manifest a player into a game as a fully formed adult with no expectation of knowledge and no desire to over burden them with stuff, and there are only so many smooth ways to do that.

And, even having opted for a well worn trope, NMS does it pretty effectively.

You wake up, everything is broken, your ship is on fire, and you are being irradiated by a hostile atmosphere and are being told you need to do something.  There is a task list for you, an urgent task list if the tone is accepted… though I suspect you have as much time as you need… though I did not test that hypothesis.  I found myself caught up in the fire drill.

First you have to fix your multi-tool.  Then it comes up and tells you that your scanner is down.

The scanner is on the fritz captain

Not just down, but critically damage and there is a task that demands you repair it immediately by using the newly working multi-tool to mine some ferrite dust.  So off I went, first trying to mining laser attachment on the nearest thing.

Dude, this doesn’t say ferrite, now does it?

Then, after looking around a bit, I found something that would actually yield ferrite.

What a strange looking mineral

With that I was able to gather enough ferrite dust to fix the scanner.

Fixing the scanner was critical as my environmental protection was blinking at me about being low on this radioactive planetary surface.  You need the scanner to find things that will yield sodium, that being what the fuels the protective layer of your suit.  So I scanned and went chasing after sodium, then went about trying to harvest some.

Misunderstanding the lesson

The joke in that image is that you just need to pick the plant by holding down the E key.  The mining laser is not needed nor will it actually do anything in this situation.  I was learning.

And I wasn’t just learning about what to mine and what to pluck from the ground.  I was learning about the UI and control scheme.

As noted previously, NMS is a cross-platform title.

Available on a platform near you

This means that its UI is setup to accommodate both PC mouse and keyboard as well as a controller.  This means some compromises, such as a layered menu system that can feel a bit inflexible if you’re used to PC responsiveness.

Still, I will grant that they have done a good job with the compromise, on par with Forza Horizon… which means I still get lost and you have to remember that a tab of options even exist because they don’t just hang it somewhere on a bar on the UI the way one might with a PC.

The most immediate thing I had to get used to was the need to hold down a key on selections, such as the E in the sodium harvesting image, rather than just hitting the key and getting an immediate response.  The comic side effect of this is that when I swap over to something like EVE Online I find myself clicking and holding on options that do not require that level of effort.

Anyway, I found my sodium and then was guided how to recharge my suit so it would stop telling me about my impending demise.

Just get the sodium in the right slot

That sorted, it was back to the burning ship and getting that repaired, which involved me learning about how to craft things from my suit and apply them to my ship.

The ship parts list

That also required me to find a hermetic seal, something that I could not craft.  That sent me off to a marker, a bit of exploration, to some buildings where I might find the missing part.  Moving around on the surface.

Just some buildings

That red diamond with the somewhat inverted tuning fork… or whatever it is… is the universal important quest marker telling you where to go… which, at the moment was sending me into some buildings.

I found my hermetic seal.  I also found that buildings are good.  Inside of a building my environmental protections stop nagging me and even recharge.  Buildings made me happy at that point.  Eventually though, I had to leave the building and head into the radioactive landscape and back to my ship.

The game brought me through a few other tasks, like the deployment and use of a portable refiner, which can convert raw elements I harvest into more usable forms.

Portable refiner

The final thing to fix was analysis visor

Analyze this

This is a critical bit of your kit as it allows you to find key minerals and things you can salvage on the landscape as well as being able to scan and record new things you run into, for which you receive a bounty.  Cash money for finding stuff is good.

That done, the ship refueled, the game then pushes you to get off of the radioactive hell hole it started you on and into space.  Wheee!

My ship lives, I am flying in space

And then it sends you to another planet… see the quest marker… when I found I had given up radioactivity for extreme heat.  I am not sure which hurts market value more.

Here on Yardo the temps are a bit high

Goodbye Jovi, hello Yardo.  The temps are not too bad if you stay inside.  The fact that there are firestorms that pop up now and again is a bit of a drawback.

So I made it out of the initial “let’s get you going” tutorial and onto another planet.  So far, so good.

Though I will say, for a game with the title No Man’s Sky, there are, in fact, a lot of things flying past in the sky.  Like all the time.

More like Crowded Sky

That isn’t bad, though I keep looking over my shoulder when I hear something flying overhead.

Anyway, I am getting stuck into NMS.

This is partially a review of No Man’s Sky/partially an editorial. No Man’s Sky just had its 5.0 update, Worlds Part 1. And I went back to it on my Xbox. And I marveled at how good it has become. But it still isn’t perfect, as it has a fatal flaw, one that sunk Starfield. It is that because No Man’s Sky is nothing but procedural-generated content, its wide as ocean, but puddle-deep. I have 160 hours on my save, and the only worlds I remember are the ones I have bases on. The rest have faded from memory because they weren’t distinct. Sure there are awesome vistas, because there isn’t much to do on any particular world. Land, catalog minerals, flora and fauna and move on. Each world is larger than some open world games, but there’s nothing to do on them. But let’s back up.

No Man’s Sky’s Rocky Start

Eight Years ago, No Man’s Sky was released, and it was hated. Sean Murray of Hello games made lofty promises about what the game would be, and it was all a lie. No multiplayer, no base building and planets didn’t rotate. But a funny thing happened, Hello Games didn’t make many excuses, they went silent and got to work. And over the last eight years, made No Man’s Sky into a juggernaut. with a team the fraction of the size of most AAA games. There is multiplayer, deep base building and the star systems acts like star systems(though you do have to warp between them). There’s also settlements, pirate battles, pirate systems, pet breeding, a new secret robot race, sentinels, ship building, expeditions and the list goes on. Because its so free-form, Hello Games can cram random stuff in, and it works. And none of updates cost extra.

Its easy to label No Man’s Sky the greatest game comeback in history, even eclipsing Cyberpunk 2077 IMO. Cyberpunk’s comeback is certainly impressive, especially with the Phantom Liberty expansion, but CD Project Red stopped development after four years as its vision for the game was completed. Hello Games has been at it for eight year and sees no signs of slowing.down. But even if they continue for another eight, there’s one problem they can’t fix.

The Fatal Flaw

As I said in the opening paragraph, No Man’s Sky has an infinite universe, but not that much to do on any particular world. There are missions you can do, and there are navigation points on each world. But each giant planet ultimately fells hollow and generic. The Worlds update certainly helps, and I can’t wait for part 2, but does the universe need to be nearly infinite? Once you leave the starting Euclid Galaxy, good luck finding a star-system that has already been discovered. I haven’t seen a single other player outside of the Anomaly. Maybe that is the point, a feeling of solitude on an alien planet. And on certain worlds, there is that feeling. But after 100 star-systems everything feels the same.

What is the solution? I’m not sure there is one. Procedural-generation just can’t match hand-crafted content, Just ask Bethesda how well relying on it went with Starfield(hint: it didn’t go very well). But Starfield is an RPG, No Man’s Sky is an exploration sandbox. Flying into the unknown is the point, even if what is there doesn’t exactly wow most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying No Man’s is a terrible game eight-years on, just the opposite. It is just that there’s a limit to how far things can be refined in a game like this. And that’s alright. Now if you excuse me, I have to find this underground rare creature…

The post No Man’s Sky in 2024: Great but Flawed appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

I love the aesthetic of classic Game Boy Color games. The minimalistic tones, as well as the creativity of developers working within the system’s limitations, meant we got to see some strikingly stylish titles. While Cicada Games didn’t have that kind of hardware limitations, Isles of Sea and Sky has the same sort of atmosphere and really pays tribute to that retro approach.

A good way to think of Isles of Sea and Sky is as a Sokobon sort of block-pushing game with a little more ambiance and meet to it. I liked to think of it as being like The Witness in a small way, due to the cohesiveness. You wash up on the shores of an island without any memory of who you are or why you’re there. (I got some serious The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening vibes from the introduction.) After an encounter with a young woman, you gradually go from one island to another in the chain to learn more about their history and what’s going on.

Now, you’ll notice I mentioned The Witness up there, rather than continuing to focus on The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. There’s some LOZ elements there! Especially in that as you get to different islands and meet the masters living there, you gain new abilities. Some come from items, others from creatures. However, there is also an open-world approach. So you are getting the freedom to choose where you go and what you try to do, even though some progression is limited until you find the right abilities to complete the puzzles there. 

Also, there is no combat whatsoever. Isles of Sea and Sky is all about exploring and using your brain to overcome challenges. Brawn? I mean, it takes some serious muscles to move blocks around. But really, it is about challenging how you think about the space and move items around to proceed. Coupled with a capability to rewind, it really becomes about seeing how you best approach situations in the way you feel most comfortable.

It’s really quite brilliant. Especially since some of the puzzles in Isles of Sea and Sky can be truly confounding. I’ll admit sometimes I felt a bit bad or even stupid when I didn’t realize certain other abilities were tied to progress, and that would be what was keeping me from success. Also, even though it is an open world game, I did sometimes feel like the nature of some requiring certain abilities keep it from truly being a “go anywhere, solve puzzles at any time” adventure. I appreciate the notion, but the actual execution means I’m about seven hours into it and having trouble enjoying myself sometimes because I need certain skills I lack to progress.

I appreciate what Isles of Sea and Sky does. I love the ambiance, and I enjoy looking for puzzles to solve. I’m not the biggest fan of sometimes finding ones that are impossible to complete at the moment because of the need to eventually head certain ways and earn certain means to make headway. But I do applaud the ideas in play and think it can be quite fun. 

Isles of Sea and Sky is available for PCs. 

The post Isles of Sea and Sky Packs Puzzles into a LOZ Style Aesthetic appeared first on Siliconera.

Enlarge (credit: Kaspersky Lab)

The Biden administration will ban all sales of Kaspersky antivirus software in the US starting in July, according to reporting from Reuters and a filing from the US Department of Commerce (PDF).

The US believes that security software made by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab represents a national security risk and that the Russian government could use Kaspersky's software to install malware, block other security updates, and "collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans," said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

“When you think about national security, you may think about guns and tanks and missiles,” said Raimondo during a press briefing, as reported by Wired. “But the truth is, increasingly, it's about technology, and it's about dual-use technology, and it's about data.”

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I will now admit that Twitter is dead.  I have reached the acceptance stage of my grief.

I still refer to X.com as Twitter out of habit, but the spirit of my refusing to call it X.com… despite the obvious ridiculousness of the name… lived in the hope that Elon was running a business and would make sound business decisions, that perhaps he wouldn’t be a complete tool and ruin a good thing just to stroke his own ego and promote his favorite flavors of white nationalist rhetoric… or possibly just to stop that one guy from tracking his private jet.

There is no going back.  That particularly racist white toothpaste isn’t going back into the tube.

So that brings me back to another episode of how things are going in the land of things that once were, or would like to be, Twitter.  For Twitter is still the ideal, the archetype, the goal for all of them, though the road to getting there looks very different for each.

Anyway, I looked at Twitter alternatives a year ago, let’s see how I feel about them today.

• X.com – Now Actually Rated X!

Elon previously suggested in a post that Instagram was like a strip club… and he’s not wrong on that at least.  But suggesting that our family photos belong on his site then turning around and changing the rules to allow porn?  All in a day’s work for Chief Hypocrite and King of the Incels Elon Musk!

Yes, X.com is now a strip club by design.

I am told Elon picked this logo so he could wear his jacket with it

X.com does keep booming, at least relative to its chief rivals.  Or so it seems.  Both Elon and Zuck fudge their numbers, so it is hard to tell.  Meanwhile Elon stooge Linda Yaccarino has to keep claiming progress for the site so has gone all 1984 on us and has started posting about how before Elon the site could only be accessed via Gopher and all messages were in Morse code so X.com can look good via the false comparison… I mean, when she can stop promoting Tesla.  You might wonder who is paying her… but then they aren’t looting Twitter to fund Elon’s AI venture the way they are Tesla.

If I could get maybe 15-20 accounts to move to another service… and halt the flow of people wandering back… I could leave X.com behind.  Yes, I have 10x more followers on X.com than any competitor, and I get more every day.  But most of my old followers are inactive accounts and most of the news ones have *N*U*D*E*S**I*N**B*I*O*.

Though I guess with the rule change they can just say “NUDES IN BIO” without trying to dodge the censors.  As Kurt Vonnegut repeated so often in Breakfast of Champions, “Wide open beavers”… or whatever it was.  I read it back in the 80s, leave me alone.

On my desktop, in Firefox, with uBlock Origin running, and staying strictly in the Following tab, X.com is usable and gets me the info I am looking for.  I even see people I follow who have sworn off X.com back and posting, because it is hard to give up the level of engagement and followers.  And in that state I can pretend it is still Twitter if I squint my eyes and stay away from replies by Blue Checkmarks.

And then I am sitting on the couch and look at it on my iPad in Elon’s app and… Good Lord, what is going on in there?!  Ads for crypto, white nationalism, and Trump have supplanted Cheech & Chong edibles, block no longer blocks people but is just a soft mute that lets them continue to harass you, you can no longer block noxious advertisers at all, and the algorithm pushes all the most noxious content straight at you, with Elon the king of the shit pile.

I mean, followers and engagement are cool and all, and it is fun to watch Liam Nissan troll the Nazis… oh, and Tom Nichols is back… but it has also broken some people.  There are a few people I had to unfollow because they clearly felt X.com was reality and had to fight every battle.  The block button is there for a reason people… oh, wait, they broke that, didn’t they?

Anyway, the grand unifying conspiracy theory about X.com right now is that Elon, already an emerald mine racist nepo baby, is going all in on Trump support on the site to woo Trump’s favor in the hope of getting pardons when the time comes… for things like looting Tesla to fund his AI venture.  The one thing that is for sure is that the only speech Elon was ever interested in was his own.

In spite of all that, some pundits have declared X.com is still the center of the debate, and it is hard to gainsay their point.  Plus… you know… porn.  Porn always wins in the end.

• BlueSky  – As Bad as 2010 Twitter?

Perpetual pedantic grump Tom Nichols, who as noted above has been spotted back on X.com, suggested the other the day that BlueSky was as bad as Twitter… but specifically 2010 Twitter, which is one of those very Tom Nichols things where he has an extremely narrow and specific meaning and context in his head that he won’t share, that nobody else could possibly understand, and that becomes a hill he plans to die on.  This habit was probably best exemplified when Tom spent several years fighting against calling Trump a Fascist because real Fascism must come from the Fascismo-Romagna region of Italy, otherwise it is merely Sparkling Totalitarianism.  But I digress.

Bluesky?  I don’t think this is the logo anymore…

I wish BlueSky was as bad as 2010 Twitter, because 2010 Twitter was pretty fun in my memory… a lot more fun than BlueSky.  Even Jack Dorsey says BlueSky is making all the same mistakes as early Twitter… we should be so lucky… but it just can’t quite become Twitter.

Also, Jack left the BlueSky board and is also on X.com buying in on whatever Elon is selling because whatever worm was eating RFK Jr.’s brain has apparently afflicted him as well.

Instead BlueSky is where the very serious people have gone to escape the other sites, but where they all can’t stop talking about those other sites.  Seriously, I swear if mentioning or posting pictures from X.com was banned, half the posts would disappear and we’d be left with complaints about Threads and Mastodon.  Nobody takes Threads seriously on BlueSky and everybody apparently was stridently lectured once too often about some aspect of Fediverse etiquette on Mastodon and left in a huff because… their sarcasm and wit were not up to the challenge?  They couldn’t figure out how to block people?  They too have feet of clay?  Anyway, they seem to be universally upset at not being welcomed by a cheering crowd for having deigned to join.

Still, for the slim thread of content that isn’t complaining about or reacting to content on the other sites, BlueSky is pretty good.  It is can go very heavy on politics with very little interest in entertainment, so lacks the diversity of topics that made Twitter great somewhere between 2010 and Elon, but it could get there.

And some people are trying to help get it there… though I am not sure their efforts are all that effective.  I call this the “Neil Gaiman Problem.”  I like Neil Gaiman.  He is interesting and on BlueSky, so I followed him.  Neil Gaiman would very much like BlueSky to succeed so is putting in the effort by interacting with his followers.  That means I can look at BlueSky and see 47 messages in a row that are Neil Gaiman replying with a bland pleasantry to every person who responded to something he posted.  That, I fear, does not make BlueSky very interesting.

Basically, BlueSky could be good at some point, but it is still getting there.

• Threads – Ending is better than mending

Happily news free content since May 2024!

I know this isn’t the Threads logo anymore

Threads is not being taken seriously for good reason.  To start with, it is very much Instagram for words, with the same sort of algorithm where you see something in you feed, but if you somehow refresh you’ll never find it again unless you are following the person who posted it and go to their profile.  But most of the stuff in your feed is from randos that the algorithm throws at you… and all of it is brands and cat pictures and light, happy fare.

None of it is news, however.  The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, is on Threads telling people that they are actively suppressing news content, and especially politically focused news content, because it makes people unhappy and distracts from the capitalism and the absolute need to foster desire for luxury goods and expensive vacations.  He much prefers content from creatives and you should too!  (Also, this might be Zuck’s trying to duck the election influence issue since that would cost money he could otherwise be throwing at the Metaverse or AI or whatever he is on about lately.)

Just to make things even more banal, Threads is planning a swipe left/right option for content… Tinder for cat pictures and luxury goods… though I can’t remember which way means what and it likely won’t work correctly in the browser for another year if history is any guide.

But my greatest issues with Threads is that they only have a phone app that scales up badly to my iPad and that they took the adequate initial web version and forced it to look like and behave like the phone app so it is freaking awful to use now.  JFC, these people.

• Mastodon – Still the Linux of Social Media

Still the refuge you’re looking for if you want no algorithm and a quiet little silo of people to interact with.  Is that social media though?  Is there such a thing as anti-social media?  Limited social media?  Siloed social media?

This can’t possible be the Mastodon logo, can it?

The reputation it has for being filled with strident rule makers who will lecture you about how you violated their internal belief system with something you did or did not do is overblown, but not entirely undeserved.  I find that the block button works… in both directions… so that takes care of you intruding on somebody else’s curated reality.

It is the site where, as a percentage, I interact with more of my actual followers… once we pare down the count from all the multiple follows from people who have changed servers… than any other of the Twitter pretenders.

But that number seems to be about six.  Six people make for a pretty quiet Discord server, much less a social media experience.

Yeah, I follow other people, lots of people, often people I follow on the other sites because I am not alone on spreading my bets in the hope of finding the Twitter replacement that best suits me.  That means I see a lot of things on multiple sites… and my followers who do the same see my stuff in multiple locations.  You know who you are.  I like your stuff here and then over on BlueSky and sometimes again on X.com.

This situation stops at Threads because, as noted, nobody takes Threads seriously.  Well, nobody who follows me elsewhere does.  Molly Jong-Fast is trying to take Threads seriously for all of us… but it isn’t working.  It is cat pictures and luxury goods and stolen memes all the way down.

And it probably says something about Mastodon that in the middle of writing about it I went off on Threads again.  It is also dull, in its own special algorithm free way.  If that is what you like, you have found your place.

• Spoutible – When One Topic is Enough

As a site Spoutible has some technical issues… I could never stay logged in and the site totally started breaking in Firefox, another victim of the “everybody uses Chrome” mentality of so many developers… so I eventually gave up on it.

One of these must have been the logo at some point, right?

But my persistence there for about 8 months was not rewarded by very much in the way of engagement.  There was no room for video games, or entertainment in general, on Spoutible.

Instead it was all political… which wouldn’t be bad, but it was all very much anti-Trump memes.  And, while I can very much get behind the sentiment, believing as I do that another term as president would be the end of democracy in the United States, I am not sure that goal is moved forward by participating in an echo chamber.  An echo chamber with the right message is still an echo chamber, and I am already on board so don’t need constant reinforcement and reassurance.

• Post.news – Ex Post Facto

Post News is dead, having failed to make the cut.  It will be remembered as more dull than Mastodon and falling over literally any time Elon sneezed and half a dozen people tried to jump ship.

The logo is in there somewhere I think…

It was not ready for prime time and now it never will be.

• Other Outliers

At one point Automattic was trying to promote Tumblr as a possible inheritor of the Twitter crown.  I feel like anybody suggesting that had either never used Twitter or never used Tumblr.  Also, one follower on Mastodon also follows me on Tumblr where my post go automatically because the same people who own WordPress own Tumblr as well… a fact which might point to the third alternative explanation; lack of a grip on reality.

Substack Notes… well, my opinion there hasn’t changed in a year.  It sucked then, existing only as a way to promote your substack and I suspect it sucks now.

So that gets me through the options and… I feel like the only appropriate response is a standard internet meme.

I too do not know what I expected

I just wanted one platform to win out… one that wasn’t run by a horrible racist.  But you don’t always get what you want.  So it goes.

Exploratory space sim No Man's Sky increasing tilt into the wonderfully bizarre continues today with the launch of a brand-new update, titled Adrift, which this time lets players explore an abandoned universe where civilisation has come to an end.

Adrift is, at least in part, a nod to No Man's Sky's earliest days - where lifeforms were scarce and exploration was an entirely solo, wonderfully lonely endeavour against a seemingly endless backdrop of stars. "There's so much we love about the game now," Hello Games says, "but there was something unique at release in how alone you felt in the universe."

To that end, Adrift gives players the option to explore an alternative universe of broken, rusted buildings and lost Travellers graves, that's free of other lifeforms, shops, trading, shortcuts, or help - all creating what Hello Games calls a "very different survival experience".

Read more

With an effectively infinite universe to fill in No Man’s Sky, developers Hello Games have certainly risen to the challenge of trying to fill it with as much stuff as they possibly can over the last near-decade, still managing to add major new features and modes eight years on from the sci-fi exploration game’s release. Next update Adrift is taking things right the way back, though, by emptying the expansive cosmos of almost everything except you, your ship and planets to visit.

Read more

It’s been about eight years since No Man’s Sky first launched and it continues to get updates that radically transform the game. Its latest update, Adrift, remains ambitious as it drops players into what Hello Games is calling “an abandoned universe” with no shops and no NPCs. You are the only intelligent life in the…

Read more...

For several years now I've been utterly delighted by "knitting and nature" enthusiast Sam Barsky, who has been knitting sweaters for over two decades. His sweaters feature depictions of famous landmarks and locations (Venice Beach, Hollywood Sign, Eiffel Tower, London Bridge), animals (owls, pandas, ants), natural phenomena (Niagara Falls, eclipses, Mendenhall glacier), and more, and often takes photos of himself wearing the sweaters in front of whatever landmark or creature is depicted on the sweater, which he then posts on his social media accounts. — Read the rest

The post Sam Barsky has knitted 160 of his fabulous sweaters depicting famous landmarks, but he doesn't sell them because he wears them "every day, all the time" appeared first on Boing Boing.

Given computer vision’s place as the cornerstone of an increasing number of applications from ADAS to medical diagnosis and robotics, it is critical that its weak points be mitigated, such as the ability to identify corner cases or if algorithms are trained on shallow datasets. While well-known bloopers are often the result of human decisions, there are also fundamental technical issues that require further research.

“Computer vision” and “machine vision” were once used nearly interchangeably, with machine vision most often referring to the hardware embodiment of vision, such as in robots. Computer vision (CV), which started as the academic amalgam of neuroscience and AI research, has now become the dominant idea and preferred term.

“In today’s world, even the robotics people now call it computer vision,” said Jay Pathak, director, software development at Ansys. “The classical computer vision that used to happen outside of deep learning has been completely superseded. In terms of the success of AI, computer vision has a proven track record. Anytime self-driving is involved, any kind of robot that is doing work — its ability to perceive and take action — that’s all driven by deep learning.”

The original intent of CV was to replicate the power and versatility of human vision. Because vision is such a basic sense, the problem seemed like it would be far easier than higher-order cognitive challenges, like playing chess. Indeed, in the canonical anecdote about the field’s initial naïve optimism, Marvin Minsky, co-founder of the MIT AI Lab, having forgotten to include a visual system in a robot, assigned the task to undergraduates. But instead of being quick to solve, the problem consumed a generation of researchers.

Both academic and industry researchers work on problems that roughly can be split into three categories:

• Image capture: The realm of digital cameras and sensors. It may use AI for refinements or it may rely on established software and hardware.
• Image classification/detection: A subset of AI/ML that uses image datasets as training material to build models for visual recognition.
• Image generation: The most recent work, which uses tools like LLMs to create novel images, and with the breakthrough demonstration of OpenAI’s Sora, even photorealistic videos.

Each one alone has spawned dozens of PhD dissertations and industry patents. Image classification/detection, the primary focus of this article, underlies ADAS, as well as many inspection applications.

The change from lab projects to everyday uses came as researchers switched from rules-based systems that simulated visual processing as a series of if/then statements (if red and round, then apple) to neural networks (NNs), in which computers learned to derive salient features by training on image datasets. NNs are basically layered graphs. The earliest model, 1943’s Perceptron, was a one-layer simulation of a biological neuron, which is one element in a vast network of interconnecting brain cells. Neurons have inputs (dendrites) and outputs (axons), driven by electrical and chemical signaling. The Perceptron and its descendant neural networks emulated the form but skipped the chemistry, instead focusing on electrical signals with algorithms that weighted input values. Over the decades, researchers refined different forms of neural nets with vastly increased inputs and layers, eventually becoming the deep learning networks that underlie the current advances in AI.

The most recent forms of these network models are convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and transformers. In highly simplified terms, the primary difference between them is that CNNs are very good at distinguishing local features, while transformers perceive a more globalized picture.

Thus, transformers are a natural evolution from CNNs and recurrent neural networks, as well as long short-term memory approaches (RNNs/LSTMs), according to Gordon Cooper, product marketing manager for Synopsys’ embedded vision processor family.

“You get more accuracy at the expense of more computations and parameters. More data movement, therefore more power,” said Cooper. “But there are cases where accuracy is the most important metric for a computer vision application. Pedestrian detection comes to mind. While some vision designs still will be well served with CNNs, some of our customers have determined they are moving completely to transformers. Ten years ago, some embedded vision applications that used DSPs moved to NNs, but there remains a need for both NNs and DSPs in a vision system. Developers still need a good handle on both technologies and are better served to find a vendor that can provide a combined solution.”

The emergence of CNN-based neural networks began supplanting traditional CV techniques for object detection and recognition.

“While first implemented using hardwired CNN accelerator hardware blocks, many of those CNN techniques then quickly migrated to programmable solutions on software-driven NPUs and GPNPUs,” said Aman Sikka, chief architect at Quadric.

Two parallel trends continue to reshape CV systems. “The first is that transformer networks for object detection and recognition, with greater accuracy and usability than their convolution-based predecessors, are beginning to leave the theoretical labs and enter production service in devices,” Sikka explained. “The second is that CV experts are reinventing the classical ISP functions with NN and transformer-based models that offer superior results. Thus, we’ve seen waves of ISP functionality migrating first from pure hardwired to C++ algorithmic form, and now into advanced ML network formats, with a modern design today in 2024 consisting of numerous machine-learning models working together.”

CV for inspection
While CV is well-known for its essential role in ADAS, another primary application is inspection. CV has helped detect everything from cancer tumors to manufacturing errors, or in the case of IBM’s productized research, critical flaws in the built environment. For example, a drone equipped with the IBM system could check if a bridge had cracks, a far safer and more precise way to perform visual inspection than having a human climb to dangerous heights.

By combining visual transformers with self-supervised learning, the annotation requirement is vastly reduced. In addition, the company has introduced a new process named “visual prompting,” where the AI can be taught to make the correct distinctions with limited supervision by using “in-context learning,” such as a scribble as a prompt. The optimal end result is that it should be able to respond to LLM-like prompts, such as “find all six-inch cracks.”

“Even if it makes mistakes and needs the help of human annotations, you’re doing far less labeling work than you would with traditional CNNs, where you’d have to do hundreds if not thousands of labels,” said Jayant Kalagnanam, director, AI applications at IBM Research.

Beware the humans
Ideally, domain-specific datasets should increase the accuracy of identification. They are often created by expanding on foundation models already trained on general datasets, such as ImageNet. Both types of datasets are subject to human and technical biases. Google’s infamous racial identification gaffes resulted from both technical issues and subsequent human overcorrections.

Meanwhile, IBM was working on infrastructure identification, and the company’s experience of getting its model to correctly identify cracks, including the problem of having too many images of one kind of defect, suggests a potential solution to the bias problem, which is to allow the inclusion of contradictory annotations.

“Everybody who is not a civil engineer can easily say what a crack is,” said Cristiano Malossi, IBM principal research scientist. “Surprisingly, when we discuss which crack has to be repaired with domain experts, the amount of disagreement is very high because they’re taking different considerations into account and, as a result, they come to different conclusions. For a model, this means if there’s ambiguity in the annotations, it may be because the annotations have been done by multiple people, which may actually have the advantage of introducing less bias.”

Fig. 1: IBM’s Self-supervised learning model. Source: IBM

Corner cases and other challenges to accuracy
The true image dataset is infinity, which in practical terms leaves most computer vision systems vulnerable to corner cases, potentially with fatal results, noted Alan Yuille, Bloomberg distinguished professor of cognitive science and computer science at Johns Hopkins University.

“So-called ‘corner cases’ are rare events that likely aren’t included in the dataset and may not even happen in everyday life,” said Yuille. “Unfortunately, all datasets have biases, and algorithms aren’t necessarily going to generalize to data that differs from the datasets they’re trained on. And one thing we have found with deep nets is if there is any bias in the dataset, the deep nets are wonderful at finding it and exploiting it.”

Thus, corner cases remain a problem to watch for. “A classic example is the idea of a baby in the road. If you’re training a car, you’re typically not going to have many examples of images with babies in the road, but you definitely want your car to stop if it sees a baby,” said Yuille. “If the companies are working in constrained domains, and they’re very careful about it, that’s not necessarily going to be a problem for them. But if the dataset is in any way biased, the algorithms may exploit the biases and corner cases, and may not be able to detect them, even if they may be of critical importance.”

This includes instances, such as real-world weather conditions, where an image may be partly occluded. “In academic cases, you could have algorithms that when evaluated on standard datasets like ImageNet are getting almost perfect results, but then you can give them an image which is occluded, for example, by a heavy rain,” he said. “In cases like that, the algorithms may fail to work, even if they work very well under normal weather conditions. A term for this is ‘out of domain.’ So you train in one domain and that may be cars in nice weather conditions, you test in out of domain, where there haven’t been many training images, and the algorithms would fail.”

The underlying reasons go back to the fundamental challenge of trying to replicate a human brain’s visual processing in a computer system.

“Objects are three-dimensional entities. Humans have this type of knowledge, and one reason for that is humans learn in a very different way than machine learning AI algorithms,” Yuille said. “Humans learn over a period of several years, where they don’t only see objects. They play with them, they touch them, they taste them, they throw them around.”

By contrast, current algorithms do not have that type of knowledge.

“They are trained as classifiers,” said Yuille. “They are trained to take images and output a class label — object one, object two, etc. They are not trained to estimate the 3D structure of objects. They have some sort of implicit knowledge of some aspects of 3D, but they don’t have it properly. That’s one reason why if you take some of those models, and you’ve contaminated the images in some way, the algorithms start degrading badly, because the vision community doesn’t have datasets of images with 3D ground truth. Only for humans, do we have datasets with 3D ground truth.”

Hardware implementation, challenges
The hardware side is becoming a bottleneck, as academics and industry work to resolve corner cases and create ever-more comprehensive and precise results. “The complexity of the operation behind the transformer is quadratic,“ said Malossi. “As a result, they don’t scale linearly with the size of the problem or the size of the model.“

While the situation might be improved with a more scalable iteration of transformers, for now progress has been stalled as the industry looks for more powerful hardware or any suitable hardware. “We’re at a point right now where progress in AI is actually being limited by the supply of silicon, which is why there’s so much demand, and tremendous growth in hardware companies delivering AI,” said Tony Chan Carusone, CTO of Alphawave Semi. “In the next year or two, you’re going to see more supply of these chips come online, which will fuel rapid progress, because that’s the only thing holding it back. The massive investments being made by hyperscalers is evidence about the backlogs in delivering silicon. People wouldn’t be lining up to write big checks unless there were very specific projects they had ready to run as soon as they get the silicon.”

As more AI silicon is developed, designers should think holistically about CV, since visual fidelity depends not only on sophisticated algorithms, but image capture by a chain of co-optimized hardware and software, according to Pulin Desai, group director of product marketing and management for Tensilica vision, radar, lidar, and communication DSPs at Cadence. “When you capture an image, you have to look at the full optical path. You may start with a camera, but you’ll likely also have radar and lidar, as well as different sensors. You have to ask questions like, ‘Do I have a good lens that can focus on the proper distance and capture the light? Can my sensor perform the DAC correctly? Will the light levels be accurate? Do I have enough dynamic range? Will noise cause the levels to shift?’ You have to have the right equipment and do a lot of pre-processing before you send what’s been captured to the AI. Remember, as you design, don’t think of it as a point solution. It’s an end-to-end solution. Every different system requires a different level of full path, starting from the lens to the sensor to the processing to the AI.”

One of the more important automotive CV applications is passenger monitoring, which can help reduce the tragedies of parents forgetting children who are strapped into child seats. But such systems depend on sensors, which can be challenged by noise to the point of being ineffective.

“You have to build a sensor so small it goes into your rearview mirror,” said Jayson Bethurem, vice president of marketing and business development at Flex Logix. “Then the issue becomes the conditions of your car. The car can have the sun shining right in your face, saturating everything, to the complete opposite, where it’s completely dark and the only light in the car is emitting off your dashboard. For that sensor to have that much dynamic range and the level of detail that it needs to have, that’s where noise creeps in, because you can’t build a sensor of that much dynamic range to be perfect. On the edges, or when it’s really dark or oversaturated bright, it’s losing quality. And those are sometimes the most dangerous times.”

Breaking into the black box
Finally, yet another serious concern for computer vision systems is the fact that they can’t be tested. Transformers, especially, are a notorious black box.

“We need to have algorithms that are more interpretable so that we can understand what’s going on inside them,” Yuille added. “AI will not be satisfactory till we move to a situation where we evaluate algorithms by being able to find the failure mode. In academia, and I hope companies are more careful, we test them on random samples. But if those random samples are biased in some way — and often they are — they may discount situations like the baby in the road, which don’t happen often. To find those issues, you’ve got to let your worst enemy test your algorithm and find the images that break it.”

Related Reading
Dealing With AI/ML Uncertainty
How neural network-based AI systems perform under the hood is currently unknown, but the industry is finding ways to live with a black box.

The post Fundamental Issues In Computer Vision Still Unresolved appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Title: Metro 2033 Redux
Developer: 4A Games
Publisher: Deep Silver
Released: August 26, 2014
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 4
Platforms Available: PC Game, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Linux, macOS
Article Reading Time: 7 minutes

Step into Metro 2033: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Game 

The story is based on the book of the same name by Dmitry Glukhovsky. It takes place in Metro 2033 in the year 2033 (surprisingly!) in Russia after a nuclear war(surprisingly!). The Earth’s surface as we know it no longer exists. Harsh and inhospitable conditions prevail everywhere, and humanity has had to take refuge underground, in this case, in the vast complexes of the Moscow Metro. Some stations have been turned into small settlements teeming with the lives of dozens of people waiting to return to the surface once more. Unfortunately, even in the Metro, people are not safe. Most stations face constant mutant raids and, last but not least, a brand newly – horribly dark. 

The main character is a young man named Artyom, who also serves as the narrator in the game. His station has become the target of frequent attacks, resulting in a dwindling fighting force and never-ending waves of mutants. Artyom is tasked with traveling to the remote Polis station to seek assistance. It becomes evident that things will be more complex than they seem. “Metro 2033” was developed by the relatively new studio, 4A Games. Upon closer examination, it is revealed that its founders originally came from Ukrainian GSC Game World., the creators of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, and this influence is apparent in the game.

Gameplay Mechanics and Tutorial: Navigating the Dark Tunnels

The game opens with a brief tutorial, introducing players to fundamental gameplay mechanics such as using a gas mask and navigating through tight spaces. The story then shifts to the past as the protagonist, Artyom, begins recounting his experiences. With over 20 chapters, the game offers approximately ten hours of gameplay on normal difficulty. The initial gameplay experience is captivating, with the first half hour standing out as one of the most intense and engaging introductions in the video game industry at the time.

Immersive World-Building: Exploring the Populated Subway Stations

The populated subway stations are bursting with life. People are talking amongst themselves, small children are chasing each other amongst the adults, food or homemade weapons are being sold, pigs are being bred nearby, etc. Unlike in Stalker, however, you can’t dialogue with people, take side quests, or trade (with a few exceptions). 

You won’t find that in Metro. So everything just acts as a visual gateway that makes the world perfectly believable, and you get along with it beautifully. As I’ve already described, Stalker is similar in world and gameplay, but you have to forget about the vast world whole of side quests. There’s simply no room for anything like that in the dark tunnels of the Metro. 

The game is more similar to the Call of Duty series, where you go through a closed corridor from point A to point B without the possibility of getting lost, and with the help of many scripts, that make the game a truly luxurious experience. You’ll rarely be alone on your journeys through the subway tunnels, and the teammates, aided by dozens of scripts, draw you into the game perfectly.

Combat Encounters: Facing Human Enemies and Mutant Threats

As for combat, I have to differentiate between human and mutant combat. The humans, i.e., bandits, fascists, communists, and others that can be encountered in the tunnels, are good to fight against. Artificial intelligence may not work 100% at times, but it has its bright moments when the enemies cover and cooperate. Stealth techniques can be employed in places, where you’ll be turning off lamps, avoiding traps and pitfalls that would attract a curious patrol (broken glass, hanging cans), and trying to dispatch one by one in silence. Sometimes, it is possible to get through the parts this way, and sometimes not, but you can’t say that stealth is just for show.

Facing mutants presents an even more significant challenge due to their tendency to attack in large groups, their ability to endure multiple shotgun blasts to the head, and their knack for depleting your ammo reserves. Dealing with mutants can be incredibly frustrating and intense, creating a nightmarish experience within the game. Moreover, mutants often swiftly close the distance and engage in chaotic close-quarters combat, making it extremely difficult to aim precisely.

Weapon Variety and Ammunition: Usual Scavenging for Survival

There are just enough weapons in the game. In addition to a knife, pistol, and dynamite, you can also carry a shotgun and a submachine gun. They are nicely processed, but I missed some information about the effectiveness or accuracy of each weapon. Several times during the game, you will be at a shopkeeper who will offer you several new pieces, or you will have the opportunity to exchange your current one for one you just found. Still, you would look in vain for any comparison with the current one.

The game uses old pre-war ammunition as payment, which is far more effective than homemade ammo. You can rearm with it anytime, but I recommend doing so only in the most urgent cases, as you can practically shoot out all your “funds” that way.

Audiovisual Excellence: Crafting a Believable Post-Apocalyptic World

What the game really excels at is the audiovisual design. Rarely will you have a more immense expanse in front of you. Hence, the developers could play with even the finest details and design a believable post-apocalyptic world. The old and dark tunnels of a long-abandoned subway have never looked better. Several times during the game, you even get to the frozen surface of war-torn Moscow.

Minor Drawbacks and Final Thoughts on Metro 2033

As for the gameplay, I’d say that such a pure RPG might not be wrong, but at least a few elements, like in the Stalker mentioned above, would be enough. For example, an inventory or the ability to get better armor or parts to upgrade weapons. All that can be collected are weapons and ammo, and even more so, by collecting them directly from the bodies of fallen enemies. If the corpse of a bandit is lying on its stomach, for example, you can’t see if it has a machine gun clip attached to it at all. Hence, you need to be more alert and thorough in your search for valuable ammunition.

So, in the end, we get, as I said, a linear corridor shooter like Modern Warfare. The subway map is huge, but you only look at a fraction of the stations. However, a slightly more open world with a few optional stations made the game more lively.

Metro 2033 is an excellent survival action game. It stands out for its ultimate atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic world (which, by the way, was conceived initially) . These are smaller colonies of people in stations fight against aggressive mutants but also against each other. Game offers a tremendous audiovisual treatment, which presents a natural spectacle together with a bunch of scripts. It is spoiled by occasionally frustrating fights with mutants and a few minor bugs. it’s a super-decent game that, despite its similarities to the Stalker series, has its own identity that no action game fan should really miss.

Metro 2033 Purchase Options

Experience the haunting depths of post-apocalyptic Moscow in Metro 2033 Redux on Steam as PC Game, Mac Os Game or on Steam handheld.
Get Scared in fantastic postapo Metro 2033 Redux on PlayStation Store
Survive the mutant-infested tunnels by purchasing Metro 2033 on GOG.
Immerse yourself in the atmospheric world of Metro 2033 on the Xbox Store in a bundle.
Explore the dark and gripping story of Metro 2033 on the Epic Games Store.
Shake your hands with your Nintendo Switch playing Metro 2033 Redux

The post Metro 2033: Redux – Survive the Mutant-Infested Russian Underground appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

For those who want to prepare for the release of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl later this year by replaying the series' original trilogy, I have good news. They are now on Xbox and Playstation, making it the first time these games have been available on console.

The Legends of the Zone bundle groups together Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat in one nice package. If you would rather just pick the games up one at a time, you are able to do that as well.

The Legends of the Zone bundle retails at £33.50, while the games individually cost £9.99 each, on the Microsoft Store. Over on the PlayStation Store, the trilogy is currently listed for £15.99. [UPDATE: I rechecked the PlayStation Store this morning, and the pricing has changed. The Legends of the Zone bundle is now listed for £32.99.]

Read more

I really enjoy following the Random Restaurant Bot account (@restaurant-bot.bsky.social) on the BlueSky social media app.

Every half hour or so, it posts to your feed the name and address of a randomly chosen restaurant from somewhere in the world, along with the first four pictures in its Google Maps entry. — Read the rest

The post Follow the Random Restaurant Bot for random restaurants from around the world appeared first on Boing Boing.

It's been fairly quiet on the No Man's Sky front since its previous big update, Echoes, introduced the world to a mysterious new robot race known as the Autophages last August, but all that changes today with the release of its new Omega update - which coincides with a first-ever free weekend for the exploratory space sim on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.

No Man's Sky's Omega update introduces a handful of new core features, including on-planet missions. These procedurally generated quests can be initiated by speaking to alien lifeforms Travellers find roaming around on planet surfaces, and are assembled based on a number of factors, including locale, climate, and alien personality.

Elsewhere, the update makes it possible to captain an imposing Dreadnought capital ship - previously they existed mainly to be blown up - but this first requires a spot of successful space combat; players will need to defeat the pirate freighters surrounding a hostile Dreadnought during an encounter before they're able to board it and take control.

Read more

Twitter abides still despite Elon Musk’s best efforts to tank the place.  I summed up the story so far at the one year mark back in October, and it hasn’t gotten any better since… but neither has it gotten that much worse.

Sure, he has driven the valuation down to $12.5 billion from the $44 billion he paid for it… and evidence has come out that the real reason he bought the place was to shut down the Elon Jet Twitter account that tracked the movements of his private jet via publicly available data, announcing how much pollution he was discharging into the atmosphere….  Musk banned the account when he took control of Twitter…  but it remains more alive and popular than any of its competitors and I am still hanging around because groups there that I follow and interact with remain.

Yes, Musk is a nazi supporting, great replacement theory spouting nut case who went as far as turning off community notes on his posts as the community took great joy in pointing out what an ignorant shitheel he really is.

Here is the thing; blocking people liberally and sticking to the “following” tab on Twitter… and nobody ever calls it “X” except in an apologetic “my editor made me call it that” sort of way… makes it a reasonably tolerable experience.  I can still read posts from the game devs and companies I follow, still stay tuned into the arms control and entertainment feeds I enjoy, and Elmo…. oh, poor Elmo.

Elmo checking in…

That tweet seemed to tap into the universal angst and elicited a storm of responses, not all kind, in something a cathartic knee-jerk reaction to arguably the most annoying muppet, enough so that Elmo’s tweet ended up with mainstream media coverage.  That, in turn, led to a muppets-wide set of responses supporting emotional well being since we’re all pretty wound up it seems.

As for Elon, more annoying than even peak cloying Elmo, I blocked him long ago… him and his fan boys and much that was objectionable in an attempt to cleanse my little corner of that site.  I have to work at it.  I remember a time when I felt it was slightly uncouth to block accounts, but now I do so with abandon.  It works for me.

Honestly, if I want to read about what Elon is up to I have to go to BlueSky or Threads, both of which have loud groups there that pick apart his foibles with glee… only taking time out to shame people still on Twitter even as they can’t stop going on about Twitter.  And you can find some classics on those sites.

I never thought he was the first… but I knew people at PayPal so had the inside scoop

I mentioned the ongoing dominance of Twitter… and I think that the fact that it is a prime topic on other services serves as evidence towards that, along with the large number of people who still cross post to Twitter and one of the pretenders to the Twitter throne… but there are arguments to be made that Threads is approaching for sheer numbers of users.  Threads fans on Threads are always there to let us all know that Threads was in the top ten downloaded apps in the Apple Store or wherever (though Twitter topped the charts again on news of Drake nudes being posted there… a moderation error or not?) and the user/traffic numbers seem impressive.

But it also seems like the most likely place show up at accidently.  When I am on Istragram with my personal account, scrolling through classic cars, cats, airplanes, and model trains, it will stick posts from Threads in there… and then I find out I have an account there because if you have an Instagram account you have a Threads account.  I guess, on the plus side, you can now at least access Threads via a web browser.

And Threads could get even more reach through integration with ActivityPub, which will link it to the Fediverse, previously the domain largely dominated by Mastodon.

Mastodon server admins natually greeted this validation of their vision of a unified yet independent network of social media domains with enthusiasm and rolled out the welcome mat for Threads and its users!

Haha, just kidding.  The universal reaction seems to be to pull up the drawbridges and premptiely block any Threads content from polluting the purity of their vision.  I have said that Mastodon is the Linux of social media sites, and here they are rejecting Threads the way the core Linux community rejects anything beyond a command line interface when it comes to UI.

Which brings us back to something I have mentioned before, which is that if there is something partisans of the new sites seem to hate more than Twitter, it is the other sites trying to be Twitter.

So when this past week, when BlueSky finally lifted its “invite only” policy on new users… I guess nobody needs my invite codes now… the joy of that unleashing was not universal.  So, for example, the avacado toast lady, between posts asking people to subscribe to her YouTube channel, had words.

BlueSky bad, posted on Threads

Saying that BlueSky is the worst on security features… and people on Mastodon have been vocal on that front… seems to have some basis in fact.  At least somebody there had a long list of grievences to fling at me when I mentioned having access keys.

Having any sort of monopoly on insufferable users however… hooo boy.  Each of what I think of as the “big three” outside of Twitter has that issue, and nobody is more likely to call out that sort of thing than those who have moved from one of those services to another.  Lectures, gate keeping, shaming, and a ceaseless obsession with Twitter seems par for the course.

Meanwhile over at Spoutible, which I am not sure why I bother posting to as literally nobody who followed me early on seems active any more… well, their external API was happy enough to cough up all the information you would want about accounts if you asked nicely.  This would probably be a big deal if somebody cared.  I went and changed my password.

It is enough to make one wish a plague on all of their houses.  But then what would be spend our time scrolling through?

I, for one, would not mind somebody other than Twitter being the top of the heap, to see one of the pretenders to the throne surpass Elon, if only to see Elon taken down another notch or two.

But the reality is that content is king.  I go where my interests are best served, something that Twitter has a decade advantage on over the other sites.  Looking at ManicTime, it is clear which site holds my eyeballs.  Here is my breakdown of time spent on social media sites over the last six months:

• Twitter – 62.28%
• Mastodon – 11.79%
• Reddit – 10.45%
• BlueSky – 9.36%
• Threads – 2.37%
• Spoutible – 2.18%
• Facebook – 1.57%

I will say that my BlueSky time has been trending up some… though there is still a lot of cross posting… and Threads wasn’t even available in a browser for that whole period of time.  But, in the end, Twitter is where I go.

And at least the Cheech & Chong edibles ads are back on Twitter.

Calling out Idaho

They might be the least objectionable advertiser on the site some days.  But, like Elon, you can just block those noxious ads and move on.

It's been fairly quiet on the No Man's Sky front since its previous big update, Echoes, introduced the world to a mysterious new robot race known as the Autophages last August, but all that changes today with the release of its new Omega update - which coincides with a first-ever free weekend for the exploratory space sim on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.

No Man's Sky's Omega update introduces a handful of new core features, including on-planet missions. These procedurally generated quests can be initiated by speaking to alien lifeforms Travellers find roaming around on planet surfaces, and are assembled based on a number of factors, including locale, climate, and alien personality.

Elsewhere, the update makes it possible to captain an imposing Dreadnought capital ship - previously they existed mainly to be blown up - but this first requires a spot of successful space combat; players will need to defeat the pirate freighters surrounding a hostile Dreadnought during an encounter before they're able to board it and take control.

Read more

Hello! Last year was a busy one for the small team at Hello Games, with lots of No Man’s Sky updates and the announce of Light No Fire.

We have big plans for 2024, and we’re starting the year off with a very different kind of update. We’re calling it Omega, and for the first time No Man’s Sky will be available to play for free!

Play Video

For the first time, we are inviting every PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation VR and VR2 owner into our universe to play the latest No Man’s Sky expedition, even if they don’t own the full game, no purchase necessary. There are no microtransactions, no free-to-play mechanics, just a huge universe to explore for free with your friends.

Expeditions in No Man’s Sky have become one of the most popular ways to play the game. They bring all players together to the same planet for an interstellar, shared experience. This weekend we are allowing everyone, whether you own the game or not, to join the Omega Expedition.

This represents a moment for new players to try No Man’s Sky, and existing players to welcome them into the community. 

The Omega update also brings a complete overhaul of expeditions, new on-planet missions, a new pirate dreadnought to own, and much more.

Until now expeditions have been their own game mode, but we wanted to fully integrate them into our main game. Now, our new expedition system allows travellers to join expeditions with bespoke provisions, bring along their favourite starships or custom multi-tools and return to their main save with loot and exciting rewards.

We have revisited the Atlas Path, allowing players to commune with the Atlas and honor it with a new Atlas staff, jetpack and helmet.

On planets we have introduced a huge array of procedurally generated quests. Talking to alien lifeforms results in quests specific to an alien lifeforms locale, climate and personality.

For the first time, take on the universe with a fleet of frigates led by a dreadnought capital ship. If players can defeat pirate freighters in combat, travellers can board the dreadnought to demand control.

At the core of this update is the Omega Expedition, which has been built from the ground up as a thorough introduction for new players, but with some of the best rewards in any expedition to date, including a gorgeous new starship to explore the universe with.

In the almost eight years since launch, through over 25 free updates, the No Man’s Sky universe has become at times overwhelming in breadth and depth. Through a series of quick missions and milestones, the Omega expeditions will guide you through the fundamentals of base-building, trading, space combat, lore and much, much more. Any progress you make will be retained in case you choose to purchase the game and continue your journey.

The Omega Expedition runs for 2 weeks from Thursday February 15 and is free to play for the first weekend until Monday February 19.

Whether you’ve been on the journey with us for a while, or you’re a lapsed player looking for a way back in, or a newcomer who’s always wanted to take a peek at what No Man’s Sky has to offer, everyone is welcome and there’s never been a better time to join in.

Our journey continues.

Twitter abides still despite Elon Musk’s best efforts to tank the place.  I summed up the story so far at the one year mark back in October, and it hasn’t gotten any better since… but neither has it gotten that much worse.

Sure, he has driven the valuation down to $12.5 billion from the $44 billion he paid for it… and evidence has come out that the real reason he bought the place was to shut down the Elon Jet Twitter account that tracked the movements of his private jet via publicly available data, announcing how much pollution he was discharging into the atmosphere….  Musk banned the account when he took control of Twitter…  but it remains more alive and popular than any of its competitors and I am still hanging around because groups there that I follow and interact with remain.

Yes, Musk is a nazi supporting, great replacement theory spouting nut case who went as far as turning off community notes on his posts as the community took great joy in pointing out what an ignorant shitheel he really is.

Here is the thing; blocking people liberally and sticking to the “following” tab on Twitter… and nobody ever calls it “X” except in an apologetic “my editor made me call it that” sort of way… makes it a reasonably tolerable experience.  I can still read posts from the game devs and companies I follow, still stay tuned into the arms control and entertainment feeds I enjoy, and Elmo…. oh, poor Elmo.

Elmo checking in…

That tweet seemed to tap into the universal angst and elicited a storm of responses, not all kind, in something a cathartic knee-jerk reaction to arguably the most annoying muppet, enough so that Elmo’s tweet ended up with mainstream media coverage.  That, in turn, led to a muppets-wide set of responses supporting emotional well being since we’re all pretty wound up it seems.

As for Elon, more annoying than even peak cloying Elmo, I blocked him long ago… him and his fan boys and much that was objectionable in an attempt to cleanse my little corner of that site.  I have to work at it.  I remember a time when I felt it was slightly uncouth to block accounts, but now I do so with abandon.  It works for me.

Honestly, if I want to read about what Elon is up to I have to go to BlueSky or Threads, both of which have loud groups there that pick apart his foibles with glee… only taking time out to shame people still on Twitter even as they can’t stop going on about Twitter.  And you can find some classics on those sites.

I never thought he was the first… but I knew people at PayPal so had the inside scoop

I mentioned the ongoing dominance of Twitter… and I think that the fact that it is a prime topic on other services serves as evidence towards that, along with the large number of people who still cross post to Twitter and one of the pretenders to the Twitter throne… but there are arguments to be made that Threads is approaching for sheer numbers of users.  Threads fans on Threads are always there to let us all know that Threads was in the top ten downloaded apps in the Apple Store or wherever (though Twitter topped the charts again on news of Drake nudes being posted there… a moderation error or not?) and the user/traffic numbers seem impressive.

But it also seems like the most likely place show up at accidently.  When I am on Istragram with my personal account, scrolling through classic cars, cats, airplanes, and model trains, it will stick posts from Threads in there… and then I find out I have an account there because if you have an Instagram account you have a Threads account.  I guess, on the plus side, you can now at least access Threads via a web browser.

And Threads could get even more reach through integration with ActivityPub, which will link it to the Fediverse, previously the domain largely dominated by Mastodon.

Mastodon server admins natually greeted this validation of their vision of a unified yet independent network of social media domains with enthusiasm and rolled out the welcome mat for Threads and its users!

Haha, just kidding.  The universal reaction seems to be to pull up the drawbridges and premptiely block any Threads content from polluting the purity of their vision.  I have said that Mastodon is the Linux of social media sites, and here they are rejecting Threads the way the core Linux community rejects anything beyond a command line interface when it comes to UI.

Which brings us back to something I have mentioned before, which is that if there is something partisans of the new sites seem to hate more than Twitter, it is the other sites trying to be Twitter.

So when this past week, when BlueSky finally lifted its “invite only” policy on new users… I guess nobody needs my invite codes now… the joy of that unleashing was not universal.  So, for example, the avacado toast lady, between posts asking people to subscribe to her YouTube channel, had words.

BlueSky bad, posted on Threads

Saying that BlueSky is the worst on security features… and people on Mastodon have been vocal on that front… seems to have some basis in fact.  At least somebody there had a long list of grievences to fling at me when I mentioned having access keys.

Having any sort of monopoly on insufferable users however… hooo boy.  Each of what I think of as the “big three” outside of Twitter has that issue, and nobody is more likely to call out that sort of thing than those who have moved from one of those services to another.  Lectures, gate keeping, shaming, and a ceaseless obsession with Twitter seems par for the course.

Meanwhile over at Spoutible, which I am not sure why I bother posting to as literally nobody who followed me early on seems active any more… well, their external API was happy enough to cough up all the information you would want about accounts if you asked nicely.  This would probably be a big deal if somebody cared.  I went and changed my password.

It is enough to make one wish a plague on all of their houses.  But then what would be spend our time scrolling through?

I, for one, would not mind somebody other than Twitter being the top of the heap, to see one of the pretenders to the throne surpass Elon, if only to see Elon taken down another notch or two.

But the reality is that content is king.  I go where my interests are best served, something that Twitter has a decade advantage on over the other sites.  Looking at ManicTime, it is clear which site holds my eyeballs.  Here is my breakdown of time spent on social media sites over the last six months:

• Twitter – 62.28%
• Mastodon – 11.79%
• Reddit – 10.45%
• BlueSky – 9.36%
• Threads – 2.37%
• Spoutible – 2.18%
• Facebook – 1.57%

I will say that my BlueSky time has been trending up some… though there is still a lot of cross posting… and Threads wasn’t even available in a browser for that whole period of time.  But, in the end, Twitter is where I go.

And at least the Cheech & Chong edibles ads are back on Twitter.

Calling out Idaho

They might be the least objectionable advertiser on the site some days.  But, like Elon, you can just block those noxious ads and move on.

No Man's Sky is going free to play this coming weekend to celebrate the launch of the Omega Expedition, which comes in an update alongside myriad other changes today, February 15.

The Omega Expedition is free from February 15 at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK on February …

Hello Games describe No Man's Sky's latest Omega update as being geared towards newcomers and "lapsed players looking for a way back in". Hey, they're talking about me! I haven't played the wide-eyed space game since before the pandemic, partly because I only own the PS4 version and now that I'm RPS news editor, I'm not allowed to touch consoles any more. Seriously, they burn my skin on contact. Anyway, let's have a gander at the trailer.

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