TwinIon

Humane has officially announced their "AI Pin", a $700 wearable with a $24 monthly fee that aims to be your AI companion. Along with the speaker and mic for voice, the Pin includes a camera and a small projector to display small bits on your hand. It's an interesting idea, but I honestly can't think of a worse way to interact with technology. The display is cool, but it's worse than a smart watch would be in basically every way. Everything they do with the projector I'd rather have on my watch. It'd be more readable in more situations and it would be easier and more precise to interact with. I think voice works best when it's the input method, but not the output. Telling my smart speaker to turn on the lights is great because I don't need it to say anything back. Basically the only time I use voice and want a voice response is if I'm having a conversation and everyone wants to know the same thing and that thing is very straightforward. So if my wife and I are talking and can't remember if we're older or younger than Lebron, I feel fine yelling out "hey Google, when was Lebron James born?" Basically every other interaction they show in their video is something I'd rather not have spoken aloud, if only to not be rude to other people. I have the most boring text history of all time, but there's no way I want a gizmo reading messages aloud all the time. Even if I'm just at home with my wife, I'd much rather look at my phone than ask my pin to catch me up. Bluetooth headphones are the obvious solution, but then you're really going to wonder why you're not just using your phone. I'm also a long way from trusting AI to return very good results for things that aren't as straightforward as Lebron's birthday. No, you can't melt eggs. It's pretty cool that you can ask it questions with very little input, but I don't know if I'd trust the results it gives me. He has it tell him how much protein he's had today, but what did it take to do that? I assume he must be telling it to log all his food, but who knows how well it's doing. It seems like they think nutrition info will be a killer app for them, but I just can't get behind the idea that AI image recognition is good enough. I've done some calorie counting and it's a pain in the neck to get good info. If the camera and AI are even close to good enough to get nutrition stuff right, then that would be pretty cool. Probably still something I'd rather have as an app, so when it identifies my food wrong it's easy to see, but potentially cool if it works. It seems their OS is basically just a system for routing queries to the right AI helper. That's a difficult problem, and if they're really good at it, then that is actually a pretty big deal. However, it's still a software feature, not anything inherent to the pin form factor. It's easy to imagine the next gen AI Google Assistant or Siri doing all of this, but also giving you results on your phone, which seems far more useful. It feels like they spent way too much effort to build out a hardware platform for something that is obviously a software feature. My prediction is that the pin fails, and if they're lucky they get bought by a big tech player to integrate that top level tech and maybe some of their note taking or nutrition stuff. If they're unlucky then Apple and Google will build all the notable features into their OSs within a year, and they can join that unenviable list of high profile start-ups that did something first, but goes away very quickly.

I'd pretty much given up on buying a Steam Deck, figuring I'd just wait for the next one, but this is probably enough of an update to get me to buy. If Valve is saying 1-2 years before an update, I'm betting on the over, so if this remains the default for 2 years, that's probably good enough for me.

It seems like while the aggregate take is not great, this is a film that has its defenders. I think I'll keep my ticket and see where I fall.

Sitting at 48% on RT after 113 reviews. Ouch. I was kinda hoping that the negativity around this movie would turn out to be unjustified and that it would turn into a fun romp, but early returns are not good. I've still got a ticket to see it tomorrow, and my wife is out of town, so I'll probably still go.

It was a $75M movie that made $129M domestic and $203M WW. Certainly not a profit center, but not a complete disaster. I know they did a lot of merchandising around it, so I wonder if that aspect is what drove them to keep this going, otherwise it's probably Sony just desperate to keep any franchise going. I never even saw Afterlife. Did people like it?

Definitely easier to imagine the ways this goes wrong than the ways it goes right.

Rockstar effectively invented the open world game as we’ve come to know them, and they’re still very much masters of their craft. They’ve got a bigger pile of money than ever, and expectations to match, so I just hope that they take some big swings and innovate. The inevitable online component can stick with what works, but I want to see the single player do something new, or at the very least new to GTA. There are plenty of things that other open world games do that would greatly benefit GTA. Better traversal is simple, but high up my personal list. It doesn’t need to be AC, but honestly it wouldn’t hurt if it was. I think there’s room in GTA for some kind of RPG system. Right now I think GTA can suffer from a lack of progression when you really only have money and weapon unlocks to work towards. I also feel like maybe it’s time for GTA to lean a bit more towards the more cartoonish in a Fast and Furious or James Bond kind of way. Give us some crazy gadgets that become core to the gameplay loop. Give us some nifty things we can do in combat and maybe even to solve puzzles. Let players “break” the game in fun little ways. I don’t expect GTA to go full BOTW/TOTK, but both of those games have released since we last saw a GTA game and I’d love to see some of the creative gameplay from those games brought into a slightly more grounded R* game. They don't need to go full on Just Cause, but something to spice things up a bit. I’m sure that Rockstar will put together a decent enough story with some memorable characters. I’m sure they can build out a nice campaign in a fleshed out environment that is right up there with the best we’ve seen. I would just really love to see GTA surprise us with gameplay creativity that matches the quality of its’ trappings.

After reading about the new Aftermath gaming news site, it made me wonder how this community feels about paid news sites. I certainly understand why publishers are looking for subscription revenue, but at the same time subscription overload is very real. For my part, I do pay for one (digital) newspaper, and I have access through my Wife's work to a few others. There are writers who I enjoy, but I haven't been convinced to actually sign up for a substack sub. We make a yearly donation to Wikipedia, but I don't think that really counts.

Former Kotaku, Vice, and Post writers Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, Riley MacLeod, and Luke Plunkett (along with Chris Person and Alex Jaffe) have founded Aftermath.site, a new gaming news site, newsletter, podcast, and more. They're hoping that a subscription model can help them escape the issues that traditional ads based web publishers have faced. They're starting with a soft paywall of 2 free articles, plus 2 more if you sign in. The subscriptions start at $7/month, $10 if you want in on the Discord server or to participate in Q&As, as well as a $99/month tier if you want a quarterly video meeting. I don't know any of those writers well enough to jump in with a sub right off the bat, and I'm dubious that a gaming news site would be able to justify another subscription from me, but I'm generally rooting for new outlets to succeed.

Remedy has a small article showcasing some of the tech in their Northlight engine. Have to say that it's nice to see a smaller studio succeeding with an in house engine that really looks as good as anything out there. They're doing some pretty cool stuff. From that article, they linked this video from early this year that goes through their engine, as well as another article talking about their implementation of USD, which is pretty cool.

I just don't see how Epic wins this in light of their loss to Apple. Apple strictly prohibits Epic from doing all the things Epic wants to do, and Epic lost on almost every count. Google actually allows Epic to sideload Fortnite or create their own App Store. I won't really disagree that Google leverages their position to prevent any alternative app stores from being successful. Epic's characterization of "bribe or block" is probably relatively accurate. So, as with the Apple lawsuit, I think it would actually be a good thing for Epic to win, but I think it'll be difficult to do so.

This weekend I started going through Netflix's new adult oriented animated show "Blue Eye Samurai" and I was instantly hooked. Created and written by husband-and-wife team Michael Green (Blade Runner 2049) and Amber Noizumi, this is a Samurai revenge tale with a twist that is executed beautifully.The story is not ground breaking, but puts the many tropes that it employs to good use. The show is littered with classic over the top violence and surprisingly doesn't shy away from sex, which I think is handled quite well. The animation is beautiful and is really well directed. The voice cast is stacked and turns in some excellent performances. There are 8 episodes available now, and I suspect many on this board will really enjoy it.

I haven't revisited that one since it came out and failed to impress, I really should give it another go.

I also continue to really like the show. Personally, I'm much more interested in Invincible than all of The Boys stuff, even though I've enjoyed that all well enough. Invincible is just really good at being a thing and commenting on that thing, which is one of my favorite niches. I started to get impatient and started reading some of the comics, and it's given me a greater appreciation for the adaptation. This was definitely not a "use the comics as a storyboard and just animate it" kind of thing. They really did a great job of editing, re-arranging, dropping, and re-writing where it would benefit the show, even though it has been what I would consider an extremely faithful adaptation.

Oh yeah, the Control connections are pretty obvious, but it has been a few years since I played it so I'm sure I'm missing some things. AW2 has me thinking I should replay Control, but there are just too many games top play, so I'll probably just watch a video.

Rewatching some Fincher, and so far my previous opinions have held fast. Zodiac has moments of excellent, but is broadly overrated. Social Network is one of my favorite films from the decade. Gone Girl is excellent, Alien 3 still fails to impress. The Game is Meh, but Fight Club is great. Haven’t gotten around to revisiting Mank, Se7ven, or Girl With the Dragon tattoo, but there is still time this week.

I played Control. However, since I played it well prior to finishing Alan Wake, I can’t say that I caught any of the connections during my playthrough. I did love Control, which is largely why I was willing to buy both Alan Wake games. I played on the middle setting, whatever they call it, on all three games. I don’t recall Control having any difficulty issues one way or another. The first Alan Wake seemed very easy, but I didn’t turn it up in order to rush through it. The second one seems much harder (I want my recharging flashlight back! I wish I could stun enemies without focusing on them!) but again, I’m very early in the game, so I can’t say how that initial impression holds up.

Here's the accompanying text article. It's an interesting thought exercise, and certainly the most informed guess to date, but it is still just that. It seems like the baseline expectations people have had for a long time continue to hold true. A PS4-ish level of performance, but boosted by newer architecture and (fingers crossed) some significant DLSS capabilities. That sounds good to me.

Same thing here in San Diego. When I looked the only theater showing it was in TJ, though I assume that somewhere in LA it was playing at some point. Netflix did a super limited release for Glass Onion and I was able to get a seat for that, shame they aren't doing it for this. I do have to wonder how committed Netflix is to this strategy. Both Amazon and Apple are far more willing to do normal theatrical runs, and it certainly seems worthwhile. This would have been a great weekend to release as well. I don't think The Killer would have blown up the box office, but Fincher's thrillers have usually made ~$100M domestic. It's rumored that Netflix spent $175M on this, probably because they had to pay out the backend up front, and that just seems silly.

I'm also annoyed by this. We've been using Mint since before they were bought out, so it's frustrating to see it go away only to be pushed towards what seems to be a lesser product. In the wake of this I've seen multiple recommendations for YNAB. I have a friend who uses it, but I have no personal experience. It's $100 a year, so it better be good. Would love to hear of other recommendations before going through the effort of setting up a different service.

Finished Alan Wake Remastered. It's an interesting storytelling exercise layered on top of a very mediocre game. I think the game was a bit too generous with supplies, and didn't have any interesting gameplay elements for the pure narrative parts. The driving was terrible, the puzzles basically non-existent, but at least the core light+shooting mechanic worked well enough. I felt like the balance was off for the random haunted objects, like they took too much time to kill and it was difficult to effectively dodge them. I had a few odd physics encounters, but nothing game breaking. Overall I'm glad I put in the $10 and 10 hours, but it's not going to be a lasting favorite of mine. Staring the second game is a revelation, mostly just because of how gorgeous it looks. My 4080 is able to push path tracing at an acceptable frame rate with most everything else turned up to high, and it's easily up there with the best graphics you can get anywhere. I feel like I haven't seen the best of it, only being mid way through Chapter 2, but I'm extremely impressed so far. Still, at that early stage of the game, it's clear how much has changed in the last 13 years in their ability to tell story and induce gameplay while not shooting at something. That's a very welcome change, even if I think the mind place conceit is a bit much. I find it odd that there is only one "correct" way to place any piece of evidence, but you have to "figure it out." It seems like an odd middle ground where either extreme would have made more sense to me. Either just have that stuff auto-complete and show me an evolving board as my character figures it out, or give me a free form board (a-la Shadows of Doubt), and let me feel like I'm actually figuring things out. I also don't love that you can't move the story along without placing the evidence on the board. I got stuck for a while in Chapter 1, running up and down the map from the lake to the car looking for clues I must have missed, only to figure out that I couldn't do anything until I placed some evidence I'd already collected. Forcing you to constantly go back in there is already a frustrating slowdown in pace. I do think laying it all out is a good idea, and does a good job of showing the narrative progression of the investigation. It's good to feel like you're solving a mystery, but I'm not entirely sold on it yet and I hope it grows on me as I move through the game. I have also found the difficulty surprising. In the first game I was constantly finishing chapters with a ton of ammo, but in the early stages of this one I'm feeling very desperate for supplies. I finished the first boss completely empty on ammo and batteries. It made for a harrowing encounter, and I largely expected to quickly re-supply, but that has not happened yet. I think it's good to lean more into the survival horror aspect, but thus far it's caught me slightly off guard.

I really like the Apes trilogy. I revisited them recently and they hold up very well. Still hard not to be slightly skeptical of this. I didn't recall these movies being profitable enough to justify another entry, but looking back at it, they did pretty well internationally. Still, this is far from a guaranteed success given that it can't possibly be cheap.

I'm just here to enjoy the suffering of the Raiders and to hope it continues.

With these guys it's hard to know if it's a poor attempt to hide something or if they're just incompetent, but it seems the website for their podcast is down. https://www.mikeandkellyjohnson.com/ just reports a Wix error, but it was available in October as seen on Wayback machine. Of course, the podcasts themselves are still on the podcast platforms, so if this was an attempt to hide anything, it's not a very good one. Either way, I'd guess they say some pretty controversial things over those 69 episodes, not that I'll be going through them to find out.

Some info that probably isn't new, but is new to me was just how expensive She-Hulk was. I enjoyed the show, but it should not have cost $25M an episode. I am glad to hear that Marvel execs are aware of just how bad some of the effects in Quantumanina were. I hadn't been aware of all the Blade drama (lol at the idea of a Blade film where Blade is the fourth lead), but a $100M movie written by Micheal Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) gives me hope. Overall, I think the biggest issue that Marvel had is that they had built up so much machinery to get them to End Game and they couldn't spin it back down again. They had to keep making more and more, but they'd lost so many of the pillars their early success was built on. I understand why Disney couldn't even imagine doing it, but I think the best move for the long term success of the brand post Endgame would have been to dramatically slow the flow of new content. We've seen time and time again how even a few years between entries can make fans excited again, regardless of the form that new thing takes. Marvel was drowning viewers in content when it should have been starving them of it. Spend more time thinking about the next major arcs they want to cover, more time developing the shows and films they want to make. It's crazy to me that Kang was decided as a major direction after he was revealed in Loki. It does seem like they are at least aware of their problems, and even as supremely mediocre as some of their output has been, they've yet to reach Snyderverse levels of problems. Feige is still there. They've got X-Men and Fantastic Four back. I think there is still a road to recovery, but they can't rush it. If they keep up a breakneck release pace and continue to burn audiences with middling releases, bringing back OG Avengers isn't going to save them. On the other hand, if they can rebuild that hype cycle, they could use those resurrections to ride another wave.