Sorry to make you feel old but 10 years ago 4k was already mainstream, and you would have already had difficulty finding a good new 1080p TV. That is roughly the start of proper HDR being introduced to the very high end models.

Also, maybe you’ve only experienced bad versions of these technologies because they can be very impressive. HDR especially is plastered on everything but is kinda pointless without hardware to support proper local dimming, which is still relegated to high end TVs even today. 4k can feel very noticeable depending on how far you sit from the TV, how large the screen is, and how good one’s eyesight is. But yeah, smaller TVs don’t benefit much. I only ended up noticing the difference after moving and having a different living room setup, siting much closer to the TV.

What’s your favourite mod pack recently?

Me neither

“Accidentally”

I’m gonna wait on this game for now.

However, bugs can be fixed, performance can get a bit better (or more powerful hardware will arrive at some pont), but bad writing and characters will stay bad forever. I think this game can be fixed where Starfield was a lost cause on launch.

I’ll be honest, I’m actually cautiously excited for this

I was about to mention Aegis

The newer mobile chips have some sort of npu type silicon included. I don’t think it’s very widespread on desktop yet.

A

New year’s eve. I’m generally not a depressed person but new year’s eve just reminds me of the unstoppable passage of time and how I have one fewer year left here and haven’t achieved a fraction of what I want to. Just really depressing stuff, generally. Being at a party with cheerful friends and alcohol helps a bit.

Same with birthdays a bit, but not as bad.

I’m sorry, but why do you care if people wear hot clothes in warm places?

For me it’s enshittification, stupid policies in any institution or just overrergulation in general.

Edit: read the other comments

For me I’m usually getting hungry by the time I’m cooking something new but I’m not cooking a new recipe because I was hungry. Let me explain.
I’m hungry -> I cook something like usual because I’m hungry now
Wheres: I have an idea/inspiration -> time passes -> go to the store for ingredients -> time passes until the next meal so I’m hungry again -> cook the new recipe

Yeah, sometimes it takes longer than expected and people get a bit too hungry, or sometimes you make a mistake and ruin the meal but oh well. The more you do it, the better you will be at anticipating errors and avoiding them. Especially if you also focus on the why not just the how when learning new techniques/recipes. Also, many recipes leave out some of the most important information, e.g.: mix the dough. It’ll probably say mix for X minutes. What is the expected consistency; does temperature matter - if so, why; am I trying to develop gluten here or avoid it? (baking is trickier for me, hence the example)
By understanding the why and not just blindly following the recipe you will achieve consistent results much faster than by trial and error.

I still try to avoid making something completely new to me when inviting guests, but otherwise all bets are off.

Imagine how bad the White Power rhetoric would be if America were 99.8% white, and that other 0.2% (not 2%. Two tenths of 1%) of non-white people included tourists, immigrants, and naturalized citizens. In a packed 20,000 person stadium, that would only be 40 non-white people in the crowd.

You Americans are so funny. It’s your country that has the media going on about identity politics and racism 24/7. If America were 99.8% white nobody would bat an eye about racism because there wouldn’t be a significant demografic group impacted by it.

White power is not really a thing when you can’t blame a large part of society for your shortcomings. Without the race issue there are still a select few in positions of power and many slaving avay every day just to get by.

I the case of Japan it is more difficult to fit in as any foreigner. There is a strong societal norm centered around culture and mannerisms and everyone not adhering to the etiquette stands out and is considered rude. This culture takes center stage during the upbringing of Japanese children so it is engrained in them by the time they become adults.

There are exaples of (even black) people successfully adopting a Japanese way of life but it is difficult, as you said they are hammered down until they fit in.

Anyway, racist? Yes, difinitely. White (yellow?) power rhetoric - not so much. That was probably more the case before WWII.

I wonder if you could still fire it without destroying/damaging it

I don’t get it either. They’re pushing it so hard yet it feels like a gimmick. My phone showed me how to circle-to-search half a dozen times now when I accidentally trigger the gesture. Thank god you can disable the assistant overlay in settings.

Prince of Persia, Sprinter Cell, earlier AC and Farcry games deifinetly have a cult following; and for good reason. Some of these were not only inventive, even genre defining games but also commercial successes, meaning many people got to enjoy them and have fond memories.

It feels like these days the focus is on extracting as much shareholder value out of gamers via microtransactions which means game design has changed, often for the worse: making longer, more drawn out games and progression which you can speed up by paying and also forcing the player to spend more time on the game hoping you will buy more microtransactions, loot boxes or tiered gear (pay for higher number - more damage, etc.)

It also doesn’t help that writing has also generally suffered. Not that older games had perfect storylines but at least they had loveable characters. Try playing a modern ubisoft game and it is this designed by committee, appealing to the widest possible audience slop that even Giancarlo Esposito can’t make interesting.

Overall, older games feel like they had some soul. Even if it was a huge corporate machine back then too, there were more passionate people involved in their creation. The modern games are technically better in many ways, but they lost some of what made them special.

Surely WiFi 7 now, right?

What is your take on the controversy?

He’s usually on point but I don’t always agree with him personally. Still, it’s easy to decide because he usually makes a point of telling why he likes/dislikes something. People have differing opinions on the same things and that’s okay. Great review, as usual.

There is a very clear spoiler section in the review, easy to skip. It’s not looking too good so far though sadly.