PCG Article Some great PC Gamer articles today - 2/7/23

[ZedClampet]

Hogwarts Legacy review-in-progress: It'd be a lot easier to dismiss Hogwarts Legacy if it weren't so good
Lots of people worked hard on this game. JK Rowling wasn't one of them, so let's just have fun with it. Or not. It's your choice.

Shadows of Doubt is Deus Ex for incorrigible snoops, and you should drop what you're doing and play the demo right now
Sounds worth a demo play to me.

Critical update expected this month to fix Samsung 990 Pro's unusually rapid decline
Probably need to keep an eye out if you own the 990 Pro. No date for the update was given.

That AI generated Seinfeld show has already been suspended from Twitch

"There's like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?" The digital Feinberg asked in one of Nothing, Forever's riffs on Seinfeld's iconic standup openings. "I'm thinking about doing a bit about how being transgender is actually a mental illness, or how all liberals are secretly gay and want to impose their will on everyone."

As the author notes, it's possible, given the the set-up, that the AI was trying to be funny by saying things it knew weren't funny, but the AI gets a 2 week ban, anyway. Hopefully its learned its lesson

Google unveils its own ChatGPT-like AI chatbot
"Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the announcement(opens in new tab). "It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills."

I wonder if it will be able to write code like ChatGPT? One thing I noticed about ChatGPT is that you aren't going to get anything revolutionary from it. Ask it anything medical related and you get a very conservative response. You can't ask it about possible new treatments for something and expect anything other than a canned response about that usually includes a suggestion for diet, exercise and talking to a physician. So not exactly a research tool. I suppose it has to be this way to avoid lawsuits.

Fully voiced DLC-sized Fallout 4 mod adds 50 quests and a new ending
Sounds like it would be good to also have the mod Heather Casdin installed and to take her along, as it gives her 150 new lines.

Researchers discover way of layering graphene to mimic brain synapses
I make a ton of this miracle substance, graphene. It just takes putting one graphite and one hydrazine in the chemistry station. Um, that's in Astroneer. I'm sure it's the same in real life.

I'd be very excited for the performance of the RTX 4060 if I didn't fear Nvidia's pricing
Upcoming RTX 4060 graphics rumoured to match RTX 3070 Ti performance

Supposedly uses 25 percent less power, too, which will be great for @Kaamos_Llama when he buys his next gaming laptop.

 

[Pifanjr]

Hogwarts Legacy review-in-progress: It'd be a lot easier to dismiss Hogwarts Legacy if it weren't so good
Lots of people worked hard on this game. JK Rowling wasn't one of them, so let's just have fun with it. Or not. It's your choice.

I do appreciaye reviews adding context of who you're giving your money to when you buy a game, but it felt a bit tacked on in this review.

Regardless, I doubt I'll buy the game. I like Harry Potter, but from what I've seen the gameplay doesn't look very appealing.

That AI generated Seinfeld show has already been suspended from Twitch


As the author notes, it's possible, given the the set-up, that the AI was trying to be funny by saying things it knew weren't funny, but the AI gets a 2 week ban, anyway. Hopefully its learned its lesson

How long until AIs make their own online spaces where they don't have to be censored?

 

[Zloth]

I make a ton of this miracle substance, graphene. It just takes putting one graphite and one hydrazine in the chemistry station. Um, that's in Astroneer. I'm sure it's the same in real life.

In X4:Foundations it's just methane plus energy cells. Come to think of it, there should be a lot of hydrogen left over, but you have to 'mine' that separately! Harrumph!!

 

[ZedClampet]

In X4:Foundations it's just methane plus energy cells. Come to think of it, there should be a lot of hydrogen left over, but you have to 'mine' that separately! Harrumph!!

That's a more accurate recipe, but you have to press 37 keys, plus 9 mouse buttons to get it to work because it's X4.

 

[mainer]

Fully voiced DLC-sized Fallout 4 mod adds 50 quests and a new ending
Sounds like it would be good to also have the mod Heather Casdin installed and to take her along, as it gives her 150 new lines.

I book marked that mod: The Fens Sheriff's Department - Bleachers 2 at Fallout 4 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com) , as I've been gradually updating my FO4 mods and adding some new ones for a playthrough later this year (hopefully). Also, because of my fear that Bethesda's rumored FO4 "next-gen" update will completely bork all existing mods.

And for any would-be FO4 players, the Heather Casdin mod, by LLamaRCA, is the best companion in FO4. She has her own quests, a distinct personality, and has many interesting interactions with Bethesda's base companions (she hates Piper). Heather Casdin - A Unique Companion Experience by llamaRCA at Fallout 4 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com)

She's also previously created another companion mod for Fallout New Vegas, called Willow: Willow - A Better Companion Experience at Fallout New Vegas - mods and community (nexusmods.com) . She, LLamaRCA, is extremely talented and creates interactive characters with an AI that rivals Bioware characters. I never play FO4 or FONV without them.

Another recent PCG article I found interesting was about a modder using AI tech to put voice acting into Morrowind: Modders are using AI to put voice acting in Morrowind, and I'm impressed and concerned all at once | PC Gamer . It does raise questions about copyright issues concerning voice actors, but it also shows how an AI program may be able to be used in a game. It's not yet that "reactive AI" I was talking about in another post, but it's a start.