crulife's recent activity

  1. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    crulife
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    Zero Sievert. I had mid expectations about this, but it really hooked me. This is the best game I've played in several years. It's like, I don't know, Stardew Valley combined with Stalker and...

    Zero Sievert. I had mid expectations about this, but it really hooked me. This is the best game I've played in several years. It's like, I don't know, Stardew Valley combined with Stalker and Escape from Tarkov.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Looking for movies that combine religion mythology and supernatural elements in ~movies

    crulife
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    Neon Genesis Evangelion goes deep into Christian gnostic mysticism and ... robots. Its original form is a TV series, but there's also a film series called Rebuild of Evangelion -- which is...

    Neon Genesis Evangelion goes deep into Christian gnostic mysticism and ... robots. Its original form is a TV series, but there's also a film series called Rebuild of Evangelion -- which is basically the series but in movie format.

    5 votes

  3. Comment on Charlie Kirk's murder reveals a cultural sickness (Just Asking Questions podcast episode) in ~society

    crulife
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    In the final episode of Reason's Just Asking Questions, Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmuller talk with Freddie deBoer (who is an American Marxist author) about Charlie Kirk and cultural sickness. It's...

    In the final episode of Reason's Just Asking Questions, Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmuller talk with Freddie deBoer (who is an American Marxist author) about Charlie Kirk and cultural sickness.

    It's somewhat US-specific, but in many ways touches topics that are rising everywhere in the West at least. I thought the talk was quite interesting, with some kind of polar opposites on the same table talking quite sensibly. Brought a bit of hope to me at least.

    DeBoer's website is https://fredrikdeboer.com/

    2 votes

  6. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    crulife
    (edited )
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    Insurgency Sandstorm, but this time I forced myself to play against humans in Versus mode. Boy is it a different experience. When AI sees you from the other side of the map, it almost always...

    Insurgency Sandstorm, but this time I forced myself to play against humans in Versus mode. Boy is it a different experience. When AI sees you from the other side of the map, it almost always ignores you or takes RNG-based shots at you, which in a long range almost never hits. Humans, however, hit you almost every time, also over long distances. Also it doesn't help that I play the game on a TV screen whereas I suspect most other people use computer monitors. Of course the fun part is that while AI always sees you even when you sneak up on them, humans might not.

    So my tactics end up being rather CQB with a lot of flanking, and even that works only rarely. I tried snipers a few times, but there's simply no way I can ever succeed at that.

    Road to Vostok got a final demo release, which I tried a couple of times. This is a very bleak game, like the spirit of everything that is Finland has been poured into it. Very atmospheric and the way the enemy bandits talk is genuinely unnerving, especially to a Finn.

    Future:

    I'm looking for something new to play, and two games are on my radar: Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon and Zero Sievert. The first is a Skyrim clone that looks very promising and fun to play, the other is a 2d pixel extraction shooter with permadeath which looks like a very difficult game and probably extremely painful to play.

    edit Tried Zero Sievert today. Looks and feels really good!

  7. Comment on Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton will be an "AI-first" company, with AI HR, AI R&D, in-game AI services in ~games

    crulife
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    I totally understand the benefit of using AI to assist in daily work -- it can be an amazing boost. But who are they talking to here? Dumb investors? This seems to me a bit like if companies in...

    I totally understand the benefit of using AI to assist in daily work -- it can be an amazing boost. But who are they talking to here? Dumb investors?

    This seems to me a bit like if companies in early 2000s said "we're gonna be a search engine-first company now".

    That said, I'm looking forward to the first game that uses AI for dynamic story creation in a way that doesn't suck. That could be pretty interesting.

    7 votes

  8. Comment on Pluribus | Official trailer in ~tv

    crulife
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    I love weird sci-fi mysteries but the unfortunate truth is that they're hardly ever above mediocre. For that reason also this would look almost entirely uninteresting if it weren't for the...

    I love weird sci-fi mysteries but the unfortunate truth is that they're hardly ever above mediocre. For that reason also this would look almost entirely uninteresting if it weren't for the extremely strong track record of almost everyone involved. I'll sure watch a first few episodes at the very least least.

    6 votes

  9. Comment on What's your video game comfort food? in ~games

    crulife
    Link
    Insurgency: Sandstorm on Co-Op. People are usually nice, everyone is working at the same goal and the action is low-stress.

    Insurgency: Sandstorm on Co-Op. People are usually nice, everyone is working at the same goal and the action is low-stress.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Luigi Mangione wants death penalty count tossed in US CEO murder case in ~news

    crulife
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Luigi Mangione himself is also rich, old money. Not quite a billionaire but probably worth tens of millions still, possibly a hundred, and earned almost none of it himself. Probably wealthier than...

    Luigi Mangione himself is also rich, old money. Not quite a billionaire but probably worth tens of millions still, possibly a hundred, and earned almost none of it himself. Probably wealthier than the guy he murdered.

    It's weird that the left (apparently) thinks of him as their hero. Or perhaps this is another destabilizing attempt against the west?

    1 vote

  11. Comment on lain sings u duvet in ~anime

    crulife
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    Even though fantastical and surreal and in that way unrealistic, Lain was amazingly prescient in describing one kind of suffering being chronically online may inflict. And of course that opening...

    Even though fantastical and surreal and in that way unrealistic, Lain was amazingly prescient in describing one kind of suffering being chronically online may inflict. And of course that opening song is brilliant and the rendition here isn't bad at all is absolutely superb.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on Denmark plans social media ban for under-15s – PM Mette Frederiksen links social media use to anxiety, depression and lack of concentration in ~tech

    crulife
    Link
    Excellent. I hope this spreads to rest of Europe. I would take it further: I don't think children should be allowed to have personal smart phones at all. Perhaps not even computers anymore these...

    Excellent. I hope this spreads to rest of Europe. I would take it further: I don't think children should be allowed to have personal smart phones at all. Perhaps not even computers anymore these days.

    There was a time when the harms were not that great, but those times are permanently over.

    8 votes

  13. Comment on The Oatmeal: A cartoonist's review of AI art in ~comics

    crulife
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    If I could generate a virtuoso level rendition of some piece of classical music I really like, it would probably be interesting for a few times and I assume it would then be incredibly boring....

    If I could generate a virtuoso level rendition of some piece of classical music I really like, it would probably be interesting for a few times and I assume it would then be incredibly boring. That's not the kind of stuff I'd use AI for. I'd use it to help me do something.

    We should mostly use technology to create, not consume.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Bluesky melts down over Jesse Singal in ~tech

    crulife
    Link Parent
    We used to say in Europe that the most leftist american politician is like center-right in Europe. I don't think that's at all true anymore.

    We used to say in Europe that the most leftist american politician is like center-right in Europe. I don't think that's at all true anymore.

    3 votes

  16. Comment on The country with Europe's most radical climate plan – an interview with Petteri Orpo, prime minister of Finland in ~enviro

    crulife
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    This is a highly partisan response. Finland has been suffering from a combination of difficult things not only during this administration, but ever since Nokia crashed and burned: Demographics is...

    This is a highly partisan response.

    Finland has been suffering from a combination of difficult things not only during this administration, but ever since Nokia crashed and burned:

    1. Demographics is slowly getting worse (growing number of people on social security and/or retired)

    2. Economy not significantly growing for 20 years

    3. Russia is right there huffing and puffing, and we joined NATO to protect against that -- so military spending is rising steeply

    4. We handled Covid-19 ok but spent a lot of money on it

    5. Previous coalition -- that was about as left-wing as this one is right-wing -- increased spending (partly due to previous two items but also in other ways) which did not cause economy growth

    6. Current coalition is doing austerity. Whether they have to or are doing it malevolently is a matter of political opinion

    7. Credit rating is slowly going down (still pretty good though compared to countries like France) while government loans are going up => interests costs are rising

    There's some promise of growth in the horizon now, but remains to be seen if it gets realized. If Russia stopped being Russia, that would be a great thing for us.

    9 votes

  17. Comment on United Kingdom, Australia and Canada officially recognize a Palestinian state in ~society

    crulife
    (edited )
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    Not currently, they don't. They fail 2/4 of the Montevideo Convention: they do not have properly defined territory nor do they have a properly functioning government. There's a country that has...

    Palestinians should already be entitled to statehood.

    Not currently, they don't. They fail 2/4 of the Montevideo Convention: they do not have properly defined territory nor do they have a properly functioning government.

    There's a country that has fulfilled 4/4 of these since 1949 and has been recognized by only 12 countries: Taiwan.

    9 votes

  20. Comment on Finland will remove swastikas from its air force flags to enhance integration with Western allies following NATO membership in ~society

    crulife
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    As a Finn (and an air forces reservist) my opinion is that it should've been changed roughly 80 years ago. I guess we needed NATO to get there. This is a bit of a conspiracy theory, but I think...

    As a Finn (and an air forces reservist) my opinion is that it should've been changed roughly 80 years ago. I guess we needed NATO to get there.

    This is a bit of a conspiracy theory, but I think there might have been some bad consequences also to Finland not totally losing WW2. Actual nazi sympathism lingered in the military, I believe. The good consequences greatly outweigh the bad though, since Soviet Union would have been the occupier.

    17 votes