I actually like DLSS <= 4.5, when it’s well used. It’s just a scaling technique, like bilinear or 2xSai, but instead of using a regular mathematical formula to calculate the interpolated pixels, it uses a neural network. Of course the final results vary, depending on how much of the image you interpolate, the training data and if you use previous frame data and stuff like that (motion vectors, etc.).

OTOH, DLSS 5, sloptracing or whatever you want to call it, doesn’t seem to be a scaling technique (even if it most likely can do that too). It seems to be a video enhancing technique, with stability features included (anchored to 3d objects) to avoid the common morphing artifacts in early video GenAI (pre-Sora 2).

About Ranni, I suggest this:

https://www.frontlinejp.net/2022/03/14/elden-ring-the-age-of-stars-ending-mistranslations-explained/

Elden Ring has some serious translation issues, and Ranni’s Ending turns out to be one of the victims.

Or Wuchang, where you can basically respec for every boss according to their weaknesses. I ran one build against most bosses, but changed it for a few specific ones where my regular build didn’t work well.

A bit like the short story “Tower of Babylon”, by Ted Chiang.

Sadly, in many of these programs, Copilot will start collecting data if you enable it. And send it to Microsoft, obviously.

The first two Metal Gear were 8-bit games released for MSX computers (and the NES/FC, I think) in the '80s. The one most people think as the first in the series is actually the third mainline title (Metal Gear Solid for the PSX).

The ending to their show is pretty bad for the environment.

This really needs an Elder Scrolls Oblivion-style remake. Use the original engine for everything except graphics, and remake only the graphics part (and the contact surface between the visual and original engines).

I really liked the last Soulslike I played, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, because it improves precisely on many of these issues.

A bit like Elden Ring, it offers many ways to “solve” bosses, so if you’re not mechanically perfect you can try in another way (there are many, many viable builds, not all requiring perfect reflexes). For huge bosses, the camera zooms in and out almost seamlessly according to size and distance. You can save anywhere.

I also hate features that punish you for fighting and dying (beyond losing souls/echoes/whatever), like losing max hp in Dark Souls 2 or dragonrot in Sekiro. Trying many times is the only way to learn boss patterns, and punishing the player for doing exactly what the game requires is awful. Wuchang handles that in a very graceful way, as dying raises Madness, which in turn raises damage done both by you and by enemies, which makes it more of a risk calculation than a disadvantage. There are even builds based around skills which activate once you reach 50 or 90% of Madness. Also, you can clear it easily if needed.

Sadly, the last controversy (political/historical self-censorship) in patch 1.5 of the game makes it harder to recommend, though for me it was a 8/10, maybe even a 9, before this patch.

Control and censorship. Imagine a developer distributing an apk that Google doesn’t like, let’s say, emulators, ad-blockers, VPNs (if they become illegal in some places), piracy apps or many others. Just remove their verified status and voilà.

This is awful. Google is quickly becoming a new walled garden, Apple-style.

Not that I don’t agree with your sentiment, but patents (technical methods to build machines, do stuff, etc.) are different from copyright (stories, characters, etc… the one Disney has exploited for decades).

You mean this certificate? The one which will expire next year and leave many old machines with Secure Boot enabled, unbootable?

I was born in the same year, 1976, and I really don’t feel the same way. Pretty much every era has bangers and also really bad games.

I have really good memories from the '80s (games like Pitfall II or the MSX Konami games), the '90s (playing MUDs with my college pals, the classic SNES JRPGs like Chrono Trigger or the classic PC CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate and its ilk), the '00s (games like Silent Hill 2, Morrowind or GTA: San Andreas), the '10s (pretty much every FromSoft game from that decade, NieR:Automata or the Rocksteady Batman games) and the '20s (games like Elden Ring, Hades, etc.). And many more games I didn’t mention.

Some decades have been better than others, but there are incredible games in all of them.

Pretty much. I’ve played all Soulsborne + Sekiro on PC using kbm, and though it’s not that much easier than using a controller, some things are way better, like fighting unlocked or using bows.

But you really have to remap some keys, because the default keymap is horrendous.