Nuclear Monster

  • Lost during my recent travel was Apple’s release of the iMac Pro, the “pro” version of the iMac that was announced at WWDC. The iMac Pro gets you higher performance and what may be many features of the promised-but-yet-to-be-updated-since-2013 Mac Pro, but with a glued-on high-resolution (5120×2880 P3 color gamut) screen and absolutely zero upgradability of internal components.

    For an iPad or iPhone, that’s fine, glue whatever you need together to make the device as thin and light as it can get. It’d be great if you could upgrade the storage in those, and if sometimes they would optimize for battery life over thinness, but here we are looking at a different beast. Despite the Xeon-based workstation hardware you get inside an iMac Pro, with modern desktops you really must be able to, at a minimum, upgrade the graphics processor in order to maintain performance for the lifespan of these devices

    I don’t doubt that there are some people or businesses that would appreciate this design of high-performance in a completely sealed design computer, but I find some serious flaws in one of Apple’s proposed use-cases: the idea that this is for virtual reality developers.

    Why would anyone deploy a VR app on a platform where the $5,000 iMac Pro is the only device that can support the final product? Sure you could do your work on the iMac Pro and cross-compile for Windows, but that seems like a bad idea if your main development computer isn’t also a device you can test for your primary distribution platform. This is the worst example of the inaccessibility of virtual reality today. Here’s a $5,000 computer and then you have to buy a $600 VR HMD to get started with using or playing VR. When a future VR headset is released any iMac Pro VR developers and users will either have to buy an external GPU or replace the entire computer. Anyone on a desktop tower using Windows can just upgrade their graphics card.

    Of course if you’re working in video or audio production, or another field that requires high-end computation, this could be a good workstation for that. However, you have to also believe that Apple will continue to support the “pro” desktop platform that they have neglected for almost a decade with infrequent (Mac Pro) or half-assed (Mac Mini) updates.

    This computer has so many caveats and despite the fact that the starting price is actually competitive with other similarly outfitted workstation computers that price is chief among the reasons why I don’t find it very appealing. Maybe the Mac Pro will actually ship next year and be truly modular to replace the Mac Mini as well as the 2013 “trash can” Mac Pro. 

    I still dream of a modular desktop Mac that can do all these things and span a wider range of prices to include regular desktop parts (and prices) in addition to scaling up to workstation performance and price, without the glued-on screen. It’ll never happen, and that’s why even though I’m still writing this on my late 2013 MacBook Pro, I built a Windows desktop machine last year.

  • Full ThrottleThere is a large volunteer workforce on the internet that keeps their favorite games alive. You might know that I’ve been working on the ioquake3 engine for the past 12 years to keep people playing Quake 3 and help the other games and mods that use that engine stay alive. ScummVM has been in development since 2001, It is the definitive way to play the original releases of old LucasArts adventure games like Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle as well as so many others.

    Yesterday the ScummVM project hit version 2.0. It’s a big milestone that added support for 23 “brand new old games,” as their update calls them, as well as improving support for their roster of existing games.

    One of the “brand new old games” is Starship Titanic, an adventure game that was designed and written by Douglas Adams.

    You can download the 2.0.0 version of ScummVM for free directly from the developers for Windows, macOS, Linux, and so many more platforms. To play many of the games you’ll need to own them

  • The good news first, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will exit Steam’s Early Access program in four days on the 20th (or 21st depending on your time zone) of December. The 1.0 release will have the new desert map, Miramar, among many other changes.

    The Xbox One version of Battlegrounds is also out on that platform’s Game Preview program for $30, which is similar to Steam’s Early Access, but word is that performance is miserable and the port is extremely buggy to start. That’s not unheard of for a game that isn’t finished yet, and it won’t have the new desert map or reach 1.0 this year, but Microsoft is making a big deal out of the release. It’s the first thing you see on the Xbox.com website.

    Eurogamer’s Richard Leadbetter:

    In terms of first impressions, PUBG is borderline horrendous – an assault of low quality artwork, jarring pop-in and disappointing performance. Input lag also feels off – whether that’s down to deadzone issues on the analogue sticks or the variable frame-rate remains to be seen (it’s something we’re looking into) and in this respect at least, it’s the same story whether you’re gaming on a standard Xbox or the X.

    This is one of the few exclusive games Microsoft has this year, and while supposedly the developers have been aided by Microsoft, it isn’t clear yet what is going on with this Xbox port. It’s worse than the original Windows version in Early Access.

    Of course it’ll get better over time, but this could be worse than what most console players expect.

  • Eurogamer’s Chris Bratt has a great investigative article and video on the bullshit around supplements. Specifically one that targets people playing games. It’s called GodMode and it is a “nootropic” from Scott Miller, yes the one that used to work for Apogee and 3D Realms.

    Here’s part of Chris’ interview with Scott, where Scott goes off the deep end:

    “If you read the books that doctors have to read,” said Miller, “they are so anti-supplement, because they’re funded by the pharmaceutical industry. And the pharmaceutical industry tells you things like avoid fish oil, avoid all this stuff. They don’t want you doctors to believe in any of that stuff. I hate to say it, but doctors are brainwashed from day one when they enter medical school that drugs work and anything outside of drugs isn’t going to work.”

    In the article, Chris also tries the supplement for two weeks to no effect, because it doesn’t do anything.

    Miller’s business model isn’t entirely original, there are similar products that share the same ingredients but target other people.

    Alex Jones sells a few varieties of nootropics to his dumbass followers that he calls Brain Force Plus. Gwyneth Paltrow has similar crap in her GOOP store. There are ads on some gaming podcasts for other brands of nootropic garbage supplements. I unsubscribed from one podcast as soon as I heard that ad. These supplements have always been bullshit, don’t trust anyone that sells them.

  • I honestly can’t believe how much Never Stop Sneakin’ looks like it gets right in its pursuit of pursuing the joy of Metal Gear Solid’s past while parodying MGS’ spirit. The cutscenes, music, and characters are such good and ridiculous parodies of the original Metal Gear Solid, but the new stealth gameplay is a real treat because it is a straightforward simplification. If what I’ve seen is accurate you don’t even press any buttons, all of the controls have been reduced to one analog stick for movement and everything else is automatic.

    Sneak up behind a guard and he’s done.

    Get spotted by one or more guards but you have some ammo? Those guards are down in a flash.

    Out of ammo but you just got spotted by a guard and have a smoke grenade? Smoke’s out, automatically.

    That’s a dramatic change when Metal Gear Solid was overloading every button on the PlayStation’s controllers. I don’t think this will be as broad an experience as MGS, but it looks like Never Stop Sneakin’ has its heart in the right place for making a fun parody.

    The few reviews that have come out are positive, but complain that it is too repetitive and lacks variety. I’m still excited to check it out.

    Never Stop Sneakin’ is $15 on the Switch. It’ll probably come out for other platforms next year.