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It's pretty impossible that complex reasoning, creativity, social and emotional intelligence, and sensory perception will ever be done by a machine.

I mean, all that machines can do for creativity now is create art in multiple styles including abstract weirdness like Dali, create photorealistic art based on crude drawings supplied as source material, write shitty stories, and create pop songs. There's no way that they will ever do more than that in the future, right?

I'm sure that they will never be able to sense emotions in people, nor will they replace a therapist. We certainly won't try to get AI to determine if people are likely to be criminals or re-offend if they have been convicted before.

Computers definitely will never be able to see and sort things, smell, recognize songs, or have a sense of touch or feel pain.

It's one thing to lay out soft skills that a lot of people don't have and say that's where jobs lie in the future. It's a whole different ballgame to ignore the fact that computers are already making inroads there, and already are better than some percent of the population at those things. Unless the authors are expecting technology to suddenly go in reverse, they're packing bags for a ship that's already sailed.

Well I would recommend a much better value from an independent publisher, Foxhole by independent house Clapfoot Games, got it on discount for a whopping $11. It is based on Unreal Engine with recently overhauled graphics. http://www.foxholegame.com/ The wars go on for a few weeks like a multi-capture the flag, you can follow them at https://foxholestats.com/ . The current war has gone back and forth a few times, now Wardens are starting to womp the Colonials. The publishers have promised no microtransactions or other schemes.

Also the independently produced Rimworld turned out to be the most highly rated game on Steam last year. Understandable due to good game and character design and an extensive modding community (for example you can make a whole complex cannabis industry lol). Note how the fanciness of graphics is absolutely minimal, the characters are outlines with swappable clothes, but their behaviors are unique and relatable and they spontaneously react to stress. Some people have criticized character design decisions in the game, but also modders have made alternative models including for example the Kinsey scale.

https://www.techquila.co.in/ri...
https://www.pcgamer.com/rimwor...
https://www.pcgamesn.com/rimwo...

Disappointing that this post is overrun by snarly anonymous gamergate weirdos. Everyone knows EA is a scam machine, they drove Maxis and Simcity into the ground. If you don't like how a giant corporation tacks on pseudo social awareness then avoid the company.

If the sales weren't abysmal, there wouldn't be a sale. I don't see Rockstar, Nintendo, or Activision discounting their game as much as 42% less than two weeks after it was released. It's on sale because it's a complete cash grab on the part of Bethesda and they can't get people to keep sinking money into in-game purchases if no one buys the base game to begin with.

Hopefully consumers continue to reject this crap so that publishers go back to making a decent product.

The jury is out on "most people still get sick" as there are no real comprehensive studies yet... Also, not everybody gets sick for the same reasons as there are many of factors that can contribute to VR sickness.

Motion to photon is the time it takes to move in the real world and have it show up on the screen. If it's too large you generally get sick.... The wise John Carmack has stated he believes 20ms is the critical threshold for motion to photon latency. Stay under 20ms and avoid artificial locomotion and the majority of users won't get sick in VR. Gen1 PCVR runs at 90fps so that means at best you're motion to photon should be 11ms but with clever algorithms you can actually do way better than that. VR sickness from large motion to photon latency is considered to be a solved problem.

Currently the more prominent reason for people getting sick in VR is artificial locomotion. For me if I limit joystick movement to translations (no rotations) I generally won't get sick. Even this isn't a universal solution for me as each game affects me differently. Some games I can zip around at high speed without issue where others just moving at a crawl causes issues. It isn't quite understood why but it is believed how you accelerate (not just top speed) the camera has an significant impact.

There is also a concept of developing "VR legs" where over time you become less susceptible to VR sickness. I believe there is some validity to this as when I first stared using VR any artificial locomotion made me ill in under 5 minutes where now I can play many games for hours on end without issue. I can also do some rotation movement where a little bit of yaw and pitch is fine although if you roll the camera I still feel it almost instantly.

There are studies that show giving the user an artificial nose, cockpit, or any foreground object that is stationary relative to the movement, reduces motion sickness. Google has used a technique in Google Earth VR where they artificially reduce the users field of view anytime the camera moves and it has also been shown to reduce motion sickness in many users, myself included.

There are some great examples of games use very unique locomotion techniques that should make most users sick but don't.... People still get sick in VR, even I do from time to time, but we are getting much better at preventing it from happening.

Intel is extracting higher speeds from their designs.

Marginally, and not for all single core loads. And never forget that standard operating practice for Intel is to place their thumb on the benchmark scales. For example, check this out. No shortage of reports like that.

Whatever slim lead Intel still has in single-core performance is widely expected to evaporate because of Intel's 10nm node fiasco, whereas AMD is already starting the 7nm production ramp for Instinct GPGPU parts. Don't just take my word for it.

In short, Intel is about to lose whatever single-core IPC lead they still have, entirely because they built their own fabs and messed up. Going fabless for the 10nm node would have been brilliant but too late for that now. Maybe next node.

I remember when Intel released its "Core 2" lineup some gamers eschewed getting the quad core ones because the dual core CPUs clocked higher, were less expensive, and most games only used one or two threads. Given how popular the slighter older i7s (4 cores, eight threads) and i5s (4 cores) have been, and how prominent they are in populating gaming PCs, it seems doubtful to me that any PC game will be incapable of running blisteringly fast on 8 physical cores. Games running on an i5 6600k/i7 7600k, with just four cores, generally go fast enough even for gamers running monitors at high refresh rates. https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel... https://www.pcgamer.com/intel-... These new CPUs will more than double their performance, and given the enormous number of customers for games with older i5s and i7s it's hard to imagine any game developer with an eye to sales who'll think that "Too bad, it's 16 threads or bust!". Non-gaming applications have been impressive in their improving on the ability to make use of more threads, but even there there are often diminishing returns, and it will be the pro's, and serious semi-pro's, who notice the savings in time by going to 16 threads (or more). But my point here goes to gamers/power users of the PC. For many of them, myself included, eight physical cores represents the opportunity for a solid upgrade. Though personally, I'd be a lot more excited if this was on 10 nanometer, it ran cooler when getting stressed, and it used less juice under all circumstances. At 10 nm it would be gold. As is, I think a lot of people will wait and see for what's on the horizon.

At this point in time, I am no longer buying Apple products. Time and time again they make bad decisions and don't put effort into their end product. Yet, they get away with it because they're "Apple". I mean its stuff like this that makes some people look for alternatives. https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam...

I take it you didn't read AMD's press release explaining exactly what you say you want to hear.

It's true that all processors have errata and can have bugs/flaws/security weaknesses... but, the Meltdown flaw which does not affect AMD is a specific kind which can't affect AMD because of architecture differences. Specifically, AMD checks to make sure user land code doesn't try to access kernel data without the correct permissions before executing predictive branches on it. Intel doesn't -- it goes ahead and runs the illegal code before flagging an exception to dump the branch after the fact. So, for a short time, there's data in cache on an Intel chip that should NOT be there because it should never have been accessed by the system to begin with.... and a specially crafted program can read it before it's flushed. This is because Intel (and ARM and others) chose a certain optimization for their speculative engine while AMD chose a different, more secure architecture.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel...

AMD's fix is -- no fix needed b/c we weren't stupid enough to let even speculative code run without checking its permissions first.

Per AMD for the initial Linux kernel patch:

AMD processors are not subject to the types of attacks that the kernel page table isolation feature protects against. The AMD microarchitecture does not allow memory references, including speculative references, that access higher privileged data when running in a lesser privileged mode when that access would result in a page fault.

AMD is definitely vulnerable to lesser exploits -- some which are also patched others are mitigated... and some are obfuscated because they are processor generation specific. But, they are not vulnerable for Meltdown or any variant like it by design.

Now remember... the fix for Meltdown is to flush the cache -- all levels -- when switching from user mode to kernel mode or vice versa.... every single time. That's a heck of a hit for some use cases. I believe Intel has found some ways to mitigate it with their 8th gen core series and will likely tinker with a better patch in the future.

It is absolutely a great idea to purchase an AMD processor if it suits the needs of one's business for those use cases where it will perform better than an Intel chip that is crippled by this horrendous bug -- all things being equal. Obviously, businesses have contracts with 3rd party suppliers and don't necessarily get to pick and choose every aspect of hardware, nor is AMD a savior necessarily if their total cost of ownership is higher because of servicing more varieties of equipment, dealing with more motherboard types and vendors, electricity / Air conditioning costs, etc.

One doesn't have to be a shill for AMD to notice it's obvious that Intel has a serious hardware flaw that AMD lacks and while any CPU can have errata, most can be patched with negligible effects. Intel having to flush caches between modes is a serious flaw if one runs programs that switch modes constantly. For average users and even gamers, there's not a huge impact. I'm running the patch right now for Windows and I can tell it affects Virtual Machines and a bit of file serving, but not enough for me to be too upset about it. If I had a high-end cluster for databases, a 20% hit to that would definitely make me want to check out AMD as an alternative... b/c even IF AMD has a bug that needs patching, it's unlikely to ever affect performance like this one does by requiring cache flushes to avoid having processes of user and kernel modes running at the same time for fear of one stealing data from the other.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/batma...

Uh huh, that is why its selling so well and folks have so much "fun" with it is because they really wanted a sailphone for a PC, right.

Look its REALLY simple, Ballmer lost his shit because Apple became the largest company and instead of accepting that PCs had gotten "good enough" for most folks and that he should be trying to sell value add to the OS he instead....makes a sailphone OS. A sailphone OS that admins don't want, and gamers don't want and to top it off OEMs don't want it either.

Ya wanna know the REAL reason Android is selling? Its NOT because of mobility, its because Android IS WINDOWS, its Windows as it USED to be. Its simple to use,yet still easy to get to the system settings. It has an appstore sure, but it takes a single click to allow programs from anywhere. Its as easy to customize for Joe and Jane Average as changing a Windows wallpaper was, and it runs quite well on a multitude of devices. At the same time Android was rising MSFT was putting out the bloated piggie that was Vista and while 7 did well instead of learning and listening somebody decided that they could just "be Apple" and put out locked down high priced hardware...nope, I got better odds of winning the powerball.

You give folks what they want and they buy, give them shit and tell them "you don't need that" and watch them walk away...what is so hard to understand?

Windows 8.1 mouse lag reportedly renders some PC games "close-to unplayable"
http://www.pcgamesn.com/windows-81-mouse-lag-reportedly-renders-some-pc-games-close-unplayable

Disagree 100%. I've played Torchlight 2, Path of Exile, and Borderlands 2. IMO the FREE Path of Exile is by far away the true spiritual successor to Diablo 2. The only Pay-To-Win they have is that you can buy, colorize, and rename your stash tabs which is a god-send compared to the crappy 4 tabs D3 offers.

Diablo 3 is an epic failure for one reason: itemization. Precisely, the total lack of it. One of the things that made D2 so great was the multiple tier economies:
* chipped gems,
* pgems
* set items
* runes
* runewords
* keys
* torches
* anni
* Rares

No matter where your wealth was, you could always "upgrade" to the next tier of wealth given enough time. Even a shitty Hammerdin with crap gear could MF / farm.

Diablo 3 threw all the great things right out the window and made a game for boobs & noobs = BORING. In contradistinction the Path of Exile skill tree is HUGE -- there are a large number of variety builds built around single items (just like D2) compared to the few cookie-cutter D3 builds offers.

Where again is the PvP in D3 ??
http://www.pcgamesn.com/diablo/diablo-3s-game-director-problem-pvp-its-got-be-blizzard-quality

Hi Mrs AC shill? How is the pay from MSFT these days? in case you want to know what gave it away its the fact that you said Win 8 "launched" only 2 days ago. We all know that is a crock of shit but MSFT in its memos have been calling the release of Surface pro a "relaunch" of Win 8 so only those that are following the "reboot" theory, which is pretty much confined to Redmond, are buying that bullshit.

I mean do I REALLY have to wallpaper this page with all the figures showing win 8 has been bombing since it flopped onto the market in Oct, how the MSFT team is trying to blame OEMs for not building a pile of $1000 WinTabs that the OEMs rightly pointed out would sell about as well as the few $1000 Tablets they had which is to say none at all, so they would have ended up in the same warehouse the failed ultrabooks is now rotting in. I can also of course paste link after link of OEMs saying the same thing, win 8 is a flop that makes the Vista launch look like Win95, and of course the press have dubbed it "Windows Frankenstein" and written articles that say "Windows 8 yes its THAT bad". and even the tech writers are uninstalling it. Of course some of us and some tech sites pointed out this would happen awhile ago because it ignores even basic user conventions. while giving ZERO context or even hints as to WTF the user is supposed to do. in my own experience this is what I saw in my shop only with more frustration and cursing involved.

So if you need more links Mrs AC shill please feel free to ask, not like anything I've been saying is exactly new or radical. Nice thing about speaking the truth, you can provide plenty of citations. and just for the record i have been a Windows user and seller since 3.1 and there have only been TWO, count 'em two, times I've not stayed with and sold a version of Windows. First was WinME which was inferior in every way to Win98, the second is Windows 8. Yes I ran Vista and sold Vista units until I saw it was gonna take MSFT ages to fix the bugs I kept running into but with both winME and Win 8 the experience was just too nasty for me to dump on users, I'm sorry but they sucked the big wet titty.

Apparently Oculus has already done some experiments with the ear-fix:
"“One of my favourite things that’s probably never going to hit the market: galvanic vestibular stimulation. It’s basically technology that allows you to stimulate your inner ear, to simulate orientation and acceleration... um... using electrical impulses. It’s really cool. I and I have some GVS systems I’ve put together myself,” he adds, and what he says next brings a broad laugh from his audience. "It's not particularly safe... There's no proof that long-term use causes permanent harm.""
So maaaybe in the 2017 Rift we'll see GVS.. but it does sound a little scary.

The losers is everybody who depends on innovation. Which is to say everybody, including Apple, though they they will see some short term financial benefits.

That's facile. The opposite decision was reached in the Apple v Microsoft lawsuit back in the day and instead of a golden age of innovation we got a computing dark age. Microsoft didn't really understand the GUI (according to some they still don't) and it took them years after their copy job to come up with anything halfway decent. Likewise Samsung doesn't know the first thing about building a mobile computing platform, just enough to skin someone else's OS and copy some hardware once they see what works. Innovation is what was protected here today. If you want to argue the right to copy that's fine, but innovation it is not.

Right, the 90s were a computing dark age. You've convinced me, Mr. Internet Guy!

The losers is everybody who depends on innovation. Which is to say everybody, including Apple, though they they will see some short term financial benefits.

That's facile. The opposite decision was reached in the Apple v Microsoft lawsuit back in the day and instead of a golden age of innovation we got a computing dark age. Microsoft didn't really understand the GUI (according to some they still don't) and it took them years after their copy job to come up with anything halfway decent. Likewise Samsung doesn't know the first thing about building a mobile computing platform, just enough to skin someone else's OS and copy some hardware once they see what works. Innovation is what was protected here today. If you want to argue the right to copy that's fine, but innovation it is not.

Windows 8 - Review http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/why-i-m-uninstalling-windows-8

I suppose a workable alternative is to beat your face repeatedly on the desktop.

Or do what everyone sensible does:

Why I’m uninstalling Windows 8

As a cruel trick on myself, about a month ago I installed Windows 8 on my main PC to see what it was like.

The answer is: abysmal.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Windows 8 is the worst computing experience I’ve ever had. As a desktop operating system, it’s annoying, frustrating, irritating, and baffling to use. I’ve tried on many occasions to explain exactly why it’s so awful to use day-to-day, and most of the time, smoke starts pouring out of my ears. I thought it would be better to get down exactly what the issues are and why you should avoid it.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/why-i-m-uninstalling-windows-8

It's astonishing how badly Microsoft has implimented this. For a long time I thought they were playing one of their "Queen's Duck" marketing tricks, and with a fanfare and a "We listen to our customers" comment, would switch to a sensible, if bland, UI at the last moment.

They didn't.