Today I Smiled: Random Funnies and Musics

Hmm, its been a minute since I've used a title like that. Anyway, here are some random things that I'm enjoying at the moment - starting with Vought International. If you're a fan of the Boys and/or Gen V, this has a fair bit of extra content in here that ranges from intentional cringe to really hilarious. I've also been enjoying the FreeMMAGyms channel for both its humor and instruction.

Onto pure silliness we have this Catan clip that anyone can enjoy (sound on), translations of Westeners Chinese Tattoos, stealing a girl's car skit, and proof that live action anime style openings done well can work for anything. As I am compelled to add music stuff, here's Lord Vinherio playing some chickens!?

If you prefer some better musics, here's the One Voice children's choir with a Wicked Medley and their rendition of Golden from KPop Demon Hunters, and an orchestral one of Soda Pop. Note that last one is purely just the music, the visuals are "fake". Speaking of fake, Rick Beato has a quick vid of how easy it is to make an AI Artist. If you prefer something more live and less produced, here's Laufey on tiny desk.

Piracy in the Age of AI

I'm very late (as per usual) compared to others talking about the feats AI can achieve these days, but given that I've now got a chatGPT level spam comment on one of my posts its a good time to get into it. Sure, making essays and stories might be one thing but what impresses me most is chatGPT is able to handle stuff like "make an HTML webpage with a form that lists these countries as a radio set, have character fields for name, email and comment and a submit button" and it will generate the code for you. I wouldn't be surprised if it could handle heavier programmatic requests either!

Then of course there's the AI art side of things where you just type in what you want to see and it makes it for you. For this one I'm using Night Cafe which has some excellent free to use capabilities (but pay for an expanded range of options). It certainly feels like cheating when you get an amazing artwork in under five minutes. This side of things still has obvious limitations especially when it comes to fingers or some requests like: "a spider wearing boxing gloves" which almost without fail produces some form of friendly neighborhood Spiderman. What I want to know is... are these almost-instant codes and artworks plagiarism and piracy? Should be no but also... yes? Regardless, I might start using some of these AI pics on this site just for laughs.

Speaking of actual sea faring piracy, the Chinese coast guard are keeping that alive when they harass Philippine soldiers at sea with swords and axes. Keep in mind both sides have firearms but I assume to keep things from escalating they just stick with medieval level weaponry. This practice isn't just for their ocean forces either as modern Chinese soldiers armed with spears testing their borders with India.

Ticket to Ride (PC)

Measuring whose choo choo is longer.

In this digitized board game players (AI optional) take turns trying to build railway lines to earn more points than the others.

On your turn you can get more tickets (objectives to build rail from point A to B), collect more color coded cards, or use said cards to create a chain of trains from city to city. Available rail tracks are limited, so first come first serve.

Train assembly has to do with color coordination apparently.

Only one map is available in the base game with more set as expansions but I found this game not compelling enough to begin with. Game play is very dead and actual choices are quite limited since you will most likely be working on your own objectives than trying to block any one else.

Maybe the actual board game is more fun, but unlike Carcassone - this digital version doesn't really make me want to try it. I give it 1 caboose out of 5.

Carcassonne (PC)

It's beautiful and simple: and then you lose.

In this digital remake of the board game, up to 6 players (AI, network, or hotseat) take turns placing tiles on the board to create the landscape that is Carcassonne. The only rule when putting a tile down is that it must "make sense" to the surrounding tiles (no roads appearing from nowhere). When placing a tile, you also have the option of putting one of your five meeples down, and should the area its standing on be complete they score the length of the road or area of the city and then are returned to your hand for further use.

Clean and easy to use UI.

This leads to some strategy as having meeples wait for large zones to finish might get them stuck or blocked for most of the game, but the pay off could be worth it. The AI comes in a variety of flavors too, and I've only been able to beat the weakest. While I also think I'd prefer the tactile board game for playing this, letting the computer score stuff does speed things up. Worth trying especially if you don't have a table top gaming group. I give it 3 cloisters out of 5.

Insight: If playing with fields, don't put down your meeples too early as "farmer" meeples never return to your hand!

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator

It obviously isn't, and it's quite funny!

This skirmish based game pits two opposing colored rag dolls (red and blue) in a battle to the death with unit variety ranging from prehistoric to pirates and even the supernatural! Remember that time you sent Zeus to destroy a pair of vampires but some dynasty archers hit him with fireworks arrows that sent him flying off the map? It's that sort of game.

There's a fair number of skirmishes to enjoy and a few tough ones to solve as much like table top Warhammer, you only have a set amount of points to purchase units with. Sometimes you want a gazillion archers, other times a pair of ridiculously tough pirate queens will do. Outside initial placement, the only thing you can do is control some of your dudes in battle - which is rare. Often you will be a rifleman to force snipe units at the back as the AI is generally stupid. Move to closest, attack closest. Falling off ledges is common.

The reaper showcasing some lesser units.

Not a very deep game, but a pretty fun one - and one I recommend. I give it out 3 Da Vinci tanks out of 5.

Insight: You can position units on trees and stuff, and on a few maps can exploit the silly AI into killing themselves off a cliff by controlling an oddly placed unit to prevent them from moving.

Alien: Isolation

If only you had a large cardboard box.

In a bid to collect your mother's last known voice recording, you've traveled to a distant space station only to find it in chaos as some life form is hunting people down. Especially you, thanks to how the AI works.

Oh... that's not good.

The setting, sounds, story, equipment, controls and ambience all work perfectly to create a tense, first person playing field as you sneak your way around the station, and you'll be sneaking a lot while going back and forth to various objectives and to collect things.

Definitely a good game, but it's one designed for patient, evasive players as making any noise will bring the alien, whom you cannot out run or kill, to you. If that's something you can live with then I highly recommend it and give it 4.5 Nostromo logs out of 5.