They aren’t though. They’re rectangular at the top and then have cylinders coming out the bottom. I think the heels of his shoes might be square on the bottom.

Making me realize Spongebob isn’t even square.

I think y’all who are upset over the use of “freeware” are out of touch with how language is used in non-expert settings. Like, I’m definitely more tech-savvy than most people and I still didn’t know about “FOSS” as a term until seeing it on Lemmy and looking it up. This just means “free software” to me and doesn’t imply anything negative.

It even says, “the premier free and open source image editing software for multiple platforms” right in the first paragraph, so what’s the issue? Do you think the headline will mislead someone into thinking that GIMP is proprietary?

I think we’re taking about the same thing, actually. When the maps were small 2D areas that connected at set points, I was able to learn them well without any special effort. With experience one could bypass the paintball system by having learned a monster’s likely behaviors, which was extremely satisfying.

Now we have the auto-tracking features which render navigation mindless, along with maps existing in 3D and on much larger scales and interconnecting in more complex ways. When I’ve attempted to ignore the navigation system and do things manually I find it very difficult, which I have to assume is why they added the navigation in the first place.

My memory isn’t as clear as I’d like for this kind of discussion, but I remember something like a single button being both start climbing and also jump off the thing you’re climbing or something like that? And then if I wanted to jump off a cliff it was a different button from what I’d been lead to expect in other contexts? So I’d just constantly be accidentally using the wrong inputs because they were too context-reliant, and it made it extra difficult to navigate and gather. The controls used to be a lot simpler, and we didn’t have any of this hookshotting around with bugs or super dogs. Saying the controls used to be simpler and 100% meaning it is hilarious coming from someone who played on PSP. How did you make me prefer the claw, Capcom? Maybe I was just used to the old way and can’t adapt; I just remember things being more straight-forward in terms of actual gameplay.

I could also really do without action games bogging themselves down with lengthy dialogs and cutscenes. If I wanted to watch a movie or read a book or play an RPG I would just do those things. I don’t need an epic lore motivation for stabbing dinosaurs. This series barely had dialog when it started out, and the voice lines were delightfully world-buildy and flavorful by not being any real-world language. Less was more in terms of immersion.

I don’t really like the more recent entries in the series anyway, honestly. Like so many modern games, I feel like it’s become over-complicated with systems and cutscenes, and I miss when it was just you and a sharp object vs a dinosaur. If you want to check it out, get a PSP or emulator. I wish I could remember which specific titles to recommend.

e: Freedom Unite, I think.

My favorite application for AI is as a search tool. I can describe concepts to ChatGPT and it will tell me what it’s called and lead me to further reading.

For example, I once showed it a picture and asked it about the art style. I told it what I liked about it and asked for suggestions of other styles or techniques that would have a similar appeal. It was a very fruitful experience that just can’t be done with a search bar.

That said, it’s Reddit. I’m sure it’ll be terrible.