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My Family's Entire Life Is Based Around Video Games. I Can't Take It Anymore.

Slate

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. My husband is very involved with the kids. He's a good father--he does the hard parts of parenting, happily.


Bridging the gap between learning and reasoning

AIHub

Prompt: "An AI learning to crack tough puzzle (with no text on the image)". If you have ever chatted with an AI language model like chatGPT, you might have been impressed by its coherent and well-structured answers. But does that imply these AIs can handle any query? The real challenge begins when we ask them to exercise logic and reason. We tried it on the popular Sudoku puzzle: GPT4-based ChatGPT is perfectly aware of these rules, and confident it can indeed play Sudoku.


'Hell Welcomes All'

The Atlantic - Technology

When I listen to the voice recording I made at the Irvine, California, headquarters of the video-game company Blizzard Entertainment this past January, I hear a noise that many gamers find blissful: the sound of utter mayhem. Playing a prerelease version of Diablo IV, the latest installment in a 26-year-old adventure series about battling the forces of hell, I faced swarms of demons that yowled and belched. I jabbed buttons arrhythmically--click … click … clickclickclick--while trying to stifle curses and whimpers. But the strangest sounds came from the two Diablo IV designers who sat alongside me. As I dueled with an angry sea witch, Joseph Piepiora, an associate game director, gently noted that I was low on healing potions.


Learn to create game art with this heavily discounted Blender bundle

Mashable

TL;DR: The 2023 Complete Blender Bundle is on sale for £27.92, saving you 85% on list price. Making your own video games is more within reach than you may think. Whether you're a cozy gamer with a dream or a curious digital artist, you can design your own game with Blender. This online learning bundle can guide you through creating landscapes, characters, and animation. The 2023 Complete Blender Bundle has 50 hours of game development training by a top instructor for just £27.92.


Microsoft bosses to meet Jeremy Hunt amid row over proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Microsoft bosses are slated to meet with Jeremy Hunt this week as Britain attempts to stop the company from purchasing the publisher of Call of Duty. The tech firm launched a bid to acquire video game Activision Blizzard, but British antitrust regulators have blocked the roughly £55billion ($69billion) purchase. If Microsoft moves forward with the purchase, gamers in the UK would be unable to purchase or download any titles from the Activision catalogue, including COD, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Candy Crush. Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, has arranged to meet with the Chancellor this week to discuss the proposal, as well as the'potential of AI' and the'need for thoughtful regulation of it', a spokesperson told Bloomberg. Analysts predict the Government and Microsoft will reach an agreement before'extreme measures', like prohibiting access to Activision games, take place.


Lenovo Legion 5 Pro review: Fast performance at a reasonable price

PCWorld

Lenovo's Legion 5 Pro is a homebody, but strong performance and competitive pricing make it an excellent choice for gamers. Lenovo's Legion brand has established itself as a go-to option for gamers who want solid performance at a reasonable price. The new Legion 5 Pro looks to reinforce this with the latest Intel 13th-Gen processors and Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics. They provide a notable boost over last year's model and maintain the Legion 5 Pro's position as a go-to gaming laptop for those looking to spend less than $2,000. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is updated with the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware.


In 'Tears of the Kingdom,' the Depths Are Where the Action Is

WIRED

In the years since The Legend of Zelda's 1986 release, director, producer, and co-designer Shigeru Miyamoto has described the game as an attempt to replicate what he felt during childhood explorations of the countryside outside of Kyoto, Japan, where he was raised. In making the first installment of what would go on to become one of Nintendo's most beloved series, his foundational memories of inspecting foreboding caves or happening upon unexpected lakes provided a framework for what would become a global sensation. Three decades later, when a team at Nintendo sought to rethink Zelda's design ethos after years of working within an increasingly calcified format, its members returned to that first game and its sense of free-spirited exploration for inspiration. The result was 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which, more than any series entry before it, imparted a feeling that players were wandering an expansive fantasy world as awe-inspiring and invigoratingly dangerous as the mental landscape of a great childhood adventure. Breath of the Wild tweaked the past games' more confined environments and gauntlet of clockwork puzzle levels--dubbed "dungeons" by players--by offering a sprawling landscape dotted with smaller, discrete challenges broken up by long periods spent simply figuring out how to climb mountains or descend into far-off valleys.


Diablo 4 releases next week: How to play the game in early access

Mashable

The highly anticipated follow-up to Diablo III is finally here -- well, almost. Diablo IV is officially releasing in a grand launch on June 5-6, 2023, but there's good news for lovers of the famous action RPG. With the new open world gameplay mechanics, you can finally see your character come to life as Sanctuary's savior, but here's something even more exciting: The early-access version of Blizzard Entertainment's latest offering is already up for grabs. Pre-order the Ultimate Edition or the Deluxe Edition(opens in a new tab) of the game for Xbox Series X S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, or PC to get instant entry into early access for Diablo IV. The early access period has already started for all regions, and all the available content will be the same as the base game and other editions.


The best live EOFY deals in Australia

Mashable

Apple AirPods Max - Space Grey(opens in a new tab) – A$774.99 (was $449, 14% off) Bose QuietComfort 45 Noise Cancelling Headphones(opens in a new tab) – A$389 (was $499.95, Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700(opens in a new tab) – A$445 (was $599.95, Toshiba 65" C350LP Series 4K UHD Google TV 2022(opens in a new tab) – A$699 (was $799, save $100) Bose Smart Soundbar 700(opens in a new tab) – A$699 (was $1,199.95, Yamaha RX-V385 5.1-Channel AV Receiver with Bluetooth(opens in a new tab) – A$479 (was $649, 26% off) Kogan SmarterHome G50 Robot Vacuum Cleaner and Mop(opens in a new tab) – A$249 (was $399.99, Lovehoney X Womanizer Late Night Lust Couple's Sex Toy Kit(opens in a new tab) – A$59.97 (was $119.95,


Future shockers: 10 great games about rogue AIs

The Guardian

GLaDOS is surely video games' most recognisable megalomaniacal AI, the creatively sadistic robot with a soothingly monotone, heartily evil voice that has been left in sole charge of a lab for far too long. Let's be honest, her cheerfully murderous attitude towards humanity isn't entirely unjustified. Not content with simply taking over a space station, System Shock's Shodan supercomputer gets into genetically mutating humans with pathogens of her own devising. These two sci-fi horror classics have you confronting this watchful, malevolent AI in space and cyberspace. A remake of the first game was released this week.