Archive for January, 2021

Spring Releases (and onward!)

Posted in Resident Evil, Uncategorized, Ys on January 28, 2021 by slateman

COVID has run amok throughout the world, thus changing release dates on so many different things. Despite the sporadic nature of 2021, there are some items to look forward to. As always, this is more for personal reference than for any other reason.

Music
21 Feb Empyrium: Über Den Sternen
26 Feb Einherjer: North Star
26 Mar Liquid Tension Experiment: LTE 3
23 Apr Bodom After Midnight: Paint The Sky With Blood
21 May Amorphis: Live At Helsinki Ice Hall
28 May Alestorm: Live In Tilburg
28 May King Of Asgard: Svartrviðr
18 June Fear Factory: Aggression Continuum
18 June Helloween: Helloween
2 July At The Gates: The Nightmare Of Being
Summer Exodus: Persona Non Grata
Games
02 Feb Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
25 Feb Ghosts ‘N Goblins Resurrection
29 Apr R-Type Final 2
07 May Resident Evil Village
11 Jun Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Unknown Far Cry 6
Unknown God Of War: Ragnarok
Unknown Horizon: Forbidden West
Unknown Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Movies
12 Feb Saint Maud
05 Mar Raya And The Last Dragon
05 Mar Coming 2 America
31 Mar Godzilla Vs. Kong
30 Jul The Green Knight
30 Jul Jungle Cruise
Unknown The Matrix 4

Sometime in the future

  • Dead To Me
  • Atypical

Mixup Cube Algorithms

Posted in Algorithms, Blog, Cubing on January 17, 2021 by slateman

This puzzle was a curious one and I required a helpful tutorial to solve it. Just some quick algorithms to help me solve this cool cube.

Step 1: Return to a cube

First, you’ll get offset centers lined up with an edge piece sloped downward above it. Here, you move the center piece 45° to the right, then perform a R, U’, R’ before returning the center. You then keep repeating this process. If you’re stuck with a flipped edge, just bring it down to make it a center and repeat.

Step 2: Restore centers

Just prep centers. This will swap front and right centers. When you have a pair to exchange, move your center 45° to the right, then R2 and return. Super easy.

Step 3: Solve F2L

Solve the first two layers are you would on a normal 3×3.

Step 4: Last-Layer Parities

If you get the classic 4×4 parity, you can bring down your front edge 45° (an M slice). Then F2, an E (turn left as you look at it), F2, and return the E and return M’.

This will mess up three layer 2 edges which can be fixed easily apparently. Place the proper piece on bottom/back and whip out a: B2 M B2 M. This should fix it.

If you get a parity where your final two edges are swapped, place the flipped edge in front. A M’ here is a 45° upward.

M’, R, U, R’, U’
M’, U, R, U’, R’

I’m finding a problem where this doesn’t necessarily solve it all. But for now, it’s a good start. Perhaps I’ll edit this again in the future.

Clover Pyraminx Algorithms

Posted in Algorithms, Blog, Cubing on January 15, 2021 by slateman

This puzzle looks cool, turns wonderfully and appears simple enough. While it’s effectively just a 3×3 shape mod, I simply cannot visualize it as such. This tutorial helped me whittle the whole thing down to something digestible.

Step 1: Solve two-colored edges

These act like corners, so just find the proper plane and solve all three two-colored edges. This is an easy step and no image is necessary.

Step 2: Flatten Petals

Now you will be faced with one of three situations. If the two pieces are beside one another like shown here, place them on the right plane. Move this right side down, then move the bottom/left layer (here, the other green petal) down, then back up and up (R’, L, R, L’)

The second scenario is when the two incorrectly-placed pieces are on adjacent faces. Hold the tip of the triangle at you and the upright petals on the top-left and top-right. With the one stickered side facing you positioned on the left, turn this layer down 90°, then the right layer a full 180° and return the first face. I’ve included a video here for easier reference.

A third scenario exists where they’re on adjacent layers but on the same pivot. In this case, move one side away so it mirrors scenario #2. I believe this will be an easy fix.

Step 3: Solve all Petals

This step will involve either a two or a three-cycle. For the latter, hold pyramid tip at you, this swaps far left, top center and far right. Shown here, it’ll exchange the left red piece, the top yellow and the right blue. Do 180° flips between the two layers (DDUU – L2, R2, L2, R2). This is kind of intuitive and while it may involve commutators, for your basic purposes, it’s not difficult.

Now, sometimes you will encounter three that you can’t easily swap. You have two options here. A three-cycle may work (for instance, swapping two blues at once). But if you’re lost, which I often get, you may benefit from some two-cycles instead. Here, bring a face down with a 90° turn. This will look like a person wearing glasses looking at you (see pic). Now, your three-cycle maneuver (clockwise or CCW based on your needs) will cycle these just as you’d hope. This is a really-quick fix as, like before, you can swap the same-colored pieces to maneuver what you want without much thinking.

Step 4: Solve Centers/Corners

Any inverted (jutting out) centers here signify a hidden piece under a pyramid tip. Find it! OK, now leave it hidden in the tip of the pyramid. You are now going to swap this hidden piece with one that is jutting out, making sure the inverted piece is on top, also shown here. You’ll reveal it w/ a 90° right turn upwards (like shown in this image), then the usual algorithm (R, L’, R, L) but you’ll do this three times. This will also swap the two lower-layer centers as well, FYI. Do this as many times as necessary. You may get lucky and solve the puzzle this way. If not, move on to step #5.

Step 5: Swap Centers

Now that everything is flat, we can swap centers. You’re going to use the same algorithm as in step 4, but you don’t want to kick out those inverted pieces. First, find two centers you want to swap. (If you have more, just choose two and then repeat this step). Place these in front of you on the bottom as shown here. In order to prevent bumping out those inverted pieces, turn the top layer 90°. This way, those inner pieces will harmlessly swap. Do the same algorithm as before (again, three times) and your two bottom centers will be exchanged.

PSVR: This Truly Is A Step Forward

Posted in Blog, Games on January 14, 2021 by slateman

Virtual Reality is something everyone would like, but it would be nice if their neighbor got it first – you know – just to check it out. I’ve been curious but, like countless others, the high price tag kept me far away. That is, until my daughter convinced my wife to get me one for Christmas. Long story short? I’m totally and utterly convinced.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first as there are absolutely downsides. The mess of wires is something my wife is not fond of and setting up is a routine of many specifics working both in harmony and in tandem. The visuals certainly take a hit in VR and the glasses fog up rather easily, though this is just an inconvenience that clears up quickly. Motion sickness is not something unique to Sony’s VR unit, but it can be jarring and difficult to work through.

Okay, with my gripes aired for all to see, what remains is simply extraordinary. Without hands-on experience, the true extent of VR’s punch can never be appreciated. It just can’t. The fact that your brain believes what it’s seeing is something that cannot be conveyed. When enormous setpieces pop up in Astro Bot or when a bullet flies at your head in Superhot VR or your car flies through the air in Trackmania Turbo, you are utterly convinced it’s reality – and all the joy and elation come alongside of it. Genuine fear, thrilling elation, nervous dodging – it doesn’t matter if the visuals are realistic or cartoony, the experience is an unbridled delight.

I’ve pondered these things more and more as my decades have passed and I find myself always returning to the concept of novelty. With so much really just being iterations of the same thing, so rarely are things truly new. I keep trying to think back to when something I’ve played was this impressive. A quick peek of Game Of The Year lists show that Shadow Of Mordor had the nemesis system back in 2014. Portal 2 was rather brilliant in 2011. How many others were sequels? Or sequels of sequels???

Is it possible that VR is the biggest step forward since sprites moved into the 3D realm? I hardly think that’s an overexaggeration. On the downside, I wonder if there’s enough of a flow of games to keep it a viable platform moving forward, but with a few new games in my library, I have a wide variety of experiences:

  • Astro Bot Rescue Mission
  • Superhot VR
  • Blood & Truth
  • Everybody’s Golf VR
  • Wipeout Omega Collection
  • Trackmania Turbo
  • Star Wars: Squadrons
  • Iron Man

What a great roster of titles. Moss, Rez Infinite and Tetris Effect are on the ‘to-buy’ list alongside a few others, With a few more out there, I look forward to a promising future of the platform with support continuing until at least a successor is announced.

Petal Pyraminx Guide

Posted in Algorithms, Blog, Cubing on January 1, 2021 by slateman

This little puzzle isn’t altogether too difficult, but it’s a good-enough challenge. As always, I need a little help to push myself through these and I will inevitably forget it all. For the sake of posterity, here are the instructions I’ve worked with, alongside some help from this tutorial.

There are only really four major steps to solving this puzzle: two on the Pyraminx portion and two on the inner circles. Step 1 is just matching the tips. This is easy. Step 2 gives me trouble sometimes because, unlike a Pyraminx, you can’t just rotate the tips when need be. Here’s what I do:

Get one face. Once done, you will have either all edges solved, 2 wrong (flipped) or 3 wrong. Usually it’s the latter.

Move the 3rd side to the bottom (requiring two turns) / Then do a standard d/d/u/u / Move the 3rd side back.

If you did it right, all will be properly positioned. However, many times you’ll have two edges flipped. Holding them on the left and right, do L/R’/L’/R – then U’/R/U/R’. This is the normal Pyraminx alg.

  1. Situate tri-color tips so they’re all aligned.
  2. Solve the 6 two-sided edges to match those tips.
  3. Solve small inner-circle triangles.
  4. Solve large inner-circle triangles.

The tutorial shows how to swap those large triangles around. It’s not super intuitive for me and this is the hardest step for me. Here’s the timestamp in the video where he discusses this, but he places the swapped large triangles on the top of the front layer, and on the left of the top. You’ll perform this using the right layer of the side facing you. When you do it, this must bring the large triangle you want to swap up with it. If not, something is wrong and it won’t work. In this photo, the triangle is positioned properly.

Up, Circle Right
Down, Circle Left
Up, Circle Right
Down, Circle Right
Up, Circle Left, Down

All the circle rotations are done on the top layer, FYI. Good luck!!!