#the goal of these new AI voices is to sound as realistic and close to the original as possible without any true effort on the user’s part

[fascinationstreetmp3]

i actually hate this whole AI voice cloning thing. even when people are ‘just’ using it for funny jokes w/ famous people— making their voice say things they obviously never said/never will say— it still gives me a really really bad feeling, just like deepfakes/AI face replacement does. and the more these AI models are used and learn, the harder it becomes to tell what’s real and what isn’t

[bluprinttechblogs]

New OpenAI Voice Mode Features and Capabilities

INTRODUCTION

In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, OpenAI has once again pushed the boundaries of human-machine interaction with its latest innovative features. It is an AI voice mode in which one can have conversations with the phone naturally. This eye-catching feature aims to advance human interaction with artificial intelligence by making the interaction realistic and close to natural language.In our article, we will discuss the new OpenAI voice mode features, its use, how it works and how it will influence our lives. Combined with true-life narratives and guest opinions, we will learn why this new addition stimulates the interest of technology geeks and the general population.

Understanding OpenAI Voice Mode Features: Building relations with Artificial Intelligence

The OpenAI voice mode feature that can be considered very progressive is the voice mode of working with Artificial Intelligence. Thus far, the primary forms of AI interaction are written and have hindered realistic conversation. AI voice mode alters this experience since the users can talk with the help of the AI, as they would with a person.Developed using state-of-the-art TTS and speech recognition technologies, this openAI voice mode feature makes your conversations with OpenAI more friendly and alive. They employed paid voiceovers and actual human voices for some answers that are usually boring in text format only. Combined with Whisper from OpenAI, an open-source automatic speech recognition tool, this feature enables users to speak most naturally while ensuring clarity at a very high level.It is not just a matter of convenience but inclusion and the possibility of improving the experience of using a product. Thus, people with disabilities, the elderly, and those who find typing rather cumbersome, would appreciate OpenAI voice mode.Related: What is the Technology behind Artificial Intelligence?  The Technology Behind the OpenAI Voice Mode Text-to-Speech Model FeatureHuman Speech Generation and UnderstandingWell, how was this innovation achieved? OpenAI voice mode uses a text-to-speech model feature that uses sensitive understanding, the latest breakthrough text-to-speech technology for natural human-sounding audio within a few seconds. This model requires a brief human voice sample to produce a convincing, dynamic range of audio outputs.One impressive relevance in the present context seems to be the degree of naturalness that the technology has been able to replicate humans when speaking. This openAI text-to-speech model technique involves features and attributes in the interface, which include tone, pace and inflexion that make the interaction with artificial intelligence more natural. For this OpenAI innovation to understand and interpret communicated content, it applies the Whisper system. This system is very good at transcribing common and natural language and can do so accurately, even in noisy conditions or with heavy accents, which can sometimes confuse similar systems. Using openAI text-to-speech model recognition makes an easy flow of conversation with the AI with no break due to typing and transcription.Why Voice Mode Matters: Voice modes entail easy access and convenience, which is what building a new house proves to be when it comes to accomplishing the goals of the parties involved in designing the house.Application in AccessibilityAnother area of probably the most prominent interaction with openAI Voice Mode will also be the opportunity to enhance the accessibility of disabled individuals. For example, people who have difficulties with moving around or who are blind would have a great deal of problems with employing conventional text-based user interfaces. Voice mode is a more natural, or in other words, less intrusive modality through which these people can engage with technology alowing them to interact with content without needing to read text on a screen.Multi-ApplicationIn an era when you are adopting smart hompe devices and virtual assistants, this openAI text-to-speech model feature may also supplement your daily activities with engaging features. For instance, imagine using a voice to adjust the settings in the house, book appointments, or write an email. Is not integrating voice mode into everyday tasks an enormous achievement? What about intergrating into e-learning platforms to offer audio narration for lessons, making learning more engaging? This is an indication that text-to-Speech model can be used in various economic industries including healthcare, customer services and many other more. Customizable Voices  Consequently, the OpenAI text-to-speech model can provide a variety of voice types and still enable the users to select a particular speaking manner, dialect, or tone. It is beneficial in scenarios such as voice-assisted devices, including virtual assistants or learning systems where a specific voice or intonation is more suited to the activity.  Multi-Language Support The OpenAI text-to-speech model can also work with a few languages to benefit users on the international level. With this feature, users can type their messages in their preferred language, and the AI they are conversing with replies in that specific language with the correct pronunciation. It enhances the system’s capability and relevancy to cultures and geographic locations.  Interactive and Real-Time Responses It is well proven that the OpenAI text-to-speech model applies to real-time conversations. It can efficiently translate text produced by an AI into speech, and the delay in this process is not very noticeable since it helps the conversation to flow naturally. This real-time capability is vital for use in all such applications because time is of the essence when answering queries, responding to customer requests, or operating voice-activated devices.  Personalization and Context Awareness Sophisticated OpenAI text-to-speech models are built with context sensitivity since they change the tone or the speed of the speaking. For instance, Artificial Intelligence might use slow and distinct intonation when introducing a new idea, proving a concept or using a conversational tone during an everyday conversation. The personalization features enable the system to have a more personal feel and allow variations suitable for a given user, thereby improving the feel the user gets when using the system. 

Case Study: Equal Opportunities and Equal Access to Productivity in the Workplace

For clarity, let us consider the case of Sam, a software developer from Michigan who uses a wheelchair. Typing this way for hours could be uncomfortable and a way to reduce his typing efficiency. Thus, after integrating OpenAI voice mode into the daily coding environments, inquiries, or administrative work, Sam proved that the innovation was worthwhile. He further stated, 'This is a breakthrough for someone like me who often finds it physically demanding to type. Voice mode has given me more freedom to work on my terms.'This case shows how OpenAI voice mode could be a force multiplier for professionals, helping them eliminate previously encountered hurdles.

Real-World Applications

Through speech and voice mode, OpenAI offers a horde of features that go beyond basic conversation. This technology creates possibilities for new development in almost every field, starting from the arts and ending in healthcare.1. Creative Industries: A New Tool for StorytellingIn the creative field, OpenAI voice mode could improve the creation and dissemination of content. Voice mode provides live narration of stories, manning characters, or even thinking verbally using AI.For example, Spotify has already started using it to translate podcasts into other languages while maintaining the speaking voice and expressions. This technique will enable new fans and listeners who like a specific type of podcast to discover new works without a podcaster losing the character that defines them. 'Voice mode takes podcasting to the next level. It is like having a conversation with your audience, even when they speak a different language," said Maria Lopez, a prominent podcaster using the OpenAI voice translation feature.2. Healthcare: Enhancing Patient CareIn healthcare delivery, voice mode is necessary as it can help reduce the time spent on patient relations and other administrative work. Doctors can use voice recognition software to dictate into patient records, and the patients can verbally inform an AI that helps in initial or subsequent assessment.Consider the context where an operated person is taking a rest at home. Using this technology, they can speak with an AI voice mode nurse and get an immediate response for their condition and advice without typing anything. This sort of application could help to reduce the load on healthcare facilities as far as everyday work is concerned, as AI can take on this load.3. Education: Transforming Learning ExperienceAs it is now, openAI voice mode innovation in education has the potential to revolutionise learning environments through providing more interactive environments. Frankly, with AI-based voice mode assistants, students can converse in real-time while acquiring knowledge about languages, validating comprehension and improving learning path needs.Using OpenAI voice mode innovation, teachers can focus on other administrative tasks that can be time-consuming, such as grading or attendance and also provide special one-on-one tutoring to students who need it. Also, voice AI can enhance the experience of virtual classes along with the capacity to make learning accessible for students with disability, thereby making education inclusive in contemporary learning.4. Gaming and EntertainmentBased on the new openAI voice mode features, gaming and entertainment are transforming by providing more interaction and hang. In gaming, voice AI lets players use their voices in real-time conversations with game characters to control game outcomes using their voices and guide them through a game without requiring a controller or joystick. It makes it more realistic and affords the players a specific relationship to the game, which is missing in other games.In addition to gaming, people are employing voice AI characters in immersive stories and virtual reality so viewers interact with characters by speaking to them concerning the flow of the events. With the incremental developments of voice technology, active viewing or listening and active participation in entertainment end up mixing with more exciting potential for game designers and other entertainment producers.Related: What is Character AI?

User Testimonials: Real-World Impact

People in diverse fields, such as designers, artists, and disabled persons, respond to it as a technology that has changed their interaction with AI. For example, many developers unable to move around the office have reported that voice mode improves their work and comfort, allowing them to perform several tasks much more effectively. Some creative workers who tested the program have noted possible functions of the tool to help reduce time spent on content creation and improve the flow of stories through AI conversations.These real-world experiences explain the applicability and impact of the voice mode and acknowledge that every industry can benefit from its application to increase productivity and enhance accessibility. By sharing these comments, other users can confirm the practical improvements from adopting this technology and the outlined advantages.

A Case for Human-Centered AI Voice Design

For all the potential that OpenAI voice mode offers, there is a discussion about human-centred AI. Because these AI systems are becoming a part of society and are applied in everyday life, ensure that the tools are ethical and safe.OpenAI has understood that its voice mode features have inherent risks, that can be used by criminals or terrorists. The common risk is when an enemy impersonates or uses it fraudulently. OpenAI has capped the innovation utility to voice chat and specific professional voice actors to handle such an issue. The above approach aligns with OpenAI mission to build safe artificial intelligence. 

The Future of AI Conversations: What is Next?

Thus, OpenAI voice mode innovation is only the beginning, and the future undoubtedly holds many more advanced developments in this field. As the concept of AI develops, one can predict new updates and how they will advance its interactions. Multimodal AI systems capable of responding and text recognition, voice, and visual inputs are already in development, and voice mode is a stepping stone toward that future.As for the future, OpenAI voice mode innovation can open even more groundbreaking new opportunities in artificially intelligent assistants. Let me elaborate by thinking about an AI system that not only remembers what kind of topics you have discussed earlier but also adjusts its way of speaking according to your preferences and moods, besides the capability of providing you with appropriate emotional support at any given moment.Dr Jonathan Rhee, an AI researcher focusing on human-computer interaction, says they will know the full potential when the AI voice mode goes beyond the performance of transactions to emotions. ‘The AI will be capable not only of comprehending the message being conveyed but how it is conveyed.’

Conclusion: Voice Mode and Changes That Concern the Interaction between Humans and AI

OpenAI voice mode has emerged as an example of how AI technology is rapidly developing. Making interactions between humans and AI more natural and less complicated, OpenAI is recovering the nature of conversations between humans and machines.The uses of Voice mode in making things more accessible, creating, and in health care all point to how Voice mode can make lives and work better in tangible ways. With that said, these new possibilities open up new ethical questions to address as the technology advances.Finally, OpenAI voice mode is essentially the vision of the future where people will freely communicate with machines, offering new opportunities for innovation while pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve. It is one way of realising that the future of AI is not only in the palms of our hands but equally in our mouths. Read the full article

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Cassell Cynic

@hectabdr @hectab For my Dragon Raja Bestie! :D A Gift Fic

These two are his idea. I just loved the idea.

“The weather is a balmy 74 degrees and sunny, low humidity and perfect for just hanging out and going for a walk in the lovely city parks of Chicago and now we’re going to a selection of some of Coltrane’s finest jazz compilations....”

On the East Lawn of the Cassell College Campus people were indeed out and about in the sun. The breeze ruffled the skirts of the girls carrying books and laughing to themselves. They cast glances his way and smirked, looking down at him with haughty eyes while he lay on a bench with his sunglasses over his eyes. Somewhere on site, the bells tolled the hour. 2 pm. It was time for afternoon classes to start.

In other words, time for a nap.

He lay on the bench with John Coltrane’s sultry saxophone in his ears. He studied how this man could weave such a delightfully heart pulling melody. Now there was a true genius, able to hone a natural craft into such perfection and gift it to the world for free listening.

But right when the music had reached its natural emotional zenith, it suddenly cut off.

“Nathan Phillips. I know you’re avoiding me.”

His mood went from euphoric to crashing down to the depths of hell. He rolled his eyes behind his dark glasses. “And yet... here we are...”

Norma, the voice of Cassell College’s AI spoke through his headphones. “You haven’t attended a single class this semester...”

“You mispronounced year.”

“The professors are getting irritated...”

“Did you hack an online radio station just to talk to me? Norma... I’m flattered.”

“They’re willing to give you a chance if you complete an internship...”

“A chance to do... what exactly?” Nathan spread out his hands. “It needs to be better than listening to jazz on sunny afternoon, or it’s a no from me.”

Norma was silent for several seconds.

Nathan Phillips smirked. “Didn’t think so...”

“Cassell College has a main mission, to slay dragons. If you’re not here for that, what are you here for?” Norma asked.

Nathan opened his eyes behind his glasses. “I think you should be asking that question of all the other students going to class. Because I guarantee you that Dragonslaying isn’t it. I mean just think about it? How many students here really give a rat’s ass about saving the world from dragons? I’m serious. Answer the question.”

“The answers can vary but that doesn’t change the goal of the institution. This was plainly told to you when you enrolled.”

Nathan Phillips nodded his head. “Oh yeah, and I bought into it until I was Ranked C on me 3E exam. I don’t resonate worth a damn with dragons. I’m barely above the maintenance personnel in that regard.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of marijuana. He rolled it in paper and lit it.

“Smoking is prohibited on school grounds.”

“I know. That’s why I’m doing it. So, what are you going to do? Kick me out? I listened to the enrollment lecture. You don’t kick out students. They get suspended or drop out and have their memories wiped. If you kick me out for this blunt, that will be my greatest accomplishment as a C rank.” 

Norma made a noise and his eyes widened. “Did you just sigh? Wow, you are realistic. So... just out of curiosity, what is the mission?”

“If you’re not going to accept, there’s no point in telling you.” Norma replied.

“This conversation is over then? It was just getting interesting. Oh well. But if you want to know the answer to your question of why I’m here... you should ask my parents.” He blew out a purple haze into the sky. “They’re the ones who sent me here. They scrimped and saved to send me here. They could have bought me a house. Two houses. A nice car. All that. But no, they sent me here. Just so they could say they had a son go to Cassell. That’s it. To prove their bloodlines weren’t trash. But they were wrong... they are trash.”

“That’s all I’m here for, Norma. I’m here to be here. That’s where my obligations end. I’ll stay here until the money runs out. Enjoy myself. And then when the money runs out, I’ll drop and have my memory wiped. Go on with my life. And...” He paused to draw on the blunt. “I will have a life. Some star dragonslayer will save the world from dragons while I’m having the time of my life, on the bench, smoking Mary Jane. Do you have any objections?”

Norma was silent for several seconds. “None. I’ll return you to your jazz.”

John Coltrane returned to his ears and Nathan Phillips smiled to himself and relaxed into the buzz in his brain. There was nothing wrong with a pointless life.

 If he learned anything from Cassell, it was this.

He pulled out a notebook and opened it. Inside were all sorts of fantasies of what he would like to be told on dropping out. It wasn’t enough to just erase someone’s memories. New memories would have to replace them to explain the missing years. It could be literally anything.

Maybe he was someone who witnessed a mob hit and was living undercover in the witness protection program. Or maybe he was a secret agent in a UFO division and he’d be kidnapped off world by aliens. He always came up with his best work when he was high as a kite. This time, he was an aspiring artist on the run from a brutal dictator and taking refuge in Chicago. He wrote down the scenario quickly before he forgot it. 

All the other students were in class, except for him, sitting on the bench writing down about how his paintings were renowned all over the world until a brutal dictator... which dictator? “Uh... Geez I don’t know.”

The sound of heels clicking on the pavement caught his attention. He turned bleary eyed to the vision of a girl walking up to him, arms swinging, eyes narrowed. He’d seen her before but couldn’t remember where. She overshadowed him and looked up. Her head blocked out the sun and he couldn’t see her face. “Um... shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Uh, no! No class! I was supposed to be on assignment but my PARTNER is a lazy ass who won’t show up.” She growled.

Nathan lifted his sunglasses over red rimmed eyes. She was Asian but tall, only an inch from 6 feet. Her muscles nearly popped from her school uniform. He wasn’t sure if it was the weed messing with his head but he was pretty sure this woman could benchpress more than he weighed. “Well... that sucks.”

“Yeah, it does!” She bent over until her face was an inch from his, blinking with wide indignant eyes. “You shouldn’t be allowed to to bring down the grades of other students! I didn’t come here to be brought down by you!”

“Me?”

“Yes! You! My partner!”

“Wait... you’re... Oh right! You’re Hana... Hana...” He snapped his fingers.

“Sato, Hana Sato and don’t snap your fingers at me or I’ll snap them off!” She grabbed his wrist.

“Right... the A ranked girl.” He lowered his glasses back over his eyes. “Well, this wasn’t my decision to be your partner. You should blame the people at fault. It’s probably Norma. She’s the one who pinged me earlier about it. Tell her to get a new partner for you. Should take a hot minute.”

Hana scowled at him. “If I could have anyone else for a partner I would. But I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because they all suck! They’re all terrible! All they want to do is talk about boys and parties and stupid things like that! I can’t stand those people!”

“I’m not any better. Just do the mission by yourself.” He pulled his hand out of her grip. 

“I can’t. They already said its a two person mission.”

Nathan gave an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders. “Pay someone.”

“They said it had to be you.” She sat next to him on the bench.

Nathan snorted and started laughing. “Wow. They are really desperate.”

“I’m glad you think bringing down my whole year is funny.” Her cheeks were red and her eyes were narrowed with frustration and anger.

“I’m not bringing down your year! I’m laughing because they want me to care so bad that they’d send this super powerful, gorgeous girl and chain her to me and expect me to do something. It’s like they all got together and said ‘Ha! A pretty girl, now he’ll give a shit.’” He laughed loud. Marijuana always made him giggly. “They’re the evil ones. If you care about your grade... then all I can tell you is stop caring.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re a C-rank. You don’t have anything to lose.”

“Just... find another partner.” Nathan said, staring at her. He wondered why she was still here.

She sighed, looking away from him, her ponytail falling over her shoulder. “I can’t. No one will work with me. I kind of... got put on a hit list after I punched the lead dancer of the White Skirt’s Club and knocked her out right before a performance.”

“Pics or it didn’t happen.” 

Much to his shock she pulled out her phone and showed a picture. It wasn’t taken by her, but by another student as proof that Hana had ruined the Student Union performance. 

“Heh. Sorry I missed it.”

Hana closed the app. “I didn’t think it was a big deal. She had an understudy but... uh... yeah, I was blacklisted after that. I don't’ care. I work fine on my own. But now they insisted we be partners and I literally have no alternative.”

“Hey...”

She looked down at him. “What?” 

“You always have the choice to do nothing. I haven’t done a thing since I got here.” He laid back on the bench as though to demonstrate. “Feel free to join me.”

[commhunter736]

True Crime Pc Game Download

Real Gangster Crime! Immersive Open-world action-adventure shooting game for desktop! Download and play free on PC! Share with and play with friends! Experience fast-paced narrative-driven game straight from your computer!

Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews,.

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Here are the top free Detective games for PC for 2020, including Demetrios: The Big Cynical Adventure, The Wisbey Mystery, Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches, and more. Download only unlimited full version fun games online and play offline on your Windows 7/10/8 desktop or laptop computer. Fast and secure game downloads.

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True Crime New York City Pc Game Download

Luxoflux invites grown-up players back for another game of 'good cop (or) bad cop' in this follow-up to 2003's L.A.-based action-adventure. As in the original True Crime, players take the role of an unorthodox law enforcement officer, and by their actions and in-game choices, determine the character's morality as they play through the story. In True Crime: New York City, the hero is a former gang member named Marcus Reed, who uses his hard-knocks schooling to powerful effect in the gritty underworld of the Big Apple. As in Streets of L.A., New York City missions play out in freely-roamed, GTA3-style environments, stocked with plenty to see and do even when Marcus isn't working towards a specific mission goal. Key characters are voiced by accomplished screen actors, including Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne, and Mickey Rourke, with Marcus Reed portrayed by Avery Waddell.

Click the 'Install Game' button to initiate the file download and get compact download launcher. Locate the executable file in your local folder and begin the launcher to install your desired game. View all 52 True Crime Streets of L.A.

True Crime NYC is the sequel to True Crime: Streets of LA. It's also attempting a huge bite out of Grand Theft Auto's target audience. It's gritty, realistic (sort of), and meant to bring you right into the seedy underbelly of a New York crime drama. Does it do all this?

Nope, no, nada, sorry, but I digress. The rendering of New York City is incredible. A lot of detail and painstaking care went into making every street and alley look authentic. From Times Square to the depths of Harlem, everything is VERY close to reality. As a tour program this game excels, but I'm betting you're hoping for a lot more than a tour.

Before I get to what's wrong with this game, let me focus on what's right. It's a much shorter list. The graphics are quality, with features drawing from the latest in pixel shading, high polygon count character models and impressive motion capture, topped off with a gorgeous depiction of the big city that leaves a good taste in your mouth. You can spend a fair amount of time enjoying the scenery and getting lost in the mix. Another point for True Crime: the voice acting. They have spared no expense to obtain talent, Laurence Fishburne, Christopher Walken and many others top the list of grade-A voice acting for this game's gritty plot. When I first heard the voice of a mysterious officer bark out orders and explain my next mission in Christopher Walken's creepy cadence, I was very much caught in the moment. On a further note, the audio in this game is not lacking. Sound effects are crisp and believable for the most part, the soundtrack is as varied as you could ever hope for. Bouncing from White Zombie to De La Soul to The Ramones had me guessing that they wanted to avoid the rap-only crowd, though there is a large share of that too.

The plot, in case you're wondering, is you taking the role of Marcus Reed, a down and dirty gangster thug who has embraced the straight and narrow and become a police officer. Although he can still fight and play dirty, he's out to solve a few mysteries and clean up the town. This is mostly achieved by driving around (or by subway, or walking, but, unlike the real NYC, driving is preferable) and catching calls on the radio for random crimes. There is an interesting amount of variety in the crimes, but you soon reach the end of the cycle and bust your 34th counterfeit syndicate and your 23rd serial rapist and the regular missions soon get old. There is a larger plot to follow, however, and it is slightly more interesting. You follow a series of clues and leads to interrogate increasingly more important thugs. The interrogation mini-game is a fun little past-time to beat, or reason, information out of people. You're soon turned onto a mission that involves a mole from inside the precinct.

Ultimately, this plot has been done to death so many times on so many cop dramas that it's difficult to get engaged. This is just the beginning of where the game goes downhill. Obviously, high production values went into this game, but as is so often the case lately, they missed the mark in some very key areas. The controls for one. Amd display driver whql 8.10. I have rarely seen a more convoluted control system for PC.

I'll be the first to admit that this was originally for console, but it seems that barely a token effort was made to translate the commands to a keyboard layout. My fingers got a workout hopping all over the keyboard for the numerous and poorly constructed commands. If you're thinking that a gamepad might fix all this, nix that idea too. My Logitech PS2 Styled PC gamepad looked like a perfect match for this game, alas it was barely configurable and did not coordinate to the multiple styles of game play, you could set it up for driving, but not running, or vice versa, but its limitations soon had me back on the keyboard.

After I had adapted to the controls somewhat, the physics had me somewhat at a loss. Keeping in mind that this is not a driving simulation, at its core, I don't expect much more than doughy arcade style driving. Labtec speakers drivers download. But nothing handled as I expected, the cars were sloppy, sometimes you lightly skidded off the front end of a fire truck, other times being brushed by a motorcycle had you recoiling and turning 360's while your perpetrator was getting further and further away. The fighting system was convoluted as well, with a light attack, a heavy attack, a grab attack that was also the way to frisk people, which is also the button to arrest people, plus the buttons to put away your gun, pull it back out, fire a warning shot, flash your badge, tackle someone, all while trying to keep the squirrelly camera centered behind you (which it rarely does well).

In the graphics department there were glitches, clipping into walls, as well as criminals falling through solid concrete and waiting in the ether for you to attempt, in vain, to arrest them. At one point I was forced to kill a non-lethal perp by shooting him in the foot, just to end the mission. Top this off with some frame lag and a whack targeting system, and you can sense my mounting frustration. You'll often find yourself tackling air, punching civilians and firing point blank at walls. There were also numerous points where the textures for multiple guns seems to be missing, and your Uzi,s or pistol would appear as a white textureless shape.

True Crime Pc Game Free Download

In a GTA-styled attempt to test the limits of my virtual city, I shot an arsonist, grabbed his flamethrower and took out 30 people before highjacking a public bus and driving over half the residents of the Lower East Side. I finished up with some cop killing. reckless driving and traffic accidents. I was being hunted by every cop in the city and identified as a rogue cop who was 'mentally unstable,' according to the radio. Assured of my own impending death, I ran to and fro waiting for the inevitable. Which never came. I made a break through the park and dived into the bay and swam around for 2-3 minutes. Upon returning to shore my 'criminal' rating had gone back down and I was back to being boy hero. Realism indeed. In another game glitch, I began a mission to follow a motorcycle courier on a bike of my own for an exciting chase, but after trying 20 times to follow him, he wrecked within two blocks almost every time. Finally I just tracked him down on foot after he fell and interrogated him, wondering why I even got on the motorcycle. It's this kind of unfinished and unpolished gameplay that brings this gaming experience to its knees. I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters, the city, the law; nothing in this game draws you in efficiently enough to make you want to finish it.

The controls need work, the engine needs work, the collision detection needs work, the AI needs serious work, all in all I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this was a beta. A brief look at the customer support page for Activision also shows that numerous glitches and problems were had by users of all consoles. Overall, a well-presented, high-budget flop. Advanced systemcare ultimate 7 crack. The world doesn't ever need another World War 2 game but developers keep making them, which I guess is the same reason they keep trying to capitalize on the awesome profits of Grand Theft Auto. But a bigger budget does not make a better game.

True Crime New York City Pc Game Download

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[esonetwork]

Jexi Review: Smartphone Gone Rogue

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/jexi-review-smartphone-gone-rogue/

Jexi Review: Smartphone Gone Rogue

Jexi Starring: Adam Devine, Alexandra Shipp, Ron Funches, Rose Byrne Directed by: Jon Lucas and Scott More Rated: R

Our phones are the gateway to everything: texting, maps, music, social media. You name it, the phone is our lifeline. Jexi asks the question of what happens when we become too dependent on our phones and forget to live our lives?

Directed by Jon Lucas and Scott More (Bad Moms, Office Christmas Party) Jexi is the story of a guy named Phil who has never been able to form a real connection. Since childhood, Phil has had a screen placed in front of him whenever things got difficult. His parents were uninterested in talking to him when life was complicated, so they gave him their phones as a source of entertainment. This leads to an addiction for Phil in adulthood as he forgoes any kind of social life just so he can stay in his apartment on his phone every night. In this area, Jexi does offer insightful social commentary. Do we all forget to live our lives because of our tiny phone screens beckoning us to keep scrolling?

After a chance encounter with a bike shop owner, Phil’s phone breaks and he frantically buys a new one with an artificial intelligence system called Jexi. Just like that, any semblance of interesting commentary this movie once had goes away. Jexi is a crass AI whose goal is to help Phil get out and live a better life, but it is really destroying his life. Naturally, chaos ensues in each and every scene.

The screenplay for Jexi is just a hot mess. It’s a cheap knock-off of Spike Jonze’s Her with middle school humor. Is it a social commentary or an off-the-wall comedy? Jexi can’t quite figure out what it’s trying to achieve when half of the time it feels like a commentary on society’s smartphone addiction and the other half it feels like a cut-for-time SNL skit. Each act becomes more and more tonally inconsistent with every passing moment. In the first act, Jexi is a loudmouth AI who is there to shake up Phil’s life! In the second, Jexi helps Phil live his life as the two become close friends! Then the third act hits and it’s like watching another movie. I’ll save you the spoilers (if you really want to see this) but it feels like Jexi is 3 totally different characters throughout the film. All 3 acts lead to a resolution that is way too convenient compared to the insane situations the audience has to sit through and watch.

Adam Devine is a funny actor who can carry a movie. In many ways, he’s reminiscent of Jack Black. He plays Phil with an anxious and humorous edge, but his character is so dumb. It’s bothersome that we’re supposed to believe this character could be a news reporter when he’s this stupid. His lack of smarts is played for comedic purposes, but no one would be this clueless about a phone! Here are some things he could have done to prevent this whole movie from happening.

Turn his phone on silent so Jexi would never speak again

Switch brands and buy an iPhone/Samsung

Turn off the operating system. You don’t need Siri or Alexa for your phone to work

Throw the phone in water

Go back to a landline

These are all perfectly viable options when a phone threatens your life. The bottom line is, it can be flat out painful to watch Phil be so oblivious to all of his options. No one acts that way in reality. Nothing about his character behaves realistically when it comes to modern technology.

Alexandra Shipp is Cate, the free-spirited bike shop owner who tries to help show Phil how to get out and live his life. Her charming firefighter ex-fiancè Brody (Justin Hartley) is a scene-stealer even with the very little amount of screen time he gets.

Rose Byrne voices the artificial intelligence system Jexi. Almost everything she says is extremely foul-mouthed. There are some genuinely funny moments between Jexi and Phil though. Rose Byrne does a convincing job of sounding like a monotone OS while saying outlandish statements at the same time.

As I walked out of Jexi, I thought about the way Phil had been a metaphorical prisoner of a phone his whole life. The film takes an interesting leap with him becoming a literal prisoner of Jexi. Perhaps, the filmmakers were trying to make a statement of how ridiculous everyone looks being constantly chained to their phones in today’s world. I just wish the film itself had a better way of making that statement. Jexi offers an interesting premise that is not executed properly. Steer clear of this sinister smartphone story filled with tonal inconsistencies, cheap humor, and unbelievable storytelling.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

NHL 20 Review - Big Hit

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/nhl-20-review-big-hit/

NHL 20 Review - Big Hit

With its new commentary team and updated presentation package, NHL 20 represents the franchise’s biggest shakeup in years–and they’re mostly positive changes. Combined with excellent controls, fluid gameplay, numerous fun and engaging different modes to play, a fine attention to detail and appreciation for hockey culture, NHL 20 is a step forward that is generally excellent.

The biggest change for NHL 20 is its broadcast package. It is almost completely different this year, and the changes–which span commentary, UI, and graphics–are mostly positive but not always for the better. Commentators Mike “Doc” Emerick and Eddie Olczyk are out, while nearly the entirety of the NBC Sports Network license package, including live-action sequences, are gone, too. It’s a jarring change, as Emerick and Olczyk have been the voice of EA’s NHL games since NHL 15.

The new commentators are Canadian sports radio personality James Cybulski and former player and current rinkside analyst Ray Ferarro. They do a mostly adept job at calling plays with style, flair, and personality, and their back-and-forth banter succeeds at capturing the essence of hockey culture with hockey IQ and knack. Some commentary lines are repeated too often, however, and Cybulski in particular sounds at times like he is hamming it up and acting like every game is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Outside of the new commentary team, NHL 20’s updated broadcast presentation includes more colorful and dynamic graphics that display important information in more eye-catching ways. In addition to brighter colors and sharper fonts, NHL 20 introduces more dramatic, slow-motion highlights of goal scores, as well as Overwatch-style “Play of the Period” and “Play of the Game” highlights. These moments do a good job at breaking down key plays, and, with their unique angles and close-ups, provide nice moments to sit back and revel in your achievements.

Part of this updated broadcast package is a new location for the score clock, which is the only major misstep. It’s now at the bottom of the screen compared to the top-left in last year’s game–and it cannot be moved in the Settings. The new score clock location opens up more space on the screen for action, but I found it positively difficult to quickly and easily see the important information like time left in the game, penalty minutes, and other datapoints while simultaneously keeping my eyes on the action. It’s a baffling choice, especially considering many of NHL 20’s various other modes keep the score clock where it was. This inconsistency worsens the experience, as you have to train your eyes in multiple ways depending on which mode you’re playing.

Authentic Hockey

NHL 20 succeeds the most with excellent, tight controls that give you the freedom to execute basically any hockey move you can think of. There are also changes to animations and skating mechanics that make the game appear more lifelike. Building off what was already the franchise’s best foot forward with NHL 19, this year’s entry feels faster and more fluid with better animations that more realistically depict important transitional moments like catching a pass and getting intro stride at a quicker pace. Overall, the on-ice gameplay feels faster and more true to the real NHL experience.

There are new shot animations as well, which are contextual in nature and better represent what a shot might look like from a particular part of the ice and depending on angles, power, speed, specific player attributes, and more. In NHL 19, your player would oftentimes still complete the shot animation even if the puck never got to them, which looked very strange, but that rarely happens this year. NHL 20 also introduces “Signature Shots” for a number of the league’s best players; one of these is P.K. Subban’s booming slapshot and Alex Ovechkin’s electric one-timer. It’s a treat to see player-specific animations in NHL 20, and it’s yet another part of the way NHL 20 faithfully represents the real NHL experience. Additionally, goalie AI appears to be smarter this year, with netminders giving up fewer soft rebounds and making generally smarter decisions during important scenarios.

NHL 20’s in-game attention to detail and careful consideration of the sport is astounding. Players look and react as you’d expect them to on a TV broadcast, down to the way players subtly peek back toward their teammates during a face-off to the sharp crackle of skates gliding over outdoor pond ice. On the outdoor rinks, the crimson red glow of sunset over the pond is something to behold. On the ice, the physics system is so realistically presented that I found myself wincing after big open-ice hits.

Unfortunately, NHL 20 doesn’t do much in the area of improving player models. In fact, the character models for players, referees, and the crowd appear largely unchanged from last year. When the replay camera zooms in on fans on the glass, you might be wondering what kind of time vacuum the NHL series exists in for people to never age or look at all different from year to year.

Dirty Dangles

The NHL series is known for its tight, precise controls, and this level of excellence continues with NHL 20. No matter what control setup you’re using, the controls allow for a complete command of your player with astounding simplicity and a lot of depth at the same time. Puck possession and clever play-making are paramount in NHL 20, and the controls never fail to provide you with many different options to keep the puck, get around defenders, make the extra pass, and light the lamp. You have the freedom to play with as much creativity as you want. The game also features a slick and smart on-ice trainer that reacts to how you’re playing and provides dynamic feedback that, for the most part, helps you improve your game.

There is such a level of fine precision with the controls that you can determine the specific angle of a poke-check or toe-drag the puck at just the right time to open space up to make a shot on goal. In essence, the controller’s analog sticks feel like an extension of your on-ice stick. The excellent baseline controls stand out even more once you move on to trying out more more advanced techniques. It takes time and practice to learn the dirtiest dangles the game has to offer, but it’s deeply rewarding to perform spins and dekes that together combine to give you ample opportunities to play with style and pizzazz.

In addition to the standard hockey simulation, NHL 20 has an abundance of arcade-style modes. The pond hockey mode, Ones–which sees three players on a small, outdoor rink competing against each other–introduces four new locations, including a rink set on a secluded farm and another inspired by the Rideau Canal in Canada. These new locations, in addition to weather effects like snow coming down during games, make Ones an even more authentic and holistically representative depiction of the outdoor hockey experience.

Ones is lots of fun with its stripped-down, back-to-basics recreation of outdoor hockey with fast-paced play and lots of goals. Outside of the new locations, the biggest change for Ones is the introduction of offline play for couch co-op, and this is a very welcome addition after last year’s game left it out in a head-scratching move.

The Threes mode, meanwhile, remains NHL’s flashiest and wackiest mode with completely unhinged commentary, mascots lacing it up, lots of goals, and big hits. It’s the mode I found myself coming back to the most due in part to its quick games relative to the standard simulation mode and constant progression rewards in every game played.

The social hub, World of Chel, returns with NHL 20 with some noteworthy updates. The biggest introduction is the “Eliminator” mode, which is NHL’s spin on battle royale. You can go it alone in Ones or team up with two others in Threes to try to survive four consecutive rounds in a bracket to win the tournament. It’s a thrilling, incredibly challenging, high-stakes challenge that, like the battle royale games it’s inspired by, encourage you to keep coming back and improve your skills.

There is a robust character-creator and you earn XP for everything you do across all of World of Chel’s modes. It’s rewarding to invest in your character and know that, whatever mode in World of Chel you’re playing, you’re working towards growing your character with meaningful advancements like new player traits, in addition to nice extras like cosmetic gear. New for World of Chel with NHL 20 are weekly challenges that track your performance and reward you with cosmetics around a particular theme. For example, the launch-week theme is NHL 94, so you can earn all kinds of themed cosmetics like jerseys and other gear. I anticipate coming back regularly.

Elsewhere in NHL 20, the career-minded Be A Pro remains a satisfying and rewarding ride to take as you start your character from the ground floor and build them into a superstar, though there are no noteworthy updates to speak of this year. Franchise, meanwhile, features a new system that gives you multiple team coaches who have influence on the direction of your team today and in the future. The system, which also includes a light conversation mechanic where you can gauge the morale and interest of your coaches, adds a further level of strategy to the already robust Franchise mode that helps you feel like you’re really the GM of a pro team. Franchise also introduces a trade-finder system that makes it less laborious to find and make trades.

Ultimate Team returns as well, and its noteworthy addition is the introduction of Squad Battles. These function the same way they do in Madden and FIFA where you go up against HUT squads created by other players or, after launch, sports stars and celebrities. Hockey Ultimate Team is all about grinding to collect new cards, and it remains a fun experience to build a fantasy team comprised of legends and current stars alike, and compete against others.

NHL 20 successfully captures the ice hockey experience from the ponds to big games under the bright lights, with a fine attention to detail and simple yet deep controls that are best-in-class. Once you get over the shock of Eddie and Doc being out of the game, the new commentary team do an adept job of providing informative and playful banter, while the game’s multitude of varied modes each have their own distinct feel and appeal that go a long way to make NHL 20 an excellent representation of hockey culture across the board.

Source : Gamesport

[annbrighthaus-blog]

At the recent Google I/O conference, the tech giant unveiled some upcoming technology and updates to existing applications to the awe of attendees. Some of the new features were met with approval, while others left a creepy vibe among conference goers. The most notable new tech, Duplex, is on everybody’s mind as the conference let out and media outlets took to their keyboards to report on this unique and somewhat questionable approach to artificial intelligence. Here’s what we know.

Real Human Calling

The basis for the latest AI update, Duplex, is that it mimics a real human voice. This is also where critics are having a hard time, specifically with the ethics of it all. In the past, virtual assistants, like Alexa and Siri have been real-ish, but certainly not real enough to fool a human into thinking they’re conversing with another human. This latest Google update will change everything, and Google is taking some flak for it.

The app is reportedly able to make calls for users, booking hotels, making restaurant reservations, or booking appointments at a hair salon. It answers questions, sets scheduling and asks questions about hours of operation, so you don’t have to. This could be a game changer for those who are otherwise unable to make these calls themselves, like the deaf population, but it also has some unsettling consequences.

Not only can this new tech make reservations and ask questions, it uses real human colloquialisms, and sounds, like “um, and nuh-uh” It thanks callers before offering a closing goodbye and varies in tone and pitch to mimic a real human voice. This AI is so life like that it could potentially fool a human into thinking they’re speaking with another human. The problem? This opens a whole new can of worms for crime, identity theft, and miscommunication. So, while the argument of who has to order the pizza this time around is finally solved, there are some not so exciting implications which have risen out of the latest Google Assistant update.

The Online Culture

When the ability to order food and products online became available, the world saw a huge influx of ecommerce. Social anxieties, convenience and other reasoning fuel the desire for millions to avoid speaking to real people when making appointments, ordering food, or shopping for products. The age of the “human touch” when it comes to retail seems to be unimportant to many, as they prefer the anonymity and at home capabilities of ecommerce. This latest development by Google will encourage this “shut-in” lifestyle, offering users the ability to never need to speak on the phone again. Between text, online options, and now Duplex, human beings may very well never need to have a human interaction again when it comes to making appointments and ordering products or services. This brings into question how healthy this latest tech will be for its users and whether it will be supported by mental health professionals and doctors around the world.

How Believable is the New AI?

The goal of Google’s AI has always been natural communication, and this latest update seems to have nailed it. However, it won’t be able to make small talk the way a human would with another human. Some questions or terms will be lost, and without a human to coach the AI, it could fail to achieve what a user is aiming for. Unfortunately, once a call is made, there’s nothing the user can do to support the AI, as each call is made from an alternative number with the only voice on the other end being that of Google Assistant. There will be a support center in user with human employees who take over the call if AI gets lost of shuts down due to unforeseen communication errors. So, there is a limit to what the new technology can do; but is it enough to safeguard users from being deceived?

In tests demonstrated before a live audience at this year’s conference, listeners watched as Duplex was used to communicate with a business, coming across so human that the person on the other hand referred to the AI as “man” and “sir.” The questions stands, could this be a problem for police and other protective services that are trying to track? That’s something Google will likely have to hash out with government officials in their efforts to stay on top of the tech game.

Potential for Change

These latest Google developments could mean big changes for competitors in the near future as well, as Siri and Alexa struggle to keep up with Google who has begun to break apart from the crowd in the latest tech race. This year looks like it’s going to be a close game for Apple, Google, Amazon, and other tech giants who want to be known as the best.

In recent reports, Google Assistant and Alexa were placed first in a variety of AI related challenges around the home. This is due in part to the Google Home experience, which Apple has yet to grasp. While Siri may be one of the better known and most used forms of AI around the world, it may soon be left in the dust if Apple doesn’t begin picking up the pace set out by its competitors. Does this mean Apple should get on board with a new and more realistic Siri? That all depends on how well received these latest Duplex attempts by Google are. It might be an avenue better left unexplored if critics have anything to say on the matter.

[abckidstvyara]

Lobe’s ridiculously simple machine learning platform aims to empower non-technical creators

Lobe’s ridiculously simple machine learning platform aims to empower non-technical creators

Machine learning may be the tool de jour for everything from particle physics to recreating the human voice, but it’s not exactly the easiest field to get into. Despite the complexities of video editing and sound design, we have UIs that let even a curious kid dabble in them — why not with machine learning? That’s the goal of Lobe, a startup and platform that genuinely seems to have made AI models as simple to put together as LEGO bricks.

I talked with Mike Matas, one of Lobe’s co-founders and the designer behind many a popular digital interface, about the platform and his motivations for creating it.

“There’s been a lot of situations where people have kind of thought about AI and have these cool ideas, but they can’t execute them,” he said. “So those ideas just like shed, unless you have access to an AI team.”

This happened to him, too, he explained.

“I started researching because I wanted to see if I could use it myself. And there’s this hard to break through veneer of words and frameworks and mathematics — but once you get through that the concepts are actually really intuitive. In fact even more intuitive than regular programming, because you’re teaching the machine like you teach a person.”

But like the hard shell of jargon, existing tools were also rough on the edges — powerful and functional, but much more like learning a development environment than playing around in Photoshop or Logic.

“You need to know how to piece these things together, there are lots of things you need to download. I’m one of those people who if I have to do a lot of work, download a bunch of frameworks, I just give up,” he said. “So as a UI designer I saw the opportunity to take something that’s really complicated and reframe it in a way that’s understandable.”

Lobe, which Matas created with his co-founders Markus Beissinger and Adam Menges, takes the concepts of machine learning, things like feature extraction and labeling, and puts them in a simple, intuitive visual interface. As demonstrated in a video tour of the platform, you can make an app that recognizes hand gestures and matches them to emoji without ever seeing a line of code, let alone writing one. All the relevant information is there, and you can drill down to the nitty gritty if you want, but you don’t have to. The ease and speed with which new applications can be designed and experimented with could open up the field to people who see the potential of the tools but lack the technical know-how.

He compared the situation to the early days of PCs, when computer scientists and engineers were the only ones who knew how to operate them. “They were the only people able to use them, so they were they only people able to come up with ideas about how to use them,” he said. But by the late ’80s, computers had been transformed into creative tools, largely because of improvements to the UI.

Matas expects a similar flood of applications, even beyond the many we’ve already seen, as the barrier to entry drops.

“People outside the data science community are going to think about how to apply this to their field,” he said, and unlike before, they’ll be able to create a working model themselves.

A raft of examples on the site show how a few simple modules can give rise to all kinds of interesting applications: reading lips, tracking positions, understanding gestures, generating realistic flower petals. Why not? You need data to feed the system, of course, but doing something novel with it is no longer the hard part.

And in keeping with the machine learning community’s commitment to openness and sharing, Lobe models aren’t some proprietary thing you can only operate on the site or via the API. “Architecturally we’re built on top of open standards like Tensorflow,” Matas said. Do the training on Lobe, test it and tweak it on Lobe, then compile it down to whatever platform you want and take it to go.

Right now the site is in closed beta. “We’ve been overwhelmed with responses, so clearly it’s resonating with people,” Matas said. “We’re going to slowly let people in, it’s going to start pretty small. I hope we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”

[zydrateacademy]

Review - Ghost Recon: Wildlands

I have something of a mixed relationship with GRW. I hated damn near every second of the open beta they hosted. The vehicle controls are some of the worst parts of the game and sadly they comprise of a large portion of the game. Adding to that, the textures came and went as they damn well pleased, turning my roads into a muddy, blocky and clipping mess while the game itself stuttered with extremely low levels of frames per second. Thankfully the graphical issues were fixed (with some tweaking on the full release, apparently I cannot go above medium textures without stressing my computer out, but high on everything), some other things... really weren’t. Don’t get me wrong, this game has plenty of merit that are simply flanked by the occasional irritation and I’ll get into them both.

We begin as “Nomad”, the code name for a fully customizeable character, male or female (Ubisoft finally got the hang of that, aye?) in a helicopter on our way to a heavily fictionalized (downright alternate universe, really) version of Bolivia. We’re sent to figure out who tortured some U.S. agents but that quickly becomes a mere framing device for your employment as the game itself doesn’t seem too concerned with its own story and more about just destabilizing a cartel. You find the people responsible in the first area of the game and I guess you’re just ordered to remain to take down the local Santa Blanca drug cartel, and the game just lets you loose from there.

I’ll give the game credit here; nothing in their big open world is closed to you. Despite the alleged “difficulty” marks you see on the map, you can immediately hightail across the map whenever you please. With some friends joining me, I asked what the best sniper scope available was and they took me to it and we had some fun times against a very high level Unidad (the very corrupt law enforcement/government, I’m not sure which) fortress. I’ll talk more about the multiplayer aspect later but it just proved that the game doesn’t mind you going anywhere you want at all. However you will very likely need to exceed at stealth tactics because you will be facing opponents that will shake off your attacks without having all your toys available. While the game is a very sandy sandbox, it fails to understand why some superior games in the genre get so popular. While the game has plenty of convoy missions, diversions and side missions for you to get distracted by and earn that sweet loot and experience, it has an extreme lack of things to do in transit. I’m reminded of a space game where it had a large expansive universe but I’d sometimes be staring at the ass of my ship for a few minutes while warp speeding my way towards the objective. GRW feels the same way in some cases. It showers you with helicopters for the most part but there’s not always one readily available until you level up some Rebel support enough so large portions of the game are spent driving across the country with not a damn thing to do. You’ll occasionally run into an enemy controlled township (as they ‘hoid’ the country, this does make sense) that you can start sniping at but if you have a specific objective in mind there’s not really a point. This problem only gets worse if you got all of the collectible weapon parts (or at least, the ones you care about since it tells you what they are on the map) and skill points. It all just feels so empty at times. In case you’re wondering what kind of game this is, it is a third person RPG. The RPG system is superficial but sometimes useful. I find myself focusing on my personal weapon skills as well as my drone, the two most used things.

That “epic skill” there will give me 30% accuracy at long range which is incredibly useful. While the drone tree gives me battery, range, and a whole host of upgrades like an EMP blast, noisemakers and more. The drone is probably my favorite gimmick in this game, acting as a logical upgrade to the simply binoculars you get in Far Cry games. While every enemy group will give you this vague red blob that tells you the general vicinity an enemy might be, the drone allows you pinpoint their exact location so you can plan your attacks properly.

It sounds easy enough but there’s a lot of interiors that enemies can be hiding in which can be hard to find, and it’ll ruin your plan of attack if there’s one little asshole you can’t quite find. If I sound happy about some of this, it’s because the stealth and gunplay are where this game really shines. At your disposal you have three NPCs that will follow you around (they all disappear if as much as one person joins your game but that’s okay, because people tend to be smarter than the NPCs anyway) that are mercifully invisible to enemies in general. Their AI makes them ‘try’ to take logical cover but it doesn’t always work as they practically hug enemies from nearby bushes. Or the one time I used them to sync shot three enemies... while all three of them were swimming in water behind me. That’s another mechanic I have thus far forgot to mention (there’s a lot to unpack here), sync shot. It reminds me of Splinter Cell’s execution mechanic but it’s more for team play than slow-mo multiple murder that Sam Fisher is capable of. It starts out with only one slot but you eventually upgrade it for your entire team. The mechanics of it is a bit wonky as I mentioned my three swimming idiots in the last paragraph but it does have it’s uses. They can apparently shoot through most obstacles even though, once you mark enemies they need a few seconds to ‘find a shot’, but one of my lemmings found a shot while hugging a rocky hill. Still, they’re always stealthy and silent and very useful for helping me thin out the herd of a particularly harrowing stronghold. The only issue I run into is enemies will quickly find bodies that way but like most stealth games, they’ll return to their duties in a minute or so of searching.

There’s a sort of subtle ‘bonus sneak damage’ type stat in the background. I notice most enemies only take one hit to take down (even heavily armored mates as long as it’s a headshot), but if they’re alerted then they take a few more hits. I’m not sure how that works on a realistic standpoint but this game is a better middleground between Call of Duty and The Division when it comes to ballistics. When things go wrong, the gunplay is solid enough. So far no encounter felt particularly impossible, just with a spike of difficulty if I manage to foolishly miss a vital sniper shot against an enemy sniper, who always wield binoculars for themselves atop their towers and will see your ass if you’re flailing around in the open. Guns themselves have a whole array of mods you can collect and change but quite frankly, I don’t even really know what “weapon handling” even means. I usually sacrifice it if I can get some more accuracy or range, while rate of fire and penetration are less relevant to me. Many other reviews have likely already talked about how playing with friends is damn near a requirement, but I found it to be a mixed blessing. Human players are clearly leagues more intelligent than the AI but they lack the mechanical invisibility your NPC mates do and typically have their own goals in mind. The gentlemen who joined me had the decency to allow me to aim our directions towards what I needed (one of them had passed the maximum level and was mostly in it for tier experience, I’m not sure what all that is yet) but it still led to highly varied encounters that ranged from both hilarious to incredibly annoying. One time, a guy didn’t like where he placed his mine but they can’t be picked up so on a hunch I shot at it... with another teammate standing right next to it downing him immediately and netting a rather harsh “I hate team kills”. Y’know, despite the fact that I had been very new to the game to begin with, acting like I did it on purpose. Another time we were stalking some kind of enemy VIP in a convoy. We got to him, pulled him out of the enemy vehicle and started the interrogation and an enemy... apparently still alive and driving, decided to back into them both and we failed the mission because the subject died. We all laughed about it and didn’t mind at all. Another time we were trying to capture a helicopter (the only vehicle I can drive even vaguely well, and not even in battle) but instead of pressing Z for the drone to scan a couple enemies we didn’t find yet, I somehow pressed G instead, throwing a grenade right on top of the helicopter carrying those medical supplies I really wanted. Well, the rebels didn’t really want the ashes of supplies so it was an instant fail due to some really strange muscle memory on my part. It was hilarious, but my partner at the time has yet to let me forget it.

So playing with people is a mixed bag in its own right and I’m sure there’s plenty of fun to be had and stories to be made like my three examples above. However, it can be played solo so you can have very clean sync shots and three invisible allies that follow you around, not doing much unless you tell them to. So you can choose between having three mindless AI’s... or one to three people who very much have minds of their own and have no control over. Live or die, make your choice. One brief nitpick and a moderate complaint before I summarize. Firstly, I find my girl’s voice acting abysmal most of the time. Sometimes it’s find, like when spotting targets she’ll pipe up with some “ten hostiles”. Other times when finishing missions she’ll say something like “I love my job”, but with the same inflection I’d have just waking up and saying “I love this cereal”. That is to say, completely monotone because my vocal chords haven’t been used for several hours. Or another time where she felt the need to call out the fact that she was... getting on a damn motorbike. Madame, that did not require a tactical announcement. Just why? Secondly, and you’ll probably find this in every other review of this game but I do feel the need to mention it in my own. The vehicle controls are some of the worst, reminding me that of Watch_Dogs. It makes sense, same developers and all. Now, I know some people who didn’t mind the driving in W_D but it made the first game unbeatable (and I’ve only played an hour of the second) for me. There’s plenty of dedicated chase missions and convoys to assault so trying to chase those fuckers in some random cargo truck I picked up because it was the only thing available in the parking lot when my enemy started hauling ass. To wit, the enemy AI seems to function under much different rules than we do. When I get in a helicopter it takes a solid several seconds for the engine and rotaries to rev up to flight. However I cannot count how many helicopter capture missions I have failed because the pilot gets in at the slightest provocation (they don’t wait for open combat, as soon as the alert level goes yellow they’re gone) they hop in, shut the door, and immediately go straight up and pilots are damn hard to shoot out of planes in this game. To be fair, it’s all probably bulletproof due to the narrative. Rebels, drug cartels and corrupt governments probably don’t want all their stuff that easily destroyed. Makes sense, but it’s damn annoying to face against.

Meanwhile, like W_D, a mere rock or fence can send my pickup truck flailing in the air like a damn cartoon which can completely derail a chase or mission. So the open beta was extremely lackluster for me and the game continues to be haunted by abysmal vehicle controlling. However those are temporary, minute-long annoyances that are flanked by great stealth and gunplay. Those moments where I infiltrated an entire Unidad compound, using three entire sets of sync shots (there’s a cooldown) and left with the objective without too much of a fuss. Those moments really shine and it’s what keeps me coming back. Say what you want about Ubisoft and their practices, but they have a pretty good formula for stealth so as long as their games remain fun, I’ll be a returning customer.

[bluprinttechblogs]

OpenAI New AI Voice Mode Updated Features and Capabilities

INTRODUCTION

In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, OpenAI has once again pushed the boundaries of human-machine interaction with its latest innovation. It is an AI voice mode in which one can have conversations with the phone naturally. This eye-catching feature aims to advance human interaction with artificial intelligence by making the interaction realistic and close to natural language.In our article, we will discuss the new OpenAI voice mode, its use, how it works and how it will influence our lives. Combined with true-life narratives and guest opinions, we will learn why this new addition stimulates the interest of technology geeks and the general population.

Understanding OpenAI Voice Mode: A new epoch in building relations with Artificial Intelligence

The feature of OpenAI that can be considered very progressive is the voice mode of working with Artificial Intelligence. Thus far, the primary forms of AI interaction are written and have hindered realistic conversation. AI voice mode alters this experience since the users can talk with the help of the AI, as they would with a person.Developed using state-of-the-art TTS and speech recognition technologies, this AI voice mode makes your conversations with OpenAI more friendly and alive. They employed paid voiceovers and actual human voices for some answers that are usually boring in text format only. Combined with Whisper from OpenAI, an open-source automatic speech recognition tool, this feature enables users to speak most naturally while ensuring clarity at a very high level.It is not just a matter of convenience but inclusion and the possibility of improving the experience of using a product. Thus, people with disabilities, the elderly, and those who find typing rather cumbersome, would appreciate OpenAI voice mode.Related: What is the Technology behind Artificial Intelligence?  

The Technology Behind the Magic

Well, how was this innovation achieved? OpenAI voice mode is a text-to-speech model that uses sensitive understanding, the latest breakthrough text-to-speech technology for natural human-sounding audio within a few seconds. This model requires a brief human voice sample to produce a convincing, dynamic range of audio outputs.One impressive relevance in the present context seems to be the degree of naturalness that the technology has been able to replicate humans when speaking. This technique involves features and attributes in the interface, which include tone, pace and inflexion that make the interaction with artificial intelligence more natural.For this AI innovation to understand and interpret communicated content, it applies the Whisper system. This system is very good at transcribing common and natural language and can do so accurately, even in noisy conditions or with heavy accents, which can sometimes confuse similar systems. Using text-to-speech and speech recognition makes for an easy flow of conversation with the AI with no break due to typing and transcription.Why Voice Mode Matters: Voice modes entail easy access and convenience, which is what building a new house proves to be when it comes to accomplishing the goals of the parties involved in designing the house.Another area of probably the most prominent interaction with Voice Mode will also be the opportunity to enhance the accessibility of disabled individuals. For example, people who have difficulties with moving around or who are blind would have a great deal of problems with employing conventional text-based user interfaces. Voice mode is a more natural, or in other words, less intrusive modality through which these people can engage with technology.In an era when you are adopting smart home devices and virtual assistants, this feature may also supplement your daily activities with engaging features. For instance, imagine using a voice to adjust the settings in the house, book appointments, or write an email. Is not integrating voice mode into everyday tasks an enormous achievement?

Case Study: Equal Opportunities and Equal Access to Productivity in the Workplace

For clarity, let us consider the case of Sam, a software developer from Michigan who uses a wheelchair. Typing this way for hours could be uncomfortable and a way to reduce his typing efficiency. Thus, after integrating OpenAI voice mode into the daily coding environments, inquiries, or administrative work, Sam proved that the innovation was worthwhile. He further stated, 'This is a breakthrough for someone like me who often finds it physically demanding to type. Voice mode has given me more freedom to work on my terms.'This case shows how OpenAI voice mode could be a force multiplier for professionals, helping them eliminate previously encountered hurdles.

Real-World Applications

Through speech and voice mode, OpenAI offers a horde of features that go beyond basic conversation. This technology creates possibilities for new development in almost every field, starting from the arts and ending in healthcare.1. Creative Industries: A New Tool for StorytellingIn the creative field, OpenAI voice mode could improve the creation and dissemination of content. Voice mode provides live narration of stories, manning characters, or even thinking verbally using AI.For example, Spotify has already started using it to translate podcasts into other languages while maintaining the speaking voice and expressions. This technique will enable new fans and listeners who like a specific type of podcast to discover new works without a podcaster losing the character that defines them. 'Voice mode takes podcasting to the next level. It is like having a conversation with your audience, even when they speak a different language," said Maria Lopez, a prominent podcaster using the OpenAI voice translation feature.2. Healthcare: Enhancing Patient CareIn healthcare delivery, voice mode is necessary as it can help reduce the time spent on patient relations and other administrative work. Doctors can use voice recognition software to dictate into patient records, and the patients can verbally inform an AI that helps in initial or subsequent assessment.Consider the context where an operated person is taking a rest at home. Using this technology, they can speak with an AI nurse and get an immediate response for their condition and advice without typing anything. This sort of application could help to reduce the load on healthcare facilities as far as everyday work is concerned, as AI can take on this load.3. Education: Transforming Learning ExperienceAs it is now, Voice AI in education has the potential to revolutionise learning environments through providing more interactive environments. Frankly, with AI-based voice mode assistants, students can converse in real-time while acquiring knowledge about languages, validating comprehension and improving learning path needs.Using voice AI, teachers can focus on other administrative tasks that can be time-consuming, such as grading or attendance and also provide special one-on-one tutoring to students who need it. Also, voice AI can enhance the experience of virtual classes along with the capacity to make learning accessible for students with disability, thereby making education inclusive in contemporary learning.4. Gaming and EntertainmentBased on the new Voice AI advancements, gaming and entertainment are transforming by providing more interaction and hang. In gaming, voice AI lets players use their voices in real-time conversations with game characters to control game outcomes using their voices and guide them through a game without requiring a controller or joystick. It makes it more realistic and affords the players a specific relationship to the game, which is missing in other games.In addition to gaming, people are employing voice AI characters in immersive stories and virtual reality so viewers interact with characters by speaking to them concerning the flow of the events. With the incremental developments of voice technology, active viewing or listening and active participation in entertainment end up mixing with more exciting potential for game designers and other entertainment producers.Related: What is Character AI?

User Testimonials: Real-World Impact

People in diverse fields, such as designers, artists, and disabled persons, respond to it as a technology that has changed their interaction with AI. For example, many developers unable to move around the office have reported that voice mode improves their work and comfort, allowing them to perform several tasks much more effectively. Some creative workers who tested the program have noted possible functions of the tool to help reduce time spent on content creation and improve the flow of stories through AI conversations. These real-world experiences explain the applicability and impact of the voice mode and acknowledge that every industry can benefit from its application to increase productivity and enhance accessibility. By sharing these comments, other users can confirm the practical improvements from adopting this technology and the outlined advantages.

A Case for Human-Centered AI Voice Design

For all the potential that OpenAI voice mode offers, there is a discussion about human-centred AI. Because these AI systems are becoming a part of society and are applied in everyday life, ensure that the tools are ethical and safe.OpenAI has understood that voice mode has inherent risks, for instance, when used by criminals or terrorists. The common risk is when an enemy impersonates or uses it fraudulently. OpenAI has capped the technology utility to voice chat and specific professional voice actors to handle such an issue. The above approach aligns with OpenAI mission to build safe artificial intelligence. 

The Future of AI Conversations: What is Next?

Thus, OpenAI voice mode is only the beginning, and the future undoubtedly holds many more advanced developments in this field. As the concept of AI develops, one can predict new updates and how they will advance its interactions. Multimodal AI systems capable of responding and text recognition, voice, and visual inputs are already in development, and voice mode is a stepping stone toward that future.As for the future, OpenAI voice mode can open even more groundbreaking new opportunities in artificially intelligent assistants. Let me elaborate by thinking about an AI system that not only remembers what kind of topics you have discussed earlier but also adjusts its way of speaking according to your preferences and moods, besides the capability of providing you with appropriate emotional support at any given moment.Dr Jonathan Rhee, an AI researcher focusing on human-computer interaction, says they will know the full potential when the AI voice mode goes beyond the performance of transactions to emotions. ‘The AI will be capable not only of comprehending the message being conveyed but how it is conveyed.’

Conclusion: Voice Mode and Changes That Concern the Interaction between Humans and AI

OpenAI voice mode has emerged as an example of how AI technology is rapidly developing. Making interactions between humans and AI more natural and less complicated, OpenAI is recovering the nature of conversations between humans and machines.The uses of Voice mode in making things more accessible, creating, and in health care all point to how Voice mode can make lives and work better in tangible ways. With that said, these new possibilities open up new ethical questions to address as the technology advances.Finally, OpenAI voice mode is essentially the vision of the future where people will freely communicate with machines, offering new opportunities for innovation while pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve. It is one way of realising that the future of AI is not only in the palms of our hands but equally in our mouths. Read the full article

[bluprinttechblogs]

OpenAI New AI Voice Mode Updated Features and Capabilities

INTRODUCTION

In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, OpenAI has once again pushed the boundaries of human-machine interaction with its latest innovation. It is an AI voice mode in which one can have conversations with the phone naturally. This eye-catching feature aims to advance human interaction with artificial intelligence by making the interaction realistic and close to natural language.In our article, we will discuss the new OpenAI voice mode, its use, how it works and how it will influence our lives. Combined with true-life narratives and guest opinions, we will learn why this new addition stimulates the interest of technology geeks and the general population.

Understanding OpenAI Voice Mode: A new epoch in building relations with Artificial Intelligence

The feature of OpenAI that can be considered very progressive is the voice mode of working with Artificial Intelligence. Thus far, the primary forms of AI interaction are written and have hindered realistic conversation. AI voice mode alters this experience since the users can talk with the help of the AI, as they would with a person.Developed using state-of-the-art TTS and speech recognition technologies, this AI voice mode makes your conversations with OpenAI more friendly and alive. They employed paid voiceovers and actual human voices for some answers that are usually boring in text format only. Combined with Whisper from OpenAI, an open-source automatic speech recognition tool, this feature enables users to speak most naturally while ensuring clarity at a very high level.It is not just a matter of convenience but inclusion and the possibility of improving the experience of using a product. Thus, people with disabilities, the elderly, and those who find typing rather cumbersome, would appreciate OpenAI voice mode.Related: What is the Technology behind Artificial Intelligence?  

The Technology Behind the Magic

Well, how was this innovation achieved? OpenAI voice mode is a text-to-speech model that uses sensitive understanding, the latest breakthrough text-to-speech technology for natural human-sounding audio within a few seconds. This model requires a brief human voice sample to produce a convincing, dynamic range of audio outputs.One impressive relevance in the present context seems to be the degree of naturalness that the technology has been able to replicate humans when speaking. This technique involves features and attributes in the interface, which include tone, pace and inflexion that make the interaction with artificial intelligence more natural.For this AI innovation to understand and interpret communicated content, it applies the Whisper system. This system is very good at transcribing common and natural language and can do so accurately, even in noisy conditions or with heavy accents, which can sometimes confuse similar systems. Using text-to-speech and speech recognition makes for an easy flow of conversation with the AI with no break due to typing and transcription.Why Voice Mode Matters: Voice modes entail easy access and convenience, which is what building a new house proves to be when it comes to accomplishing the goals of the parties involved in designing the house.Another area of probably the most prominent interaction with Voice Mode will also be the opportunity to enhance the accessibility of disabled individuals. For example, people who have difficulties with moving around or who are blind would have a great deal of problems with employing conventional text-based user interfaces. Voice mode is a more natural, or in other words, less intrusive modality through which these people can engage with technology.In an era when you are adopting smart home devices and virtual assistants, this feature may also supplement your daily activities with engaging features. For instance, imagine using a voice to adjust the settings in the house, book appointments, or write an email. Is not integrating voice mode into everyday tasks an enormous achievement?

Case Study: Equal Opportunities and Equal Access to Productivity in the Workplace

For clarity, let us consider the case of Sam, a software developer from Michigan who uses a wheelchair. Typing this way for hours could be uncomfortable and a way to reduce his typing efficiency. Thus, after integrating OpenAI voice mode into the daily coding environments, inquiries, or administrative work, Sam proved that the innovation was worthwhile. He further stated, 'This is a breakthrough for someone like me who often finds it physically demanding to type. Voice mode has given me more freedom to work on my terms.'This case shows how OpenAI voice mode could be a force multiplier for professionals, helping them eliminate previously encountered hurdles.

Real-World Applications

Through speech and voice mode, OpenAI offers a horde of features that go beyond basic conversation. This technology creates possibilities for new development in almost every field, starting from the arts and ending in healthcare.1. Creative Industries: A New Tool for StorytellingIn the creative field, OpenAI voice mode could improve the creation and dissemination of content. Voice mode provides live narration of stories, manning characters, or even thinking verbally using AI.For example, Spotify has already started using it to translate podcasts into other languages while maintaining the speaking voice and expressions. This technique will enable new fans and listeners who like a specific type of podcast to discover new works without a podcaster losing the character that defines them. 'Voice mode takes podcasting to the next level. It is like having a conversation with your audience, even when they speak a different language," said Maria Lopez, a prominent podcaster using the OpenAI voice translation feature.2. Healthcare: Enhancing Patient CareIn healthcare delivery, voice mode is necessary as it can help reduce the time spent on patient relations and other administrative work. Doctors can use voice recognition software to dictate into patient records, and the patients can verbally inform an AI that helps in initial or subsequent assessment.Consider the context where an operated person is taking a rest at home. Using this technology, they can speak with an AI nurse and get an immediate response for their condition and advice without typing anything. This sort of application could help to reduce the load on healthcare facilities as far as everyday work is concerned, as AI can take on this load.3. Education: Transforming Learning ExperienceAs it is now, Voice AI in education has the potential to revolutionise learning environments through providing more interactive environments. Frankly, with AI-based voice mode assistants, students can converse in real-time while acquiring knowledge about languages, validating comprehension and improving learning path needs.Using voice AI, teachers can focus on other administrative tasks that can be time-consuming, such as grading or attendance and also provide special one-on-one tutoring to students who need it. Also, voice AI can enhance the experience of virtual classes along with the capacity to make learning accessible for students with disability, thereby making education inclusive in contemporary learning.4. Gaming and EntertainmentBased on the new Voice AI advancements, gaming and entertainment are transforming by providing more interaction and hang. In gaming, voice AI lets players use their voices in real-time conversations with game characters to control game outcomes using their voices and guide them through a game without requiring a controller or joystick. It makes it more realistic and affords the players a specific relationship to the game, which is missing in other games.In addition to gaming, people are employing voice AI characters in immersive stories and virtual reality so viewers interact with characters by speaking to them concerning the flow of the events. With the incremental developments of voice technology, active viewing or listening and active participation in entertainment end up mixing with more exciting potential for game designers and other entertainment producers.Related: What is Character AI?

User Testimonials: Real-World Impact

People in diverse fields, such as designers, artists, and disabled persons, respond to it as a technology that has changed their interaction with AI. For example, many developers unable to move around the office have reported that voice mode improves their work and comfort, allowing them to perform several tasks much more effectively. Some creative workers who tested the program have noted possible functions of the tool to help reduce time spent on content creation and improve the flow of stories through AI conversations. These real-world experiences explain the applicability and impact of the voice mode and acknowledge that every industry can benefit from its application to increase productivity and enhance accessibility. By sharing these comments, other users can confirm the practical improvements from adopting this technology and the outlined advantages.

A Case for Human-Centered AI Voice Design

For all the potential that OpenAI voice mode offers, there is a discussion about human-centred AI. Because these AI systems are becoming a part of society and are applied in everyday life, ensure that the tools are ethical and safe.OpenAI has understood that voice mode has inherent risks, for instance, when used by criminals or terrorists. The common risk is when an enemy impersonates or uses it fraudulently. OpenAI has capped the technology utility to voice chat and specific professional voice actors to handle such an issue. The above approach aligns with OpenAI mission to build safe artificial intelligence. 

The Future of AI Conversations: What is Next?

Thus, OpenAI voice mode is only the beginning, and the future undoubtedly holds many more advanced developments in this field. As the concept of AI develops, one can predict new updates and how they will advance its interactions. Multimodal AI systems capable of responding and text recognition, voice, and visual inputs are already in development, and voice mode is a stepping stone toward that future.As for the future, OpenAI voice mode can open even more groundbreaking new opportunities in artificially intelligent assistants. Let me elaborate by thinking about an AI system that not only remembers what kind of topics you have discussed earlier but also adjusts its way of speaking according to your preferences and moods, besides the capability of providing you with appropriate emotional support at any given moment.Dr Jonathan Rhee, an AI researcher focusing on human-computer interaction, says they will know the full potential when the AI voice mode goes beyond the performance of transactions to emotions. ‘The AI will be capable not only of comprehending the message being conveyed but how it is conveyed.’

Conclusion: Voice Mode and Changes That Concern the Interaction between Humans and AI

OpenAI voice mode has emerged as an example of how AI technology is rapidly developing. Making interactions between humans and AI more natural and less complicated, OpenAI is recovering the nature of conversations between humans and machines.The uses of Voice mode in making things more accessible, creating, and in health care all point to how Voice mode can make lives and work better in tangible ways. With that said, these new possibilities open up new ethical questions to address as the technology advances.Finally, OpenAI voice mode is essentially the vision of the future where people will freely communicate with machines, offering new opportunities for innovation while pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve. It is one way of realising that the future of AI is not only in the palms of our hands but equally in our mouths. Read the full article

[gamerszone2019-blog]

NHL 20 Review - Laced Up

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/nhl-20-review-laced-up/

NHL 20 Review - Laced Up

With its new commentary team and updated presentation package, NHL 20 represents the franchise’s biggest shakeup in years–and they’re mostly positive changes. Combined with excellent controls, fluid gameplay, numerous fun and engaging different modes to play, a fine attention to detail and appreciation for hockey culture, NHL 20 is a step forward that is generally excellent.

The biggest change for NHL 20 is its broadcast package. It is almost completely different this year, and the changes–which span commentary, UI, and graphics–are mostly positive but not always for the better. Commentators Mike “Doc” Emerick and Eddie Olczyk are out, while nearly the entirety of the NBC Sports Network license package, including live-action sequences, are gone, too. It’s a jarring change, as Emerick and Olczyk have been the voice of EA’s NHL games since NHL 15.

The new commentators are Canadian sports radio personality James Cybulski and former player and current rinkside analyst Ray Ferarro. They do a mostly adept job at calling plays with style, flair, and personality, and their back-and-forth banter succeeds at capturing the essence of hockey culture with hockey IQ and knack. Some commentary lines are repeated too often, however, and Cybulski in particular sounds at times like he is hamming it up and acting like every game is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Outside of the new commentary team, NHL 20’s updated broadcast presentation includes more colorful and dynamic graphics that display important information in more eye-catching ways. In addition to brighter colors and sharper fonts, NHL 20 introduces more dramatic, slow-motion highlights of goal scores, as well as Overwatch-style “Play of the Period” and “Play of the Game” highlights. These moments do a good job at breaking down key plays, and, with their unique angles and close-ups, provide nice moments to sit back and revel in your achievements.

Part of this updated broadcast package is a new location for the score clock, which is the only major misstep. It’s now at the bottom of the screen compared to the top-left in last year’s game–and it cannot be moved in the Settings. The new score clock location opens up more space on the screen for action, but I found it positively difficult to quickly and easily see the important information like time left in the game, penalty minutes, and other datapoints while simultaneously keeping my eyes on the action. It’s a baffling choice, especially considering many of NHL 20’s various other modes keep the score clock where it was. This inconsistency worsens the experience, as you have to train your eyes in multiple ways depending on which mode you’re playing.

Authentic Hockey

NHL 20 succeeds the most with excellent, tight controls that give you the freedom to execute basically any hockey move you can think of. There are also changes to animations and skating mechanics that make the game appear more lifelike. Building off what was already the franchise’s best foot forward with NHL 19, this year’s entry feels faster and more fluid with better animations that more realistically depict important transitional moments like catching a pass and getting intro stride at a quicker pace. Overall, the on-ice gameplay feels faster and more true to the real NHL experience.

There are new shot animations as well, which are contextual in nature and better represent what a shot might look like from a particular part of the ice and depending on angles, power, speed, specific player attributes, and more. In NHL 19, your player would oftentimes still complete the shot animation even if the puck never got to them, which looked very strange, but that rarely happens this year. NHL 20 also introduces “Signature Shots” for a number of the league’s best players; one of these is P.K. Subban’s booming slapshot and Alex Ovechkin’s electric one-timer. It’s a treat to see player-specific animations in NHL 20, and it’s yet another part of the way NHL 20 faithfully represents the real NHL experience. Additionally, goalie AI appears to be smarter this year, with netminders giving up fewer soft rebounds and making generally smarter decisions during important scenarios.

NHL 20’s in-game attention to detail and careful consideration of the sport is astounding. Players look and react as you’d expect them to on a TV broadcast, down to the way players subtly peek back toward their teammates during a face-off to the sharp crackle of skates gliding over outdoor pond ice. On the outdoor rinks, the crimson red glow of sunset over the pond is something to behold. On the ice, the physics system is so realistically presented that I found myself wincing after big open-ice hits.

Unfortunately, NHL 20 doesn’t do much in the area of improving player models. In fact, the character models for players, referees, and the crowd appear largely unchanged from last year. When the replay camera zooms in on fans on the glass, you might be wondering what kind of time vacuum the NHL series exists in for people to never age or look at all different from year to year.

Dirty Dangles

The NHL series is known for its tight, precise controls, and this level of excellence continues with NHL 20. No matter what control setup you’re using, the controls allow for a complete command of your player with astounding simplicity and a lot of depth at the same time. Puck possession and clever play-making are paramount in NHL 20, and the controls never fail to provide you with many different options to keep the puck, get around defenders, make the extra pass, and light the lamp. You have the freedom to play with as much creativity as you want. The game also features a slick and smart on-ice trainer that reacts to how you’re playing and provides dynamic feedback that, for the most part, helps you improve your game.

There is such a level of fine precision with the controls that you can determine the specific angle of a poke-check or toe-drag the puck at just the right time to open space up to make a shot on goal. In essence, the controller’s analog sticks feel like an extension of your on-ice stick. The excellent baseline controls stand out even more once you move on to trying out more more advanced techniques. It takes time and practice to learn the dirtiest dangles the game has to offer, but it’s deeply rewarding to perform spins and dekes that together combine to give you ample opportunities to play with style and pizzazz.

In addition to the standard hockey simulation, NHL 20 has an abundance of arcade-style modes. The pond hockey mode, Ones–which sees three players on a small, outdoor rink competing against each other–introduces four new locations, including a rink set on a secluded farm and another inspired by the Rideau Canal in Canada. These new locations, in addition to weather effects like snow coming down during games, make Ones an even more authentic and holistically representative depiction of the outdoor hockey experience.

Ones is lots of fun with its stripped-down, back-to-basics recreation of outdoor hockey with fast-paced play and lots of goals. Outside of the new locations, the biggest change for Ones is the introduction of offline play for couch co-op, and this is a very welcome addition after last year’s game left it out in a head-scratching move.

The Threes mode, meanwhile, remains NHL’s flashiest and wackiest mode with completely unhinged commentary, mascots lacing it up, lots of goals, and big hits. It’s the mode I found myself coming back to the most due in part to its quick games relative to the standard simulation mode and constant progression rewards in every game played.

The social hub, World of Chel, returns with NHL 20 with some noteworthy updates. The biggest introduction is the “Eliminator” mode, which is NHL’s spin on battle royale. You can go it alone in Ones or team up with two others in Threes to try to survive four consecutive rounds in a bracket to win the tournament. It’s a thrilling, incredibly challenging, high-stakes challenge that, like the battle royale games it’s inspired by, encourage you to keep coming back and improve your skills.

There is a robust character-creator and you earn XP for everything you do across all of World of Chel’s modes. It’s rewarding to invest in your character and know that, whatever mode in World of Chel you’re playing, you’re working towards growing your character with meaningful advancements like new player traits, in addition to nice extras like cosmetic gear. New for World of Chel with NHL 20 are weekly challenges that track your performance and reward you with cosmetics around a particular theme. For example, the launch-week theme is NHL 94, so you can earn all kinds of themed cosmetics like jerseys and other gear. I anticipate coming back regularly.

Elsewhere in NHL 20, the career-minded Be A Pro remains a satisfying and rewarding ride to take as you start your character from the ground floor and build them into a superstar, though there are no noteworthy updates to speak of this year. Franchise, meanwhile, features a new system that gives you multiple team coaches who have influence on the direction of your team today and in the future. The system, which also includes a light conversation mechanic where you can gauge the morale and interest of your coaches, adds a further level of strategy to the already robust Franchise mode that helps you feel like you’re really the GM of a pro team. Franchise also introduces a trade-finder system that makes it less laborious to find and make trades.

Ultimate Team returns as well, and its noteworthy addition is the introduction of Squad Battles. These function the same way they do in Madden and FIFA where you go up against HUT squads created by other players or, after launch, sports stars and celebrities. Hockey Ultimate Team is all about grinding to collect new cards, and it remains a fun experience to build a fantasy team comprised of legends and current stars alike, and compete against others.

NHL 20 successfully captures the ice hockey experience from the ponds to big games under the bright lights, with a fine attention to detail and simple yet deep controls that are best-in-class. Once you get over the shock of Eddie and Doc being out of the game, the new commentary team do an adept job of providing informative and playful banter, while the game’s multitude of varied modes each have their own distinct feel and appeal that go a long way to make NHL 20 an excellent representation of hockey culture across the board.

Source : Gamesport

[gamerszone2019-blog]

NHL 20 Review - Slap Shot

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/nhl-20-review-slap-shot/

NHL 20 Review - Slap Shot

With its new commentary team and updated presentation package, NHL 20 represents the franchise’s biggest shakeup in years–and they’re mostly positive changes. Combined with excellent controls, fluid gameplay, numerous fun and engaging different modes to play, a fine attention to detail and appreciation for hockey culture, NHL 20 is a step forward that is generally excellent.

The biggest change for NHL 20 is its broadcast package. It is almost completely different this year, and the changes–which span commentary, UI, and graphics–are mostly positive but not always for the better. Commentators Mike “Doc” Emerick and Eddie Olczyk are out, while nearly the entirety of the NBC Sports Network license package, including live-action sequences, are gone, too. It’s a jarring change, as Emerick and Olczyk have been the voice of EA’s NHL games since NHL 15.

The new commentators are Canadian sports radio personality James Cybulski and former player and current rinkside analyst Ray Ferarro. They do a mostly adept job at calling plays with style, flair, and personality, and their back-and-forth banter succeeds at capturing the essence of hockey culture with hockey IQ and knack. Some commentary lines are repeated too often, however, and Cybulski in particular sounds at times like he is hamming it up and acting like every game is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Outside of the new commentary team, NHL 20’s updated broadcast presentation includes more colorful and dynamic graphics that display important information in more eye-catching ways. In addition to brighter colors and sharper fonts, NHL 20 introduces more dramatic, slow-motion highlights of goal scores, as well as Overwatch-style “Play of the Period” and “Play of the Game” highlights. These moments do a good job at breaking down key plays, and, with their unique angles and close-ups, provide nice moments to sit back and revel in your achievements.

Part of this updated broadcast package is a new location for the score clock, which is the only major misstep. It’s now at the bottom of the screen compared to the top-left in last year’s game–and it cannot be moved in the Settings. The new score clock location opens up more space on the screen for action, but I found it positively difficult to quickly and easily see the important information like time left in the game, penalty minutes, and other datapoints while simultaneously keeping my eyes on the action. It’s a baffling choice, especially considering many of NHL 20’s various other modes keep the score clock where it was. This inconsistency worsens the experience, as you have to train your eyes in multiple ways depending on which mode you’re playing.

Authentic Hockey

NHL 20 succeeds the most with excellent, tight controls that give you the freedom to execute basically any hockey move you can think of. There are also changes to animations and skating mechanics that make the game appear more lifelike. Building off what was already the franchise’s best foot forward with NHL 19, this year’s entry feels faster and more fluid with better animations that more realistically depict important transitional moments like catching a pass and getting intro stride at a quicker pace. Overall, the on-ice gameplay feels faster and more true to the real NHL experience.

There are new shot animations as well, which are contextual in nature and better represent what a shot might look like from a particular part of the ice and depending on angles, power, speed, specific player attributes, and more. In NHL 19, your player would oftentimes still complete the shot animation even if the puck never got to them, which looked very strange, but that rarely happens this year. NHL 20 also introduces “Signature Shots” for a number of the league’s best players; one of these is P.K. Subban’s booming slapshot and Alex Ovechkin’s electric one-timer. It’s a treat to see player-specific animations in NHL 20, and it’s yet another part of the way NHL 20 faithfully represents the real NHL experience. Additionally, goalie AI appears to be smarter this year, with netminders giving up fewer soft rebounds and making generally smarter decisions during important scenarios.

NHL 20’s in-game attention to detail and careful consideration of the sport is astounding. Players look and react as you’d expect them to on a TV broadcast, down to the way players subtly peek back toward their teammates during a face-off to the sharp crackle of skates gliding over outdoor pond ice. On the outdoor rinks, the crimson red glow of sunset over the pond is something to behold. On the ice, the physics system is so realistically presented that I found myself wincing after big open-ice hits.

Unfortunately, NHL 20 doesn’t do much in the area of improving player models. In fact, the character models for players, referees, and the crowd appear largely unchanged from last year. When the replay camera zooms in on fans on the glass, you might be wondering what kind of time vacuum the NHL series exists in for people to never age or look at all different from year to year.

Dirty Dangles

The NHL series is known for its tight, precise controls, and this level of excellence continues with NHL 20. No matter what control setup you’re using, the controls allow for a complete command of your player with astounding simplicity and a lot of depth at the same time. Puck possession and clever play-making are paramount in NHL 20, and the controls never fail to provide you with many different options to keep the puck, get around defenders, make the extra pass, and light the lamp. You have the freedom to play with as much creativity as you want. The game also features a slick and smart on-ice trainer that reacts to how you’re playing and provides dynamic feedback that, for the most part, helps you improve your game.

There is such a level of fine precision with the controls that you can determine the specific angle of a poke-check or toe-drag the puck at just the right time to open space up to make a shot on goal. In essence, the controller’s analog sticks feel like an extension of your on-ice stick. The excellent baseline controls stand out even more once you move on to trying out more more advanced techniques. It takes time and practice to learn the dirtiest dangles the game has to offer, but it’s deeply rewarding to perform spins and dekes that together combine to give you ample opportunities to play with style and pizzazz.

In addition to the standard hockey simulation, NHL 20 has an abundance of arcade-style modes. The pond hockey mode, Ones–which sees three players on a small, outdoor rink competing against each other–introduces four new locations, including a rink set on a secluded farm and another inspired by the Rideau Canal in Canada. These new locations, in addition to weather effects like snow coming down during games, make Ones an even more authentic and holistically representative depiction of the outdoor hockey experience.

Ones is lots of fun with its stripped-down, back-to-basics recreation of outdoor hockey with fast-paced play and lots of goals. Outside of the new locations, the biggest change for Ones is the introduction of offline play for couch co-op, and this is a very welcome addition after last year’s game left it out in a head-scratching move.

The Threes mode, meanwhile, remains NHL’s flashiest and wackiest mode with completely unhinged commentary, mascots lacing it up, lots of goals, and big hits. It’s the mode I found myself coming back to the most due in part to its quick games relative to the standard simulation mode and constant progression rewards in every game played.

The social hub, World of Chel, returns with NHL 20 with some noteworthy updates. The biggest introduction is the “Eliminator” mode, which is NHL’s spin on battle royale. You can go it alone in Ones or team up with two others in Threes to try to survive four consecutive rounds in a bracket to win the tournament. It’s a thrilling, incredibly challenging, high-stakes challenge that, like the battle royale games it’s inspired by, encourage you to keep coming back and improve your skills.

There is a robust character-creator and you earn XP for everything you do across all of World of Chel’s modes. It’s rewarding to invest in your character and know that, whatever mode in World of Chel you’re playing, you’re working towards growing your character with meaningful advancements like new player traits, in addition to nice extras like cosmetic gear. New for World of Chel with NHL 20 are weekly challenges that track your performance and reward you with cosmetics around a particular theme. For example, the launch-week theme is NHL 94, so you can earn all kinds of themed cosmetics like jerseys and other gear. I anticipate coming back regularly.

Elsewhere in NHL 20, the career-minded Be A Pro remains a satisfying and rewarding ride to take as you start your character from the ground floor and build them into a superstar, though there are no noteworthy updates to speak of this year. Franchise, meanwhile, features a new system that gives you multiple team coaches who have influence on the direction of your team today and in the future. The system, which also includes a light conversation mechanic where you can gauge the morale and interest of your coaches, adds a further level of strategy to the already robust Franchise mode that helps you feel like you’re really the GM of a pro team. Franchise also introduces a trade-finder system that makes it less laborious to find and make trades.

Ultimate Team returns as well, and its noteworthy addition is the introduction of Squad Battles. These function the same way they do in Madden and FIFA where you go up against HUT squads created by other players or, after launch, sports stars and celebrities. Hockey Ultimate Team is all about grinding to collect new cards, and it remains a fun experience to build a fantasy team comprised of legends and current stars alike, and compete against others.

NHL 20 successfully captures the ice hockey experience from the ponds to big games under the bright lights, with a fine attention to detail and simple yet deep controls that are best-in-class. Once you get over the shock of Eddie and Doc being out of the game, the new commentary team do an adept job of providing informative and playful banter, while the game’s multitude of varied modes each have their own distinct feel and appeal that go a long way to make NHL 20 an excellent representation of hockey culture across the board.

Source : Gamesport

[gamerszone2019-blog]

NHL 20 Review - Time For A Celly

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/nhl-20-review-time-for-a-celly/

NHL 20 Review - Time For A Celly

With its new commentary team and updated presentation package, NHL 20 represents the franchise’s biggest shakeup in years–and they’re mostly positive changes. Combined with excellent controls, fluid gameplay, numerous fun and engaging different modes to play, a fine attention to detail and appreciation for hockey culture, NHL 20 is a step forward that is generally excellent.

The biggest change for NHL 20 is its broadcast package. It is almost completely different this year, and the changes–which span commentary, UI, and graphics–are mostly positive but not always for the better. Commentators Mike “Doc” Emerick and Eddie Olczyk are out, while nearly the entirety of the NBC Sports Network license package, including live-action sequences, are gone, too. It’s a jarring change, as Emerick and Olczyk have been the voice of EA’s NHL games since NHL 15.

The new commentators are Canadian sports radio personality James Cybulski and former player and current rinkside analyst Ray Ferarro. They do a mostly adept job at calling plays with style, flair, and personality, and their back-and-forth banter succeeds at capturing the essence of hockey culture with hockey IQ and knack. Some commentary lines are repeated too often, however, and Cybulski in particular sounds at times like he is hamming it up and acting like every game is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Outside of the new commentary team, NHL 20’s updated broadcast presentation includes more colorful and dynamic graphics that display important information in more eye-catching ways. In addition to brighter colors and sharper fonts, NHL 20 introduces more dramatic, slow-motion highlights of goal scores, as well as Overwatch-style “Play of the Period” and “Play of the Game” highlights. These moments do a good job at breaking down key plays, and, with their unique angles and close-ups, provide nice moments to sit back and revel in your achievements.

Part of this updated broadcast package is a new location for the score clock, which is the only major misstep. It’s now at the bottom of the screen compared to the top-left in last year’s game–and it cannot be moved in the Settings. The new score clock location opens up more space on the screen for action, but I found it positively difficult to quickly and easily see the important information like time left in the game, penalty minutes, and other datapoints while simultaneously keeping my eyes on the action. It’s a baffling choice, especially considering many of NHL 20’s various other modes keep the score clock where it was. This inconsistency worsens the experience, as you have to train your eyes in multiple ways depending on which mode you’re playing.

Authentic Hockey

NHL 20 succeeds the most with excellent, tight controls that give you the freedom to execute basically any hockey move you can think of. There are also changes to animations and skating mechanics that make the game appear more lifelike. Building off what was already the franchise’s best foot forward with NHL 19, this year’s entry feels faster and more fluid with better animations that more realistically depict important transitional moments like catching a pass and getting intro stride at a quicker pace. Overall, the on-ice gameplay feels faster and more true to the real NHL experience.

There are new shot animations as well, which are contextual in nature and better represent what a shot might look like from a particular part of the ice and depending on angles, power, speed, specific player attributes, and more. In NHL 19, your player would oftentimes still complete the shot animation even if the puck never got to them, which looked very strange, but that rarely happens this year. NHL 20 also introduces “Signature Shots” for a number of the league’s best players; one of these is P.K. Subban’s booming slapshot and Alex Ovechkin’s electric one-timer. It’s a treat to see player-specific animations in NHL 20, and it’s yet another part of the way NHL 20 faithfully represents the real NHL experience. Additionally, goalie AI appears to be smarter this year, with netminders giving up fewer soft rebounds and making generally smarter decisions during important scenarios.

NHL 20’s in-game attention to detail and careful consideration of the sport is astounding. Players look and react as you’d expect them to on a TV broadcast, down to the way players subtly peek back toward their teammates during a face-off to the sharp crackle of skates gliding over outdoor pond ice. On the outdoor rinks, the crimson red glow of sunset over the pond is something to behold. On the ice, the physics system is so realistically presented that I found myself wincing after big open-ice hits.

Unfortunately, NHL 20 doesn’t do much in the area of improving player models. In fact, the character models for players, referees, and the crowd appear largely unchanged from last year. When the replay camera zooms in on fans on the glass, you might be wondering what kind of time vacuum the NHL series exists in for people to never age or look at all different from year to year.

Dirty Dangles

The NHL series is known for its tight, precise controls, and this level of excellence continues with NHL 20. No matter what control setup you’re using, the controls allow for a complete command of your player with astounding simplicity and a lot of depth at the same time. Puck possession and clever play-making are paramount in NHL 20, and the controls never fail to provide you with many different options to keep the puck, get around defenders, make the extra pass, and light the lamp. You have the freedom to play with as much creativity as you want. The game also features a slick and smart on-ice trainer that reacts to how you’re playing and provides dynamic feedback that, for the most part, helps you improve your game.

There is such a level of fine precision with the controls that you can determine the specific angle of a poke-check or toe-drag the puck at just the right time to open space up to make a shot on goal. In essence, the controller’s analog sticks feel like an extension of your on-ice stick. The excellent baseline controls stand out even more once you move on to trying out more more advanced techniques. It takes time and practice to learn the dirtiest dangles the game has to offer, but it’s deeply rewarding to perform spins and dekes that together combine to give you ample opportunities to play with style and pizzazz.

In addition to the standard hockey simulation, NHL 20 has an abundance of arcade-style modes. The pond hockey mode, Ones–which sees three players on a small, outdoor rink competing against each other–introduces four new locations, including a rink set on a secluded farm and another inspired by the Rideau Canal in Canada. These new locations, in addition to weather effects like snow coming down during games, make Ones an even more authentic and holistically representative depiction of the outdoor hockey experience.

Ones is lots of fun with its stripped-down, back-to-basics recreation of outdoor hockey with fast-paced play and lots of goals. Outside of the new locations, the biggest change for Ones is the introduction of offline play for couch co-op, and this is a very welcome addition after last year’s game left it out in a head-scratching move.

The Threes mode, meanwhile, remains NHL’s flashiest and wackiest mode with completely unhinged commentary, mascots lacing it up, lots of goals, and big hits. It’s the mode I found myself coming back to the most due in part to its quick games relative to the standard simulation mode and constant progression rewards in every game played.

The social hub, World of Chel, returns with NHL 20 with some noteworthy updates. The biggest introduction is the “Eliminator” mode, which is NHL’s spin on battle royale. You can go it alone in Ones or team up with two others in Threes to try to survive four consecutive rounds in a bracket to win the tournament. It’s a thrilling, incredibly challenging, high-stakes challenge that, like the battle royale games it’s inspired by, encourage you to keep coming back and improve your skills.

There is a robust character-creator and you earn XP for everything you do across all of World of Chel’s modes. It’s rewarding to invest in your character and know that, whatever mode in World of Chel you’re playing, you’re working towards growing your character with meaningful advancements like new player traits, in addition to nice extras like cosmetic gear. New for World of Chel with NHL 20 are weekly challenges that track your performance and reward you with cosmetics around a particular theme. For example, the launch-week theme is NHL 94, so you can earn all kinds of themed cosmetics like jerseys and other gear. I anticipate coming back regularly.

Elsewhere in NHL 20, the career-minded Be A Pro remains a satisfying and rewarding ride to take as you start your character from the ground floor and build them into a superstar, though there are no noteworthy updates to speak of this year. Franchise, meanwhile, features a new system that gives you multiple team coaches who have influence on the direction of your team today and in the future. The system, which also includes a light conversation mechanic where you can gauge the morale and interest of your coaches, adds a further level of strategy to the already robust Franchise mode that helps you feel like you’re really the GM of a pro team. Franchise also introduces a trade-finder system that makes it less laborious to find and make trades.

Ultimate Team returns as well, and its noteworthy addition is the introduction of Squad Battles. These function the same way they do in Madden and FIFA where you go up against HUT squads created by other players or, after launch, sports stars and celebrities. Hockey Ultimate Team is all about grinding to collect new cards, and it remains a fun experience to build a fantasy team comprised of legends and current stars alike, and compete against others.

NHL 20 successfully captures the ice hockey experience from the ponds to big games under the bright lights, with a fine attention to detail and simple yet deep controls that are best-in-class. Once you get over the shock of Eddie and Doc being out of the game, the new commentary team do an adept job of providing informative and playful banter, while the game’s multitude of varied modes each have their own distinct feel and appeal that go a long way to make NHL 20 an excellent representation of hockey culture across the board.

Source : Gamesport

[abckidstvyara]

Machine learning may be the tool de jour for everything from particle physics to recreating the human voice, but it’s not exactly the easiest field to get into. Despite the complexities of video editing and sound design, we have UIs that let even a curious kid dabble in them — why not with machine learning? That’s the goal of Lobe, a startup and platform that genuinely seems to have made AI models as simple to put together as LEGO bricks.

I talked with Mike Matas, one of Lobe’s co-founders and the designer behind many a popular digital interface, about the platform and his motivations for creating it.

“There’s been a lot of situations where people have kind of thought about AI and have these cool ideas, but they can’t execute them,” he said. “So those ideas just like shed, unless you have access to an AI team.”

This happened to him, too, he explained.

“I started researching because I wanted to see if I could use it myself. And there’s this hard to break through veneer of words and frameworks and mathematics — but once you get through that the concepts are actually really intuitive. In fact even more intuitive than regular programming, because you’re teaching the machine like you teach a person.”

But like the hard shell of jargon, existing tools were also rough on the edges — powerful and functional, but much more like learning a development environment than playing around in Photoshop or Logic.

“You need to know how to piece these things together, there are lots of things you need to download. I’m one of those people who if I have to do a lot of work, download a bunch of frameworks, I just give up,” he said. “So as a UI designer I saw the opportunity to take something that’s really complicated and reframe it in a way that’s understandable.”

Lobe, which Matas created with his co-founders Markus Beissinger and Adam Menges, takes the concepts of machine learning, things like feature extraction and labeling, and puts them in a simple, intuitive visual interface. As demonstrated in a video tour of the platform, you can make an app that recognizes hand gestures and matches them to emoji without ever seeing a line of code, let alone writing one. All the relevant information is there, and you can drill down to the nitty gritty if you want, but you don’t have to. The ease and speed with which new applications can be designed and experimented with could open up the field to people who see the potential of the tools but lack the technical know-how.

He compared the situation to the early days of PCs, when computer scientists and engineers were the only ones who knew how to operate them. “They were the only people able to use them, so they were they only people able to come up with ideas about how to use them,” he said. But by the late ’80s, computers had been transformed into creative tools, largely because of improvements to the UI.

Matas expects a similar flood of applications, even beyond the many we’ve already seen, as the barrier to entry drops.

“People outside the data science community are going to think about how to apply this to their field,” he said, and unlike before, they’ll be able to create a working model themselves.

A raft of examples on the site show how a few simple modules can give rise to all kinds of interesting applications: reading lips, tracking positions, understanding gestures, generating realistic flower petals. Why not? You need data to feed the system, of course, but doing something novel with it is no longer the hard part.

And in keeping with the machine learning community’s commitment to openness and sharing, Lobe models aren’t some proprietary thing you can only operate on the site or via the API. “Architecturally we’re built on top of open standards like Tensorflow,” Matas said. Do the training on Lobe, test it and tweak it on Lobe, then compile it down to whatever platform you want and take it to go.

Right now the site is in closed beta. “We’ve been overwhelmed with responses, so clearly it’s resonating with people,” Matas said. “We’re going to slowly let people in, it’s going to start pretty small. I hope we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”