What game are you playing?

[Mapman]

I've also gotten back into Sudoku after many years.

Are you familiar with the YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic? They solve incredibly difficult variant Sudoku. (I'd recommend their shorter videos to start; many of their recent videos are on the long side due to the increasing difficulty of the puzzles over time.)

[DavidW]

Are you familiar with the YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic? They solve incredibly difficult variant Sudoku. (I'd recommend their shorter videos to start; many of their recent videos are on the long side due to the increasing difficulty of the puzzles over time.)

I'll have to check it out!

[drogulus]

    I note that the Arc B580 price is now dropping to the $300 range, though not yet at MicroCenter (peace, blessings, whatever). Now on purely game performance the Arc is not outstanding. For me it's a good option because I need QSV to squish my videos in a reasonable amount of time. With the B580 I'm free to select an AMD CPU, which I might want to do.

[DavidW]

I note that the Arc B580 price is now dropping to the $300 range, though not yet at MicroCenter (peace, blessings, whatever). Now on purely game performance the Arc is not outstanding. For me it's a good option because I need QSV to squish my videos in a reasonable amount of time. With the B580 I'm free to select an AMD CPU, which I might want to do.

The RTX 5050 is out this month, and it should be priced at $250. The RTX 5060 is already out and readily available at $300.

[drogulus]

The RTX 5050 is out this month, and it should be priced at $250. The RTX 5060 is already out and readily available at $300.

     The 5050 is a major POS. It tests hideously against the B580 on the PassMark site, 10,727 v 15,760. Even the lowly A580 gets ~12,000.

     The 5060 is better at ~20,000 but with 8GB of VRAM it's gonna be obsolete by lunch tomorrow. The MSRP for the 16GB 5060 Ti is $449 and good luck with that.

[DavidW]

The 5060 is better at ~20,000 but with 8GB of VRAM it's gonna be obsolete by lunch tomorrow.

I thought you said you weren't using it for gaming. As a gamer, yeah, I would never buy it. But I don't know know it all why you would care.

[drogulus]

I thought you said you weren't using it for gaming. As a gamer, yeah, I would never buy it. But I don't know know it all why you would care.

    I'm offended by its existence.

[DavidW]

I'm offended by its existence.

I've seen the video. I know all about the controversy. I bought the card that I did and the one before it to have enough VRAM (and the one before that as well). Nvidia cheapening out on VRAM is not new, but, surprisingly, it is still happening 5 years after the launch of the consoles that pushed that needed buffer up to 16 gigs.

[drogulus]

   
    I've been using a 1650x1050 monitor since the Ice Age. My next one will be a 1920x1200. I like the vertical space for reading stuff.

    I have to run Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem at very low settings. I like the franchise because it's funny and cartoonish. One day I might want a card that would allow me to play it on high.

[DavidW]

I've been using a 1650x1050 monitor since the Ice Age. My next one will be a 1920x1200. I like the vertical space for reading stuff.

    I have to run Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem at very low settings. I like the franchise because it's funny and cartoonish. One day I might want a card that would allow me to play it on high.

I really like that aspect ratio. I think we should have stuck with it in the PC space.

[Mapman]

I'll have to check it out!

Today's video from Simon is a great one. Every few months, someone comes up with an incredibly simple, elegant ruleset that results in a beautiful puzzle. This is one of them: it's an 8 by 8 sudoku subdivided into two spiral cages. The only other clue is information about how many times each digit appears in each of the cages! (The title, like many on YouTube is a bit of clickbait: it's more like the discovery of the month.)

[DavidW]

I need a break from Sudoku. Following the campaign on Sudoku Coach, I'm at a point now where all the puzzles are hard (which is far, far, far harder than anything on sudoku.com), and it is taking anywhere from 20-40 minutes to solve a puzzle. Some of the techniques can be so hard to see. It is satisfying to see the moment you crack it wide open, and then you're furiously resolving and filling in singles until the board is full. I didn't get nearly as far as I wanted to as far as mastering advanced techniques... and I don't know if I'll ever have the patience to master puzzles that require forcing nets.

I'm back on Oblivion Remastered, trying to finish the Fighters Guild, some side quests, and then I'm going to play the two DLC (which I haven't played since they came out).

[drogulus]

    Mahjong Titans is an old favorite.

[Mapman]

I need a break from Sudoku. Following the campaign on Sudoku Coach, I'm at a point now where all the puzzles are hard (which is far, far, far harder than anything on sudoku.com), and it is taking anywhere from 20-40 minutes to solve a puzzle. Some of the techniques can be so hard to see. It is satisfying to see the moment you crack it wide open, and then you're furiously resolving and filling in singles until the board is full. I didn't get nearly as far as I wanted to as far as mastering advanced techniques... and I don't know if I'll ever have the patience to master puzzles that require forcing nets.

I'm back on Oblivion Remastered, trying to finish the Fighters Guild, some side quests, and then I'm going to play the two DLC (which I haven't played since they came out).

Aren't forcing nets mostly for computer Sudoku solvers? I don't see the point in classic Sudoku that involve anything more complicated than X-wings, or maybe a Swordfish. I think that's why variant Sudoku are so popular: they provide a much wider range of human-understandable logic.

[DavidW]

Aren't forcing nets mostly for computer Sudoku solvers? I don't see the point in classic Sudoku that involve anything more complicated than X-wings, or maybe a Swordfish. I think that's why variant Sudoku are so popular: they provide a much wider range of human-understandable logic.

That is funny because I was just thinking this would be so much easier to code than to do. X-wings are not hard, but skyscrapers are difficult to spot. I just can't naturally see them without some kind of hint. Looking at the Sudoku subreddit, there are plenty of people who look for those beyond difficult Sudokus that require chains and nets. So it is not just the realm of computers.

But you are making me feel better about how lousy I've become with these advanced techniques! But at the end of the day, it is fine if I don't master them, I just want to understand, just see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

[Mapman]

That is funny because I was just thinking this would be so much easier to code than to do. X-wings are not hard, but skyscrapers are difficult to spot. I just can't naturally see them without some kind of hint. Looking at the Sudoku subreddit, there are plenty of people who look for those beyond difficult Sudokus that require chains and nets. So it is not just the realm of computers.

But you are making me feel better about how lousy I've become with these advanced techniques! But at the end of the day, it is fine if I don't master them, I just want to understand, just see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

You might already know this, but an excellent Sudoku solver (with links to explanations of the strategies used) is at https://www.sudokuwiki.org/sudoku.htm. I'm not particularly interested in anything beyond the "tough" strategies (and not even all of those). (And from my experiences watching Cracking the Cryptic videos, I don't think they are either.) In the online communities I've observed, there's a strong preference for human-designed Sudoku over computer-generated ones, as humans are able to design puzzles to require interesting logic without extremely difficult-to-spot patterns.

Here's a list of relatively easy variant Sudoku that have been featured on Cracking the Cryptic: https://ctc-catalogue.com/ctc-catalogue-47fbcb3/gas_puzzles?_nocol=Video+Length+(Minutes). The YouTube description has a link to a nice interface for solving the puzzle. And a great resource for puzzles is this: https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/. It's possible to filter for easy (or very difficult) puzzles that are highly-rated by solvers.

[DavidW]

Thanks, I'll check it out! I didn't have many problems with two-string kites today. But I think you might be right. I might find more pleasure in variants.

[hopefullytrusting]

I've recently beaten three games: Rise of the Third Power, To the Moon, and Cosmic Star Heroine. All were fun experiences, out of the three I liked Rise of the Third Power the most - Cosmic Star Heroine had two fights which were irritating until you realized they were simply a logic puzzle (then they just took a long time - this is the game most like classic jrpgs like the Super Nintendo's Final Fantasies, and it felt very much like Chrono Trigger, but a tier below, obviously, as Chrono Trigger, from my point of view, is easily in my top 5 games of all time).

[LKB]

Mahjong Titans is an old favorite.

There was a version of that which came with IBM's OS/2, back in the '90's. I had some fun with that...

[drogulus]

There was a version of that which came with IBM's OS/2, back in the '90's. I had some fun with that...

     I cheat, though, by right clicking on a tile to find an exposed match. 

     I guess I cheat on Windows by converting everything to single click. I feel the need to compress my sins.