An angry French cat once attacked me so viciously that I had to sleep in a bathtub.

A TV showing the start screen for the remake of Resident Evil 4

Been playing the Resident Evil remakes recently and have been surprised by just how much I've enjoyed them. The RE2make is spooky as hell and the RE3make is full of big, dumb actions that made for a nice palate cleanser.

Now for the really big one...

Steven Soderbergh teases "a lot of AI" in his upcoming movies Steven Soderbergh teases "a lot of AI" in his upcoming movies

WHY are so many filmmakers so determined to flush their respectability down the toilet and embrace the plagiarism slop machine?

People didn't know this already? I just took it for granite.

"Writers have to accept — "

SHUT THE FUCK UP, NO WE DON'T.

What we have to do is make hacks like Stephen Marche feel shame again. We have to treat people who admit to using "AI" like they've admitted they don't wash their hands after using the toilet.

Keep your shit-smeared fingers to yourself.

if you don’t like the process of writing then don’t be a fucking writer, it’s not that complicated

this is turning out to be one of the onion's all-time classics

Oh, man... "Do a barrel roll" is going to be this year's "chicken jockey", isn't it?

Also, this seems like a weird detail to just give up in a movie poster? Not even a trailer, just a poster. Like, imagine the reactions you'd have gotten in theatres if they'd kept this under wraps!

The words "Rowling" and "Harry Potter" have been muted in text and tags

It had to be done...

Looking back, I was pleasantly surprised to realise that I only died twice (and both times to big boss fights). Most of the time the game did an excellent job of making me feel like I got through every encounter by the skin of my teeth with only one bullet left in my gun.

I've now finished the Resident Evil 2 remake for the first time (still need to play Claire's story) and @skybrush.bsky.social will be pleased to hear that it's nowhere near as scary as I feared — lots of spooky atmosphere, not too many jump scares. A great introduction to the Resident Evil universe.

Seeing some of these chuds online always gives me a "there but for the grace of God go I" feeling, because I worry that I absolutely could have fallen down that rabbit hole had I not met good people at University. But I do wonder if I'd have caught myself before I went truly off the deep end...

I should have learned by now not to expect much but I also can't kill the bit of me that keeps going "but it's so easy NOT to go mad online"

Also, shout out to @philwbayles.com, who also shares some blame for this

So, I got through Alan Wake II in 2024 despite being terrible at scares. I was v proud of myself, and my wife went "do you want to try other horror stuff" and I said "No, I'm good, this was a one-off"

But now she just egged me into buying the RE remake trilogy, so I guess this is going to be me now

complete sidenote but i was v surprised by just HOW MANY TIMES i would have to read my novel at a granular level during the tradpub process. its like. johns not exaggerating by saying a dozen, lol.

probs the strongest argument for writing the book u wanna read is that They Will Make You Read It

What's equally infuriating is that the books seem to be totally out of print in the UK. I would *love* to read them!

Profile of an account called "Project Martha", which admits to being an AI

What the hell is this shit.

The Big Debate: What role should plagiarism have in art? An artist and a plagiarist sit down for a serious talk.

Picture of a hand holding a small e-reader (the Xteink X4), which has a protective cover and the words "DON'T PANIC" printed in large friendly letters on the screen.

I caved and got myself one of those nifty little e-readers that I've been seeing all over the internet. It was so easy to set up (including a custom sleep screen!) and holding it in my hand just makes me very happy. Plus there's a robust and extremely friendly of Redditors who I can troubleshoot!

Okami (2006)

Et les jeux non-réalistes vieillissent beaucoup mieux aussi! Okami, par exemple — c'est un de mes jeux préférés, et il reste incroyablement beau 20 années plus tard!

QTS* with a game that has a 10/10 soundtrack

Couldn't pick just one...

Part of me feels sorry for these guys, who've clearly seen their own industry get decimated by this technology. I sympathise, I really do. For god's sake, I'm trying to get a novel published! But capitulating to the slop peddlers is still a choice these guys made, and it's objectively the wrong one.

“Let’s not shame people”

Counterpoint: let’s.

And even then, it's objectively false to say that it would be impossible! Sure, stop-motion is time-intensive, but it's *very* easy these days to make something computer-generated that emulates the style of claymation without getting a plagiarism machine to do it for you!

The bit I keep coming back to is where they talk about AI "allowing them to exercise an idea that would otherwise be impossible." Like, no shit! Maybe that should be a clue that you need to work in a different medium! You wouldn't build a skyscraper out of matchsticks and superglue!

UPDATE: The people from #Claysplained sent me a DM on Instagram to have a little whine about me being mean to them. Frankly I'm not sure the message itself wasn't generated by AI.

The response proves my original thesis: these people have zero understanding of the medium they're trying to emulate.

I have an artificial intelligence joke but you probably already know it because it's inevitable.

I have an artificial intelligence joke, but AI bros wouldn't get it without asking ChatGPT to explain the punchline