Technology

I hated Animal Well until I beat the game

Published

3 weeks ago

May 25, 2024

I hated Animal Well until I beat the game

About midway through Animal Well, I felt I had been lied to. I read all the glowing reviews of the game and heard the breathless praise heaped upon it on social media. But my expectations did not match my reality… until I beat the game. Now, I’m well on my way to 100 percent completion for a game I was seriously considering abandoning.

Spoilers for Animal Well are below.

Though I loved Animal Well’s novel take on traditional movement abilities — the tools it provides possess multiple clever uses — platforming itself often felt demoralizing. Initially, Animal Well’s platforming felt like it had difficulty spikes that were both too great and too frequent. I could often see where I had to go and how to get there (and I often looked up video guides to confirm I was doing it right with the right tools) but actually executing was more laborious than fun and engaging.

Though I loved Animal Well’s novel take on traditional movement abilities, platforming itself often felt demoralizing

I’ve always felt that the difficulty of a task in a platformer should be commensurate with its importance: the hardest moments should be reserved for secrets and optional goals, while everything involved in completing the game should be more attainable. That way, I am still in control of my experience and, critically, still having an experience. If reaching a secret is harder than I’d like, then I can opt out to continue on to beat the game one completion percentage point lower. But if simply getting from point A to point B is too dang hard, opting out means opting out of the game entirely. Animal Well’s platforming convinced me I’d run into an obstacle so frustratingly difficult that I’d quit and never come back.

On a lark, I decided to see what would happen if I pressed a big red skull button in a room full of crows, and yup, they pecked me to death.

Image: Big Mode / Shared Memory

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Somehow, I persisted long enough to collect all four animal flames to complete the game’s first “ending,” figuring I’d stop there. But then, right before the final encounter, I found a room littered with skulls containing an upgrade to the bubble wand item. Remember this, it’ll be important in a moment.

The bubble wand creates little bubble platforms you can jump on, but you can only blow one at a time. The upgraded bubble wand allows you to blow multiple bubbles that, with the right technique, let you bypass a lot of the game’s obstacles.

Remember the skulls? I figured out that all the skulls in that room, piled high enough for me to reach the wand, represented the number of times I died. With that realization came the shock that even though I wasn’t initially vibing with the game, it was always vibing with me. The bubble wand upgrade is unreachable unless you’ve accumulated enough skulls to build a platform up to it. The only way I got what finally made this game click for me was because of all the frustration it put me through in the first place.

When I figured that out, I started laughing maniacally, tears in my eyes, thinking, “Oh, you cheeky bastards!” I immediately went right back to the start of the game to go egg hunting, something I already decided I wasn’t going to do. But I was locked in now. I understood. I’m stuck in the (animal) well now, and I’m never coming out.

Technology

Chrome on Android can read webpages out loud from within the app

Published

2 hours ago

June 17, 2024

Press Room

Chrome on Android can read webpages out loud from within the app

Google is rolling out a new option called “Listen to this page” that can read a webpage out loud to you from within the Android Chrome browser. The feature comes with playback controls similar to those you’d find in music or podcast players, letting you pause, change the reading speed, scrub forward, or skip ahead or back by 10 seconds at a time.

You can also change the voice it uses, as well as the language. The feature supports several, including English, French, German, Arabic, Hindi, and Spanish, according to a Google help page about the feature. To see if you have it, head to a page with a lot of text, then tap the three dots menu and “Listen to this page,” which should appear just below the Translate option.

I recommend the breathy voice of Ruby: Mid-pitch, Calm.

Screenshots: Google Chrome

Technology

McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now

Published

9 hours ago

June 16, 2024

Press Room

McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now

If your local McDonald’s has been getting your order confidently wrong with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru, I have good news for you: The company is ending the program for now. The company told franchisees that it’s winding down an AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM “no later than July 26th, 2024,” according to trade publication Restaurant Business.

The company will reportedly remove the tech from the over 100 restaurants it’s been testing the system in after partnering with IBM in 2021. It’s not clear why the company is ending the IBM deal, though. It told Restaurant Business it was testing whether the voice ordering chatbot could speed up service and that the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”

Fast food companies in general are hungry for AI. White Castle has been testing AI provided by speech recognition company SoundHound. And Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, and others use an AI drive-through chatbot that an SEC filing revealed was underpinned by remote human workers in the Philippines most of the time.

Technology

Crazy fast electric robot sets new Rubik's Cube world record

Published

9 hours ago

June 16, 2024

Press Room

Crazy fast electric robot sets new Rubik's Cube world record

In the world of robotics, there’s always something new on the horizon, but Mitsubishi Electric has really turned heads this time. Its robot, TOKUFASTbot, which you might find on a regular day carefully wiring motors, has just stepped into the spotlight for a completely different reason.

It’s taken on the Rubik’s Cube and not just played around with it. It’s set a new world record.

This isn’t just about being fast; it’s about redefining what we think robots can do. It’s precision and technology coming together in a way that’s frankly mind-blowing. And it all happened so fast. If you blinked, you probably missed it.

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The puzzle phenomenon revisited

So, the Rubik’s Cube. We all know it, right? That colorful little cube that’s been twisting our brains since the ’80s. Fast-forward to the early 2000s, and it was back in the limelight, captivating a whole new generation. It’s not just about making each side match; it’s about the journey there. It takes logic, patience and some nimble fingers at play.

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And let’s not forget “speedcubing.” It’s like the Olympics for puzzle solvers, where every tiny tick of the clock can make or break a world record. It’s this thrill that keeps the cube turning in hands all over the world.

Rubik’s Cube (Rubik’s)

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A record shattered

The human record for solving the Rubik’s Cube, an impressive 3.13 seconds, was set by Max Park in 2023. However, Mitsubishi Electric’s TOKUFASTbot has left human competitors in the dust, solving the cube in a mere 0.305 seconds. This achievement not only breaks the previous robot record set by an MIT robot in 2018 but does so in less time than it takes for a human to blink.

TOKUFASTbot (Mitsubishi Electric)

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The technology behind the triumph

The TOKUFASTbot owes its success to a rotation mechanism capable of a 90-degree turn in just 0.9 milliseconds. This incredible speed is made possible by Mitsubishi Electric’s signal-responsive servomotors and a cutting-edge color-recognition artificial intelligence algorithm. The result is a robot that can assess, plan and execute the puzzle’s solution faster than we can see it happen.

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TOKUFASTbot (Mitsubishi Electric)

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More than just a record breaker

While setting a new Guinness World Record for the “fastest robot to solve a rotating puzzle cube” is a remarkable achievement, the TOKUFASTbot isn’t just a one-trick pony. Its design isn’t for show but for function. As Yuji Yoshimura, senior general manager at Mitsubishi Electric’s Component Production Engineering Center, points out, the robot’s primary role is to enhance motor manufacturing for everyday appliances.

TOKUFASTbot (Mitsubishi Electric)

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Kurt’s key takeaways

You know, this whole record-smashing thing isn’t just about a robot solving a puzzle super fast. It’s really shining a light on how far we’ve come with robots and AI. Looking ahead, the stuff they’re making today is going to really change the game in ways we’re just starting to get. And while the TOKUFASTbot isn’t winning any beauty contests, it’s pretty darn impressive to those who dig tech like me.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.