This is where Kotaku readers go to talk about the stuff we’re not already posting about. Think of it as the official unofficial Kotaku community forum.
You can talk about games. Or movies. Or politics. Music. Food. Science. Sport. Insert your own miscellaneous off-topic discussion here. Just keep it clean.
I’ll be promoting this post each morning until Sunday to let the conversation continue all week. Makes more sense than starting a new comments thread every day.
Talk amongst yourselves below…
Sing Nguyen
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:12 AMIs there any way for this post to be kept in the Editor’s Picks column on the right?
Ding!
Cameron Chu
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 1:13 PMPerhaps David doesn’t think that this section warrants a mention in the Editor’s Picks =\
David Wildgoose
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 1:17 PMBookmark?
Qumulys
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:13 AMGood morning Kotakuians! So, I get a call last night at about 7:00pm and am having a chat with my old man. Nothing unusual about that, then he makes my heart sink. Those words slipped so easily from his lips but caused so much pain. “So how’d ya like Bathurst” he says. Then there is a long pause while I process the information. Damn, I can’t believe I completely forgot about bathurst, that special day of the year when the couch is mine andd beer flows free. You know its incredibly boring (unless its raining), but still its a day for rejoicing the car. Damn.
So, what was I doing? Taking my daughters out clothes shopping. 5 hours of sitting outside change rooms like an idiot (they really should install gaming consoles outside change rooms for us).
Anyways, was it worth watching?
k'Fox
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 3:46 PMHate to disappoint you, but the who race has now gone so tactical, there were some cars that quite literally ran on fumes… Making cars run as long as possible before they must pit and then only realise that a safety car popped out and spoiled the party in terms of tactics.
If you knew what you were looking for in the entire race, The Stig didn’t do so well… that’s all I’m saying :P
Qumulys
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 3:55 PMWhoa whoa whoa…. The Stig?? Pray tell this info! Is this the aussie stig I assume?
k'Fox
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 8:57 AMCould be… Or two Stigs…
Aaron Clement
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:18 AMI think last week’s ‘talk amongst’ got buried for one reason or another, so figured this might be worth a repost (for the love of Retro of course!):
Anyone seen the new range of Activision/Atari 2600 shirts at Jay Jays?
Our local one had 3 in stock when I walked past last night – a Pitfall “8 bit 4 life!” shirt, a H.E.R.O shirt and one with the box art for Grand Prix on it. Have also seen 2 other shirts as well: One with the Pitfall box art & another with a picture of the world (done in Atari 2600 box-art style) + the Barnstorming plane flying around it with “World Tour 83″ written underneath. For $20 they’re quite good, as long as you’re a XXL or smaller that is.
I grabbed the Pitfall ’8 bit 4 life’ one (http://twitpic.com/kr0ij ), although tempted to hunt out a H.E.R.O one in XXL next time I pass a JayJays –
mambodog
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 9:59 PMunfortunately if its at jayjays, hundreds of 15-year-olds have already bought it, and if you wear it, people will probably mistake you for a (hairy) 15 year-old as well
Aaron Clement
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 11:54 AMThat bit did scare me a touch, but meh. It’s hard enough finding Retro shirts as it is, short of importing them that is.
Ryno
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:33 AMok so me and my mates are going indoor rock climbing this weekend, have not been before. any tips?
Sing Nguyen
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 1:33 PMI don’t go very often, but the few times I’ve been I’ve found it useful to use your legs when you can. Rock climbing takes heaps out of your hands and forearms, especially with all the gripping you have to do. Also, lock your arms if you wanna hang, but don’t hang for too long.
Actually a more useful tip overall would be to not leave the fun looking climbs to the end. Do a couple of easy ones to get used to it, but then head straight for the hard one if you like the look of it. If you work up the difficulty levels and leave them to the end you won’t have much energy left for them.
Ding!
Cameron Chu
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 2:40 PMMake sure the person holding your rope as you climb actually holds it. Otherwise everything you do should be fine; don’t be scared if you won’t make it or fall or whatever.
chuloopa
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 2:56 PMthe best advice i probably have is to not say “me” instead of “my”.
That, my boy, is how dole bludgers speak
Ryno
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 4:30 PMWhile I agree that to be grammatically correct I should have said “my mates and I”, do we truly need to police the grammar of a comment in a news article, particularly one that is more like 3 fractured statements rather than a coherent sentence?
After SMS and Twitter, forums are perhaps the lowest form of written communication out there. When a commenter is literate it’s a bonus, attempting to enforce spelling, grammar or punctuation on a forum is like attempting to fight a bushfire with a super soaker.
The fact is while I am quite capable of stringing two sentences together. For a comment that short, I simply couldn’t be arsed.
mambodog
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:01 PMcalm down bro, at least he didn’t say ‘youse’
chuloopa
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:04 PMHey man, sorry about that. i didn’t mean to come off as harsh… the interwebs needs a sarcasm font or something. lol
but i’m curious now as how you said you were too lazy to type it properly, yet you replaced one two letter word with another one ending in the same result… lol
Either way sorry if i sounded like a dick – wasn’t my intention. I should be the the last person to correct other peoples spelling or grammar. :)
k'Fox
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 3:49 PMIf you’re going up, don’t think too long and just go. All you need to think about is “where does that lead”. If it goes to the top, just go. What’s worse than going up slowly is finding out that the route you took happens to be a dead end
GmBH
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 4:20 PMLike Sing Nguyen said its all in the legs. Using your arms to hold you body weight is tiring and you’ll fail very quickly. Use your arms for balance and use your legs for climbing and you should do fine.
chuloopa
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:37 AMPicked up a copy of Batman AA on 360 for $40 on the weekend thanks to Dick Smith and JB HI-FI.
Went to Glen Waverly DS who was having a massive clearence on their games and picked up 1 copy of Def Jam Icon ($10) and a copy of NFS Pro Street ($20). I tried to get a second copy of Icon but they only had one, so they told me DS chadstone had one and they might match the price. So off to chaddy i went and they had 1 copy left in stock at $40, so i took it to the guy at the counter with my receipt and told him Glenny said they migth be able to match the price for me. Straight away he said “sure no probelem” and gave it to me for $10.
Then i went straight to JB Hi Fi and traded all 3 for a copy of Batman AA! :D
So pumped!
Also picked up a copy of facebreaker on 360 for $5 from DS glenny while i was there, but that can’t be used in the 3 for 1 deal at JB.
Any one else get any good deals this weekend?
Qumulys
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 3:54 PMLol, you sneaky bugger loopy, well played. 2+ internets for you :)
Mr Waffle
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:54 AMI don’t suppose there could be more consistantly with article tagging? I mean, half the Dragon Age articles are tagged with “dragon age”, the other half “dragon age: origins”, so you end up having to do a search anyway (which misses the point of tags in the first place).
James Mac
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 3:07 PMCan someone tell me what it means when a game “goes gold”?
David Wildgoose
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 3:48 PMIt means the “gold master” has been sent for duplication/manufacturing.
James Mac
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 11:13 AMI see.
I thought it had something to do with sales figures… which I couldn’t figure out because the games hadn’t been released yet.
Thanks.
Aaron Clement
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 9:45 AMAnd also means that some git will likely be stealing a copy of the gold master soon and post it online for the pirates to dive in to ;)
EmaNymton
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 5:19 PMDid anyone else watch Top Gear last night and get annoyed at Richard and Jeremy’s pronunciation of “Bathurst”?
Bar-hurst, Bar-hurst? Where the hell is Bar-hurst? Never heard of it myself…
David Fowles
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 7:40 PMNot gaming-related, but I thought people might enjoy Michael Atkinson copping some heat. He made the mistake of calling an organised gang of thieving thugs “evil” which of course would be fine, except they are black.
Get your popcorn!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/13/2712708.htm
Aaron Clement
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10:48 AMHe didn’t do blackface or tell someone Jewish they need to use a concentration camp to lose weight, so therefore this won’t end up with calls for his resignation (unfortunately).
Klas
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 11:07 AMThey’re evil because they play video games.
Wait..
url404
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 12:12 PMOK so I have a question that my google-fu seems unable to answer or at least verify my finding. Maybe somebody here can help.
Is the term of a State Attorney General the same length as the state government is in power? I.E. Once SA Labor loses power does that mean Atkinson is out or is his term independent to that?
Many thanks.
Sing Nguyen
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 2:35 PMI’ve Wiki’d a couple of things (the number of subjects that people are willing to write ultra-formal articles on baffle me), and the best I could find is that the Federal Attorney-General is usually a a member of the Cabinet (and hence ruling party) and usually serves so long as the party is in power (or less). However, there is no constitutional requirement for this to be the case, so technically anyone can do it so long as they’ve been approved by the Governor-General (and who have been initially recommended by the Prime Minister) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_of_Australia).
That’s federal however, and the closest thing I could find in regards to state attorney-generals is this sentence found in the generic attorney-general page: “The Australian states each have an Attorney-General, who is a state minister with similar responsibilities to the federal minister with respect to state law.” I would assume that that means that yes, Atkinson would be kicked out should Labor be kicked out. If anyone has a more definitive answer, please do share.
Living in NSW I don’t know what the political climate is like in SA, but Wiki tells me an election is coming up next March, so perhaps the winds of change will blow favourably for gamers and proponents of an unbroken classification system in the near future.
Ding!
k'Fox
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 12:13 PMDon’t start assuming everything will go the way you want it to.
If you want something done, write to them… though this will amount to nothing… Hold a rally… but this will also amount to nothing…
Do something more than assuming…
I’m also in NSW, but regardless of which side is elected, there is no way they are going to allow R rated games to be considered “unless” they explicitly say that they are for it.
If you want to make a difference start a political party and gather supporter… Maybe a party called the Gamer’s Party.
Don’t believe everything you read in Wiki as some people do alter the facts and you wouldn’t be wiser for it. And Quit the Dinging… it is very annoying when someone is scrolling and looking for certain things especially in this thread
k'Fox
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 9:36 PMIf anyone is interested in Modern Warfare 2… Two news items…
PC is not actually a delay but someone pulling a prank, though, there is no official word about any production problems
http://twitter.com/fourzerotwo
Price Hike in US + UK for PC
http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2009/10/13/global_modern_warfare_2_pc/
Enjoy, if you can
url404
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10:04 AMThanks Sing. Good info.
I guess the initial assumption is correct and I have a feeling with a federal Labor in power there is a chance people may wish to balance it out with state Librals.
But as I am from NSW myself, any conjecture on the feeling of the SA people towards their government is me talking out of my bottom.
Aaron Clement
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8:53 PMIt’s Friday! Nearly Saturday even – Hooray!