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825 responses to “Talk Amongst Yourselves”
For those that didn’t see, Lincoln Serrels entered the world last night. Congrats to @markserrels and Heizy.
The first thing Freya did after finding out was offer her baby photography services. So. Damned. Clucky.
Congrats @markserrels, I believe @sunsoar77 also had a son over the break. 🙂 Congrats!
Weeeeee! Congrats @markserrels!
Congrats @markserrels indeed! What a way to start 2016 🙂
Oh and Happy Monday all, hope if it’s your first day back at work that it’s a fun and cruisey one 🙂
Your name perfectly describes my Monday perfectly. (With a bit of creative pronunciation)
Ha ha, that is the beauty of it, it works on so many levels! (though if it’s the pronunciation I am thinking right now it is a bit of a tragic start to your week)
Hope from here on out it’s all smooth sailing Alex! 🙂
Some of us actually don’t get christmas breaks.
*sigh* I need a new job.
Oh, and congrats @markserrels. All teh notifications for you.
I got four days off over christmas day and boxing day, then three days off over NYE (due to public holidays only), and back to it normally today, so I’m definitely sympathetic.
At the moment, I’m saving my time off for May/June this year, I’m heading over to Hawaii and NYC with the girlfriend 😀
Congratulations @markserrels!
Congrats @markserrels!
Folks, this Saturday is eat a GayTime day. Join me in upholding this most sacred of TAYbie rituals.
@35 @alexpants @anonymous_pessimist @batgirl @batguy @cakesmith @cffndncr @cj @cookingmama @dkzeitgeist @doc_what @effluvium-boy @fatshadylive @gingerchris86 @gorzilla @harli @hugo_the_hungarian_barbarian @mawt @morkai @markserrels @mrtaco @novacascade @powalen @pupp3tmast3r @ruffleberg @shiggyninty @beavwa @budgieishere @chuloopa @coldcamv @crazyguy1990 @f4ction @greenius @jordi @mad_danny @negativezero @pixel_the_ferret_viking @scree @smurfydog @tech_knight @tigerion @tofu @trikeabout @zetrox2k @beardymcmuttonchops @beeawwb @cufcfan616 @dc @freezespreston @gutsoup @janexo @jimu @lambomann007 @popdart5 @sernobulus @strange @sughly @transientmind @welbot @virus__ @bdkiaf @blaghman @rize @shane @fled @grandmasterb-funk @hindenlagen @liondrive @phlanispo @phoenix @platinum-urchin @thecracks @ash @banderdash @benny @jacksonwryan @jocon @lucifer9783 @redartifice @wilburHey if you could ship me one, that would be super.
You could make you own…. Sorry.
Pfft. Like I need an excuse to eat ice cream.
#obesity
I was planning on having lunch with some gays. Same thing, right?
I think it only applies if either sex or cannibalism ensues
It’s a golden gaytime!
… I wish I hadn’t brought that up. Mind = wrecked.
Just imagine them all singing Spandau Ballet instead
I wish I could but I don’t like my chances of finding a Gaytime here. Or at least, not the edible kind.
It’s America, land of junk food. Surely that have something close but disappointingly wrong you could substitute.
It’s not the same 🙁
I’ll get some for my grocery shopping on Wednesday, and I’m hosting a board games night this Saturday so I’ll ensure everyone has one 🙂
I like nothing better than having a nice creamy Gaytime.
Eating a Maxibon?
You’re dead to me.
Don’t tell me what to do.
Look, it’ll be fine. Trust me I’m a quack.
Not sure if I’ll be allowed to. I might be on a limited diet due to my colonoscopy the day before. If I’m allowed, and can get my hands on one, I wouldn’t say no though!
I hardly ever eat ice cream anymore because of my high cholesterol…
But I might
*A wild Banderdash appears*
I have to eat a what now….?
Fine…. if that’s what the cool kids are doing…
Bloody peer pressure…
I would, but unless they serve one on the plane, we’re fresh out of luck.
I’m up to rub out a gaytme
I had no intention of eating ice cream, but I stopped at the servo after work yesterday and bought one, just for you.
Ya can’t eat it till Saturday.
If I am able to find one close by I will certainly enjoy a gaytime. Never had them until the tub came out and I am now hooked so looking forward to it.
Raises a question does it have to be a gaytime on a stick or a gaytime from a tub?
Traditionally a stick but tub is ok.
Didn’t get to bed til nearly 3. Only slept 3 hours then woke an hour early for no reason. Fell asleep and woke half an hour after alarm, because power outage had time and alarm on opposing meridians. Pouring rain the moment I had to leave. Couldn’t sleep on the train. Ugh, work. Crappy new year initiate!
…huh, only six support tickets waiting for me.
I’ll trade you for the annoying neighbor that really, really needed to clean their backyard by making as much noise as possible directly outside my bedroom window at 5 in the morning.
Happy new year everyone! Congrats (or possibly commiserations?) to @markserrels and @sunsoar77 on their new little ones.
So the one advantage of working over the break is that it doesn’t feel quite so bad to be at work this morning! The major disadvantage is having to listen to how much fun everyone had on holidays… screw those guys.
I don’t remember most of New Year’s Eve. Spent two days wondering if I broke a toe. Had a bunch of friends over and did nothing for two days.
Working 12 hours today on 1 hour sleep. Excited for bed.
Happy New Solar Rotation
Hola Tayberinos
I cbf recapping an entire two weeks, you all follow me on twitter, so the dot points
– Despite having to throw out the entire christmas turkey, Christmas was saved.
– Kapunda dust storms were a thing, because of the bushfires in the area
– We lost two giant rainwater tanks full of water when a pipe burst
– Star Wars I saw twice and loved twice
– I built a Bloodborne saw cleaver and I have done the foam for my n7 bicep and pauldron, so I’m on the way!
– BOARD GAMES
– HAPPY NEW YEAR
– Congrats to @beeawwb whose victory in Subterfuge is a foregone conclusion at this point
A Monday Morning Question: What’s your non-resolution 2016 goal or project?
Dig my way out of my room, make it spacious and/or usable.
…Maybe I’ll try again in 2017.
@beeawwb is a real shit in Subterfuge.
I’m planning to start making my own music, in a completely different direction to what I’ve done already.
He’s played the waiting game in this one. I got drawn in to a fight with one of @gingerchris86’s friends after he was aggressively non aggressive, which has lead to jostling with @freezespreston and Chris for the rest of the game.
I did kill someone’s queen by surprise though, so that’s nice.
I learned from last time where I peaked too early.
Also apologies in advance Red, you may want to turn off notifications on your phone. You’re about to get 6 hours and 20 minutes of them. Errrr… make that 10 hours and 20 minutes.
My only plan at this point is to hold second place for 30 hours.
Taking this as a compliment. >:D
I’d like to sort my belongings out a bit better. Right now my room looks like a four-year-olds with the amount of figures and other nonsense around. I wanna strip that back a bit and at least look like an adult in some ways..
I intend to make time for the big RPGs I’ve been meaning to get into – Witcher 3, Pillars of Eternity, and SWTOR. Hmm… might have to stretch this out over a few years…
Morning, TAY! Hope you’re well!
The first thing my boss said when I walked in today was: “What’s a ‘Powalen’? What’s ‘Secret SanTAY’?” as he handed me a parcel that was delivered over the break 😛
Cover blown! Had to explain so many things. Let’s hope he doesn’t google anything.
(Not opening it until I get home just in case I have to explain anything else to them haha)
The jig’s up everyone, let’s get outta here!
“oh it’s just a thing where people from the Internet, sends presents anonymously, nothing suss”… *walks off*
you’ve got no idea how many times I’ve been asked “What’s a welbot?” or “WTF is TAY?”
Have we done a “Look what my I got off my Secret SanTAY match” thread yet?
I think people just periodically chime in whenever their present arrives.
I can’t remember if I used my secret SanTAY’s real name or TAY name last year. I know I sent someone a game one time and had to ask if their TAY/twitter name was suitable given it was going to a PO Box that I assumed belonged to their employer.
It’s a Pokémon!
…Also, thanks for the present 🙂
I thought it was funny 😛
I’ve fallen into the Android: Netrunner hole in a big way. Others should join me! Jinteki.net is a fantastic tool to play online (much better than OCTGN, which we’ve tried in the past).
I went to my FLGS yesterday to test out a new deck. First game was rough. Super rough. The deck has a lot of interactions and synergies that involve knowing timing windows very well. I almost snuck out a victory against the guy I consider the best player that frequents that store. A bit more luck and some more familiarity with the deck would’ve done the trick.
Next game was against the guy that loves to put together some amazingly silly and frustrating decks. Got trounced. Just didn’t know how to tackle what he was doing. We played again with another one of his decks. It became the silliest game of Netrunner either of us had seen. Both of us made ridiculous piles of money. I had to use all of my gas to get through and came so damned close to victory. Then I lost and we vowed never to play that matchup ever again.
Played someone I hadn’t met before after that. Didn’t draw the key card I needed for the matchup and he got to do his thing before I could do my thing, easy win for him.
Finally played the worst player in the store (I’ve decided I’m second worst). We played a frustratingly long game that I had guaranteed victory from about 5 minutes in. It was just a matter of where the agendas were sitting in his deck. They were down the bottom. Bonus points for me baiting him into some terrible decisions in order to slow me down.
I originally wasn’t going to keep going with this deck after the first game. Now that I can see how all the parts slot together better, I’m thinking it’s worth continuing with. It’s a real pain in the ass to pilot well but I’m learning a lot about the game by learning the deck.
I’d be interested in playing online 😀
Most excellent.
Easiest way to get started is to go to Netrunnerdb.com and use their deckbuilder tool to put something together or copy one of the many, many decklists published on the site. Grab a text version of the decklist and copy/paste that into Jinteki’s deckbuilder. Then you’re pretty much good to go.
I’ll play online, sure.
Why am I running along with a net?
Because it’s rad.
Whoever catches the most butterflies wins
New years eve was pretty awesome. I was at a friend’s house where his backyard was a pier, so we stood there watching fireworks going off from multiple directions around us, so pretty great. 5/7 would go next year!
I also got some time to play Risk of Rain, after finally getting multiplayer actually working, and gotta say, WAY better with friends as you don’t get so easily overwhelmed. I managed to get to the final boss but due to my lack of hard sustain (2HP per hit was all I had, I was taking 100s of points in damage at a time) I got slaughtered in phase 2. Oh well, furthest I’ve gotten! Also we’ve reached the final boss level of Castle Crashers with my
UNLIMITED POWER!red lightning knight with a crit hammer. Unfortunately due to a game crash on one of my friend’s end, we had to stop as we went all the way back to the start of the final level.As for recent board games, I had my first Easy win of XCOM: The Board Game with only two players. If you’re curious to see how close we were to losing, I think this shows the intensity of the situation… look at the panic tracker on the bottom of the photo, we lost one continent to full panic and every other continent was one more panic counter away from falling into full panic as well (We get 2 fully panicked continents total, we lose the game) basically if we lost the final mission, it’s game over due to how much we lost in the defence of the continents and soldiers in defending the base.
BOARD GAMES
I got to play Orleans, which I was a bit wary of because the description sounded complex, but it’s actually a really cool guy. Also played Between two cities, which I liked but probably wouldn’t buy (it occupies too much of an overlap between 7 Wonders and Suburbia, I don’t need all three) and finally got my copy of Quantum to the table which I thought worked really well but I want to try with larger play counts.
Also, Burgle Bros continues to be a stone hit, and we all love 7 wonders.
Orleans seems like my jam but I haven’t seen anyone bust out a copy at any of my regular board gaming groups.
Between Two Cities fills an important gap between 7 Wonders and Surburbia where new players can work out the flow of those games much, much more easily. It’s the game you’d use to work people up to 7 Wonders or Suburbia so if your group is already playing those games, you don’t need it. It’s still rad. I still want it.
Oh, I thought it was great, I just don’t need it in my collection. If a friend bought it I’d be all over it.
And Orleans has a really neat system of bag-building. My mistake was not increasing my draw size and not looking close enough at the scoring matrix early on, but I did get to eat a lot of food I found laying on the road, so there’s that.
BOARD GAMES!
Anton and I have been playing 7 Wonders duel, which is a bit frustrating, but overall a good strategy game.
I learnt viticulture, which was hard.
Bought new ships for attack wing, so likely to start binging that again!.
Finally played Codenames, really really good.
We played a bunch of games over the Christmas break.
The standout was Patchwork, a quilt making game where you collect buttons. Super elegant. The game does everything it tries to do extremely well (as you’d expect from Uwe Rosenberg). I ordered a copy online pretty much as soon as we got home. Now I need to go buy a bajillion buttons to replace the cardboard buttons in the game.
I’ve considered getting that for my mother, but I want to play it first.
There’s enough depth to make decisions interesting while being simple enough that anyone can play and feel like they’re doing well. The spatial reasoning could be a bit of a hindrance but it also makes the game incredibly satisfying. It’s just one of those games where doing things feels good.
And if you win, you get to be BUTTON KING!
I don’t know if your mother would like it. I know you will.
Maybe I’ll just order it for mother’s day.
Or track it down at the next board game day I go to. Though I’m lined up to DM a D&D session AND play Agricola at that one.
Holy shit someone else plays Risk of Rain? YES!
I’ve recently gotten into it again – I clocked it with a few different characters a while back, then switched PC’s and managed to lose my save files. They have since added CHEF, who is my new favourite character.
I’ve only got Enforcer, Bandit and Miner at the moment, enjoying the bandit the most (My ring finger isn’t though lol, artificially firing faster by hammering the Z key xD). We only managed to get the game going through Hamachi/LAN, never internet, so take what you can get, really. Also ESET was being a pain so I had to disable it during play.
Have you got the Command artifact yet? If you have, CHEF is literally the easiest class to unlock – you just have to choose the right items when you’re choosing perks. Loader is also pretty easy to unlock with Command, since you just choose different items.
When I was playing before (before Loader and CHEF were introduced) I loved the Engineer, but CHEF is my homeboy now. Being able to 1-shot Magma Worms is up there with world peace as the best thing ever.
I don’t believe I do yet, the only artifact I’ve gotten is the one that randomises item abilities. Not ideal 😛
Command is pretty easy – when you get to the Alien Hive level, just go to the top right of the map. There’s a bunch of ropes hanging off the ceiling that appear and disappear (but you can climb on them even when they’re invisible). Just jump from rope to rope until you reach the platform on the right.
Seriously, that one artifact makes the rest of the game a breeze. It means you get to choose what item you want every time you get a drop, rather than having it randomized.
Also, Acrid is pretty easy to unlock – every time you reach the 3rd level go to the top right of the map, you’ll see a cage and if you open it a mini-boss jumps out, kill him and you unlock Acrid.
We do look for them every playthrough but we can never see any ropes ever at all on the top right 🙁 I’ll keep trying.
Also need to play it solo for a bit to try and get the robot janitor. I don’t care if he’s melee, I want the bloody robot!
Han-D is a garbage character for broken people (because I can’t get the hang of him).
Bow to the CHEF. CHEF is love. CHEF is life.
Let me know if you get online play working, I’d be keen to hit that up!
Happy new year everyone..
Whilst 2015 was an okay year for me in the end, i’m glad it’s over. Onward & upward for 2016 or some shit like that right?
First day back at work. Woo, yeah, huzzah, etc.
On the bright side, I learned that the coffee place near work is open to menu suggestions, so I’m sitting at my desk sipping a banana smoothie with two espresso shots in it.
Verdict? Cuz that sounds awesome
The bananas were a little green but other than that it’s pretty nice.
I hope I can try one of those one day, cuz I love banana smoothies, and I love coffees, this should be a no brainer 🙂
You magnificent bastard… *wanders off to local cafe*
While I think of it, does anyone need Steam Christmas cards? I’m happy to trade for any Christmas cards I don’t have, or for cards from any games (preferably that I own).
I have:
One of card 5 – The Black Ice Boys
Four of card 6 – Sending a Message
Two of card 10 – Guess Who’s Coming To Town
Two of card 11 – Redemption
FYI the cards expire 4am tomorrow and need to be traded/used before then.
I need Zippy’s demise, The Black Ice Boys and Guess Who’s Coming To Town to make my level 3 badge 🙁 CJ said he counter-offered them to me but Steam says I have nothing at all pending.
If you have a spare of 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, or 9 I’ll trade you a Guess Who?
Sent you a black ice boys
Thanks, but as you don’t use an authenticator it says it’ll take 24 hours to come through so will expire by then 😛
Wait, trade happens instantly with the mobile app?
I thought it was the same as the email
Bah, I can’t even enable it to push it through now
It does allow instant gifting, but only if you’ve been using it for 7 days
I have
2 x One of card 5 – The Black Ice Boys
1 x Four of card 6 – Sending a Message
Free if anybody needs them to complete the badge
FYI, I’m pretty sure all trades (edit: trades involving people not using 2-factor authentication) take 24hrs to finalize, so if that embargo isn’t over before the cards expire, you might be shit out of luck. If you care about getting the badge, the standard price for each card is seven cents.
Make sure to sell your duplicates or crush them into gems before they evaporate.
Alternatively, put two-factor auth on because why not? A minor inconvenience for a massive jump in account security, and it gets rid of all trading issues.
Do you need to get a code when you login from home? Or is it like the email that you do it from a PC a couple of times and then it doesn’t check again?
I’ve never had to use it for my home PC via client (presumably because I’ve saved my credentials after a successful login), and you don’t have to use it for the phone client (seeing as it’s in it…) so it only holds you up via the website, and I have no problems with that.
I actually tried to do that to get my community badge, but it wouldn’t bloody work! Nothing ever prompted me to put a code in.
Maybe it was just buggy that week and I should try again.
I had to update the app to get it to work
I would think trades waiting for confirmation would be protected from expiring since they leave your inventory. Tis possible, but my thoughts is it should be ok
For some reason I can’t turn my cards into a badge. The option just isn’t available. :/
I need some, but no idea what numbers or names they are.
Currently I have
1x Santa’s Workshop
1x Zippy’s Demise
1x Holly
1x Twinkle
2x Black Ice Boys
2x Sending a message
1x Taffy
1x You better watch out
1x You better not cry
1x Guess who’s coming to town
2x Redemption
willing to trade any 2x for any I don’t have!
I feel like I might want to sell Splatoon.
Turned it on yesterday, and my prevailing thought was “I’ve played this before, and what I played was better than this”, and that’s only for the single-player.
I don’t know if its because the Ratchet abd Clank games have spoiled me with their gameplay, but this just felt kinda lax.
I mean, you’re not wrong, but that’s because its primary draw is online multiplayer, the same as Battlefield or Battlefront. If online multiplayer ain’t your jam then Splatoon probably ain’t your jam.
Battlefield 3 actually had a really fun campaign! 😀
Yeah, didn’t do much for me either. Have since sold my Wii U. Unless Nintendo blow me away with the NX I think I’m officially done with Nintendo consoles.
It’s 2016, I’ve finished my diplomas, I’m going from fast food / warehousing / post-school-entry-level jobs into what television university ads call “The Real World” slowly walking towards the light like a nervous wreck with an interview-ready smile that looks like bent railroad tracks in a rumbling earthquake.
I’ve never had a proper professional job interview before, that’s why I’m freaking out…
Don’t lie
Don’t be afraid to embellish
If they ask for examples of something (EG. When did you take control of a situation?) there is no harm in using non work examples
Stay calm (easier said than done)
Check the company out online and try to get a feel for the company culture. Then shape your answers around that
That last one is especially useful. Often they’ll ask if you know what they do there, and if you have done your research, it goes a long way to impressing them rather than just saying “Well, I know you make xxxx”
These are the best times. Enjoy!
If it helps, getting an interview should be a reassuring thing – it means they liked the look of your resume enough to sit down with you and share a bit to see if you and the employer are a good fit. The interview is the fun part. 🙂
Absolute madman 😛
Bah, I think it’s best to reject the paradigm that considers job interviews to be about petitioners kneeling in supplication to the gods of employment, desperately seeking approval… and and think about it as something casual and stress free, like a first date. There’s already some interest there, this is just a process of seeing if you’re a match. And that works both ways. You want to see if that corporate culture’s a good fit, too.
And while no-one likes rejection, and it’s always disappointing to not get something you really want, it’s still better than faking to please to succeed at getting a job you’re not suited to, then spending all your work life trying to contort to meet their expectations of who you aren’t actually, and suffering under the resulting friction or resentment that you’re not already what they wanted you to be.
You know, I think I agree with you. In that it seems like it can be totally fine when it is something that chance thrusts upon you, rather than something you seek out yourself. Seems to be my experience at least!
Wait. …We can’t agree, we’re Transient and Gooky. You grew a beard and I had to shave mine off.
It’s circumstantial agreement, I’m sure it squeezes in amongst the whole yin/yang thing well enough.
Also did your beard get infected or something? D:
No, I had to just to maintain oppositeness.
(Also, I couldn’t remember what I looked like under there. It’s been YEARS.)
@transientmind Ok so that’s basically how this happened. Had time off, started getting lazy, thought “I haven’t had hair for *years*, I wonder what it’s doing these days. Let’s grow it out.” Then the ‘Gief thing happened so the top hair went, but the beard stayed.
Inb4 you decide to grow it back at the same time I decide to get rid of it 😛
So, Christmas resulted in 3 new games. Elder Scrolls Online, Wasteland 2 and Fallout 4.
Need to spend more time with ESO.
Wasteland 2 is a much better game for the overall theme of choice and survival. Similar to X-COM, every choice you make is important (including combat) and where you invest in your stat points. You can max out a characters lockpicking, but that character will have zero points in everything else. Perks are also more rare, so you have to think about which perk you want.
Fallout 4 is a really enjoyable game, but not for the reasons that it should be. The leveling up and new perk system is great and the settler system is pretty fun (if a bit limited). They’ve got an addictive nature that makes me want to keep playing to improve my towns by collecting stuff and giving me a great desire to level up to get more perks.
However, where the system falls apart is that it destroys the ‘survival’ theme of the series. There’s no real feeling that I’ve doing my best to stay alive (outside combat at least), I’m not really scrounging around for a bite to eat or desperately looking for a small piece of leather to help improve my armour. There’s no real difference between grabbing a wrench or grabbing a screwdriver, they both result in the same amount of steel. So, whenever I want to improve a settlement, I’m not carefully looking for important pieces, I’m just clearing out every building and box then dumping them back home.
I’m happy that I’m getting use out of the crap that litters these games. Because everybody knows a wrench had no reason to be picked up in previous Fallout games (it’s not like you were ever short on caps that you need to sell everything).
The perk system is great but I’m never thinking about my choices. There’s never really a moment where I ‘need’ to get a particular perk, I know I can just unlock everything eventually.
The problem with Fallout 4 is that it’s one huge collectathon. You’re collecting all trash to upgrade your settlement, you want to upgrade your settlement because you want the numbers on the screen to be high, you want to level up so you can ‘collect’ all the perks.
The most egregious example of this mentality comes to the Power Armour suits. Previously, the Power Armour were just dreams, a goal you can only hope to achieve until you spend many in-game hours doing quests and exploring until you can eventually wear them. It was a little easier to get one in Fallout 3, but you still needed the right perk and the right questline completed. Here, you’re given a freebie before you fully complete the tutorial of the game (I’m counting up until you unlock the ability to create settlements). In what would be described as a scripted moment in any other game, taking out a group of raiders with ease and then going toe-to-toe with a Deathclaw (why the hell would this guy be in a tutorial?).
Not only do you have your own Power Armour that required no effort to gain, but the Commonwealth is littered with these suits. I haven’t even been looking for them and I already own 5. I found 3 within 30 seconds of sprinting from each other. Power Armour is not special anymore, it’s a collectable. I want them all because I want to finish my collection. If this game was designed by Ubisoft you would have a huge map full of icons to clear out.
The worst part is how they’re handling the story. The intro was so rushed it makes everything unbelievable. Seems like they were so excited over their new settlement, crafting and PA system that they put little thought into the intro. You’re rushed into the vault, into a cyrotube and out the door. Your character has zero reaction to anything. Already collecting bottlecaps because everybody knows you use bottlecaps for currency. Don’t you think your character would be slightly hesitant when a fucking Deathclaw bursts out of the ground? Or get a little bit more upset over their partner getting shot in the head?
and I bet I can already see the plot twist coming a mile away. You don’t have to answer this, but I bet your baby isn’t a baby and is probably an adult. Since it was a little obvious at the start of the game that you were re-frozen after your baby was stolen.
The more I played Fallout 4 the more I got the impression that the Settlement stuff was tacked on after a good chunk of the game was made? I think if I didn’t have Settlement stuff (which I have to do thanks to my completionist OCD) I would have a very different experience in this Fallout game. Have to admit to not being a fan of the open-ended skill tree; it’s nice knowing you can unlock everything but at the same time I’m not focusing on any particular play style because I know I can unlock everything which is in stark contrast to how I experienced Skyrim.
All in all still a good game; just missing some of the lustre that used to come with the series.
So I started playing some Duelyst over the weekend; overall a really really cool game! It’s like a cross between a turn based strategy game and a card game. Matches usually last 5-10min and so far I’ve been beaten repeatedly! That said I have to admit to absolutely loving the animation and interface they’ve used; it just feels so… polished?
Also started playing some Skyforge over the weekend; I’m kind of in mixed thoughts about this game. Loving the gameplay and the MMO itself while levelling however it’s very very unorthodox for a MMO. It’s so out of the box that I’m not certain the game has any healers or dedicated tanking classes? The only support class I’ve played so far can cast a shield and buff defense but can’t actually heal? The tank class can generate aggro and cast a shield but doesn’t have any dedicated aoe oriented spells? It’s very weird and personally a breath of fresh air in a very stale genre. Oh and you can only create a single character which can get access to all classes over time…. Kind of mixed on this one but enjoying it as much as I enjoyed levelling in FF-14!
Was speaking to my sister-in-law’s boyfriend (whom I already don’t like because, well, he’s a bit of a twat)
On the weekend, because he was super excited that he just picked up Fallout 4, and this was his first Fallout game blahblah… I then said something in the line of “Well we can all agree that one of the best things about the Fallout universe is the music, because dat radio station!” to which he replied “I wouldn’t know, I turned the music off”…
THAT’S IT, OFFICIALLY WORST PERSON EVER!
Triggered
We make all these jokes about you being German, and here you go and point out that you’re actually on speaking terms with a person who sounds a fair bit like Hitler.
Preeeetty sure even Hitler would listen to “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire”!!!!
Well that makes a horrifying amount of sense.
Urge to kill rising.
I haven’t turned the music off but I have turned my PipBoy radio off. The only times I get music is if I’m walking past a radio that’s on.
I can forgive you because you like space ships! 😛
There’s only so many times I can listen to Danny Kaye.
Yeah, I remember getting sick of the music (as good as it was) in Fallout 3 so I thought I’d do what my friend did (in that game) and go with only incidental music. It works pretty well from my perspective.
All my settlements have plenty of Diamond City-tuned radios littered about to make them little musical hot-spots.
I’m not sure if it’s random or not, but it really does seem that two or three songs seem to get prioritized for the whole ‘incidental’ discovery of music. So you seem to get more variety by listening to it solid, but burn out on the limited selection faster.
I downloaded a mod that doubled the songs and that was good, but still not enough.
Just think about how you’d cope with your phone only having access to two dozen tracks… You’d go insane and pretty much stop listening to it.
That seems to be my experience too. Incidentally I think I’ve only really heard 4 or 5 songs on the DCR tuned radios. Weird.
I turn music off in most games tbh. Things like GTA and by the sounds of what you’re saying, I likely wouldn’t in fallout either, but probably 90% of games I end up turning it off. Not sure if it’s because it’s distracting, or that I often use skype to talk while playing, but I just usually end up turning it off after the first 10 mins
Fallout has a very good atmospheric soundtrack that is often underappreciated because the radio station is the default for most people. If you don’t like (or get sick of) the music, just turn it off. You won’t miss that much.
One day, if I ever get around to/live long enough to play it!
Hi all! Hope everyone had a good break. I had a pretty relaxed week-and-a-bit at my folks place – saw TFA again, read a couple of the newer Star Wars books (Aftermath and Lost Stars), which were pretty good (and fleshed out the interim between RotJ and TFA), and started on Sanderson’s new Mistborn novel. Games-wise, I got through the last three episodes of Life Is Strange (so good!) and spent a good 15-20 hours playing Sunless Sea, which is delightfully creepy (but annoying as all hell at times). Also played Mu Complex, which was a pretty neat little hacking game (if you can get past the all-powerful cat that somehow can extract TAR archives, transcribe audio files and read PDFs to command line).
While Steam trading cards are fresh in my mind, if anyone has doubles of anything and they’re looking to trade it for cards/backgrounds/emotes/stuff, feel free to give me a shout whenever. I’m always looking to finish badges for games I like (and level up badges for games I love).
Hey. I finished the persona bookmarks
http://imgur.com/a/iZiwC
Any feedback would be good. Sorry, a bit out of it. Been playing so much Dancing all night.
So I mentioned my Saw Cleaver, I’m pretty happy with it: http://redartifice.tumblr.com/post/136294209660/so-im-finished-made-the-joint-using-a-dowel-had
Now I just need to work out, y’know, the rest of the costume.
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dark-souls-2-02122014-23.jpg
TAY RPG Pathfinder!
@redartifice @tech_knight @freezespreston @beeawwb
I honestly cannot remember and I forgot to make a note of when we next wanted to play Pathfinder. Were you guys interested in getting the Monday Knights rolling again tonight or starting up in a little while? Also, @gingerchris86 when were you running Interface Zero so that I don’t accidentally conflict with your sessions?
Ummmmm, I don’t have internet at my new place yet and I might not until mid-next week (12th or 13th). I can still try and get on via a mobile connection and my laptop but no idea how well that’ll work.
There’s no real rush to getting back into it if you don’t even have internet yet. I’m happy to wait a while so that we can start off the Monday Knights on a strong note.
I can pretty much guarantee* I’ll be online by the 18th. I’m scheduled for an install on the 12th, just allowing an extra couple days for activation.
*guarantee may not be honoured.
Actually we might be ok. I picked up my TPG supplied modem at lunch and plugged it in and from what I can tell it’s got sync. I’ll check after work to see if my PC agrees (my phone connected to wifi and browsed, so signs point to yes)
Just FYI my internet IS working, so whenever the group is good to go I’ll be available.
Interface Zero is tonight, so if you can, please run pathfinder next week and we’ll go from there.
Since everyone is unable to do it tonight I insistently demand we do it tonight.
Alrighty then. No Pathfinder tonight and I’ll see what we can do for the future. I’m most likely going to be busy on next Monday (11th) so I’m probably going to aim for the 18th to start things rolling from there. That might conflict with Interface Zero so we’ll need to sort something out.
Edit: Cool. Things are sorted now so we’ll pass on Pathfinder for the next two weeks and return to adventure on the 18th. Thanks to everyone for being so accommodating.
Thank you for reminding me I should really read and use Mutant Year Zero
And thank you for the reference to a game that looks really, really interesting. Now I need to read Mutant Year Zero *adds it to the pile*.
I will probably end up running that online, if I ever get around to reading it.
Dammit this lady keeps forwarding us the same e-mail crap she’s spamming to all her friends. And this time even though the message contains a note about removing names and using BCC, both at the top and bottom, yet she’s still ignoring it.
Need a damn Unsubscribe link.
Create Rule > Check “Subject Contains” > Paste in the entire subject line of troublesome email > then Check “Move to Folder” > Browse and Select “Deleted Items”
works for me 🙂
Don’t think I’ve got that on this system, would probably have to bug someone else about it. Ehh, at least I can waste time telling her to go away 😛
Oh, it’s not Outlook?
Nah, Help Scout. No idea what handles the funneling of stuff into it, this end’s all I’ve got to play with.
Apparently the lady who had my job before only had Outlook in her new spot doing the same thing. Sounds horrible, I hope she managed to convince them to let her use this instead.
“WORKFLOWS” is what you’re after. They’re the ‘Outlook rules’ of Help Scout
http://docs.helpscout.net/article/22-using-workflows#create
“By default, only Administrators can create and manage workflows” :'(
Heh, decided to see if my old 8800GTS graphics card still worked, it sorta does.. I mean you can see stuff on the screen, but this is what it looks like haha http://i.imgur.com/1vNTLCo.jpg also the fan sounds like a jet engine..
She’s fooked captain!
Maybe a little 😛
Wrong thread!
*conjures mental image of secretly being a Yarny-like entity with a human costume on, and the ‘wrong thread’ when pulled unveils the creature beneath.*
Big thanks to the TAYbie’s who kindly gifted me stuff over xmas btw! I don’t recall who gave me what, but I know McGarnical, The Cracks and f4ction all gave me goodies like Frozen Cortex, Elite: Dangerous, and Mad Max! You guys are totes tops! ;D I know I gifted out a bit, but since my damage is brained atm, I can’t remember what, or to whom, but I hope you all had/have fun with whatever i did get y’all! 😉
I definitely need to get my arse in gear regarding planning my new PC with you, apologies that I haven’t yet. It’s gotten so bad I have to switch back to single screen to stop it melting down at the moment :P.
Mine is slowly dying too. I couldn’t even play dying light, the demo
all good dawg. Message anytime. I may not respond cos I might be having a narcocap, out cold, or maybe even at the hospital, but I’ll always get back to anyone who does eventually 🙂
Alrighty then! I’ll drop a message to you tonight since I’m on recall and all at the moment 🙂
Received the gift of Diablo 3 PS4 over the holidays. Went diving into the network settings when a friend wanted to join in from their place, and I noticed that it even has a LAN mode. A LAN MODE ON PS4.
I’ve been bitching about the fact there’s no offline mode on PC when it’s right there on console, but local network play? That’s just rubbing it in.
Also, I guess it’s pretty fun. Couch co-op is reasobable with 2, a little unwieldy with 4 because that’s too much individual menu time while the other 3 do nothing.
Also, my PC is now resurrected. Went straight back to playing Fallout 4 thanks to the magic of cloud saves. Runs pretty well now even with my aged GTX 570, guess it’s really CPU intensive more than anything.
Still haven’t gone to diamond city yet.
Automatic cloud-saving is one of the truly great Wonders of the Steam(tm) Age.
My PC’s dead!
*logs into wife’s PC and keeps playing*
Long live my PC!
*logs back in on my shiny new hardware and keeps playing*
So seamless.
I just started fallout 4 and I already feel the need to upgrade my PC
Hasn’t been too bad but feel the FPS is just slightly off and it is struggling with some things. Mini gun causes all sorts of issues for my GPU.
To put it in perspective, I’ve moved house 3 times since I bought a $300 replacement GPU when the 2007 era one died. That’d be … 5 years ago?
CPU certainly seems to be doing the heavy lifting.
I think I’m running around a nvidia 480 or something right now
So thinking I might need to go a intermediate card until I have funds for a new full PC
Oh, also – Pokémon Picross.
Picross is kinda like minesweeper crossed with sudoku. I’ve been playing a lot of it.
It’s the paywall variety of F2P rather than limited play sessions, it would be just about impossible to play a significant amount without paying. That said, I paid to unlock the whole thing which is a first for me. I’m finding it far too engrossing.
I haven’t caved and paid yet but I have been tempted a couple of times. Bloody energy bar!
Also, it really is a good bit of fun.
Given that you earn 4-6 picrites once per puzzle, and a level has 6-8 puzzles initially and then 10ish later, and it costs 100-150-200-250ish for next level unlock, yeah, energy ain’t the problem.
I used the free currency to max the energy bar and party slots, then realised that it would be weeks of the daily training reward of about 10 currency just to get to the next set of puzzles. I caved because I wanted lots more puzzles for the flights over the holidays. Worth it.
I went the reverse and opened up a tonne of levels, so my energy is only 200. The main reason this is working for me is because I only play it in small spurts 😛
Picross is amazing! There’s tonnes more of them on the eShop too (not Pokemon branded though)
I own them all >_>
Some grind to win style games can be great. I’m still stuck on marvel puzzle quest
To pull a number out of thin air, with dedicated daily mini-grind for currency I could have probably covered the amount of play I’ve had in the last 10 days over the course of about … 18-24 months.
I think I’m up to about world 24/30 though. I’ve been playing a lot.
Let me tell you all a story bout an idiot named Bob
Thought he’d run some errands while breakin’ from his job
Looked up in the sky saw a whiter shade of grey
Picking up his phone and keys he went of on his way.
Oh Bob you are a moron,
The rain will get its pour on,
and soak you to the bone.
‘It’s dry outside’ he thought, ‘and I won’t go very far’
‘Plus there’s nothing raining when I check the 64 radar’
‘I’ve just a couple things to do and I’m a fast walkin’ fella’
‘I guess what I am tryin to say is “Screw it, no umbrella”‘
Oh Bob you are a moron,
The rain will get its pour on,
and soak you to the bone.
He made it to the postal shop and waited in the line,
While outside, from what he saw, the weather remained fine,
But the postal service slowness continued to delay
And before he knew it half an hour gone from the day.
Oh Bob you are a moron,
The rain will get its pour on,
and soak you to the bone.
Back to his apartment the first sign of trouble he did see
“Is that a tiny drizzle I feel falling down on me?”
Up the elevator, thoughts of panic in his head
The return trip he would soon take, leaving only dread.
Oh Bob you are a moron,
The rain will get its pour on,
and soak you to the bone.
Outside again and now the rain is starting up in force,
A hurried jog he broke in to while charting back his course
But the more he ran the more it rained and soon he was quite soaked
There’s no way this tale will turn in to anything but a joke.
15 minutes later he’s returning to his desk,
Water droplets falling from his hair down to his chest
A puddle forming anywhere his feet would care to stand
Here he sits, a soaking, soggy, sorry little man.
Oh Bob you are a moron,
The rain will get its pour on,
and soak you to the bone.
Thaaaaaaaaaank you! Tip your waiters!
I, for some reason, thought of the Stanley Parable when I started reading this…
I was going for more a “Beverly Hillbillies” theme vibe.
I read it in a “cool for cats” way
I’d love to see you try to rhyme Lundgedolph with something for Drewan 😛
I think the only word that rhymes with it is “golf”
There’s also a muppet named Rowlf. #helping
Yep, I just tend to stay away from rhyming names with other names. Seems cheaty.
It kind of rhymes with ‘self’… if you’re Sean Connery.
Oh all come, to hear the tale,
of the man Lundgredolph
Who fought from the north
To the south Xondol Gulf
And though all his enemies
the wild man did slay
It’s of his giant package
they talk of today
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lie
When the wild man did charge them
the enemies did die
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lo
Though the ladies did tell of
his manhood below
Yeah, I thought about rhyming “gulf” but Lundgre-dulf just didn’t sound right in my head.
*slow clap* Brilliant
The Ballad of the monday knights, continued
Dem’nion the elf
With a sorcerous grin
Would use magic spells
to cause a great din
Yet beneath all his power
A secret did lie
Lets just say his folks
We-ren’t angels from on high
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lie
When the elf used his lightning
Evil forces would die
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lo
But the elf’s secret heritage
Was from down below
A talkative cat
Was Drewan, by name
And through all of his tales
the Knights built their fame
But though his great words
Would inspire and and entertain
His frequent rambling
Earned the party’s disdain
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lie
The cat’s wild tales
Made people laugh and cry
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lo
though the patience of northerners
ran awful low
A long suffering man
Was the DM, Popdart
His party elevated
derailing to an art
And though his careful plans
Would burst in to flames
His party of jokers
enjoyed it just the same
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lie
All of their antics
Would cause him to sigh
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lo
Despite all the tangents
They enjoyed it so
A mysterious woman
from the far off west
Few would suspect Izumi
From appearances, her test
The lady’s calm facade
Would occasionally lift
When the enemies found out
She could shapeshift
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lie
Though outwardly calm
the western lady did hide
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lo
Faces she’d change
and her past, long ago
Abelas could appear
a most dapper gent
But the thing he couldn’t stand
Was the northern town’s scent
And though the master thief
could steal, fleece and wreck
His role in the party was
“Hey, point ear, Trap Check!”
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lie
While the pickpocket scoundrel
was a talkative guy
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lo
He’d stab you in the back
For a pile of dough
I’m gonna keep that, that’s awesome 😀
I can’t think of a rhyme for Izumi.
“Blew me”?
Calamari? Pastrami? Gourami?
TSUNAMI!
The magical woman
Her name, Izumi
Though despite their adventures
Her friends barely knew thee
Beautiful and cunning
Her range of spells great
But her enemies and allies
Do not always appreciate (Especially recently!)
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-lail
Really bullshit rolls
Caused most spells to fail
Tra-de-la-lee, a Tra-de-la-loo
A companion to her once said
“You are not you”
I blame Pizza Thief’s family. They brought the weather with them and forgot to take it away again.
Seems reasonable.
The Old Hunters is tough. Real tough.
Hunters as standard enemies, big Lovecraftian nightmares as stronger enemies and some bosses that truly test the limits of your skills (Stares hard at Ludwig).
Currently in the middle of the Research Hall and not having as much fun now. Enemies are trivial on their own but they keep throwing 5-10 at me at once and they each hit like a truck.
Hunters are beefy walls of Nooooope. The fact they respawn is…trying.
I think I’m up to the last section, but got a little fed up when I died under a swarm of piranha dogs. Haven’t played it since before Christmas! I should probably get the courage back to finish it off.
Haven’t even started Old Hunters yet.
Just beat Witch of Hemwick this morning on this playthrough.
The rubber on my DS4’s left thumb stick is wearing off and has started to develop tears along the outside. I bought it in August 2014, it became noticeable about 14 months later.
I rang Sony and they refuse to repair it, sell me parts, etc. Their only solution is to take it back to the retailer (Dick Smith eBay store… good luck convincing them to replace it) or buy a new one. Both of those options suck when we’re dealing with an $80 item with a design flaw.
So I’m wondering, has anybody here had any success getting dual shock 4 controllers repaired/replaced? I know there’s always potential avenues with ringing the ACCC, yelling at Sony, etc, but I’d be particularly interested if you have had any success and therefore know exactly who to hassle and how.
Failing that, does anybody have a broken DS4 they are willing to sell/give me that I could scavenge for parts, or advice on a reliable spare parts vendor?
I think @freezespreston recently replaced the sticks on his controller?
Bloodborne controller abuse?
Actually now that you mention it mine started wearing off about a few months ago as well and is torn in the bottom half…. Is this a systemic problem? anyone else in TAY with the same issues?
Seems pretty systemic from what I’ve heard – more than a few of my regular Destiny group have reported the same thing. I noticed it starting after around six months of regular use, so I bought some rubber thumbstick grips on ebay asap. Haven’t had an issue since.
I’ve got the same issue, they seem quite flimsy. I’m glad I picked up the 20th anniversary controller, the thumbsticks on that seem a bit better quality.
I’ve been meaning to replace the thumbsticks on my original DS4, since replacement ones are all of $4 off ebay for a pair, and they’re dead easy to replacement from what i’ve seen on repair guides.
A board game restaurant is opening in Canberra at the end of the month. They’re aiming for Australia Day long weekend (same time as CanCon, a pretty big board game convention).
Suddenly Canberra has a reason to be here aside from Canned meat!
Wait I thought Canned Meat was a board game convention.
Canned Meat is one of the ingredients I’m using for dinner.
The other is 2 slices of bread. A sad, sad dinner
Not tonight, no. SPAM fried rice. Mmmmm. Delicious and nutritious.*
*May not actually be either.
Salt is a nutrient, therefore SPAM is nutritious.
Would you like some meat with your salt?
There’s no meat in SPAM.
I had a nap earlier today and now I feel even more tired then before. wth.
That’s ‘sleep whiplash’!
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/03/remember-the-90-minute-rule-to-ensure-a-refreshing-nights-sleep/
I just had another nap. That fixed it.
You’re like an alcoholic, but with naps!
Man, I am so h̶u̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ tired from this nap. I know what’ll fix it… MORE NAPS!
Hey, it worked!
Fallout 4 settlement questions
I’m still very early in the game so figured I would find this out first. Currently I only have sanctuary and red rocket available to me.
I’m looking at building a building as a base of operations so to speak but before I do is it possible to build it anywhere. I can clear away the ruined houses and that will give me a slab to work with but I want more room than that. Can you just build away from that where ever you want? or if I want a larger building should I try the middle of the road or something
You can lay down flooring and walls pretty much anywhere as long as it doesn’t clip with things.
Depending on how much of certain materials you have, I recommend using the wooden or wood+concrete ‘platform’ floors to set a specific height that allows the base of the flooring to disappear into the terrain. If you want buildings with multiple levels, there’s a stairway floor part under wood floors that puts a staircase to the next floor up, and you can snap-lock other floor pieces to that one.
THere are foundations that you can make which will snap to existing floors
I didn’t know the shack foundations would snap to existing foundations. Interesting.
Under Structures > Wood > Floor there’s an item called shack foundation that’s a concrete block with a wooden floor. You can set these anywhere that don’t clip with other objects and they’ll snap together. I typically try and make a 3×3 or 3×4 foundation and go from there. For multilevel structures use the wooden stairs that have their own floor tile and remove the foundation block otherwise your walls won’t fit properly (i.e.: have the stair tile flush with the floor, not on top of the foundation – don’t worry about the empty void underneath). I find a two-level structure is more than enough space to put in the beds I need for the settlement population cap of 20 (which is the max once you have 10 charisma).
My preferred settlement for building is Starlight drive in, a settlement you’ll probably find within a couple of hours if you haven’t already. It’s a large flat expanse and has a water source in the middle where you can fit a pump. Get the local leader perk as soon as you can so you can establish a supply line. I suggest getting the minimum junk requirements to make a generator and recruitment beacon then the instant one settler arrives, link them back to Sanctuary where you should be storing the majority of your junk/crafting resources.
If you are going to be building at starlight, dont you need to have all your junk there? Or does the supply line let you access the junk/item at another location?
Supply lines let you access your junk stored at another location. Since you start at Sanctuary that’s generally what I use as my base of operations. As long as all your junk is in the workbench, you’ll be able to access it from any settlement as long as there’s a supply line back to Sanctuary. Unfortunately you can’t chain supply lines, like go from Sanctuary to Abernathy then Abernathy to Starlight and have Starlight access Sanctuary’s inventory – Sanctuary would only access Abernathy’s inventory in that scenario – hence my supply lines all converge on a single point (which can make for some amusing spawning clusterloves when the assigned provisioners arrive at Sanctuary and ten pack Brahmin are stick inside a house for some reason).
You could theoretically have all your junk at Starlight or really any place, but that’s the place you’ll need to link supply lines to from other settlements in order to build at these other locations. Most settlements will seldom have enough resources to build power, a beacon and any kind of defence, so you want to establish a supply chain as soon as you can. Often you can cobble together a generator and a beacon if you have some circuitry, crystal and oil on you (there’s usually more than enough steel around) but once you have a settler, establish the supply chain and build to your heart’s content. There’s no need to use Sanctuary, but I simply have in both playthroughs so far. Others are drawn to Red Rocket since that’s the location that was depicted in the trailer. Others use Starlight for it’s aforementioned construction benefits, etc. etc.
P.S.: establish corn, tato and mutfruit crops at your primary supply location. You’ll want to start crafting vegetable starch for the adhesive ASAP if you’re going to do any amount of modification to your weapons and armor. Also, the scrapper perk (which I think is under intelligence or agility) will enable you to reclaim screws and nuclear material from various weapons when you break them down. That’s another good perk to pick up early.
Thanks for the tips Kerm, I appreciate it
Polygon is ‘dead to me’ (over-dramatic not really) after so shamefully snubbing Witcher 3, but the op-ed piece on Hearts of Stone made me laugh.
In approximately 12 hours, I will be sitting in the Perth airport waiting to catch a plane to Ireland. Huzzah!
Wow. eBay reckons my old GTX 560 (non Ti model) graphics card is worth $110 after all the information I put in to the thingy.. Wow. I think I only paid $170 for it brand new from MSY 3 years ago.
I’d have thought $99 inc postage would be your best bet, but I had a quick look on ebay and there really are people trying to offload them for $150+. You could get a GTX680 (my current card) for that price…
Yeah they really aren’t worth more than $100. I dropped the price to $80 for buy it now or $60 starting bid, and tbh everytime i’ve included free postage i’ve gotten nothing but trouble from the buyer, so i’ve given up there. Plus it’s like $20 to post the damn thing, so stuff that tbh 😛
After reading plenty of Best of the Year lists, I realised that I couldn’t remember much of the media that I consumed over 2015. I’ve resolved myself to making notes of every game I start and movie I watch through the year, maybe new TV series as well.
First note:
Jan 4:
WATCH_DOGS (May 2014) – Nope, UPlay account services seem to be down.
Off to a great start. =P
My Wii U is telling me I can link my account with my 3DS. Does this mean they’ve actually gone ahead and implemented cross-buy functionality? Never thought I’d live to see the day…
Follow up question, does the SD card port actually work? Or is that a backwards compatibility thing? I just realised I’ve got a 32GB Wii U with only 32GB of space, even though it’s got a SD card in it.
(And even then I’ve got 12GB free even though I’ve only used 12GB. 8GB OS?)
SD port does work, so there may be an issue with your Wii U? Or it could be that the SD card you’re using isn’t formatted correctly (needs to be FAT32).
With the NNID account, it isn’t as amazing as it appears to be, but for Nintendo it’s a good step forward towards a proper account system.
I thought the SD card was mostly for the vWii, and parts of certain Wii U games eg Smash screenshots and stuff. But not for downloaded Wii U games or game saves?
Pretty sure (remembering this from when I bought my Wii U Day 1) that it said you could use SD OR external for game storage?
I dunno, I’ve never used it myself. I swear I hear people stating opposing information about how the Wii U works all the time, nobody knows what’s going on 😛
I think this is right, yeah. Could be wrong but I seem to remember reading this when I was shopping around for an external hard drive (wanted to just use a big SD card instead)
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/228948
It’d be neat if one of these could fit in the front USB slots and still let you close the flap. Think they might still be a little wide for that though.
I think there are a couple of cross-buy games, but it’s usually more used for opening up discounts like “get X% off if you own Y game on 3DS” or for shared DLC like the Smash Bros characters.
So my Rockstar Social Club account was stolen overnight. Password was suddenly changed with no warning, and then the account nickname was too. I recovered it easily enough via a password reset but now I have to wait for Rockstar Support to let me change my nickname back as they only let it change once a year…
Regardless, considering there was no notification of attempts made to access the account or anything and the login page uses Captcha (badly, but still uses it), it means someone who is apparently from Serbia has managed to get a hold of my password somehow. So, heads up if you were forced to make one of these shitty accounts; might be worth updating your password.
Seems a lot of places have been hacked and customers not been told recently, Steam, Microsoft and as you just mentioned Rockstar. I can see that identity theft is going to become more and more common. It’s a real struggle these days to remember how many different accounts you have with various sites/businesses and what their passwords are. As time goes on I seem to hate the internet more and more. I’ve a mind to get rid of every single account and go completely offline forever.
And yes, I realise the irony of posting this on the internet.
Yep. This is why I have no issue with two-factor authentication. It’s not infallible but it helps a lot.
Honestly, my biggest problem is the sheer number of accounts I need just for gaming these days. Separate providers/platforms make sense (Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and Nintendo) but then there’s the garbage for PC gaming that forces you to create an account for one/a couple of games (Origin, Uplay, Rockstar Social Club) and then on top of that many games have another layer.
…and people wonder why account details tend to be reused across multiple accounts.
Yeah. What is it the security experts say? Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts, change your passwords every 30-90 days, don’t repeat passwords, don’t just increment the password by a single digit, oh and don’t write any of them down anywhere.
Now do this for every fucking discrete system you use, who all insist on having their own authentication systems.
Between games sites and games retailers, media sites and retailers, social media and other enthusiast forums, physical goods retailers, clubs, facilities and utilities, entertainment services, communications, finance, logistics, I came up with over seventy different unique logins before I decided that keeping count was fucking ridiculous. And that’s my personal life. We have half of that again for work, with all the individual systems being kept track of there.
So let’s go with over a hundred different utterly unique passwords with no resemblance to one another to be memorize and rotated on a quarterly basis without simple incrementation?
Get. Fucked.
Some security experts try to counter the outright absurdity of this asking by insisting on the benefit of putting all your eggs in one supposedly-secure basket with a key-pass system… which, as one privacy-conscious friend unfortunately discovered recently, leaves you completely and utterly FUCKED if you lose access to your key email either through misadventure or technical failure.
So yeah. I keep a handful of common passwords that I cycle between, and any time a system tries to force my improved security for me with lock-outs, two-factor, anti-password-cycling/recycling, and regular forced password changes, it makes me want to drive rail spikes into the eyes of whoever’s responsible.
And to top it off half the time they’ll force you to put in a backdoor secret question that can easily be guessed with basic personal information. The rest of the time they’ll just straight up reset your password for anyone who gets huffy on the phone (as grateful as I was for it, when my phone had to be reset and I lost my SWToR authenticator all I had to do was ask them to turn it off).
The worst part is when they push all this crap on you and then get hacked it suddenly comes to light that while they were forcing you to create a password with between 9 and 11 characters long, no more than 5 capital letters but no less than 3, 4 non-consecutive digits and no repeating letters, they stored all the account names, e-mail addresses, credit cards, personal information they gathered ‘for your convenience’ and plain-text passwords in a basic .txt file laying on the desktop.
Man, just the topic gets me fired up to rant for days… I’m becoming the Duckman of the digital age.
A guy at work recently had his Origin account hijacked. He didn’t have 2FA on it, but the guys who hijacked it added 2FA, so that any time he tried to change anything, the code got sent to their number.
Oh man, that gave me a good laugh. It’d be a shitty thing to deal with but it’s kind of hilarious from a distance 😛
I was in a mad panic when one of my account requests resulted in my email address being set as the contact point for someone else’s Steam account.
I could see every time they were trying to log on or change their password to get back in, the poor bastards. And I was powerless to do anything because those mongrels at Valve don’t do a phone support line.
And they take (seemingly) 3 weeks to respond to suppor tickets.
Exactly. Which I logged, but still count as ‘powerless to do anything’, because that’s not really anything.
https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-to-open-on-jan-6/
HAPPENIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
…I think that’s about 3am Thursday morning. GDI Palmer.
Friggin’ keen, but I really wish they’d give some info about the price. Unless that’s happened and I’ve missed it?
Not yet I don’t think, but I presume it’ll come up at some point in the next 48 hours 😛
I’m pretty much all in regardless of what comes up, even if it’s a surprise sting like US$600. BRING ME MORE KOOL-AID!
I couldn’t begin to guess the price, but if it’s under $300AUD I’ll probably buy one without even blinking.
I think it definitely won’t be that, especially with the dollar how it is at the moment. It was lucky we were pretty much at parity when the kickstarter was on, IIRC my DK1 cost me AU$327 with shipping (though they did only tack on US$30 for international shipping, a gross underestimate in the end apparently :P).
Most talk was of a ~US$350 price point, but recent comments have been alluding to the idea of it being higher than that, most people are estimating it’ll probably be more like 450-550. So it’s probably gonna hurt.
Really wishing I bought a few hundred American dollars back when we had parity. Stupid me, I *knew* this day was coming.
If I’m being fair that’s probably a reasonable price as it is essentially an expensive monitor (albeit a specialised one). I just wish it was a lot cheaper 😛
I just realised even at that price there is a major hardware upgrade for me as well *sadface*
Price I’m seeing most is English Tech sites saying £400 which is a bit over AUD$800.
Better than the Vive which they’re throwing a US$800-1000 figure around. Apparently Steam and HTC want to position it as the premium tier of VR.
So, next up is splatoon bookmarks, but I’m not sure what to do after that. I have Okami and TWEWY but I’m happy to take suggestions
Senran Kagura.
Hear hear! =P
That’s just tits. There’s no challenge in that
Easy sales though. Be kept afloat for a year and that’s just from @jimu and @negativezero 😛
In all honesty, I’ve never played.
Though I have admired the art on lonely nights
The characters all have pretty recognisable designs that’d work quite well but no point if you’re not interested I guess.
It’s not really the sort of game I’d play. Sorry
Psychonauts
Oh crap. I own this but never played it. I’ll see if I can get it on my Vita. I’d like to play it before I make the bookmark as it helps me create stances and stuff
Psychonauts bookmarks?
Ugh, fine *Throws money at scree*
Don’t you already want all the Katamari bookmarks?
Oh, I’d go for a full set of psychonauts ones over Katamari any nominated day of the week.
Why not both? =P
How many books do you think I read at on-
Yeah OK I need both
If you’re anything like my mum =P
She leaves bookmarks in all the books she reads
OI TAY! :@ Where has everyone gone?!
Twitter.
Open plan office :*(
Second Christmas?
yes please
Hi, TAY.
Purchased a volume of Octopus Pie from its store page three weeks ago , and it should hopefully arrive tomorrow.
Also I bought myself Wind Waker HD, and it’s pretty good.
Hey everyone, can I ask a small favour? If you are willing, would you give me your height and head measurement? I’m trying to figure out tentacle lengths and squid hat sizes
177cm tall, 58cm forehead circumference. Hope it helps.
http://i.imgur.com/LBM55wY.gif
Not clicking while at work because of what I hope it will be.
4 hours to wait until you are utterly disappointed
Utterly utterly utterly.
YOU LIED TO ME THROUGH IMPLICATION, @rize.
Is the name of @rize’s sex tape
Dammit Brooklyn Nine Nine168 and about 60 iirc.
How do you people know your forehead circumference off the top of your head (heh)?
Is this a thing that adults do? I must have missed the memo.
Had a hat I was trying to wear once. It was a 59 and slightly snug fit 😛
I had a measuring tape in my bag.
Wait… Today is the 5th… Story of Seasons comes out for AU 3DS in 4 days! 😀
Harvestmoonharvestmoonharvestmoonharvestmoonharvestmoon.
Is that the game where you harvest the moon?
@scree
I’m so excited! But I’m also so poor.
=(
So if you sign up for the Humble Bundle monthly subscription, you immediate get a copy of Alien: Isolation… so even without the games each month, that’s $12 for A:I.
Sigh. I’m already so close to breaking my ‘clear the Steam backlog’ resolution, and we’re like 5 days into the new year.
*wafts into cffdncr’s radius like a ghost*
Wooooo….It’ll be that price or cheaper again… wooooooo
*wafts away*
It’s the ghost of Steam Sales future!
But but… it’s free! How can I afford not to buy it!?
TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES ON KOTAKU AUSTRALIA
That’s just tits. There’s no challenge in that
Sorry @screeAw man, not again. And first one of the year too. ugh.
JUST GOT HOME AND FOUND MY CHILLI PLANT HAS FINALLY SPROUTED
EVERYTHING COMING UP THRILLHO
Metal Gear Solid V is addictive.
WHY DID NO ONE WARN ME 🙁
What a thrill
Also, tell me you have Rebel Yell as your chopper music
I don’t have chopper music… I think. Also not sure if I’ve found Rebel Yell yet.
Still have to get to that. Left Mad Max half finished and haven’t even started MGS V. Currently in the middle of Just Cause 3, so once that’s done and dusted I’ll hopefully knock out Mad Max and then finally get on to MGS V.
Does one ever actually finish a Just Cause game? 😛
Not even once.
Boring question regarding PowerPoint. If I have a file with 400 odd linked Excel charts, and the charts just get updated each week (Update Link), why does the size of the PowerPoint file increase when I save it? Over the last 12 weeks it’s gone from 14500K to 15750K. Weird. Versioning information? AutoSave data?
Sentience. It’s learning.
All your power are belong to point.
Dunno if these will help, but here’s a couple of links explaining stuff about ppt’s and excel linking
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00067_Problems_with_LINKED_EXCEL_CHARTS_in_PowerPoint.htm
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00593_Linking_or_copying_information-content-charts-worksheets_from_Excel_to_PowerPoint.htm
Actually learned all of those things the hard way. Where were you 3 years ago when I was drafting these reports? 😛
LOL no idea tbh. I can barely remember what happened 5 mins ago these days :\
Was trying to find a little light I could set up for the plant, thinking maybe I could use one of the old night lights that used to go in the hallways. But all the bulbs for those are blown, and there aren’t any spares. Then remembered I had my old itty bitty book light somewhere (wow, actually used to use that thing all the time. And hauled it everywhere with four C batteries inside), hacked together a power source by jamming a couple of paper clips into the pin sockets on the variable power supply I picked up to use with my Virtual Boy, then jammed those in the battery springs, set supply to 6V and huzzah!
Apologies to @rocketman 😛
oh my god itty bitty book light…
That thing got me through many a camping trip, school excursion, and sleepless night.
We no-joke had an entire square-metre draw, about 20cm deep, just filled with batteries for the itty bitty book light.
Hahaha yes! So many camping trips and stuff with scouts or school or whatever. Wow I completely forgot about all that.
God damn I used to read a lot, book after book after book. Now it’s basically zero. Curse ye, innernet.
Fun fact: the Jamboree with approx 20,000 Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Rovers is happening right now.
Oh man, I remember my first Jamboree. There was a revolutionary ‘comms shed’ set up… It was before The Internet as we know it, and they had some precursor IRC computers set up. Bright green text on tiny, dark green monitors which were embedded in huge metal filing cabinet machines. Billed as a text-only but high-quality signal ham radio, we were connecting to other IRC operators in other countries and talking about the differences between our countries.
…It was also the first time I ever saw true ‘cankles’. Not the weaksauce body-image-issues stuff that you see on google image search, but like… a person whose lower leg looked like an elephant’s foot, with some human toes tacked on. Maaaan, that person probably lost that leg by now. If they’re still alive.
I remember that. When did you go to the Jamboree?
Cripes. Hell if I can remember the year… either late 80s or early 90s with the Hervey Bay Sea Scouts.
Later 90’s for me, was the Picton/Tahmoor area.
Tsk. You would think by the later 90s they’d have moved to windows-based IRC clients with modern GUIs and stuff!
I have no idea where it was held, though… Seemed like it was a pretty established grounds.
Probably Cataract, they’ve been using that area since the dawn of time.
Would be pretty crappy right now with the rain, mind you.
Aw I think it died 🙁
Bulb doesn’t *look* like it’s burnt out though…
Huh, the globe said 3.8V on it. Weird. Found a spare that was 4.5, and turned the power pack down. Hopefully should last a bit longer.
And that was the last post Gooky ever made.
A SECOND SPROUT HAS APPEARED
Why are they both up against the edge of the can. Silly seeds.
Wow so I think I’m staying in the Godzilla hotel in Tokyo. Lets hope we booked a themed room!
Wow, so it’s now official hell has frozen over again for the 2nd time, Slash, Duff & Axl are getting back together to play some shows as “Guns N’ Roses” wish it also included Izzy & Steven so it could be the full classic line up.
Yikes. Those tickets will cost a FORTUNE.
It’s that Coachella festival they’re playing too. So $250 apparently for a ticket
Have you seen Axl recently? Age has not treated that man kindly
Eh, he could be worse. He could be like Vince Neil. Axl still sounds okay, where as Vince, there’s no hope in the world for him.
Guns N Roses don’t exactly have the best record of actually showing up for their shows. There’s no way I’d be paying to maybe see them if Axl feels like playing.
I know, pretty much every GNR show in the last 20 years Axl has come out 2+ hours late. But hey, this is one band i’ve always wanted to see in their debut album line up.. Hopefully there’s a full reunion at some point.
I want this, but, can I afford it? Is it worth it? ARGH
http://www.first4figures.com/component/option,com_myphp/Itemid,3/product,156
I’m contemplating this one myself… why did I browse this site?! ;_;
http://www.first4figures.com/component/option,com_myphp/Itemid,3/product,153/
I appreciate your opinions, but they are wrong and this is all that anyone should be buying.
http://www.first4figures.com/component/option,com_myphp/Itemid,3/product,100/
Hahaha, I know it’s $200, but I want that so bad.
$200 US. The Amaterasu one is like $550 Aus. I want the light up one, but I know I will regret it if I don’t get it, but I don’t know if I can justify buying it.
Nah bro. This one’s where it’s at: http://www.first4figures.com/component/option,com_myphp/Itemid,3/product,135/
…I’ve started something bad, haven’t I?
Make it stop, Scree! MAKE IT STOP!
I’m sorry D=
I was strongly considering it back when Kotaku announced it, but kept putting it off and cooled off on the idea. It’s nice but not several hundred dollars nice 😛
I have two of their figures. Yes they are expensive, but they’re also well made and hand painted. You are supporting an artist, so it is worth it but…
I think you mean something wonderous
200 pieces! That’s extremely limited.
Already sold out too possibly 🙁
You can pay a deposit to hold it
So. I don’t know if anyone else here had pre-ordered Amplitude, but Harmonix are saying the pre release codes should be working from tomorrow.
*Crosses Fingers*
yessssss
Hey, @mrtaco.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/01/oculus-announced-today-that-kickstarter-backers-of-the-original-oculus-rift-will-receive-the-final-h/
You backed the Oculus didn’t you. Looks like you and everyone else that did will be getting a free one.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT
So, like, you don’t really care one way or the other hey?
*shrugs*
Sweet, can I have the new one?
You can borrow my DK1 😛
I picked up the CIV 5 during the steam sales, and full price Aviary Attorney.
Aviary Attorney, I love love love. I like the setting of late 1800’s France and the Dialogue, it’s the first time in a while a game has made me laugh genuinely out aloud.
As for CIV 5, am I the only one that finds the tutorial tough? I don’t think the tutorial is very intuitive, the UI looks really dated for such a new game and i think the game actually doesn’t really look that good at all lol. Is this the kinda game I’ll need to watch on a Lets Play to understand?
First Civ game? That’d be tough. There’s certainly a level of assumed knowledge in picking up any Civ game now, it would be difficult to just pick one up. Turn the difficulty right down, play on smaller maps with fewer other players in order to get rid of some of the complexity, then some of the mechanics will become more obvious. Don’t forget the in game manual (the civpedia, IIRC), which is super useful.
Just post questions here, I’m sure there’s plenty of TAYbies that are better than me at Civ, but here’s a starter for you:
The two main resources that a city deals with are food (the apples) and production (the hammers). Food is stockpiled until you hit a cap, and then the city grows, gaining an extra citizen which allows it to gather resources from another tile. Production allows cities to produce (funnily enough) units and buildings quicker. You need workers to improve tiles around you cities with things like farms, mines and roads which increase food, production and movement speed, respectively. Workers can be set to auto (shortcut key: ‘A’), which makes life much easier. In the early-mid game, you’ll want 2/3 – 1 worker per city, I think.
Thanks! Yep, first Civ game. I was under the impression that this was the newest game so my criticism of the graphics is pretty uniformed lol. I’m imagining I’ll give it another go sometime this weekend.
I’m a Europa Universalis IV man so I’m not a stranger to playing grand strategy, hopefully with your advice I’m capable of making heads and tails of the game lol.
Civ is a whole lot less complicated than those Paradox games. I’m a huge fan of Crusader Kings 2 and the depth is staggering in comparison to Civ games, which are more like the most complicated board games.
Civ V actually came out nearly 6 years ago 😛
It is a fairly complex game if you’ve never played anything similar, and kinda takes time for most people (myself included) to wrap your head around everything. The tutorial stuff is pretty hit and miss too. Honestly, if you stick at it for a little bit it’ll start to click.
Fair warning, a bunch of TAYbies have sunk hundreds of hours into that game. It’s really, really good at the “just one more turn” game.
Hahaha I was thinking I was buying Civ 6 which I read was entry point :*( I’ll give it another go this weekend with the advice of knowing what the little hammers and apples mean now haha.
I think there’s a lot going on that you only discover through trial and error or hovering over tooltips and looking up specific things in the civlopedia. Honestly can’t say I’ve ever done the tutorial though, have pretty much just always jumped into a custom map boots-first and hoped my experience with Civ1, CivNet, Civ2 and Civ4 would get me through.
I can’t honestly remember what I was doing, I think I just started a single player game and navigated to a menu where it asked me if I had played before and all of a sudden I’m being advised by a half nakey foreign advisor lol.
Ciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiv
You were in my thoughts as I purchased it, I’m kinda sad I didn’t buy the most recent iteration though lol.
? Civ V is the most recent Civ. I mean, there’s Beyond Earth, but eh.
Beyond Earth is not a Civ, or it’s an expansion?
It’s a spin-off, heavily based on Civ V. I haven’t played it but general consensus is I’m not missing much
Civ V + DLC is where it’s at.
If this is you first Civ game it’s probably a half decent 4x starting point. At least you didn’t start with Endless Legend or Space because those take 4x complexity to a whole ‘nother level >.< As a rule they all usually have somewhat steep learning curves but the discovery of the resources/mechanics interact with each other is one of the reasons I love the genre 🙂
I’d argue Endless Space is actually pretty easy to get into; certainly a hell of a lot more than Endless Legend, at any rate.
Alpha Centauri isn’t a half-bad starting point, though.
Yeah for me space was my first endless game and they just had so much more depth than I was used to in 4x games. Once I got my head around space and dust and all the new mechanics I found Legend to be a lot easier but still a lot of new stuff to learn. It’s a definitely a more complex game than Space though but so worth learning.
The new Master of Orion looks like it might be a real easy way to get into 4X as well (but potentially shallow, or at least not very different from what existing 4X titles already do).
Stellaris is gonna be where it’s at.
You’d recommend any Paradox grand strategy game to someone new to the genre? You’re brave.
I would to @highperformance, he’s an EUIV vet.
All of my CK2 knowledge (and I played CK2 before civ) comes from just getting in there and tooling around with it. Yes, they have a high barrier to entry and are complex, but they’re no insurmountable.
They’re certainly not Dwarf Fortress, or NetHack
Ah yeah, but I feel like if you’ve got grand strategy down then 4X is a much simpler affair. Especially something like Civ: Beyond Earth or the older games (although GalCiv 2 can get a touch tricky).
I sir, will have you know I have taken over most of the entire Eastern seaboard as Byzantium!
EUIV took me quite a long time to get the hang of, like I could ‘play’ but I wasn’t really enjoying or understanding what I was doing until watching a bunch of Let’s Plays on Youtube (How to conquer Spain as Grenada and Colonizing the Americas as Austria are highlights).
Sorry, I think I meant 4X rather than grand strategy is the better term for what I’ve played haha.
I… I have not heard of this game. Reading the website it sounds pretty interesting.
What have you heard about it?
It is indeed my first CIV, hopefully I end up working out what I’m doing haha.
Am I the only one around here that thinks this whole Chris Gayle thing has been blown way out of proportion. I mean… I can’t help but think if a girl had said the same thing to a male reporter, everyone would have had a good laugh and then moved on without a second thought.
The way I see it, if she hadn’t been upset by it, I wouldn’t care. I think that the way it affects the person is what matters most. She was upset by it and didn’t appreciate it.
I guess you’re kind of right, but it really comes down to whether the reporter has an issue with it, and she does. He’s also not exactly responding to it in the best fashion.
That’s what I was trying to say, but you said it more eloquently.
Chris who?
Mel McLaughlin had very little room to maneuver while maintaining any amount of professionalism. Gayle would’ve (should’ve?) known that he was putting her in a shitty situation and did it anyway for a cheap laugh. People deserve to be able to go to work without being intentionally put in those situations.
In regards to the perceived double standard where if the gender roles were reversed, you’re right – very little would be said if a male reporter was subjected to a similar situation although it wouldn’t be coming from a sportswoman I suspect, since they’re also struggling to prove their legitimacy.
If the male reporter had taken offense, then I imagine their would be a bit of an uproar. It all depends on how the person being subjected to it feels.
I’d like to agree, but I doubt it. Our traditional gender roles strip both men and women of agency in some situations, and it’s crap because no one should have to be concerned about these situations when they go to work. Anyone that tells you that men have it as bad as women is a doofus though. This has been an excellent issue to identify such doofuses (doofi?) on my facebook though.
Gayle does this over and over again as well. The Big Bash kind of knew what they were getting into when they interviewed the bloke, a cursory glance of his social media feeds is pretty telling.
I’m betting they hoped he’d be a bit more of a jovial icon like Flintoff and caused light-hearted PR. Either way, it’s nice seeing everyone lose their shit at Gayle. Makes me forget how trash the Windies have been and how crappy the situation is with the players, contracts and WICB at the moment, and it’s also — in a super roundabout way — reminded people that the Women’s Big Bash is still going on (and not bad viewing, if you want to make a day out of T20 cricket).
That’s a bit of a cop-out though, isn’t it? I mean, saying ‘it would have been fine if she’d been cool with it’ puts the onus on her to decide whether it was right or wrong. It kind of takes the responsibility away from Gayle as well – how is he to know whether she’ll laugh it off or take offense?
I mean, I don’t think it was that big a deal, but I’m obviously an oblivious dude who has never had to deal with casual sexism (other than from my girlfriend, to whom I am totally just a piece of hot meat).
You never know how someone is going to take something until you say it. I haven’t actually heard what he said, but he seems to think it is a funny joke and she thinks it’s sexism.
I don’t know what he said initially (maybe he asked her out for dinner or something?) then like a half second later before what he said even sunk in he followed up with “don’t blush baby”, to which Mel responded along the lines of “I’m not blushing” then carried on with the interview.
She’s probably angry that she wasn’t taken seriously. That would be what would piss me off if it was me personally
That’s how I see it. She’s trying to do her job, he’s goofing off. It was sexualised in nature given the flirting aspect but I don’t necessarily agree that makes it a “sexist” issue. I agree he was being kind of a dick, but I’m really not sure why it’s blown up like it has.
She was in a professional environment where a client was effectively hitting on her. If the affection was returned it isn’t crossing a line; if it wasn’t and the client keeps making those comments its inappropriate and unprofessional. This is essentially the argument.
It would be like walking into an EB games store and repeatedly hitting on the sales clerk. It’s a professional environment and a client should respect that boundary unless otherwise indicated.
Personally I don’t even know why this is a debate or argument in the news; it boggles the mind people still can’t grasp the concept that if one out of two people in an interaction is uncomfortable then don’t bloody do it.
I think if a male reporter complained the uproar would more likely be directed at them rather than the sportswoman.
It’s gotten bigger than it should have, but the dude is a wanker. He cracked on to her in front of her co-workers and clients while she was working. Poor form.
Yeah, but a woman saying something to a Male reporter doesn’t have the years and years and years of sexual discrimination behind it. I don’t see the situations as analogous.
Especially in sports journalism, which has forever been a sphere dominated by men.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/jan/05/its-not-just-chris-gayle-sport-medias-blokesworld-mindset-needs-to-change
In the wake of this someone posted a link on reddit to Maria Sharapova flirting with a reporter under similar circumstances. Because it was light and he wasn’t offended, no one cared. Or perhaps because it was a female sports celebrity hitting on a male reporter.
But the fact is, you don’t know how something like that is going to be received until you put it out there. Was “don’t blush, baby” overly familiar and inappropriate? Sure, a little, but I’d say most flirting is and if the reporter had been charmed instead of offended, no one would be talking about this and Gayle certainly wouldn’t be getting fined. However, the reporter was discomfited by it (and don’t get me wrong: she’s perfectly entitled to be) but I don’t think Gayle really did anything wrong here.
I’ve heard a lot more about it than I feel like I needed to, but that’s probably just a function of how much exposure I get from the people/outlets I follow. EVERYONE wants to have their say, which creates a pretty huge volume of noise. A disproportionate volume, perhaps? I can always tune it out when it starts repeating itself.
While I’d hate to think that an ill-timed attempt to flirt and ask someone out would be worth a $10,000 fine, especially nothing graphic or lewd, just asking out for a drink… it is different in that TV and high-end sports are a little bit different and have ‘inappropriate behaviour’ written in with their own penalties. Inappropriate, in those instances, can be anything including plain old day to day swearing. So this shouldn’t be too surprising in terms of penalty.
The thing that’s more clear-cut here is that it was on broadcast television with the cameras rolling. It turns the flirting into a performance instead of a more genuine expression of interest – you’ll never know if it was genuine or for the cameras. Which is only a part of why you shouldn’t do it. I don’t know, maybe he thought he wouldn’t get another shot? But that’s really unprofessional, at best. Let alone the fact that he didn’t read the initial resistance as a cue to back off, and instead doubled-down on discomfort.
Dig UP, stupid…
But I think in general the outrage might be less about this specific incident and more just a reaction to the fact that it’s systemic. Folks are so sick of dealing with unwanted advances while working that having another example out there so publicly is salt in the wound.
Additionally, the initial immediate response was basically shrugging it off, which – again – is something that happens all the time which people are sick of. That got walked back pretty quickly with apologies and so forth, but if you base off that initial response tweet from Ten, then it’s plausible that without the outrage, this would’ve been yet another example of the people with power shrugging off real concerns and frustration.
So there’s a very public example of a situation that frustrates SO MANY people daily (service industries especially), makes them annoyed and uncomfortable (even unsafe), and here’s the establishment shrugging it off and making out like this should be business as usual. It’s not really any wonder people got upset. Especially when it later turns out that the guy actually has a habit of being inappropriate.
Ehhhh, I dunno. I think there’s a time and a place to hit on someone, and when you’re live to a huge audience is probably not the best time. Regardless of the gender issue, it’s not a great scenario for someone to put someone else in.
I only found out about this last night, and personally, yeah.. I think it’s typical PC madness. Sure he should have picked a better time than on air to ask, but it’s not like he asked her to suck his dick or anything. It happened, he apologized.. move on.. get over it people.
The problem is that this happens again and again and again. It’s not that about whether it was a big deal, it should never have happened.
If you like the hot reporter, you get her contact details and have a conversation on your own time. If you’re being interviewed on the field, you answer the damn questions politely. He should know this, it’s media training 101.
So that makes him either a complete creep or a complete idiot.
i just tune most of this shit out these days. sportsman stupidity is like crime on the Gold Coast.. oh.. again? Surprise surprise.. I agree.. shouldn’t happen, but this instance seemed to be more of an issue than League players raping girls.
Adding to @transientmind’s sentiment, this incident has become a public vehicle for social change.
There is a lot of feeling around at the moment with Gender equality issues, and you’re right maybe a year ago this might not have blown up as much as what it could have but it’s a perfect storm:
– Gender equality issues around domestic violence, pay inequality, etc.
– Vociferous outrage culture on Social Media
– Hyperbolic media outlets
– Large viewing audience
– Outspoken libertine
Put them all together… and you have the markings of a shit-storm.
Enough with this rain already!
So good for sleeping though
Not if I need to wake up and go to work!
I know, right? Hoping my wife will be able to get home this evening – she works in a pretty low-lying area that flooded back in April. She took a change of clothes and a toothbrush in case she can’t. She had a find a plan D to even get to work, plans A-C were all flooded. Why couldn’t it have rained just a little more? Plan E was stay home and bake cookies.
It’s sunny & extremely humid today. I kinda hope the rain stays away for the rest of the week, already over it >=[
I finished the story of Xenoblade X last week with around 130ish hours logged.
…oh god, there’s still so much to do I can’t stop playing yet
Can’t work. Still in state of utter disbelief.
Calm down, there’s no porn games yet.
“Yet”
We’re all waiting for them. C’mon, Japan, get developing!
Be careful what you wish for…
VR ATTACK OF THE EROTIC KRAKEN!
Sugoi! Kraken-Senpai noticed me!
Or are there?
Oh Pow…so innocent.
That’s just what he wants us to think.
I’ve been invited into a secret society subreddit that mimics 90s style forums.
What.
I can find my Dragon Ball Z Geocities page if you need to bust out how totally 90s you are.
Well it’s not so secret if you’re telling us all about it is it
A slight indication of how seriously I take this matter.
Now you’re going to be taken out by the illuminostalgi.
Naw, you distract them just by yelling “Which Ninja Turtle is the best?” or “Fire is the best Captain Planet power” and then make a getaway while they argue
“George Clooney is the better Batman”.
We all know it was really Val Kilmer.
Just shout out “the 90s were better than the 80s”
Given your hobbies I’m betting that you’re familiar with the Illuminostalgi
Uh oh. Cover blown!
@mrtaco given I can recite the opening to ReBoot from memory I’ll be fine.
/r/ooer?
/r/thechosenfew
The name is exactly wanky enough that I wouldn’t bother even if I was interested.
Hooboy. Seems Lumosity’s being sued for false advertising or something, so now I’ve gotta go through all our stuff and double check we haven’t gone and made any outlandish claims. Which we shouldn’t have, but you never know what could’ve slipped through.
Wonder if that guy who thought he was one of our customers is going to come and complain at us.
“I ordered a nice table lamp from Lumosity and received a game!? False advertising!”
Good news is I’m almost done grinding blue foam.
Bad news is it’s because I’m moving on to Green foam
HULK CRAFT
Less smurf grinding, more kermit grinding. When I hit the yellow sheets it will be minion grinding and be cathartic.
How is it progressing?
Had a setback yesterday because I accidentally cut out two left forearms, so I cut another piece out of it. Limitation atm is my loungeroom lights aren’t working and I can’t use powertools late at night.
I’ll recut that piece tonight at which point I’ll have done the arms. After that I may look at the legs but I kinda want to have the buckles (coming from ebay) for that as they are much, muck more complex (the thigh pieces are large and I need to know how they strap properly before I bend them, and the shins are lots of small pieces).
I also may need to buy a sewing machine sooner than I thought as apparently elastic doesn’t glue well, so you sew a bit of elastic to a bit of webbing and glue that.
if you’re sewing elastic, use a zigzag stitch as it has some stretch to it. Also you can get sewing machines that do basic things pretty cheap
Yeah, gonna talk to my mother and get her purchasing advice. Might have to wait until my next payslip though.
I figure I’ll also do a course and/or go to a “sit and sew” and get a bunch of little old ladies to teach me shit. Apparently the local council does one where they make clothes for homeless people.
Sewing machines are not as scary as people think. Usually, you only have to sew in a straight line. Do some lessons though so you feel confident at least.
@scree oh, I’ve fiddled around with sewing machines before and can muddle through, but it’s an experience thing. Figure this way at least I can do something useful for practice rather than just tool around with scrap fabric
Both are good.
I did sewing in high school and the teacher’s droning directions are still stuck in my head.
I was shit at sewing though. Woodwork and Cooking were more my thing.
@negativezero my Home Economics teacher rapidly realised that my strength was in cooking, not sewing.
My mother, also a Home Economics teacher, concurred.
Do not estimate the power of a well-placed staple 😉
I use a double needle for elastic, you get a nice finish and it still has the stretch, and yes buy a machine 🙂 Spotlight has some good deals at the moment.
Yeah, might even swing by there on sunday
So while I was home sick I got started on a project.
I now have my Rapberry Pi Running Emulation !
Hooray for SNES Games!
Have not played Killer Instinct in forever
Thanks to my brother, I hate fighting games and Killer instinct was his game of choice
They’re not my favourite, Steve is really into them, but we played KI A lot
Well, it was my first experience with a fighting game. My brother had everything memorised and I could barely throw an energy ball as I would’ve been 9 at the time
BTW, congratulations to @beeawwb, winner of the current Subterfuge game. Played the long game very well while the rest of us got bogged down in other conflicts.
I propose for our next game we play an anonymous “All for none and none for all” game. No alliances. No treaties. All war all the time.
In.
I’ll post some more about it in a week or two. Everybody needs decompression time after the end of a game, otherwise you’ll get the bends.
I’m probably out. It’s too time consuming when I’m working, I tend to get too obsessed.
Ask @finishedlast though, he loves it
I found myself playing a lot less obsessively (although I still did) this time round. Maybe because I had other things to occupy my mind but I only set one alarm for waking up at 4am to execute orders and spent a lot less time checking while at work (which isn’t to say I didn’t).
I was less obsessive this time, but it’s still a distraction.
Happy to retire for a bit. It is fun, and I did learn a lot of cool stuff about the game, I just don’t need that experience all the time.
It’s all async right? I have a normal person phone now (bought an Xperia Z5 while back in AU) so if timezone isn’t much of an issue I can also join you guys.
Timezone isn’t an issue because it plays out in real-time, so you might launch an attack and then have to wait 36 hours for it to conclude. That’s also 36 hours your opponent has to respond (or queue a response), and 36 hours you have to respond to their response and so on.
More commonly you might launch an attack that’s going to take 18 hours, and your opponent can marshal a response in 15 hours. That effectively means they have 3 hours to respond before your attack becomes inevitable. That’s where timezone can come in to play, so In actuality being in the PST timezone might be a slight advantage to you given that you’d be able to commence attacks while the rest of us are asleep and have less chance to respond. That was a tactic employed much more in our first game, not so much in this second one.
This is what 10 days of gameplay looks like compressed in to just over a minute: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q19o7zkbgfwevk8/subterfuge%202.mp4?dl=0
I totally just remembered that I found $20 on the way in to work this morning.
Everything really is coming up Milhouse!
Ok. I’m starting to clear out some of my crap before the big move. I dragged a box of garbage to work with me today. Does anyone want to take any of this junk off my hands? I’ll pay for postage.
-SEGA Saturn Arcade Racer controller. Still in it’s original box minus the instructions and inner packaging. There’s a little damage on the box but it’s more or less in good condition. I believe this was an official SEGA piece of hardware and not a third party add-on.
Dreamcast:
-Broken console with controller, cords and a VMU. The battery was left in the VMU but it doesn’t appear to have gone bad. Last time I fired it up the Dreamcast worked but the laser was busted so it wouldn’t read discs. Not sure if it even powers up now. It’s got the 56K modem. It could use a clean but it still might be a good spare body.
-SEGA Bass Fishing with custom fishing controller. Think Wii remote built specifically for fishing games. In it’s original box with the game. Cord on the controller needs to be straightened out and again it needs a clean.
-Virtua Fighter 3tb, in box. Good condition.
-Vigilante 8: Second Offense, in box. Good condition.
Dream On Volume 1 demo disc.
-DreamKey browser disc in original packaging.
PS2:
Armored Core: Last Raven
The Matrix: Path of Neo
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (in tin case)
Resident Evil 4
Spider-man
God of War
Oni
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2
GTA: San Andreas
There’s more that I haven’t got around to dealing with yet. Unfortunately I have a lot of mint condition empty boxes to sort through. I’d keep everything in good condition but I always ended up giving the games and consoles to friends. If anyone wants SNES game boxes and manuals, or the boxes for NES, SNES and N64 in great condition let me know before I bin them. =P
Most of my Dreamcast, Master System and Saturn stuff wandered off so it’s really just the scraps on that front. I do have a pile of NES games and I’m sure the N64 stuff is around there somewhere. I’ll try and get to that on Friday.
Definitely interested in finding out whatever Nintendo stuff you have. Got a few loose carts that could do with boxes and manuals, or even a few beaten boxes that could do with an upgrade replacement. Do not bin! 😛
I’m the same boat, actually.
BIDDING WAR! *throws coins at Gooky*
Two wallets enter… Only one leaves!
Cool. I’ll try and get a solid list going. I’m happy to send over anything you’re interested in. A lot of the NES stuff is from video stores so the quality varies, but there are some things like the Zelda games that are in their original boxes. The SNES stuff is almost exclusively good condition boxes and manuals without the actual carts. The N64 stuff is the same but I’m hoping to find my box of N64 carts and change that. The Gameboy stuff should be games with manuals and boxes in good condition, but the games themselves aren’t anything special.
There’s a few bits like Game and Watch stuff but I don’t know what condition they’re in.
Ooh, could be interested in the Game And Watch stuff, but I won’t have money till later in the week.
My wallet is ready.
*picks up @rize’s from the floor* So’s this one 😛
I’ve got a heap of NES/SNES/Gameboy manuals that I don’t have the carts for anymore as well. Have thought about putting them on Ebay a few times, but ultimately couldn’t be bothered. I might dig them out in a sec and put up a list if any of you guys are interested.
Ok, thought I had more than that, must be some more packed away in other spot. Oh well, here’s what I’ve got so far.
These are all manuals, there are no games included.
Gameboy
Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing
The Lion King
Space Invaders
Yoshi’s Cookie
Space Invaders and
BurgerTime x2
NES
Racket Attack
Tom & Jerry and
Kirby’s Adventure
SNES
Winter Gold
Super Mario World and
Super Mario Kart
Edit: Holy Crap! Super Mario Kart manual is going for 15 bucks on ebay, and that’s with stickers on it.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Super-Mario-Kart-Instruction-Booklet-Manual-Super-Nintendo-snes-PAL-/231795447135?hash=item35f815d55f:g:3YoAAOSwgQ9V3snS
In that case… I’ll take the Super Mario Kart manual =D
Never said I was giving them away 😛
There go my plans for an early retirement.
You are such an evil monkey.
Oh neat, you had Winter Gold FX? I do have a lone cart of that (found it at GameTraders, picked up a box copy the day after) but was planning on using it as a donor cart for a Star Fox 2 repro. Whenever I get around to trying to do that. If ever >_>
Probably wouldn’t mine grabbing the Mario and Kirby ones to have “just in case”. Don’t have either game, but don’t like my odds of getting a copy at any kind of decent price any time soon 😛
I’m always after nes, snes and N64 games. I don’t care about Boxes or manuals though.
My super hero mad nephew just recently had a ps2 setup for him so would love that copy of spider-man
@gingerchris86 my Amplitude code is sitting in the backerkit but can’t be activated yet dammit.
I’ve been grumpy with it since just before Christmas. I was in the early access group and it hasn’t worked even up to now. Their Communication on the issue has been lacklustre too. Harmonix messaged me today to say that it should be working tomorrow. I will be very grumpy if it is not.
Yeah it’s weird, they did really well with communications at the beginning but the last 4 months or so they went quiet. If I hadn’t looked I’d have no idea that code was there
I’d say they are waiting for the codes to be fixed before they announce, but either way I’m still really peeved at them.
First thing’s first and most important, congratulations to my older brother Rapscallion @jamiedeecee, he now has a son as of this morning :).
Secondly, all the Star Wars I’ve been listening to (Tabletop RPGs) and watching TFA have all made me want to start a new KOTOR playthrough, and also attempt finishing KOTOR2 with the mod that fixes the game. Maybe I’ll finally go down the dark path this time and live it up with HK-47 again. I missed hearing that droid’s one liners 🙂
Uncle techie! He’s an Uncle (again)! Also a robot!
Uncle for the third time now! A little brother for the two sisters.
That kid’s gonna be a make-up dummy for a loooooong time.
I read this in the theme to Captain Planet.
“Un-cle Techie. He’s an uncle. Also a robot who lives in the jungle.”
I wish I’d been able to run that TAY Edge of the Empire campaign. 🙁
It’s a shame, I was looking forward to it too, but if it couldn’t be done, it couldn’t be done. I had a pretty cool backstory for my droid too and I’ve been developing it more recently due to listening to Tabletop RPG playthroughs.
Don’t sweat it though 🙂
Yeah, that sounded cool.
HEY TECHIE RUN AN EDGE OF THE EMPIRE CAMPAIGN
I would not make a good GM, I would not be able to keep up with everything, and I’m horrible at writing stories with actual endings in them 😛
If I ever get good at my actual roleplaying in my current ones, then maybe!
It’s Star Wars, just throw in a superweapon and a trench run
And a pinch of sand. Can’t forget the sand.
But I don’t want to use a pinch of sand. It’s coarse, rough and it gets everywhere
I love sand.
It keeps the shitty actors away.
Hahahahahahahaha Have you noticed that my endings are just more twists? I hardly know what I’m doing, but you guys seem to be enjoying the Int0 Campaign anyway 😀
To be honest I’m completely lost on how to further act on the info you gave me last session since Omniscience was unhelpful. I guess I’ll wait and see 🙂
Yeah Omniscience knows very little.
Ironic Huh?
He must need some steaming hot resin 😛
Also, awful accents carry roleplaying a long way! Like weirdly russian boat people!
*scratches out “run on superweapon through trench” from Numenera GM notes*
Now that I think about it, the Numenera moon totally could be a superweapon. It has a trench and everything.
You know what else gets carried a long way? Your mother.
< / Viktor >
Oh I want to go back to that game sooo much
I’ve been wanting to jump back in to Viktor’s shoes as well, recently. He’s fun.
…
Let me have a think. I still have my notes for it…
Main problem is that half of the party was super into the adventure while the other half were blending dogsI’ll rephrase that
Main problem is that half of the party was super into the adventure while the other half were blending dogs and I didn’t have the skills or adventure set up to accommodate that10/10 Mothers Agree!
I’m in a similar situation – saw TFA twice over the break, and read two of the newer books, and now I want to experience TOR’s story. Started a Sith Inquisitor a couple of days ago, focusing on mainlining the story… pretty cool thus far.
I normally don’t have issues with customers at work, cause 99.9% of the time they’re pleasant & friendly. But today there was 2 delightful cases.
So I cleaned the fridges out at work yesterday, as in cleaned the glass so it was smudge free & you could see through it with ease, cleaned up any broken bottles under the racks, cleaned up any spills that people just left. So naturally a customer just had to drop a 6 pack this morning according to my boss. He said he watched her grab it one handed and then drop it, and then told him it was “too hard” to get out, yet he saw her drop it deliberately. Like come on, go somewhere else and be a prick.
Also had one of my “favourite”* customers from my time at Dan Murphy’s come in today, she was okay in the morning when she bought a bottle of premix Jameson or whatever, she came back later in the afternoon reeking of alcohol, seriously slurring her words, my boss took one look at her, took the bottle of Bailey’s off her, informed her she was too intoxicated to serve and to leave the store immediately. This erupted in her calling him a “fucking dog” he also told her she is not allowed back in our store again after that horrendous display.
*
It was Christmas Eve 2013 (I think?) this lady came in, one of staff members greeted her with hi hell how are you etc.. She then lashed out attempting to be physically aggressive toward said staff member, and the bloke i’m serving is all “Oh her, last time I was in here when she was, she threw a bottle of wine at my missus, she missed though” by this point in time, our security guard stepped in, man handled her out of the store and informed her she was from there on in, banned from the premises. I had also served her the week before where she tried preaching Jesus to me whilst hopped up on something, she seemed like a frequent user of ice just by the attitude & general look to her.Started Far Cry 4 the other night, I like the 30 or so minutes of it that I have played! Most of that was cinematics though, soo.
Damnit, just received an email to let me know I have been laid off 🙁
They could have told me in person on my first day back tomorrow…
They have decided they can run the company without any technical staff and are going to ‘outsource it’ to improve cashflow.
Bit of a downer after an otherwise good week.
Jesus. So much for the courtesy of some advance notice so you can make arrangements…
Sorry to hear it, man.
Jerks. I bet now they have this clever idea to outsource it’ll now fail completely for them & then regret laying you off. Well that’s how I hope it goes for them.
Actually the decision to lay off technical staff usually comes from senior management who’ve decided a team/department is redundant. They want to see cost savings as their pay bonuses are linked to profit margins.
What ends up happening is the everyday staff that depended on the techincal team now spend on average significantly longer getting things done and do overtime for free while the senior management who made the decision are high enough that if they have technical problems the outsourced teams would do a house call just for their laptop. Also more bonus \o/
Yay for profit oriented bonus schemes. I love watching a share price a year just before a CEO leaves and a year or two later where the so called “profit guidances” fall back to where they should be.
Ouch, that’s a kick in the nads.
If it makes you feel any better the company I got laid off from prior had the same plan and I’m pretty sure it backfired and lost them a large chunk of their customer base. So you might have the last laugh in the end.
Damn man, that really sucks. Personally I would’ve been more pissed off if they waited till I came in to tell me I was fired. Least they could’ve done was tell you on your last day before the christmas break.
If there’s one thing that really boils my blood it’s companies that “outsource” to get the same job done cheaper just so they can make more money. There’ll come a point where the government will just cut off the dole because there’s just too many unemployed people to pay. Either that or they’ll raise taxes (thinking about it that’s probably the more likely of the two), but if things keep going this way there won’t be enough employed people left to pay tax.
Yeah, I would have planned different school holiday activities for the kids had I known what was coming. Not that we were being extravagant anyway, but certainly wouldn’t have had the week up at the coast planned.
Thats rough man. Can you find out who they are gonna outsource it to? If you can get in touch with them you might be able to get a job with them
Sadly they are offshoring the support, should be interesting 🙂
I have been there 15 and a half years, so it was probably past time to look for something new, they had been unwilling to pay for training over the past few years, so my qualifications are way behind, so I’m looking at taking up a new career, preferably one that will feed the four kids 🙂
They switched us to contracts two years ago, so no payout, but they owe me 5 weeks pay, so I have a bit of a buffer at least.
Even under contract, they should have to give you some amount of notice, or extra pay in lieu of notice. Read through your contract carefully, and if you expect they’ve done ANY thing slightly dodgy, call fair work australia. My previous employer tried to screw me over right royally, and it backfired like a bitch when I called FWA. Ended up getting 6 weeks pay instead of 1!
Also, where you live? (City) and what kind of work you do/looking for? I’ll keep an ear out for ya!
Worstget /o\
Yeah, I was thinking that the moment the post went through, lol!
In better news, I just got an invite to the EVE Valkyrie Alpha testing, so I will have a distraction in-between looking for work 🙂
Management can be such spineless asses. Sorry to hear you lost your job, especially when it’s being ‘outsourced’ I wish companies would learn to look after their own people. I guess they need to make sure their wallets are nice and full (sorry, this shit really pisses me off)
Coming back to that after time off is the fucking worst. 🙁
Which state are you located and what Tech do you work with? People may be able to help you get a job.
Question to those in the know: does this count as redundancy? Why/why not? It seems to me that this could entitle you to a payout.
That was my thought, but if they employ someone in the same position (even overseas I think,) it can’t be done as redundancy. Law states if you make someone redundant, you’re not allowed to fill the same position for like 6-12 month after that (since it’s no longer required.) But this is why he should carefully read the contract details, to find out if there’s anything written about dismissal circumstances etc.
So I watched the Macross Delta preview episode. Not sure how I feel about it.
@negativezero
On the one hand it’s pretty cool in the typical Macross way and I like how they have taken the Macross premise of ‘The power of music’ to a logical evolution and literally weaponized it.On the other hand in practice that means a teeny girls group fighting things with J-pop dance routines and hot damn can you feel the cheese.
Also they seem to have bought their character archetypes at a bulk discount; all the cookie-cutter tropes present and accounted for.
Should be good fun though.
They kind of weaponized pop music way back in Macross 7. I see a lot of 7 in this one too. Though the music will be infinitely less awesome.
Yeah, was never a fan of 7 :/
I loved 7 but I know why a lot of people didn’t. It’s a 26-episode show spread over 52 episodes so it has a ton of filler and a lot of quirky stupid shit, and you get to hear Planet Dance a lot. But the music in 7 is all kinds of rad.
Being at work at 11pm is the pits… doubly worse because my boss is here, meaning I can’t crank heavy metal like I normally do when I work late.
#livingthedream
Just got an email from Harmonix telling me what the December DLC is. Amongst the list are Justin Bieber and One Direction. Seriously Harmonix WTF!!!!!! You used to be cool.
Those two will sell thoisands. Remember, gamers have kids.
And that boys and girls is how you become a sellout. Harmonix, you’re dead to me.
It used to be about the music, man!
I’m not seeing how Harmonix releasing 100% optional DLC that will in no way affect you or your experience of the game is a bad thing.
More options = more people happy \o/
If anything it’s smart business. You go with what is popular & that will sell the most, Bieber & One Direction is probably just that..
I thought DLC stood for Downloadable content, not Disgusting Limp-dick Crap…
The new Bieber album is actually fucking great. The days of it being cool to hate Bieber just because he’s Bieber are over.
Doesn’t matter if his stuff is good or bad, is it actually appropriate for Rock Band gameplay?
I’m currently thinking back on the experience of playing things like Eye of the Tiger and Beat It on guitar in GH…
The song that they’ve put in there? No. Absolutely not. But that’s not really why it’s there. It’s a little silly to single out two songs you don’t like and don’t have to buy, when if you look at what came out in December there’s actually a huge spread as far as genres.
I like that you also like beiber.
GOOD MUSIC IS GOOD MUSIC NO MATTER WHO SINGS IT
I’m actually divided on this topic. I used to agree with this wholeheartedly, but now I’m not so sure.
I used to love lostprophets (back when they released their first album, before they lost their way). However, it turned out that their lead singer was a hardcore paedophile (like… attempted rape of a 1 year old). I have not been able to listen to their music since.
This evening, a FOURTH chilli sprout emerged. What even!
Also even though I don’t even need to stay up to preorder Rift any more I am hyped enough to want to. Especially after finding out that an image-only tweet by Palmer is a cartoon reference I didn’t get, meaning “wait, there is one more thing!” This rollercoaster has been way too much fun.
USD649 + USD131 postage, so between $1100 and $1220 for the pre-order (depending if you get hit for GST) – that is a lot more than I was hoping, and that doesn’t include the touch controllers. I will be sticking with the DK2 for a while yet.
You could always order me one, it’s the only way I’ll ever get a look at it unless a load of DK2’s start going really cheap on ebay
Thinking about it now I probably should have 😛
Though I wonder if the “one per customer” thing would have prevented Kickstarters from purchasing one.
Over the Christmas break I decided to get a normal people phone. Xperia Z5. It’s very nice. Would be even nicer if it worked properly with Android Auto in my new car, but it’s nice.
Also being on Android has allowed me to install some Japanese free to play games. Kantai Collection isn’t on here yet so my free time isn’t entirely consumed but I thought I’d mention what I’ve been wasting my time on.
Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage
Aka ‘Derestage’. Spinoff of the Mobage Cinderella Girls game, which I haven’t played. It’s a fairly recent entry in this franchise (came out alongside the anime) and has surprisingly high production values. I’m still not as into the expanded deremas group, the original Idolmaster characters are much better. Anyway, the core game loop I think was ripped right out of the Love Live game. It’s a simple rhythm game – five spots on the screen, circles fall down and you hit the spots on the right timing, either tapping or holding depending on the type. In the background your group of five idols dance and sing away with cel-shaded 3D that I didn’t actually realize a modern smartphone was powerful enough to render – it’s close to par with the graphics of Live For You on X360. Playing the main game offers drops of common idols and gear and gives your group experience points, The free to play suck out your wallet’s content stuff comes in with the idols themselves. You start with three recognizable ones (Rin, Uzuki, Mio) and a few more are available as drops, but the bulk of the Deremas girls are Rare, which means you need to obtain them via Gacha, i.e. pay-in-game-currency-that-you-can-gather-by-playing-or-pay-for-a-random-rare-card thing. Once a day you can get one for 60, but normally they’re 250 star currency things a go. 250 sets you back about 330 yen (you can’t buy 250 though, naturally, have to buy more) The really high-end sought-after characters are SS Rare and SSR drop about 1.5% of the time so if you really want to add Ranko or Anzu or the like you’re going to need to spend a lot of cash. And people do. Right now to celebrate the new year they doubled the SSR drop rate and I have to admit I spent about ten bucks. Got one SR (which isn’t even voiced, fucking game) and one SSR, but the SSR is Miku who I personally can’t stand because of her stupid cat fetish. There’s also a secondary currency in the game that you can use to purchase items to decorate a room where ultra-cute chibi versions of your group wander around and play with things and stuff. The core game is reasonably fun but it does chow down on battery and data usage like crazy.8/10
Granblue Fantasy
This one’s been doing the rounds a lot recently online, with tons of fanart. Felt a bit like it was cutting into KanColle’s domination, especially as KanColle is beginning to get a bit stale due to mismanagement in 2015. Also a lot of the character art is by Akihiko Yoshida so it’s very nice. It’s basically your standard JRPG. You have a party with various types of attacks, they have an ATB-style turn-based combat system, limit breaks, summons and so on. There’s somewhat of a plot going on too. The big issue is that it’s got mobage’s cock firmly wedged in it, and that means that a lot of potential is wasted. Mobage stuff is targeted at shitty Japanese flip phones and not high-end smartphones, so it feels a lot like you’re playing a browser game. Lots of moving through windows. I had some issues with downloads halting and stuff hanging until I reopened the game too. The whole thing feels clunky. I also somehow managed to toggle it to low-quality mode at one point while bumbling about in the shitty menus, which disabled voices and I haven’t figured out how to get them back. I possibly have to start over. Didn’t get far enough in to explore the gacha stuff in it that much (all the JP games use this system, by the way) but it seemed like you were mainly doing it for gear, and periodically certain rare gear would drop that came with a character? Or maybe it was that you got a pack of weapons and a chance of a character, I dunno. I need to give this another shake, maybe do some research on how to play but it didn’t grab me. What it ended up reminding me of was Brave Frontier, and I’m not sure it’s much better than that so don’t get too excited for the upcoming english-language release (was announced recently).6/10
Battle Girl High School
I really like this one. The gacha element is still there but the game makes it fairly easy to gather enough currency in-game, the actual core gameplay is really strong and the presentation is fantastic. The core gameplay loop has a bobble-headed chibi version of your chosen character in a 3D environment, and you tap the screen to attack the various monsters that appear. Hold in a direction to run, swipe to dodge, tap in a specific rhythm to build a combo and at certain combo levels you unleash special attacks. It’s simple but extremely fun. There’s five different weapon types which play differently – sword and spear attacks are quick, axes do bigger damage but I think every second tap is an attack, with the first being to lift your axe up. Guns and magic wand things are ranged and you have ammo which replenishes when you dodge, so they’re harder to play. requiring more finesse. There’s a decent story mode throughout, plus events constantly running that you can jump into and do various things. Also some kind of weapon synthesis and improvement system which I haven’t gotten into much yet. Outside of combat you can set the girls to train – you pick the duration they’ll train for, up to 8 hours, which starts a timer on them and they get a bunch of XP, plus there’s an affection system which unlocks stuff on each character as you go. There’s three training slots but the number can be expanded using in-game currency (which you can also buy, naturally, as it’s the same currency used for the gacha system) There’s about sixteen characters and each has multiple cards which dictate their stats, level caps and weapon type, so if you really like one character but don’t want to use guns, say, you can try and get a card for her that uses swords instead, and set that as the main card. The cards are also bought using currency, but unlike Derestage, the drop rate for SSR cards is about 7-8% and if you really want a specific one you can trade in three other SSR cards to get it. Also if you get a dupe of a card it gets converted into an item that can be used to increase the level cap of another, so dupes are actually useful. The characters are all voiced with well-known anime seiyuu (Nao Toyama, Saori Hayami, Maaya Uchida, Misaki Kuno etc – no one super high profile but all solid) and have animated sprites as well, looks like it’s using Live2D or e-mote or a similar system so they have 2D sprites that move around and change expressions and stuff. I think the biggest draw with this is that it feels like they’ve started with a solid game and have tried to keep it a solid, fun game while adding the free-to-play elements, rather than deliberately designing it to be a skinner box designed to part you from your money in the most efficient manner possible. Really enjoy it.10/10
Hey what the fuck, this posted but then told me it had 404ed and then TAY disappeared and I thought I broke kotaku but it’s all okay?
Merry Christmas! You don’t have to post it all again =P
TAY was definitely broken earlier today.
So, that Oculus price. I’d easily cave if I didn’t have a family to look after, but yeah…I’m in no rush and pretty disappointed.
Hopefully the price drops dramatically by the end of 2016, but I’m not holding my breath.
$1100 to get a headset in my hands + $500 for a minimum spec graphics card.
Not going to be finding $1600 for that any time soon.
Edit: once the hardware matures, I’d find it much more reasonable to pay ~$500 for a headset and for a ~$300 current generation graphics card to support that. Might be waiting a year or three though.
Yeah, if I had $1600 for upgrading computer components (I want to upgrade my card too) I’d put a grand towards a new card instead. It’d be a much better use of the money.
Putting the money on a big new monitor would probably be more worthwhile at this point for me. Still running a 22″ 1680×1050 from 2007.
I really wanted to get a Rift primarily for flying/space sims but at this point an $800 graphics card would give me far more mileage than the Rift, even on my 24″ 1080p monitor because I can use it for basically every game.
Yeah that’s some sticker shock alright. Though rather surprising that the AU price is actually cheaper than direct conversion. Suddenly even more pleased with yesterday’s news either way 😛
Really makes me wonder how much the Vive is going to come up though, if this is supposed to be the super subsidised bargain price for fairly equivalent hardware.
(I just did a rounded off Google conversion on US$650 for headset and US$130 for shipping)
I think the official Australian price is just more than the US price and still in US dollars.
Yes, Australians get the privilege of paying $150 USD more for the same fucking thing for some reason.
Sucks to be you guys?
Damn you, you’ve been in America for ten minutes and already forgotten your roots!
YANK
YANK
MURICA
GUNS AND EAGLES
It’s about $680 delivered for me. So way too steep. $600 base price not $500 like I first read and then because Facebook is in WA and I’m in WA I have to pay 9.5% sales tax. 🙁
Ah, was going off something else I’d read comparing the Canadian price to the Australian price. Looks like there was some misunderstanding going on there.
Weird, it seems like some people managed to get it for $781 in AUD. Lucky glitch for them maybe?
The real question I think is how much Playstation VR is going to cost. I think that always had the highest potential to be a mainstream hit since it doesn’t require investing in a new graphics card and so on, but anything more than $350 USD will make it more expensive than the PS4.
More than US$280 including shipping would make it cost more than my PS4…
This news makes me think the Vive will be $2000+
My first thought, upon seeing the price of the Rift, was “Gooky, you lucky son of a-“
My first feelings on reading it were a mixture of horror, joy, sympathy and smug 😛
Yeeeaaahhh for something that’d be used occasionally (by me at least) at best anyway, fuck that!
Head tracking and large monitor will do nicely 😛
Yeah, I’m out.
Obviously not the market they were courting.
(I was only half-joking when I tweeted yesterday that Facebook wanted to get its ROI as soon as possible up-front from the early-adopter nerds!)
The Polygon interview made it seem like the price really is the price for a good reason, without much wiggle room, meaning we’ll only see price-drops if manufacturers establish new production lines with improved efficiencies (and Oculus doesn’t pocket the difference), or if a major player picks the hardware to be a loss-leader on platform-specific game sales, but neither of these seem especially likely.
I’m also thinking I won’t be in this race until 2017-2018.
Super Hexagon is free on iOS apparently, if you somehow don’t have it already.
So that Legion Music Festival that is relying on crowd funding is interesting.
http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/legion-2016-lineup-just-got-lot-bigger/
I like the idea with the break down of the costs of running the festival where the $$ go. Even though i’m not interested in going, I feel obliged to pledge because I want to see another successful music festival that caters to the music I like.
Man, that’s a really cool idea, but there’s no way they make $3.2m with bands like that. I could see it maybe happening if you had some more mainstream metal acts, like Bring Me The Horizon or something, but not with Devildriver.
Yeah, I hear that. I’ve no real interest in the bands on the line up, but if I have some spare cash before the pledge ends i’ll see what I can throw their way.
Just… fuck. The Sydney show is on my birthday too… but I’ll be in Hong Kong for a wedding.
Heh, wonder if the sticker shock will make the Rift DK2 prices rise again. Apparently they’d finally tapered off in the leadup to the preorders opening.
Just jumped on eBay to have a look, and found a whole lot of “newly listed” 😛
I’m guessing some of it is people offloading their old device to get a shiny new one.
Also, this has made me realise something: I’m aware of the DK1 vs DK2 differences, but is there a site that has a decent roundup of differences between DK2 and the consumer release? I haven’t really looked into it.
Not that I know of off the top of my head. Do you mean specs-wise, or experience-wise?
All of it 😛
My understanding is they’ve separated and improved the screen(s) and generally made it more consumer friendly/ergonomic, but other than that I got nothin’.
I think DK2 was a
1920×10801080×1920 screen at 75Hz. The portrait orientation of the pixel rows meant that any screen tearing happened on a vertical line for the user rather than horizontal, presenting different frames to each eye rather than splitting frames for both eyes, super problematic for keeping your lunch down. Also it suffered from this “black smear” thing which I’ve read a lot about but still don’t really understand, haven’t seen it for myself. The new one’s got two 1080×1200 screens at 90Hz with global update and are supposed to have fixed the black smear problem. The DK2 still had swappable lenses to accommodate for some sight problems, I think they were fresnel lenses and were apparently rather prone to scratching. The new one’s lenses are fixed (so the inside remains sealed, no dust getting in on the screen) and have a much wider sweet spot, a larger FOV and have an IPD adjustment mechanism that moves both the lenses and screens. DK2 had a small IR webcam used for positional tracking, though it had a fairly small range of view. The new ones seem to be able to capture a much larger area, and looks far less like a camera (they only call it a “sensor”) to ease privacy fears 😛 New one has integrated audio, with on-board amp and DAC and full control of the audio stack (ok yeah I’m just parroting stuff I’ve read here and don’t wholly understand all of it) so they can guarantee a high quality spatial audio experience and devs can target a fixed baseline for sound. But they’re removable if you’re really attached to your existing headphones and decide these ones don’t do the job. By all accounts they’re supposed to be pretty fantastic though. There’s an integrated mic in the headset too, which is great for the social aspect. Then yeah, all the ergonomics and such too.Think that’s probably most of it, just off the top of my head 😛
Thanks man, much appreciated!
Ooh, another one I missed. The DK2 loses tracking when you turn around and the camera loses sight of the plastic chassis, but the CV1 has LEDs that extend to the rear of the straps so you can be tracked from all angles. Big help for standing/room-scale stuff.
Hey Taybies.
Having achieved last year’s resolution of running 1000k, this year’s will be a lot less physically active. Going to start playing a lot more guitar.
Does anyone have any recommendations of books or online resources for starting to learn (not complete beginner, can play a few chords and I don’t need to learn music theory as I already play piano and trumpet. )
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Rocksmith is a pretty great learning tool, and considering we’re on Kotaku it’s probably relevant to your interests 😛
Yeah, I’ve been playing a bit of 2014, but I find it’s much more about teaching songs rather than technique or fundamentals.
Yeah, which is exactly why I think it works well for many people who otherwise struggled with learning to guitar. It gives that sense of satisfaction in knowing you can play a song which is far stronger and more enjoyable feedback than “your positioning is consistently good”.
I guess the idea is that you’re expected to develop a stronger technique yourself rather than have it taught directly to you? That’s a bit of a guess, though.
This is the way most classes work tbh. They tend to start by teaching you scales, then easy songs. Eventually (if you have a good ear) you’ll begin to play things just by listening to them.
Learning chords and how they relate can be useful, and there’s plenty of vids out there about chord theory, but really, learning songs will likely benefit you more to start withl Once you’re comfortable with some songs, learning more about the theory will likely do more for you than learning the theory first.
As an example, I learned cello when I was in primary school. We started with scales, and then easy songs like greensleeves etc. Not long after that, I could generally listen to a song, and be able to play it by ear, and only occasionally have to reference actual music sheets.
I can dig through my collection to find some vids on chords if you like. I’ve been looking in to it a bit myself lately, as I’m hoping to use my keyboard to make my song.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3zqlmw/600_is_not_a_bad_deal_if_you_break_it_down_by/
Interesting perspective on the whole Rift price thing. I mean yeah, not directly comparable, but it makes sense gist-wise.
Yeeeeeah, but then again logic and facts have no place on the internet.
Can see where he’s coming from though. Doesn’t mean I totally agree with it, but I can understand the mentality.
Kinda.
I was thinking that instead of the rift maybe I’ll go in for a fancy g-sync moniter. But the price of those is in the same ballpark.
A big fear on getting a rift now though is how much the price is gonna nuke the customer base, turning off devs from developing for it, ect spiral of doom.
At least a fancy moniter will Always be good for all games.
Well the preorders seem to be filling up pretty well, though I guess we have to wait and see how many of them stick around once it’s time to pay.
There’s supposed to be a good hundred games in the making of it already, I think I’ve got maybe 20 tops for my Virtual Boy. It should be fine 😛
Yeah, having thought about it I’m in the wait and see camp.
Wait for an opportunity to try the hardware, wait to see what games are built for it that interest me, wait for a price drop or at least USD/aud less shite.
Especially since I’d want to get a 980ti while I’m at it.
I’m gonna have to figure out how to get my PC mobile, so I can cart it around to everyone’s place. Practically feels like a responsibility now 😛
I’ve love to pick up a 980ti and a Rift, but when you realise you could build a new PC from scratch for a comparable price it seems a bit of a stretch trying to justify.
Pretty much.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/01/psychonauts-2-reaches-its-us3-3-million-goal/
The negativity in the Psychonauts 2 comments really bums me out. On the bright side, Psychonauts 2 funded! *flails arms*
Haters gonna hate dc =P
Haters gonna hate more than just DC (but seriously, how can you hate DC? He’s great!)
DC, you and I are gonna be all “YES PSYCHIC POWERS AND CHARACTERS AND WOO” and people will still whinge about it.
I guess what I’m saying is, Fuck the haters, we’re getting PSYCHONAUTS 2
:’)
At least this time Double Fine is being more realistic with the production timeframe. I think that was probably what burned the most people with Broken Age.
The issue with Broken age is that the Kickstarter wasn’t for a defined project.
Their pitch was literally “We’re gonna make an adventure game” before they’d even designed a single thing.
For this one, they’ve got a much more defined project brief. I’d expect they’ve actually got most of the project planned already.
Not to mention funding outside of the Kickstarter that takes the budget to 10 million.
Also, and this is key: IDGAF if it’s delayed. like, fuck, is the world going to end if we get a video game a bit late? the Broken age thing was overblown anyway.
Exactly. I get the anger at Spacebase being abandoned, but not the Broken Age angst.
Screw those jerks. Spacebase was one of my most hyped games 🙁
RIP neva 4get
I’m just sad you can’t roll back Spacebase to a few builds before abandonment to a point where it was still actually pretty functional and the new features weren’t there to unbalance it all. I was very ‘one more turn’ into that on earlier builds.
Very sad.
Outcome will be the same regardless of game quality: Peter McConnell is doing the music.
*thumbs up*
I’m glad I won’t be an early adopter of a VR headset.
Too much hassle to force all of my friends to thouroughly wash their heads before I let them try it on.
*bookmarks VRCovers.com*
I am thinking that maybe I should do some of the older game series as some book marks. Stuff like crash bandicoot, spyro, bubsy, original lara croft, tenchu.
Don’t forget Pepsiman.
Who? Wasn’t that game awful as well?
Didn’t stop you from putting Crash in there [/fanboy]
I didn’t play it personally, sorry
Coke could have made CokeMan, but Tony Montana already had that position filled.
Is it page 6 yet?Nostalgia is a powerful force. I certainly would be interested in something Crash Bandicoot related if you make it.
oh my god yes! Crash Bandicoot and Spyro!
Oh god Spyro… *throws money at screen* (wall scrolls? :O)
I will need to do some test printing before wall scrolls become an actual option but yes, I am looking in to it when I have time
Yeah, Crash I might go in for.
Psychonauts is pretty old 😉
Let me play it first! I need to find my ps2, it’s around somewhere
I have a spare copy sitting in my inventory if you want it on PC
Hm, it’s tempting, but I’m really worried considering Alice made me feel unwell. I have a PS2 copy and I should have played it. It’s in my room and not hard to find, just gotta find time.
I’ve heard Gordon Freeman is a pretty popular character.
I’ve only played half life 2 episode 1 and got up to the end with the striders and kept getting materialized.
D= Are you a fan of FPS games? Half Life 2 is probably the most fun I’ve ever had in an FPS, narrowly beating out HL1.
I will literally send you a computer with HL2 on it, that’s how good it is.
I will look into it, or should I wait for the remake?
Woah woah hold up… there’s a remake?
Regardless, it’s up to you. The gameplay and the story were always the primary draw of the HL games rather than the graphics, but if impressive visuals are your jam then maybe wait for the remake.
I am going to play Black Mesa (the HD remake of HL1) relatively soon (hopefully), so I can give you a yay/nay on that later on.
I must be getting confused with that one. I knew there was a remake of a half life.
Got me excited for a second!
Can your PC play HL2? I wasn’t kidding, I will actually send you one if it can’t.
Maybe. I have no idea. I need to upgrade as it’s now 7 years old.
I’m pretty keen to play some Netrunner online via Jinteki.net.
Anyone (@gingerchris86 & @redartifice) put decks together there yet?
I’ve never played Netrunner, gonna need a lot more time. Also, not this weekend.
I can source some introductory decklists to teach with.
not had a chance yet. When I have some spare*dies of laughter*
Is there a good site that can tell you decent strats for netrunner? I’ve got a couple of ideas but want to look into it more.
Team Covenant has good match coverage on Youtube. It’s the de facto starting point.
Most high rated decks on Netrunnerdb tend to have detailed explanations and conversations about what’s going on. I tend to look up decks with one or two of the key cards I want to use and see what they’re doing.
The Winning Agenda is a fantastic Melbourne based podcast. Well worth looking into if you want to pick up a lot of solid information. They’ve also got a Youtube channel (Corporate Troubleshooter) where they explain and use some decks.
Parents left this morning on a road trip to SA. Home alone for 10 days.
Not sure what the leftovers situation is like. Probs gonna die 😛
Can I have your Oculus?
Honestly expected @rize to get in with that first.
He can have CV1, you can have DK1 :p
I reluctantly accept your offer.
You could also order/steal some pizza. Preferably with a partner to back you up. Hmmmm…. Who could be both a pizza thief and a fun person to have over. HMMMMMMMMM.
I’ll prep the popcorn.
I walked right into that one.
something something steal some pizza?
@highperformance (cc @alexwalker)
Stellaris is
EUIV
IN
SPAAAAAAACE
Randomised Alien races, multiple “historical” events, your/ your neighbour’s tech tree will shape your win con. For example, if you invest heavily in AI, there’s a chance it will go rogue. If you start dimensional travel, you may end up as Warhammer 40k
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08/06/stellaris-paradox-strategy-game/
My understanding was that it was kind of two parts: the initial phase was like a traditional 4X, and then once the boundaries were established the game transitioned into more of a EUIV/Paradox grand strategy-esque game.
That’s right, yeah, but it’s the second part that excites me.
Oh my.
If it allows a playable machine race, sign me the hell up!
Is it wrong that I teared up reading the article? Damn I’m going to love this game, I wonder when it will come out : * )
This is really feeling like a “Make your own sci-fi series” where it’s your empire/federation/collective/fan-club/whatever that is being built, then the sci-fi series part kicks in at the later stages. Fricken genius!
*prays for 2017 release* Call me selfish, but after reading RPS’s list of potential 2016 releases, this year is full already.
I reckon April or so. Paradox usually show stuff late in the development game.
Yea, I know… just hopeful. I’ve got 3x 200hr+ RPGs to finish this year – my 2016’s full even without all the awesome *new* games. 😛
April 2016… Or April 2017?
*Prays harder than @os42 for 2016 release*
This year
FAK UEAJ
Also, I’ll just line up amongst the people who are keen for this.
I’ll qualify that I’m not a CK2/EU4 player, but I do like my 4X (especially the space variants) and I’m real interested to see how they handle the transition.
This, Endless Space 2, GalCiv 3 finally getting all the patches it needs, Tharsis, another expansion (probably) for Civ: BE, XCOM 2 … I like the look of 2016.
How is Master of Orion not on this list? You are dead to me.
The more I look at Master of Orion the more I start to worry. We’ll know more in a few months, hopefully.
https://youtu.be/VcjzHMhBtf0?t=204
I WANT IT NOW. Please.
So i’ve been trying my hardest to please the government, and trying even harder to get away from Centrelink, which I thought I was on the right path with finally getting a job. Nope. I’m now told I have to do work for the dole again, only if I get less than 25hrs a week work, which is very possible since i’ve got 23 hours this week.
Yet with the rate of pay I get, my earnings are high enough I get no Centrelink, but they think, nope he’s being slack let’s make him do WFTD. It just seems I can’t do the right thing. Also with my boss leaving in a week or two, it’s kinda awkward to ask him for more hours, cause the new boss (who ever that is) might just decided to give me no hours which has me worried :/
Gonna try & find some kind of nightfill work, maybe I can approach the manager of the Woolies we’re attached to and ask him if he has anything going, or I could go & get my Queensland RSA & go see my mate who opened his bar this week see if he would stay true to his word 😛
Do they still do Night fill? My local woolies stopped doing it, claimed it cost too much and it’s cheaper and easier to have casual staff work a 5 till 12 but shut the shop at 11 so they get an hour of fill and then have other staff start at 5 and work till 1 and use the 2 hours before open to finish the fill.
Yeah, the woolies we’re attached to has dedicated night fill staff. They usually start at like 6 or 7 & work until midnight, and the store closes at 9.
Coles also have night fill here too.
Yeah, from all I’ve heard and experienced Centrelink is useless for those who actually want employment but somehow great for professional slackers.
Yep. That’s pretty true. One person I knew, said if he was going to be made to do work for the dole, he would go back to his doctor and tell said doctor he is “crazy” to get back on disabilities so he didn’t have to work.. Needless to say I stopped talking to him after that. Which was almost a year ago.
Also, fun fact for when you do get back to work: according to the breakdown the ato sent with my tax return almost half of your tax goes into welfare.
Interesting. I’ve never seen that on any of my tax returns.. But yeah, i’m not surprised with the amount that are officially unemployed :/
Yeah this is exactly what I’ve heard as well. If you’re trying to get out of unemployment they make things a shit load harder but if you prefer to slack here you go free moniez.
Interesting.
*takes note*
Yes & no. Under the “reformed” unemployment benefits scheme, it is harder to slack off. Under the old one, it was relatively easy, you could go to your doctor & get 3 months off at a time & centrelink would be all “cool man, do whatever you want here’s your 400 & something dollars a fortnight for being a leech.
Now,
– You can only go to your doctor once & get 3 months off, after that you have to go to one of the gov’t approved specialists I am told, who will basically say no.
-If you don’t turn up to your appointments with the job peoples you lose something like $50 of your income a day for every day you fail to show up & provide an excuse.
-If you don’t apply for 20 job with evidence, you lose another $50 a day for EACH job you failed to apply for.
-If you fail to show up to your work for the dole activities, again you lose $50 for every day you fail to attend if you don’t provide a doctors certificate or legit excuse etc.
For someone like me who just wanted a job, it’s been a pain in the arse, but it could be worse I guess. This is all aimed at people like those I was friends with who found work “too hard” and played the “poor little me, I have depression” card often to get out of doing anything, after they were told they couldn’t be full time TAFE students anymore cause the gov’t won’t accept that in exchange for free dole moniez. I’d like to make it known I’m not attacking those with depression, i’ve known many who have been there and it’s always awful to see it happen to a friend, but I never saw them use it as an excuse & use it often to get out of anything, if anything they didn’t want to talk about it.
Looking around for work in Melbourne ATM and one has mention of a Microsoft certification all good I know them, however I don’t have one and not sure which ones get looked at more favourably are there any better ones to try and get or all a much of a muchness?
I have never put much stock in MCP certs. But if a company is asking for it see what the specialise in and focus that.
MCSE is still highly respected so if you are after a hardware / engineer type role look at that one.
Managed to pick up a second hand New 3DS this arvo, and I went and bought Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.
I’m gonna have to add everyone to my friends list. 😀
4382-2002-0614
0118-999-88199-9119-725-3
3153-7673-1600
Max Factory have a new Link figma in the works:
http://ameblo.jp/figma/entry-12110046760.html
Unlike the more realistic one they did a while back based off Skyward Sword’s Link, this one is based off the Link from Link to the Past / Link Between Worlds. Not for me but I know there’s going to be a few TAYbies that will find this compelling.
Fuck.
Need.
TAY keeps disappearing to a 404 page for about an hour or so in the middle of the day for me. Presumably this is because it’s hidden while the page is queued to be reposted, not because Kotaku is trying to tell me to stop slacking off and do some work.
Potato, potahto.
Potayto.
Crossing the road going into the office this morning, a truck goes 30km/h through a light just turning red, and on the right of it, a police car at the line goes after him with sirens blaring. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Apologies if this question has been asked already, but is anyone else besides @mrtaco purchasing an Occulus Rift?
I am definitely purchasing one, it just probably won’t be this year 😐
Oculus Rift with a new X-Wing vs Tie Fighter equivalent and I’ll be set for the rest of my life.
Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen VR.
So friggin’ keen.
NEVA! Well most likely never; I have little to 0 uninterrupted game time with a few other things in the house always needing my attention. Can’t afford a device to be stuck to my head for a game =P
The just announced price is just way too expensive for myself, I should have grabbed a DK2. Also, I’m intrigued by the HTC Vive Pre.
I’m waiting to see if VR is going to be another Kinect or not, honestly.
I am worried that this could become the next PSVita if it doesn’t get enough traction later on:
1. Not a lot of people buying Oculus due to lack of high quality games using it.
2. As a result of 1, less devs think working on a game for the Oculus as it doesn’t seem profitable enough
3. As a result of 2, repeat 1.
Edit: I’ll add one thing that could potentially explode it though, modding, if modders can figure out Oculus integration for first person games… I sure hope they do, but I doubt it’ll be easy at first
Yeah, I kinda feel this way too. Just can’t really see VR being mainstream enough. Happy to be wrong on this though!
I also have a feeling it won’t easily fade away as Vita though, because VR has been that craze of the future for a very, very long time. Now that it’s here, I’m going to certainly assume that sales will eventually explode when the parts of the Oculus and recommended video card requirements are cheap enough to bring the price down enough for the common human/robot/beastie to be able to afford without signing up for a new mortgage.
I certainly will be in this group that will purchase once the technology is cheap enough!
Yeah I’m of the same; I definitely like the idea behind it but my personal qualm is it just cuts you off from everything around you. I’m more cautiously optimistic about Microsoft’s shot in the market being AR. I’d love to have a game mixed into my living room so I could keep an eye on the cooking while slaying some goblins!
See that doesn’t overly bother me. I generally get drawn into a game and don’t process what is going on around me anyway. At least with VR I’m not going to her my wife say something, acknowledge but not have heard a word (or remember it anyway) that she said
I have developed an amazing skillset which allows me to briefly ignore everything that happens in a game to engage with the mrs for a 2-3 minute period and then re-engage with the game.
This may or may not result in various deaths occurring consecutively in multiplayer games =P But yeah my relationship would not survive me strapping a screen to my face; it’s barely surviving normal games as it is =P
The end part kind of exists already. VorpX, Vireio, Tridef3D, they’re all “injector” programs that kludge VR support into existing games. It’s not the greatest implementation sometimes, but it can be ok. More modding would be needed to add stuff like decoupled aiming I think, so you don’t have to aim using your neck.
I don’t think it’ll ever be that bad. In terms of gaming it’ll always be great in simulation games (especially flight/space).
Want one, can’t justify or afford one.
In perspective, I needed something as good as Bloodborne to justify the $400 for a PS4… So a Rift is going to need at least 3 Bloodbornes worth of goodness before I can seriously consider it at that price.
Gonna wait for all three to get released before I decide. Can’t justify the same amount I spent on my laptop for what’s essentially a peripheral… unless there’s no other option, in which case, I’ll happily wait a few years to let the market sort out a victor between Vive and Rift.
What others have said: really want one but not at that price.
When I can grab one + relevant gpu upgrade for less than 1k then sure but I’m not spending $2000 for the sake of an unproven toy with an uncertain future that I’ll only occasionally use anyway.
Waiting to see what the competition price theirs at and then picking.
Oculus is expensive but within reach for me because I get paid in US dollars and the postal service doesn’t ream me for shipping here. Have to pay 9.5% sales tax though which isn’t included in the price.
Apparently I’m not any more.
Have I missed something, or is the price point too much?
Yes 😛
Oh shiiiiiiieeeeee, edit: How much did you back it for initially??
AU$327 with shipping. So that money has basically quadrupled in value now I guess, which is pretty neat.
Investors and stockbrokers dream about this kinda thing man, I think you may have found a new calling.
Apparently my new calling is “chilli farmer”, according to my sister at least.
I think that sounds more preferable than stockbroker or investor 😛
Just ignore his little wordplay =P He’s just boasting about getting a free copy! BAH =P
I AM ALLOWED TO ENJOY THIS
So which of Lifehacker, Kokatu and Gizmodo is supposed to do what? I’ve just read a tablet computer article on likehacker, a shitload of cosplay stuff on Kokatu and read about a game on Gizmodo. I thought Gizmodo = technology and gadgets, Kokatu = games, Lifehacker = culturral and well, life hacks. We’re just getting random stuff everywhere now.
Kotaku is gaming and game-culture stuff, Giz is technology and tech-geek stuff, io9 is science and science-geek stuff, and Lifehacker is … something.
Lifehacker is bread-in-the-microwave stuff
From each site’s about page:
Kotaku
At Kotaku Australia, we’re carefully trying to build a reputation for creating the strongest, most engaging content surrounding games and gaming culture.
Gizmodo
Gizmodo loves technology. A lot. We’re obsessed with the gadgets, science and geek culture that change the way we live, work, love, eat, play, think and feel.
Lifehacker
Lifehacker is your expert guide on how to get things done and do everything better. We offer practical advice on the right gear to buy, how to make the most of your gadgets and software, how to organise and improve your work life and your finances, how to make the most of your health, and any other aspects of your life that can be improved by “thinking like a programmer”.
I get putting a video card article on gizmodo. But they do put stuff in weird places. Maybe the editors are on holidays or something.
They repost articles across the whole network; so a gaming article can originate at A) but will find itself in Giz/Life/Kotaku again if it relates sufficiently to the underlying theme of the site.
Don’t forget PopSugar for fashion and beauty advice! (ugh)
I miss having them in the bottom bar.
I do too 😛
Well, I’m back from holidays and it doesn’t look like we’ll make page 6 before I leave today so I’m going to have to make this #DadJokePage5. Are you ready? I am!
The lead singer of Nickelback tried out for his school’s Christmas play, but he never made it as a wise man.
What do you call a sick eagle?
Illegal.Just had an exam on my knowledge of wasps.
I failed I got a Bee.
Did you hear about the ice-cream man, he was found dead in his ice-cream van, covered in chocolate sauce and hundreds-and-thousands? The police said that he had topped himself.
My missus dressed up as a police woman last night and giggled, “You’re being charged with being good in bed…”
After two minutes she said she was dropping the charge due to lack of evidence.
My New Year resolution is to make one joke about furniture a day.
Sofa, so good.
Me: When I was in the Middle East, I looked at some real estate.
Friend: Dubai?
Me: No, I just had a look.
My wife said she’s leaving me because of my obsession with American sitcoms.
Happy Days.
My neighbour took out a loan to have her house exorcised. $20,000 but didn’t keep up the payments. Now she’s been repossessed.
I tried to jump the queue for the Scooby Doo Roller Coaster. I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling kids.
A piece of string walked into a Bar and ordered a beer.
“I’m sorry” said the bar man “we don’t serve string here
So the string went out to the car park and started rubbing himself all over the ground before re-entering the same bar.
The string goes up to the bar man “a beer please”
“Aren’t you the same piece of string that was just in here?”
“Nah, I’m a frayed knot”.
Well I posted this in what are you playing but figured I would repurpose for a bit of TAY marketing as I know a large number of taybies enjoyed FTL
We’ve been playing a large amount of Renowned explorers: International society
Such a great game. The world map selection is very similar to FTL (as is the rougelike nature) but the encounters have been replaced by a strategic turn based combat system.
That combat system is amazing. You basically attack the enemies spirit and this can be done with three ways by being Aggressive, friendly or devious. Each of those has a sub grouping so friendly you can use Excite, Impress or Confidence. Different enemies have defense buffs or weaknesses to different abilities.
But the real kicker in the combat is that the fight has a mood that provide a buff / debuff depending on what the mood. If you are both friendly then the next aggressive attack will do 50% more damage. But if you turn aggressive to friendly people they get upset and are likely to turn devious, would gives you a debuff unless you can switch your mood.
Add to that you select a part of 3 from 4 main classes (Scientist, scouts, fighters and speakers) with a range of different skills to get through the non combat challenges on the map it is a game with a surprising amount of depth
Sounds pretty interesting. Might look it up.
I didn’t get to bed on time for the first week I had it
Mrs Tigs was annoyed because yesterday Tiglet woke up early so she didn’t get to play
So it’s got a severe bout of one-more-turn-itis going for it? I really shouldn’t get it, I’ve got such a backlog of games to get through at the moment.
Well it has the benefit of being broken into individual expeditions and a full run has a make of 5 expeditions you can do. So you can generally only get ‘stuck’ for around 5 hours before you are forced to start a new game. So you don’t end up going to late. A single expedition is generally around an hour depending on build and luck. So there is a definite, should I stop or should I go on moment each hour.
I’ll have a looksee when I get home, no promises though
Have you played Darkest Dungeon at all?
No, my backlog is so big that I stay away from early access. Has it been released yet?
Even though it’s early access it’s basically complete; they’re just adding layers of mechanics and new classes etc now. Defs worth picking up if you enjoy roguelikes and turn based tactics. Be warned it can get pretty punishing and addictive =P
@redartifice Did your code work in the end?
Not yet
Thanks to some fuck-up around delivery of my cable modem I probably won’t be able to watch the premiere of most of this season’s anime until later next week. 🙁
Aww, not good! Did you tell them you have an important job of letting people know what’s worth watching so they’d better treat you like you’re their only customer?! 😛
No, I had to buy another modem and pay extra to hopefully get it delivered tomorrow. 🙁
If you’d like, I could look at the names of al everything that’s starting and write my own guide based entirely on that.
A guy I knew once did a thing where he tried to predict what had happened each week of a show by watching the opening and ending and then looking at fanart on pixiv each week. Did surprisingly well at it.
Am I just blind or has there been next to zero CES coverage on Giz or Kotaku this week?
I’ve seen a bunch of articles from Campbell Simpson. He’s in Vegas for it.
Yeah CES is kinda quiet this year. I’ve seen 14 videos from LinusTechTips, about 8 from Hardware Canucks & like 4 from Tek Syndicate..
Also nothing really amazing yet, apart from that epic OLED UHD 2.7mm thick TV from LG.
Chilli sprout update. No new entries to report on.
#1’s leaves are getting quite large. #2 looks pretty anaemic, but is the tallest. #3’s leaves are quite long. #4 is playing catch-up. May need to set the light higher soon, so they’re not all converging on the middle so much.
I there a reason why they aren’t on a windowsill? Chillies love summer sun
Yes. Recently there has been no summer sun 😛
From what I’d read they needed to be kept nice and warm, ideally between 28 and 32 when starting out, so I’ve kept them between a couple of power transformers plugged in behind my computer. Then once they sprouted, got them a light. Not sure where I could put them to get decent light yet actually, most of the windows down this end of the house don’t get much sun.
@Haggis I’m on board, brother.
Dude came up to me yesterday and demanded I do a Michael Jackson impersonation. I told him to just beat it.
So I picked up this Australian Kelpie’s calendar today, cause Calendar Club was having a 70% off sale & when mum saw one of the Kelpie’s in it which looks similar to Chilli with a blue collar she said Chilli should have a blue collar. Whilst i’m at it I amy as well get her a matching lead & harness, since she needs a new harness, and my preferred brand (Ezy Dog) do exactly what I want in a harness.
Every time I go on Lifehacker lately the first post is about sticking something up your arse. Wtf?
Could be worse, it could be about sticking your bread in the microwave *shudder*
To be fair, everyone has a butt.
Splatoon bookmarks are starting to happen, woo. I was procrastinating too much.
Please look forward to it.
Top stories from across the network:
-When Artificial Intelligence Guesses Your Age And Attractiveness
-All The Gadgets At CES Look Like Sex Toys
-How To Take Your Butt Play To The Next Level With Prostate Massage
That… does rather imply a story doesn’t it? Robosodomy is also a good name for a band.
Update for those who don’t have me on fb or twitter. Spoilered for reasons
Had the colonoscopy today. Procedure went well. No visually obvious signs of cancer, so that’s a plus, but they found stuff that shouldn’t be there, so took a biopsy, and now I have to await results of that. Good thing is, it’s substantially reduced my chances of it being bowel cancer. Not ruled out yet, but at least that’s better than confirmation that it’s present. No idea when I will find out yet though. Just have to wait for letter in the mail. The search continues. At least I’m one step closer to ruling out one more thing.Just tell them that you fell over backwards whilst vacuuming in the nude.
Fairly good news for the rest of it though, you don’t want to have to change your username.
hahaha yeah.. i reserve that for halloween, and hope to keep it that way, though the way I am right now, I can hardly say I live up to the name 😉
Akihabara is fantastic and there is heaps of star wars stuff. Still have too much dignity for a maid cafe
hahahah I went to one called MaidDreamin’ . It was magical! Also had the best melon flavoured drink there I’ve tasted my entire life!
I kind of wanted to go to one when I was there but I think that it would have been uncomfortable to go by myself and a good portion of the group would have been even more uncomfortable being there. 🙁
I’m going to make @cannonfodderjnr take me to as many as possible when we go.
Make sure you find a tsundere one, where they throw the glasses down and ignore what you order half the time and when they bring it out it’s just because you’re paying and not because they like you or anything.
So, like a normal restaurant?
You should have asked. I would have happily checked one out.
I was nearly coerced into a maid cafe my first time in Akihabara (by which I mean they exploited my weakness for cute girls by having one of them tell me to go inside as I walked by), thankfully my fear of the foreign caused me to swiftly power walk away.
I smell really bad. I hope this room isn’t as stinky as I think and I’m allowed to stay over at this place again… 😛
Was I that stinky, @powalen and @Alexpants?
yes
There’s nothing I can add to this.
God damn it, Linus from LinusTechTips is up to his old habits at CES by breaking shit again.
Looking through Facebook just before & see in the trending thingo a thing about Jennifer Lawrence talking about Planned Parenthood in an interview she did, so out of curiosity I click on it to see the trending links relating to it, the first comment on the first link which is the Facebook of the magazine there was this;
It had a bunch of likes pushing it to top comment which made me very sad :/ I then made the mistake of expanding the replies, holy fuck 😐 I love my American friends, but there’s some real nasty nut bags out there they have to deal with.
To be fair, it’s not like the US has a monopoly on shitbag people posting awful opinions on facebook…
True, but this one was from Colorado according to what was under their name 😛
Well that’ll be because Planned Parenthood is a US thing.
Yeah, but that doesn’t stop nut bags from other countries going on a tirade about them..
Is the ghibli museum worth it?
I thought it was pretty neat.
I’ve never seen a Ghibli movie before.
Please for the love of god tell me that was rectified after the museum visit
Yes. They had a screening of one of their shorts, an animation with a water skimmer and some kind of scuba spider. It was cute.
I’m digging Far Cry 4, it’s fun, but does anyone know if it’s possible to skip the cinematics? I’m kinda over being forced to watch them, can’t even pause them :/
Also for something completely unrelated, that is a bit ranty so spoilers.
We found out today where the roof is leaking from, turns out the pieces of shit next door have thrown a piece of concrete on to our roof & smashed a tile (we previously thought it was to do with the gutters overflowing) but nope, and the only way this could’ve happened was to come from their place, since where this is it’s too far from the road & they’re the only ones (unless you were in our backyard) that can do it. So i’ve made the suggestion to dad that instead of repairing it like he initially said, we’ll replace it with this neato solar powered roof exhaust fan/vent we saw today at Bunnings. He also thinks we should send a bill to the department of housing for the damage their tenants have done. Also turns out the youngest son who lives with mum there (he’s like 34 or so) has an arrest warrant out on him, amazing what some of my neighbours know lol.The cinematics as in the opening branding/ad stuff? That’s easily solved by adding -skipintro to the steam shortcut. I’m not sure if uplay has a way to implement startup command switches, you might have to make a manual shortcut & use “C:\PATH-TO-GAME.EXE” -skipintro in the shortcut target box.
If, however, you’re on console or you want to skip the ingame cutscenes after failing the mission for the 6th time and having the dialogue memorised, I’m pretty sure there’s no way.
Ah right, cheers! Yeah i’m playing on PC, and it’s mostly just the intro cinematics, though some of the ones in game can be a bit annoying.
@cj As asked, I have delivered on National Eat a Gametime Day!
https://imgur.com/xyH0VXj
Excellent
Oh come on.
“If you’re free and insane you could come over now”
Someone needs to have a word with the writers on this show. It’s getting way too far-fetched.
What on earth are you watching?
The Gooky Story, it’s chronicling all the ladies trying to pick him up
Typical Gooky 😛
Wow, CES is already over? Well shit, that was a bit lacklustre this year from the tech channels I sub to :S Oh well. NAMM in a few weeks so yay for that.
So uhh, I just saw the Mario kart ensemble racing through Shibuya.
….maybe there’ll be an article on the US Kotaku site or something
Pics or it never happened?
I could get them off of my dslr camera when I’m back in Australia if you really want.
Until then I am still in Perth as there is no photographic evidence to prove otherwise.
I saw a Mario and Luigi in Akihabara the other day, I’m assuming they’re a part of the same thing.
Uh, this can’t be right. Bought some clothing items online from Dickies, turns out their warehouse they ship from is in Yatala which is like idk 50km drive away. They provide me with a tracking number & shit, which is cool, so I figure I will see my things tomorrow, just checked it, the items are now in Sydney, 900km away, what the shit Australia Post?!