You guys have any burning questions? About anything? This is Ask Me Stuff, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Leave me a question in the comments below and I’ll endeavour to answer it before the day is out.
Ask Me Stuff
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123 responses to “Ask Me Stuff”
Have you played any of the TimeSplitters games? Right now I can’t get enough (again) It is the best Sci-Fi FPS ever!
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I played a lot of Timesplitter 2!
This whole issue yesterday with the Gizmodo intern and Jon, the Magic champion.
Do you believe Gizmodo US should print some sort of apology to distance itself from her? CBS itself picked up the story at some point and ran with it, Gizmodo are looking pretty bad. Obviously a retraction is beyond possible, but do you believe they should at least apologise to this man for what she’s done?
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While she is a massive bitch, I actually don’t blame her for what happened. By definition, interns are inexperienced and so they sometimes make mistakes/show poor judgment.
I blame the editor, who either approved the article, or was asleep behind the wheel. I think the whole thing is really disappointing, and I hope the guy pursues legal action (I hope he has some sort of case) because this sort of name and shame is completely unacceptable.
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As horrible as the article was, Alyssa was the only person directly shamed by it. I reckon Jon will end up some pretty hot dates as a result of less shallow women seeking him out especially!
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Wether or not Alyssa was the only one shamed by it in the end is irrelevant, however it is indeed a nice bit of irony no? 🙂
I do however personally think that Gizmodo should issue a very public apology to the man for publishing such a piece of crap.
It’s a tech site, not a goddamn gossip mag.
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Basically I think the article was ridiculous. On so many levels. I can’t speak for Giz US, but I think they should just let the issue fizzle away.
Of all the big name games coming out in the holiday period, between now and christmas, which are you looking forward to the most?
Also, the recent XCOM footage, did you play/finish the originals and what is your impression of the game?
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The game that’s taken me by surprise is Zelda Skyward Sword. I think that has strangely become my most anticipated game. Assassin’s Creed Revelations as well.
XCom. I have a lot of faith. I understand the concerns of long time fans, but I think they are taking the game to an interesting place – at least in terms of narrative.
In light of recent events (and not that i like to strictly classify things), but I just want to know if you consider yourself a nerd, Mr. Serrels. And your view on that word/its usage.
Also, nice pecs.
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Dear Hermes and Thoth,
I am a little curious about your name.You have gone with a combination of Greek and Egyptian Deities, Hermes being the fleet of foot messenger of the gods, patron and creator of many sports, not to mention a trickster, thief, and all around “bad-ass dude.” Then there’s Thoth, the Greek name for an Egyptian god that there’s no way in hell I could pronounce, who was considered a representation of the heart, where the Egyptians thought that thought’s occured, as well as him being the means by which Ra’s thoughts were turned to speech(another messenger).
Did you decide to name yourself (or your bloggy thing really but shhh) after 2 messengers on purpose? Did you consider the fact that the major cult centre for Thoth was Hermopolis, similar to the name of the other mentioned deity? Am I just over-analysing things because I’m bored?(yes, most definitely yes)
Anyway, yes, what is the origin of the name?
Cheers,
Blaghman.-
Hello!
Well, I actually have a little ‘about me’ section on my blog, but for the sake of not raising my hit counter because its currently on 666 today, (dont you dare ruin it!) I will explain it here.
Essentially Thoth was the Egyptian god of ‘language and writing’. He was a messenger and some say even created language and words. Hermes has been linked with Thoth throughout history and was a messenger. Simply, I have a passion for writing and I started a new blog (but shh!) that I wanted to dedicate to my opinion pieces and general crap I spout.
When I was 15 I used the name “waypastbeating” – because I thought I was cool. Over time, I was proven wrong and NOW I know how horribly uncool I am. So I started a new blog, new name and essentially that’s the reason why.
Fantastico! Where did you get your name?
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I don’t even really know what it means to be a nerd. But we rule the world man.
Wrecking Crew, Mario Open Golf, Yoshi’s Egg… thoughts on the lesser of Nintendo’s NES game list? Do they have the same fun factor as the others? Thanks!
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I had Wrecking Crew on the NES, damn hard game. Think I only ever got to about level 12 or 13 (if I remember correctly there were 99 levels).
Had it’s own level creator though, had a bit of fun with that.
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Honestly, I find it hard to get excited about any NES game. They just haven’t aged well…
Except Mario Bros. 3 obviously! And Punch Out!!
Had to get a melanoma cut out yesterday from a place close to the area that men hold dear to them.
Never needed any medical procedures done in my 36 years luckily, but still freaked me out a bit.
Question is, if you feel comfortable telling, Mark and co.
Have you had any accidents or medical issues that needed urgent or serious attention and what was your state of mind about it at the time?
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This question tenuously relates to games because i now have a week off to fully appreciate my newly purchased PS3.
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i had one removed from the same approx area when i was about 12 – started young, i did
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To loops and cron,
Very brave gents you are. I currently am researching melanoma drugs in my honours year and know how scary melanoma is, as well as how it affects some of the patients. Hope the procedures all went well, even if yours was years ago loops.
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Thankyou.
Wasn’t going for the sympathy vote i swear. Just thought i ask the question similar to Mark’s non game related questions sometimes.
Seriously, good luck with your studies.
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Cheers mate.
I know you weren’t looking for sympathy simply by the way you worded your post. I just appreciate the general day-to-day fear that things like that can produce and any little ‘hope you’re well’ helps, even if only subconsciously.
Kotaku is such an f’n great community.
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I concur.
Love this site and all the people that add to it are effing champions.
How’s that for an endorsement Marky boy?
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Now you just need to come up with a bad ass excuse to impress the ladies…..
I’ve had them removed from my back before, bit stressful if you waiting on results, hope all is well 🙂
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*excuse for the scar
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Thanks Jandle, and thanks Mark.
Regardless of age it can be a bit scary.Their out which is great, still waiting for tests back.
Everyone press L3 for me.
Man good question. Hope it all went well for you.
I haven’t really had any life threatening injuries. Been very lucky. I honestly don’t know how I would react…
Related question to Weresmurf:
What’s the exact connection between the US Gawker stable and Allure? The US versions of the sites and ours?
You guys seem to have a right to completely distance yourselves from their content (and regularly do), so is the relationship in name only? Or is Gawker legally a part owner of the Australian arm too?
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Indeed. The response article yesterday took some massive cajones (yes, aware the author was female 🙂 and doesn’t technically HAVE cajones) and I think we unanimously applaud AU Kotaku for their stance 🙂
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We have a licensing arrangement to use their content.
Glad you guys liked Elly’s response 🙂
Save from using a slow as all hell free proxy how do I get to the US versions of Kotaku and Gizmodo etc?
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Click the US button on the top-right corner of the page?
Then gouge out your eyes for putting yourself through that…
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Oh, or type it as “us.website.com”
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Tried that, it still redirects me.
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Oh. Wow. Welp, they work fine for me…
Are you at work, and have you tried it from a different location? There’s the possibility that something is getting in the way…
But I have no idea really…
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Hmm, just tried Internet Explorer and the US link worked fine.
Very disappointing that the site isn’t working properly with Firefox 😛
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Try Chrome?
Anything to avoid using IE…
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I’m actually having the same issue and I’m on Chrome…
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I’m on chrome and I have no problems, and I just checked on Firefox and it worked fine for me. What OS are you guys using?
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Win XP Service Pack 3 is what we’re stuck with. I’m running Firefox 6.0 because I managed to talk my way into getting full admin rights on my computer 😛
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I find if I desparately have to see the us sites, then in FF the only way to do it without the redirect is to go to the mobile site (!) m.kotaku.com which then updates itself to the US site. But what a bloody palaver and it’s pretty quickly discovered that you’re better off on the AU side of things. For one, actual journalism and not linkbait.
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or better yet go to reddit.
All Kotaku US ever seems to be are reddit posts.
unlike Mark who you know seems to actually put some effort into his job
Can love bloom even on the battlefield?
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We are young, heartache to heartache we stand
No promises, no demands
Love Is A Battlefield
We are strong, no one can tell us we’re wrong
Searchin’ our hearts for so long, both of us knowing
Love is a battlefield -
I think at any time, any place, people can fall in love with each other. But if you love someone, you have to be able to protect them.
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This is a common trope, and to paraphrase my brother, who is commando trained:
No. You have no sexual preference. You are stressed, tired and dirty. You would struggle to feel much of anything beyond fatigue. Those stories where the soldier brought a woman home – always, always on leave, or on guard duty, not on the front.
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
I don’t have an answer for that – but amazing question.
WHAT IS THE GAME FROM THE PICTURE???????????!
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Pretty sure it’s Alpha Protocol.
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Alpha Protocol
Are you looking forward to the independent games Red Orchestra 2 from Tripwire and Hard Reset from Flying Wild Hog that are coming out on the same day on 13th of September.
I cant wait for these games that dont cost too much and look fantastic.
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Haven’t been keeping as close an eye on those games as I should have been. Will definitely check them out though.
From a gaming perspective is an Android phone worth getting?
Several games I have been interested in have been iphone only. Is the trend multi-platform developing as the market grows or is the apple-cart or the highway
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The trend is generally towards multiplatform development, and I would expect it to continue in that direction. That said, there are some major problems with Android development, by which I mean 1 problem, which is the segmented user base. Generally, the “lower end” of the market can be found on both, by which I mean games along the lines of Canabalt(A bad example given so far as I know it isn’t actually on Android, but I hope you understand my point) and Angry Birds, simply because they have low usage requirements, and are relatively cheap to port around. I’d expect more of the upper end to be ported to Android in the future, but it’s considerably easier to develop for 3 phones all using the exact same OS version, thus why many graphically intensive games are iOS exclusive (like a lot of Gameloft’s library), and that’s likely to always remain at least partially true.
While I doubt this helped at all, I can at least hope that it did…
(Oh, and the Android market share is definitely growing, so there will be an upswing in development from that alone)
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I think Blaghman’s response is pretty definitive…
Better than anything I could come up with!
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I’m helping!
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Hi Squirrels, Don’t know if this has been ask b4, but what is generally regarded as the hardest achievment to get and for what game on the Xbox 360 ?
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Super Meat Boy?
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I scoff at your suggestion!
Seriously though, that one’s not that tough, and I’m not just saying that because I have it. It’s really all about persistence.
I personally think that the toughest ones are either:
– The multiplayer “Win X ranked matches (possibly in a row)” ones where you have to be good enough to get it despite all the other people determine to stop you
– Some of the insane music game ones that will only take a couple of minutes to do if you’re good enough, but that you could practice forever and still never reach that level e.g.
Beatles Rock Band: I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS! (Score 100% notes hit on Helter Skelter playing Expert Drums.)
Guitar Hero III: The Inhuman Achievement (Complete Through the Fire and Flames on Expert)-
There’s a tougher GH3 achievement:
The Long Road Ahead (100)
Complete all difficulties in Career, buy everything from the shop and complete 100 online matchesBuying everything from the store means beating all difficulties in career mode, 5 starring every song on every difficulty (not counting bonus songs like TTFAT) and doing the same in Co-op.
Admittedly, there is a cheat code that unlocks everything in the store to bypass that requirement (and will unlock the Burning A Hole In Your Pocket achievement for getting everything from the store) but doing it legitimately is one hell of a task.
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I’m not sure what the hardest achievement is, but the hardest game to get all the achievements is Final Fantasy XI.
You have to get max level with all character classes, each one can take a reasonably long period of time to achieve.
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Mortal Kombat (2011) has an achievement that requires you to gain ‘mastery’ of every character. Gaining ‘mastery’ of a character involves doing 100 fatalities, spilling x amount of blood, etc. But the real kicker is that it requires you to play as the character for 24 hours play time, for all characters, even Sheeva, and she totally sucks! You’d have to play the game for a minimum of 624 hours to achieve this (24 hours X 26 Characters).
Also, ‘the mile high’ achievement in COD 4 tends to stump a lot of people.
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true true. I thought the last Trophy on Limbo was pretty tough. who the hell plays the whole game without dying
(ok at least 5 times).Deus EX is up there with some pretty tough trophies.
Perhaps there should be a blog just for Trophy/Achievement discussions.
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Golden Gate – Guerrilla 25 in homefront
Complete chapter 7 on the Hardest Difficulty in the Single Player CampaignBefore it is even possible to get this, you have to complete the game
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I think it’d be the multiplayer achievements on games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D… not that they’re hard in themselves (get 100 kills, etc) just the fact that no one plays these games any more, and if you do manage to find someone, it’s laggy to the point of unplayable. They’re basically impossible to get now.
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I believe I’ve found the hardest achievement to earn:
World Champion (Multiplayer) from Ghost Recon.
Get the top place on the worldwide leaderboard. Basically impossible.
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Hmmm. Dunno. Maybe that Gears of War 2 one – where you have to kill a ridiculous amount of people? Just for the sheer time required.
I heard the Mile High achievement on COD4 is pretty hard.
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The “Seriously 2.0” achievement? Get 100,000 kills, or something like that?
It was actually easier than the original 10,000 kill achievement in Gears 1 because Gears 2 counted AI kills in campaign. You just farmed the last leek and could get it in no time.
I know a few people who got it launch weekend.
The useless trivia I know…
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Did you see my awesome new shirt designs?
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Nah, sorry man!
EMAIL ME!
Is Kotaku gong to be reporting from the EB Games Expo on the GC? If so what can we expect?
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A report on the EB Games Expo on the GC 🙂
trollface.jpg
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I should make it! Dunno what to expect myself!
Serrels! I want to see some more of the cool hidden shit you can find in Deus Ex. I actually sent a picture in to tips@kotaku, but I think it might not have even been glanced at, haha… It was the Fight Club reference in one of the PDA/phones you find around the place. Does anyone read these?
Another cool thing I found that I didn’t send in was from the Picus level… you hear news reports talking about stuff going on in Australia and Canberra and the mention of a South Australian Federation. (lol)
I hacked one of the computers and found an email from someone called John Howard (again, lolz were had) talking about the biased news coverage of Picus…
Am I the only one who finds this stuff fascinating and absurd? I’m also glad to know that Australia is still, y’know, there in 2027…
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I love this stuff too. I also love that they have a whole backstory on the Australian Civil war and stuff.
Oh, and the Hangar 18 reference to Megadeth. I laughed…
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I loved the Robocop conversation I heard while hiding in the vents in the Detroit Police Station. I then came out of the vents, and one guy said something like ‘Hey, Jensen! We were just talking about you haha…’. Hilarious.
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Noted! Good idea for a story!
UFC have to do Silva vs GSP now, right? it’s the only logical fight left for Silva.
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After Silva mauls Sonnen I think so.
It’s like Mayweather vs Pacman – the longer they leave it the less interesting the fight will be.
Silva is no spring chicken.
Personally I’d rather see Silva vs Bones.
hi guys, i an looking to buy my daughters a ds each for xmas but there are too many models.
what is the best model?
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DS Lite could probably be picked up cheap, but they’re mostly going to be second hand. Since the price drop, you can pick up a 3DS for ~$200 most places (or more with a bundled game). The 3DS doesn’t have the best game library at the moment, but it is backwards compatible with the old DS games, so at the current price would probably be your best bet.
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I like the DS Lite best. But that’s just me!
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thanks guys
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Gotta say, Mark’s responses are a bit late today. He must be busy chasing up a story or getting ready for his holiday.
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I dunno, I think he likes to leave it late, so that he can answer everything. Or just leave me to answer everything because it’s what I do anyway…
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Sorry guys! It’s my last day, and I had so many loose ends to tie up!
Where do we send noms while you’re away?
I assume to Tracey, but because I’m old and have a poor memory I forgot what her Allure/Kotaku email is.
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I’m pretty sure if you take Mark’s email address and replace his name with Tracey’s it should work.
No wait, no, I was wrong: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/08/im-going-on-holiday-meet-my-replacement/comment-page-2/#comment-350513 is the relevant post. NOW DIG, DIG TO FIND IT AHAHAHAHA!
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