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844 responses to “Talk Amongst Yourselves”
Morning all! First post 2 weeks running – I think that makes me some sort of wizard?
Weekend was very chill. Saw How To Be Single on Saturday night – word of warning, it’s a chick flick / comedy, but definitely veers deep into chick flick territory in the second half.
Good morning, good sir!
For a heartless machine, you are awfully polite =D
How was the weekend?
I am a Tech Knight, not a Tech Dickhead 😛
My weekend was good, spent Saturday getting some foam for my right hand for a Pulsefire Ezreal cosplay, worked more on my papercraft backpack (Also for the cosplay)… AND my new PC is assembled as of last night, I haven’t power tested it though but I think* everything’s connected correctly.
*really I’m praying here, cuz I always worry I get the motherboard system wiring done wrong.
How’s about your weekend?
Caught up with some friends on Friday and Saturday nights, but other than that did virtually nothing…
So yeah, pretty great 🙂
No, just means you get up way too goddamn early on a Monday morning! ;D
Some of us have, you know, jobs 😛
Still too damn early to be on TAY =P
Au contraire! It’s too early to be doing any work, which is why I’m on TAY
I’m sitting at my desk now, I just spend the first half hour of the day cursing the name of the people who can’t remember the password they changed on Friday…
I only ever change passwords on Monday for just this reason.
In other news:
HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT
Master of Orion early access starts this week. What!? WHAT!?
So unbelievable hyped. I never pre-order, but god damnit I am pre-ordering the shit out of this.
Pretty epic voice cast, may get me back into 4X since graphics have become so good in the last decade that I no longer have an imagination.
MoO2 is like… my second-favourite game of all time (just behind HL2).
Meaning if Wargaming fuck this up, they will never be forgiven. Ever.
cc: @redartifice How does this game compare to say a Europa Universalis or a Stellaris even?
I don’t know anything about it, sorry.
That’s cool, I’m fearful of playing 2x4X strategy games at the same time and wanted to make a choice about which one I should play…. I ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE
(Stellaris at this moment is looking like my choice based purely off of my love for EU)
Have you played the original MoO/MoO2?
(bear in mind, the only answer to this question is ‘extensively’).
In all seriousness though, MoO2 is commonly rated among the best space-based 4X games of all time. Personally, I think it’s far and away the best.
That being said, I don’t know if the Wargaming reboot will be comparable to MOO2. I don’t know if it’s possible for it to be comparable. I’d say wait and see – if it’s MOO2 with a fresh coat of paint and some fixes to some of the minor flaws of the game (screwy AI, unbalanced tech trees, a little too much focus on micro, stuff like that), you’d be looking at the perfect 4X.
Smashed some waves at currumbin on Saturday, but was stuck behind a caravan branded as “starcraft” the whole way there. It may have been zerg, but it was definitely in no rush.
Nah, must have been Terran – turtling the whole way.
How are we at page six already?
Currumbin? Hi!
*waves at my general surroundings*
Good morning, anyone else pumped for far cry primal tomorrow?
I’ve barely touched FC4 as yet, and I’m not sure if I should be grabbing another game so close before I delve into The Division.
Good morning! I’m hyped for it, I’m finishing up work to pop around to JB Hi Fi to pick it up 😀
Just found an e-mail from Friday asking around if anyone was going to be flying down to Melbourne last night/this morning, so they could get a transcript to the Melbourne office.
I mean the fax machine is right there.
What is this… facks machine?
Seriously though, most scanners can deal with a big pile ‘o papers fairly easily.
If only there were some kind of way to mail documents electronically. Guess we’ll have to wait for the future to do that.
Got my Wizard to endgame in D3 finally. Now to see how long it takes me to get bored.
Anyone else playing on ps4 at the moment? @noobheadshot ? Want to team up occasionally?
Me! *raises both hands*
Sweet! *raises hands, waves them all around*
What class you running? Where you up to?
I’m Paragon 60ish and currently messing about in torment 3. But could probably do 4.
Haven’t really done rifts yet.
On PS4 I have a 70 Wizard. Paragon 80ish I think, hanging around Torment IV/V depending on how much I want to concentrate while I play.
I really need to get my demon hunter up…
I recently got my Demon Hunter up to level 70. Sitting around 180ish Paragon level.
I haven’t leveled my demon hunter because it’s the character we started together one afternoon…and got to mid-40s in like 2 hours 😛
I think I reached the cap in the third (maybe start of the fourth) chapter. Still haven’t actually finished the game on my DH.
Cool, in a similar place then.
What time do you usually play? If the Dh is what you want to main I’ll jump on my monk and help you smash it out if you want.
Weeknights is usually 7:30-8:00 to 10:30-11:30 (Sydney time).
Weekends are basically any time unless I’ve got plans.
I’m happy to stick with my wizard. Nobs and I found out back in the day that 2x wizards can be OP as hell (laser beams for all!). But also happy to switch to DH. So, yeah. #Helping
Cool cool, wizards it is. I think @sernobulus plays that time Ish too? Sounds like a team.
Yeah, I finish work 8ish (9ish Sydney time). After I make dinner and stuff I usually jump on D3 just to wind down and chill.
I’m having fun on my DH for now so will probably stick with it for a while. Unless you guys desperately need a wizard for some reason. =P
I dunno, we might have one of those…
Same; if my monk would better serve, let me know. Tho it’s not heaps geared.
I also prefer to dual wield
Yeah man, feel free to jump in on my games. I’m mostly just farming legendaries. =P
Thanks! Will do.
I’m playing off and on, but sounds like I’m a little too far ahead . If you’re worried about getting bored, may I suggest the Tal’Rasha set? I don’t think dropping a meteor every few seconds will ever get boring :3 I’m running a 6-Tal’Rasha/2-Firebird meteor build in T7-8 and it’s hilarious.
I’ve got a pretty sweet set going on my DH. I forget the name of the set but it reduces the cooldown and boosts the damage of Rain of Vengance. So basically it’s just make it rain arrows all day every day.
Sounds fun. Finding the right gear is the killer though. Haven’t been too lucky so far in adventure mode.
Have you used the cube thingie? Oh and using blood gems is basically where I’ve got most of my legendaries from.
Got it, haven’t used it yet: need more mats.
Keen to start ripping powers off gear though, got a few nifty ones lying around.
The cube is basically the reason I’ve got a 65-ish crusader alt sitting forlornly off to the side – once I learned I could upgrade rares with that cube, I spent a lot more time farming mats with my wizard and focusing on getting as many legendaries that way as possible. Between that and nephalim/greater rifts, legendaries are (finally) fairly easy to come by.
Yeah I haven’t really looked into the cube much yet. Got a lot of farming for the basics to do first.
Oh, yea, definitely – RNG can be a pain. I got to having 4-TR/2-FB pieces after 2.3 came out, and was stuck farming T3-4, before I just gave up and went to play other games.
Came back for 2.4, and found one more TR piece that night, somehow (although I stupidly didn’t realise I had, at that point, five pieces and a Ring of Royal Grandeur until the next day) – got insanely lucky. That unlocked the 6-piece bonus, increasing my damage output 20-fold… so basically went straight from farming T4 and kinda surviving on T5, to farming T8 and kinda surviving on T9. It just moved the wall, tho – now I’m stuck trying to find a way to break into T10, but not really sure how I can bump my damage without completely changing my build.
More strength, bigger rock.
Tis partly why I’m keen to team up with peeps – will have a better chance of taking on higher tiers.
I’d happily run you though some T7-8 rifts, but not sure you’d have much fun – I just keep remembering when I was originally levelling my wizard on console, a friend came in and played for a bit, and one-shot everything including the boss of the area. Wasn’t all that much fun, but I was just levelling to 70, not grinding for gear.
Still, if you ever want a sledgehammer for your nail, feel free to give me a call 😛
Or I could bring my weak-ass crusader and we could tackle things normally. He’s only 65-ish, but I think he’s more or less comfortable with T3, thanks to the primary weapon I got him.
Yeah, done that kinda thing before: effective if not entertaining.
All good, haven’t hit a wall yet – just getting started.
I’m running a Crusader Lvl 70 Paragon 101 on Torment 3 at the moment. Would love to join in.
PSN: thabananaman
More the merrier!
I’ll add you when I get home. Jocon89 is me, here and everywhere.
7:30+ pm seems to be the going time but feel free to jump in if you see me on.
Awesome!
Well the weekend was a mix of good and not so good. My 3 year old son had some sleeping issues Friday which resulted in him waking every few hours and calling for me and each time I had to go into his room and lay down next to him to calm him down until he went to sleep. He’s getting over croup cough so it was understandable. I just hope, that doesn’t become a pattern and expects me to sleep next to him all the time now.
Saturday was good, struggled to stay awake whilst playing with him until drop off at my ex’s but it was still a fun day, I try to make the most of my time with him no matter what I’m feeling like at the time as he means the world to me.
Saturday night, I went to a mate’s 30th, had a great time there with a massive bunch of friends, over 60 people were there and then we went into the city for a bit of a dance and I snuck a look at white night which was majorly disappointing at least for me this year.
It turned out I didn’t get home until 4:30.
Sunday was disappointing 🙁
The third date I went on didn’t go too well, mainly because I was sooo nervous and I let it get to me. The talking didn’t exactly flow, the dancing didn’t turn out to be that fun and we left after 1 hour. We hung out a bit afterwards, got some ice cream and chatted for a few hours after but that was it. It’s a shame because I really liked this girl – the previous few dates were great, fun and good conversation, just not this time. Now I’m waiting on the inevitable “I had fun but…” message.
Oh well, I might take a break from dating after this one and get back into it down the track.
Sorry if I’m oversharing here, I hope everyone’s weekend was epic and full of fun stuff and at least one dad joke was told and laughed at with much merriment and jocularity.
I had a son 3 weeks ago 🙂
That is a rather random post but congratulations
Hope all was well for the birth and continues to be so.
The fact that she stuck around to chat for a few hours afterwards instead of just heading home is a good sign at least?
Even if it doesn’t play out, I wouldn’t recommend abandoning the dating scene over it. Unfortunately rejection is a big part of the game – and the only way to get over any nervousness is to get back out there.
Then again, I decided that the best way to get over social anxiety was to get a job on a hotel front desk and be forced to talk to hundreds of people, so I might just be a glutton for punishment.
Absolute madman.
What ccffnnasddasdfrs said; you’ll always be nervous if you decide to keep taking a break after a bad date. Sadly the quickest and least painful way to become more confident is to dive back in. Personally I found acknowledging the fact I’m super nervous and not very good at dating to help ease some of the weight on myself. Something else I used to do was have 5-6 stories/questions lined up so that I always had conversation fuel. 9/10 once you get people talking about themselves or engaged in a topic you’ll find the conversation can just carry on with minimal effort on both parties =]
A few other tricks that I found always worked; implement the 3 day rule for first contact. If you’ve been texting you can read how interested she is based on how many follow up questions she asks; don’t be eager to reply.
And finally my piece de resistance (which to date has never ever failed me); if you like a girl maintain regular social contact after the hours of 10pm. The human mind is more emotional at night and more prone to form connections. If you get someone used to conversing with you at night they’ll actually miss you when they don’t hear from you.
Of course the usual tips also apply; look good, smell good, feel good and never stay down.
Also less of the self-rejection and more of self-appreciation. Don’t expect to be rejected before it happens! And even if rejection does happen focus on the good stuff not the negatives. It takes guts to ask someone out and it takes even more guts to admit you like them. Rejection happens; what’s important and considerably more valuable is putting yourself in a position where you can get rejected.
Thanks man, great tips! I shall apply them in the future 😉
It was weird though, the first two dates I was fine and not nervous at all which is why things went really well. Last night though for some reason just didn’t and I found myself at a loss as to why, I think because I was pressuring myself too much about this being a third date which hasn’t happened for probably about 15 years now (my last relationship ended 2 years ago and it was a 13 year one).
I have no idea about dating but you’re right, I have to keep trying and eventually (hopefully) something will happen.
It’s all good though, it was a learning experience if nothing else 🙂
Have you guys made plans for another night or texted since? The follow up after a date text is pretty useful for damage control in case something went wrong or right! If you genuinely like this girl and feel the potential for an emotional connection then I say go ahead and be honest. I.e. see what you posted here? something similar in a text and possibly including that you actually really enjoyed your previous dates together.
Worst case scenario – you get your dreaded “I had fun but…” message. Best case scenario she appreciates your candor and you lock in another chance! Also you feel good about getting it off your chest which applies in both cases.
I texted her this morning and I know she’s busy today so I don’t expect to hear anything back from her until later today (if at all lol). I was quite honest and open in it so I’ll just wait and see how it goes. I felt better after sending it though, I didn’t sleep that well last night because of it which was a surprise to me, I’ve been on a few dates and this is the first time I’ve lost sleep over one haha!
I always feel weird about this. Like, after 10pm seems like way too late to be bothering people, especially people you don’t know that well.
But then with my line of thinking, it’s never a good time to contact someone. Up til 5, nah no good. They’re probably at work. 5-6, nah no good. Probably busy traveling home. 6-8:30 nah no good, could be in the middle of dinner. 8:30-10, nah no good. It’s pretty late. Should probably just leave it til tomorrow. And so the cycle begins anew, starting with “nah it’s too early” 😛
Whats funny is I discovered this move because a girl who liked me used it on me while I was hung up over an ex! She went travelling for 2 weeks and I realized I missed the crap out of our late night talks! Few weeks later we started dating 🙂
I find that with my Skype group the conversation only ever seems to really pick up at about 10/10:30. And it pisses me off because that’s when I want to be getting everything ready to finish off so I can get to bed at a decent hour and have a proper night’s sleep 😛 Never happens, of course, pretty much always end up still on til 1 or later.
You could always ask?
But then I would have to contact them to find out. And thus engage the cycle 😛
That explains a lot of the messages I get after 10! 😛
…
Or explains the messages I imagine getting after 10! 😀
Does your missus know about these imaginary messages?!
…No.
Mate you got nervous and are over thinking this. The main activity you had planned didn’t work out so you has ice cream and chatted for hours. If you had scared her off it would have been a quick bite and heading home.You might find that she really enjoyed the date and appreciated the chance to sit down and talk to you. And if you are really worried about getting that message get in first. ‘Sorry the dancing wasn’t as great as we hoped, but I really enjoyed chatting with you. Would you like to try dancing again or perhaps something else’
Yeah I probably am :D. It’s just new territory to me, I’m sure if it doesn’t work out , I’ll apply the knowledge from this experience to future 3rd dates 😉
Or you could use this as experience for your 4th date with her 😉
haha, fingers and toes crossed!
I still seem to be sick. I felt like I was back up to around 80% of normal yesterday morning – just tired – but last night I was overcome with fevers and stomach pains again. :/
I played a little Far Cry 4 on the weekend. Fuck Yogi and Reggie to hell, I’m going to bomb their stupid tent off the side of the mountain if I ever manages to finish this drug trip they sent me on. I am currently struggling with it with because right at the end of the mission I rappelled down the side of a cliff and glitched into a wall, so unable to do anything I quit. If I have to do the entire tedious mission again I will probably rage-delete the game. It’s that bad.
Yeah… There’s more than one of those Yogi and Reggie missions.
I figured there’d be a whole slew of them. Ajay just threw them out of his house and they’re sitting in a tent on the edge of a cliff in his front yard. I have a grenade launcher. Problem solved, as I see it. But no, I half to walk in there like a muggins and get injected with god knows what.
Actually got away from the computer for a change. Got out DuckTales on DVD and watched about two dozen episodes.
Don’t get me wrong, Adventure Time and Regular Show are good stuff but nothing beats the classics.
Last night I sprung for the complete series of classic TMNT on DVD, since I saw it come up for a decent price. Here’s hoping our DVD player is actually region-free like I think it’s supposed to be 😛
(And maybe I’ll actually get around to watching a DVD for once, unlike the rest of the few dozen I’ve managed to somehow acquire)
TMNT? Meh.
Darkwing Duck is where it’s at, 😛
Jokes aside I did the same a while ago. Got the collectors edition for less than $100 (after currency conversion, take that Aus distributors!) and all the disks came in a Turtle Van.
Now I just need to find the time to watch all 192 episodes.
Though that set was kind of made on the cheap. Before the complete set they have various volumes and the episodes were scattered.
For example, Volume 1 had all five episodes of Season 1 plus four episodes of Season 10.
You would think they would make new disks and have all the episodes in sequences like it implies in whatever episode list comes in the box, right?
Turns out they cheaped out and just took all the disks from the separate volumes and put them in the one box. So there are effectively multiple copies of some episodes.
Don’t get me wrong, at least all episodes are there but it does seem on the cheap side not even bothering to make fresh disks that put the cartoon in chronological order.
Yeah, I was reading about that. Absolute clusterfuck, but at least you get all the everything in the one set and don’t have to bother chasing down the individual discs one by one in the shops. I’ve seen them around, and hate the whole “volume X” thing. Just makes me think it’s a random assortment of episodes grabbed out of a bag to fill a disc. Though apparently the 2003 series is even worse…
But yeah, party van is cool. Came to about AU$85 with shipping, so it was impulse enough.
And Darkwing is kickass.
Hm…..
[Rips the disks to Darwing Duck and puts them on KAT while shouting ‘Let’s get dangerous!’]
😛
Jokes aside..
You talking about the series in general (haven’t seen it beside two or three episodes) or was the home media release just a mess?
From what I’ve heard, one of the seasons was called ‘the lost season because it was made but never aired yet the seasons before and after were aired.
Crazier still, the description given of this so called lost season has me thinking “I’m pretty sure my brothers saw that in Aus.”
Better watch out you bad boys 😛
All this talk has me wondering about my next order. Better check the mail.
[Sees a plane coming in.]
OMG! My new order is coming in by plane! YAHOOO! It’s even being piloted by Launch Pad….!
[Comes to the horrifying realisation.]
HOLYSH-!
[CRASH!]
Darkwing Duck!
Let’s get dangerous!
Some may be aware of the microphone issues I’ve been having in Teamspeak and various games recently… Turned out that a single Youtube video sorted the issue… The “Realtek Audio Manager” that’s installed with my motherboard drivers was binding the two microphone inputs (on the mobo at the back, and on the case at the front) into one input. It would still detect the mic when it was plugged into either port, but it never seemed to pick up separate inputs for front or back, and the levels would never work correctly.
Turned off the “bind inputs” option, two separate audio devices appeared, and I can change the recording and playback levels indepently, as well as Mic Boost if I need it.
AHA!!!! You sir may have saved me a whole evening of angry.
I’ve been having issues for ages! Pretty much, my voice was too quiet for anyone in the channel to hear, so I’d boost the shit out of it, leading to constant echoes and buzzing.
This was the video I watched that solved it;
Weekend!
Friday night I saw ‘Alien’ in a cinema with @alexpants and @powalen. It was fucking amazing. Movie holds up so god damn well and seeing it in a sold out auditorium on a massive screen was brilliant. Played some ‘Division’ beta when I got home.
Saturday I did a bunch of “adult” stuff like cleaning my apartment. Then I played some Halo 2 MCC with @alexpants. Then I went into the city (which took almost an hour instead of the usual 20mins. Yay, trackwork!) to see Zoolander 2 with @alexpants and @powalen. It was…alright. It had that typical “silly” comedy sequel problem of trying to be more “outrageous” than the original and just throw a bunch of callbacks to it. After the movie we got dinner at a Japanese restaurant, which was delicious and @alexpants got to enjoy his dairy free dessert. Played some more, and finished, Halo 2 MCC with @alexpants when I got home.
Sunday I had to spend the morning waiting to find out if a friend (not @alexpants or @powalen) needed my help to move some furniture, which I had offered to do. Killed time waiting for this by finally playing Uncharted on the PS4. Game still holds up really well. Got the message around midday that I wouldn’t be needed so spent a couple more hours in Uncharted. Decided to take a break so I flicked through Netflix and came across ‘The Town’ which I’d never seen but heard was good, so I watched that. It is indeed good. Randomly decided to play some ‘Trials Fusion’ after that finished while dinner was cooking. Finally jumped back into ‘The Division’ on Sunday night to do some Dark Zone stuff with @rize, @blaghman and @morkai. Had a bunch of connection and lag issues, which only seemed to be affecting me but there was nothing wrong with my Internet. After the 4th disconnection in about an hour, I called it quits. The game is pretty fun, but it is basically just a third person shooter with an MMO overlay and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. Will probably pick it up a couple of months after release, assuming there’s still a player base. The game world seemed pretty empty in the beta. @alexpants and @powalen did not play the beta.
tl;dr – Saw Alien in a cinema. Saw Zoolander 2. Finished Halo 2. Played Uncharted and Trials Fusion. Watched The Town. The Division is fun…when it works. @alexpants @powalen
Needs more @alexpants and @powalen.
I’m so glad I didn’t get individual notifications for this.
Morning TAY!
Went and saw Zoolander 2 on Saturday which was pretty enjoyable. It’s basically exactly the same as the first movie (for better or worse) so if you liked that then you’ll probably like this. Main downside was the ham-fisted cameos. Like, “Oh! Hello [insert full celebrity name], star of [insert tv show and/or movie]! What are you doing here!?” Dreadful haha They weren’t all like that but those ones really stood out.
Just a bunch of stupid characters running around doing stupid things which is refreshing after all the damn dramas I’ve been watching 😛 I liked it.
Oh, and I finished Dragons Dogma and Firewatch too! Both pretty great. Didn’t technically “finish” Dragons Dogma I guess, but I had enough. Beat the main story, etc. Started doing the Bitterblack Isle stuff (which is the DLC I think?) but it ended up getting a bit too hard and I couldn’t be bothered to grind for better gear. Very similar to the Bloodborne Chalice Dungeon things. Was good though!
What level did you finish Dragon’s Dogma at? I spent so much time doing post game stuff I ended up hitting level 100 by the time I was done. Did you finish Bitterblack Isle?
Hah, sorry added more while you were commenting!
I got as far as beating the massive eyeball thing (Gazer, I think it was called) and then got a few floors lower until I ran into a Minotaur and an undead/poison/something dragon which I just wasn’t damaging at all and so figured I’d had enough 😛
I think I stopped playing at like level 55ish. Beat the actual story at around level 48ish.
50s are a bit low to do BBI. It depends on your class really. Some have a much easier time than others. What class did you end up playing most in the end anyway?
Also did you finish the story right up until the actual end where you collect the 20 wakestones or did you just stop post Grigori?
Finished the full story as far as I know. Had to start New Game Plus in order to get back in to do Bitterblack.
Ended up staying Assassin for basically the entire time. I loved the counter ability too much to give it up! Did end up changing my main pawn to a Fighter though (from Mage) because I had trouble finding a good one online. There were tonnes of Mage/Sorcerer pawns around.
I didn’t realise Z2 was out!
It’s not I lied.
You fell for it!
D’oh!
Hello all!
Saturday @tech_knight came around so we could work on his cosplay. I think I’m finally* happy with the blue stuff. We’re starting on the armoured glove as well, so woo for progress.
Sunday, I ended up sick after eating fish fingers. I thought I cooked them properly but my stomach disagreed. Ended up taking two panadol and Buscopan to settle it down.
Also did splatfest on Saturday. Either I ended up with opposing teams under my level or far above my level. It made it boring because it wasn’t a good match. Other then one game which had 30’s like our team and it was pretty close. I still have no idea who won though =P
I’m not going make an immature joke here… But I am thinking it…
The fish fingers were sunday and splatfest on Saturday, so…it doesn’t really work
Hi, TAY.
Spent the weekend playing games and watching the cricket.
Also, Max woke me up at 5am, wanting to play.
Cats, man… I tell you what…
My dog does that. 5am? Time to try and dig under the blankets and snuggle.
Better than the other night when he had a nightmare: bolted up at 2am and sprinted full pelt sideways off the bed into a chest of drawers. Which I guess is better than going the other way and through the window.
Poor silly sod.
Aw, poor puppy. Mine just sleep woofs and growls. So freaking cute
I keep forgetting there is good cricket on now
Hellooo
… is it me you’re looking for?
it’s me.
I swear Lionel and Adele are talking to each other decades apart…I know who Lionel Richie is.
Dunno where these weekends keep disappearing to. Ended up jumping on that TMNT board game kickstarter when I saw an early bird spot open up, kinda hype for it now. Also went over to Wingman’s on Saturday for pizza (cowabunga?) and drinks, stayed up super late playing Smash and leveling up her boyfriend’s amiibos. Ganondorf is a dick. Also, Lucina. Andpillowmakerstuffcontinuestobeathing >_>
And I continue to absolutely destroy any kind of sleeping pattern. Could hardly get to sleep last night for ages and ages. Zombie mode today.
Does anyone know any cool 2 player board games that they could recommend? Ideally something with quite a bit of replayability?
Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots.
Yes. Yes I do.
What exactly are you after? Quite a lot of co-op games can be done pretty well with 2 players. Pandemic has quite a lot of legs there, especially with expansions and the Legacy version.
Patchwork is amazing. A satisfying little puzzle of competitive quilt making in the quest to become button king!
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a toned down version of Agricola. Smaller, easier, but still a fun worker placement game with cute animeeples. Or you could play Agricola proper for a really in depth game that works just dandy at 2 players.
Hive is an interesting abstract game where you place and move tiles to try and trap your opponent’s queen before they do the same to yours. Simple, elegant, clever. It’s not exactly chess but it can scratch the same itch in the same way a cheeseburger can satiate a need for red meat.
Oh and a lot of card games are two players. If you really get into an LCG, you can pretty much forget about playing anything else. Android: Netrunner is my jam, Chuloopa is having fun with Warhammer 40,000: Conquest and I’ve heard good things about Lord of the Rings and A Game of Thrones.
Dominion is also rad at 2 players. The base game wears thin pretty quickly once you work out how effective the big money strategy is. The expansions really go a long way to making it a great game.
Splendor works quite well as a 2 player game
7 wonders has a duel version that I’ve heard good things about
Ascension is a deck builder that we play fairly often
7 Wonders Duel is good but I don’t think people who don’t already like 7 Wonders will get anything from it.
Star Realms is a cheap little deckbuilder, quite neat, though many deckbuilders can be fun at 2.
Qwirkle also scales down well to 2.
Splendor would go well at 2, though I’ve only played it digitally.
The king of 2p board games is Rahdo: https://www.youtube.com/user/rahdo so if you’re stuck, see what he says. he can be rambly, but he’s astute.
Rahdo leans heavily towards couple friendly, non-confrontational games. Not a knock against him but it’s good to know where his biases lie before going in.
That sounds perfect for me
Lol yeah same xD The mrs has given me the task of “finding something for us to play”. Like I’m some sort of games gopher =,=
Qwirkle is excellent – if you go for this get the travel version – far easier to store and requires less space to play while still being high quality componants.
thats the version I have 😉
Thanks peeps! I think I’ll start with a look at Ascension and Conquest @trjn @tigerion @chuloopa Do you guys have any recommended stores to purchase these at? If physical stores anywhere in Sydney?
If you’re talking about the CBD, probably Good Games near Town Hall (there’s another near Central).
Warhammer 40,000 Conquest can be found by far the cheapest on Bookdepository.com – $42.08 with free shipping.
At a FLGS it will be around $50-60.
Another apparently EXCELLENT co-op game is the new Warhammer quest card game – nothing but good things have been said about this, from my hearing. You can even play it solo!
Zombie dice is good with 2 people, as is Boss Monster.
If you’re after something bigger, sticking to the 40k theme, Forbidden stars is 2-4 but just about everything i have seen suggests it’s better suited to 2 players and is a lot of fun.
If you want something table-top/boardgame mash and that won’t break the bank – Deadzone (skirmish game) and Dreadball (football-esque board game) are both great.
Edit: Sacrifices were in vain, dude beat me to it.
Finally got around to seeing Deadpool. Good movie and certainly a lot of fun.
I also went and visited my sister in Warwick. I have to say, it certainly feels like stepping back in time when going to one of those old country towns. Everything felt like the late 90s in decor mixed in with all of the old, old buildings. Brisbane certainly doesn’t feel anywhere near as old. Also driving up the Great Dividing Range at Cunningham’s Gap is a massive pain. Such an intense section of road and I don’t understand how trucks use that every day.
You think Warwick is bad, go to Leyburn about 50 mins north east from Warwick, that place is really stuck 20 or 30 years further in the past 😛 Plus mobile reception barely works there too, so even more stuck in the past \o/
Saying that I find it’s a nice drive out that way scenery wise, esp if you go through Toowoomba, I like looking out over the ranges on the way back down 😛
Ugh, fuck insomnia! Bastard arse lack of sleep means I’m basically dead for the day and if I try to doze off I’ll just sleep for hours and screw up my entire sleeping pattern,
Good thing that XCOM is turn based so I can take ages deciding what to do, if it required fast reactions I’d be screwed
*sleepless fistbump*
I stayed up a little late last night so now I’m feeling like absolute garbage. I’m guessing I’ll take an involuntary nap for five minutes when I get home and as a result not be able to sleep at all tonight. All for the sake of finishing Attack of the Clones…
Happy day of birth @klutar
Oh yeah, another weekend thing I forgot. Fired off a message to another person on gumtree in a similar “wanting to get back into/do more with music” situation. Incredibly similar, actually. Spent forever trying to hammer it out as usual, but then just had to cut loose and hit Send since I was running late and had to leave. And just now got quite a lengthy response. PANIC STATIONS!
Of course the meth lab that was raided in my area over the weekend was on the same street as the abandoned golf club.. Which has been so the last 15 or 20 years..
My friend’s place in Taringa got raided a few years back because they thought it was a meth lab. His house was opposite this truck crash. While the cops were attending the crash they noticed all these pipes coming out of an extension on the back of their house. So, a bunch of cops rock up and demand to have a look around…
… turns out he just has a really, really old stove that juts out from the side of their house. Funny thing was the guy was a stoner, and apparently he was standing in the kitchen with this weed plant behind him, shielding it from the cops when they ducked their head in and had a look around. Luckily they noticed the stove, realized what it was and left pretty quickly.
Quick thinking ftw!
Family weekend was full of family – starting Friday when wife came into the city for her birthday to have lunch with me. Only bad bit was ending up at The Coffee Club – the food is atrocious for the amount you pay.
Saturday had a lunch with parents for Dad’s 60th at Sono Portside. Great lunch. Had a mixture of traditional/modern entree’s – the wagyu tattake was amazing. Got a Moriawase Tempura for main which was alright. Wife organised a massive round wooden serving board, laser engraved with ‘happy sixtieth’ in Italian. Dad has brought himself a pizza over and keeps making pizzas that are too big for the boards they have at home.
Sunday had lunch with wifes parents at a pub/bistro. – had a monster t-bone that looked more like 500g than the 400g on the menu.
Both lunches paid for by the parents. They refuse to let us pay which is both nice and frustrating.
Chilled out both afternoons as the humidity is being painful and I just want summer done with already.
Hope everyone had a great weekend. I went to see Deadpool on Saturday – was pleasantly surprised. It’s pretty close to being the best Marvel film I’ve seen – the other close calls being GotG and Age of Ultron.
Played a bit more Dragon’s Dogma – up to the Final Battle, but want to kill a few drakes before I face the dragon – get my pawns some practice dealing with draconids. Currently 43 with a nearly-maxed magick archer, acting as ranged DPS to my aggro/tank-oriented pawn, with a support-sorceror and a ranger that I might swap out for another support mage so they can keep each other alive. Accidentally locked myself out of the gold idol I’d have used to get better gear from the smith, but I think I’ll be alright for the moment – I hear better gear can be obtained in the endgame, anyway.
The first Iron Man ticks all the boxes too. Hoping to see Deadpool this week.
Age of Ultron over the original Avengers? Big call…
Can’t argue with GotG though. Crisp Rat is a great Starlord.
Unpopular opinion warning.
I’ve never really liked Stark’s arrogance, so seeing him get his arse handed to him by something he helped create was pretty satisfying. 😛I feel like they jumped the gun for AoU. Wait for Ant-man to drop, and then you don’t have any reason for retconning Ultron into a Stark creation instead of a Pym one. Hell, they could just introduced Pym in AoU to build hype for Ant-man, but noooooo typical Tony Stark stealing the spotlight.*nods sagely*
…Is what I would be doing, probably, but I never actually read the comics* – most of what I know about the Marvel universe is from the films and the occasional game or cover I passed in the newsagent years ago. So this is literally the first time I’ve heard that Ultron wasn’t a Stark creation. Hell, I’m pretty sure before I saw the movie I thought Ultron was something completely different.*Probably because, around the age when other kids got into comics, I seem to have been building a nest in an ever-growing pile of sci-fi and fantasy books. :3Did not party with Hellscream for birthday, and instead dropped off car to NSW in light of father coming home early. Missed out on buffalo wings and people getting to see my expertly-timed ‘peak stubble attractiveness’.
On the plus side… I played The Division for a few hours! I liked what I played.
On the down side… I only played The Division for a few hours before exhausting the PVE content available. I did not play much.
Even if what was on display was only a tenth of what’s available in full, it’ll still likely only be a ‘weekend completion’ game. An MMO without content, that is trying to lure players into the PVP side, because PVP = infinite ‘content’. I am not seeing anything to assuage my fears from early days that they have decided that real content is hard and they should hedge their longevity bets on loot-grinding repetition and PVP. Even worse is seeing the dev interviews indicating that PVE content on launch isn’t expected to last very long, but that ‘there’ll be a lot for people to do in the Darkzone’. It looks like the full PVE experience will only be available by way of season pass or even in the case of free updates, waiting six months or so after launch.Which is pretty poor given that what storytelling was there is done fairly poorly – some urgent individuals who you meet briefly take a few moments to emote fiercely at you about how fucked everything is, then slap you on the bum and send you on your way. Genuine interactions and actual character development look like they’ll be sparse, if present at all. Some lore packets by way of collectibles help fill in some blanks, but for the most part it’s Bungie’s Destiny, all over again.
Much of the potential for character involvement looks like it’s been sacrificed by the high priest of silent protagonist at the altar of, “Self-insertion fantasy.” Standard MMO fare, outside of rare gems like SWTOR, though. Still, it’s a shame. When all possible protagonists, with all possible backgrounds, motivations, attitudes and demeanours must be accounted for, there is no personal story.
See: Why Witcher 3’s Geralt is better than Dragon Age’s Warden/Champion/Inquisitor.
I effortlessly maxed out everything available then replayed missions on hard (almost effortlessly, solo) a few times and didn’t see a single weapon upgrade – mostly ‘sidegrades’. Swapping out the MP5 for a sniper rifle or a shotgun was about the extent of it. Doesn’t bode well for pacing. There was a sorta-upgrade available for purchase from the vendor, so that had to do. Maybe the default beta weapons were cheated-up ‘god’ weapons or something.
The ‘weekend demo’ has a tiny map, maxing the outpost and your skills doesn’t seem like it will take long, the events and encounters were incredibly limited and took too long to become available again (if they ever do… I got bored with waiting for new encounters/events to turn up after I’d run the Missions a few more times and logged out), meaning after a few hours you’re left with a largely empty sandbox with no actual sand in it.
I can’t recommend this for anyone who isn’t interested in PVP.
Maybe after launch and we see if they were actually sitting on an absolute treasure trove of hidden content?
I’m skeptical. It really seems like there’s possibly even less here than there was for Destiny. Shame, because the mechanics are solid and the environments are pretty. Hm. I’ve said this before, too….
Yeah this was basically the basis of my fears around this game as well. I was hoping less Destiny but more Diablo 3 co-op with loots and builds with solid third person shooting and some PvP. However the more mainstream and commercial option would be to replicate Destiny which is what it sounds like they’re trying to do 🙁
Thanks for the write trans; might give this one a skip.
Oh yea, I played a few hours of Division on Saturday. All the PvE content available seemed exactly enough to get me a few hundred XP over level 8, and at the end I was still using the same level 4 weapons I’d been spawned with when I first logged in, albeit with level 8 silencers and magazine augments. Didn’t even bother touching the DZ this time around.
I’ll pick it up and enjoy the PvE, but… yea. Will likely be finished with it in a weekend, by all indications, and have forgotten everything about it a week later.
le sigh
Damn 🙁
How is everyone still playing, I thought the Beta was closed?
I played for a few hours on the weekend when the Open beta was running. Closed beta was a couple weeks ago.
Oh man i Haven’t posted here for a WHILE.
SOOOOOO i am doing really really well.
My work has been so damn fufilling lately, Last week we had a visitor from Japan who works in Research and development. I went to lunch with him and some engineers and we were chatting and i told him about a product I had come up with, which uses WiFi for positioning in places where GPS can’t be used. He loved it and set up a meeting with the head of R and D in Tokyo and i had a meeting with them and they decided to fund my prototype. A multi Billion dollar company is funding me to make a product. SO fucking cool.
At home things are just as awesome too. I love living with @sernobulus. He is the best. We got a new housemate/my ladyfriend on Saturday so that is cool too. Plus cats. They don’t like being touched but ive always wanted to live with cats.
Everything feels so crazy. Like i have everything i have wanted, fufilling work, great friends around, amazing relationships. I worked hard for all this stuff, but it just feels so surreal, like a dream.
Good get.
Hells yes. It’s all coming up rocketman!
Pretty neat idea, congrats
If you need a technical analyst to go to Tokyo, I volunteer as tribute.
I hate you *cries*
And your pal Greenius will be there soon!
(jk)
What company do you work for? That’s awesome news! (gimme your autograph before you’re super jerky and famous)
So happy for you man 🙂 After the terrible time you’d been having with previous employers and life in general, I’m so chuffed that things are making you feel good at last 😀
I saw Deadpool on Friday. It was friggen hilarious.
I also played the Division beta. I found it really meh. Seems like Ubisoft is now chasing the Destiny trend. A game in which you hunt for weapons that are 1 stat number higher than your current weapons, so that you can then hunt for a new weapon that’s 1 stat higher, and repeat.
I did like how finding a weapon wasn’t good enough, you need to extract it via helicopter. But then it creates the next problem of players just camping out extraction points, ready to blow you up the second you start extracting items.
I also find it annoying how incredibly easy it is to go Rogue. If someone accidentally walks in front of your vision while you’re shooting, then it’s open season on you and your body is instantly chewed through by every other player.
If someone in your group goes rogue, tough shit, you’re to blame as well.
Then there’s the groups who’ll have one member deliberately get in your line of fire so they can all gun you down with no repercussions. I’ll be staying out of the DZ come launch, and move on when the PvE is exhausted – the place is a griefer’s playhouse.
I like Elder Scrolls Online very much
It still pretty much plays like mainline ES but with a different levelling system. Probably more traditional when I think about it. Sorta.
It’s really cool that there’s plenty to do by yourself. I really loved the original Phantasy Star Online but I had exceptionally bad, sporadic dial-up & online play was not an option.
The fact that there’s content to support me so I can jump in & have fun while others aren’t around is really good.
I do get a few hours here & there to dick about with multi & it’ll be nice if we can team up for some harder dungeons or whatever in the future. But it’s nice to know that it’s a bit more dad/Nigel-no-friends proof.
I couldn’t go wrong for $16 & I’m damn sure I’ve got my moneys worth already.
I’m practically the definition of salty about TESO because you can’t do what I always do in every other TES game: silently head-shot everything without raising alarms. TESO stealth is basically like… an opening bonus and nothing more. And archery is shit. I weep.
I usually play as a melee stabber in heavy armour & healing magic to stay alive without spending cash or making pots.
I’ve gone full healer in order to balance a party we may or may not be.
I went in expecting it to be far less similar to mainline ES so it was a pleasant surprise.
But yeah, come at it from a different angle & there’s a solid game here. Quest grinding, sure, but there’s fun to be had.
http://imgur.com/gallery/YFPeX5t
Relevant.
The Skyrim ‘Honest Trailer’ nailed it.
I would rather have Smosh narrate my life than Morgan Freeman. Not even joking.
So had the first playtest of the tabletop/boardgame I’ve been working on this past Saturday and it was a success!
Still quite a few things to iron out but the consensus was that it was fun and easy to grasp!!
WOOT!!
So now i’ll be working on ironing out the rules and then i’ll be prototyping up some bits and pieces, which will be bloody exciting.
BUT – i realised something. I have no name for it yet.
So i’m going to take some suggestions from you guys to see what you can come up with – Game is a classic FPS inspired table-top game. Anyone that suggests ‘frag’ will get a slap.
Maybe UNREAL DOOM. haha
PEW PEW
You know… I actually REALLY like that.
Like REALLLLY like that.
I’m not sure if you were being serious or not.. but that’s good.. it’ll be hard to top, actually
EDIT:
Damn – name’s taken already https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146099/pew-pew
There’s always PEW PEW PEW.
How about BOOM! HEADSHOT!? Or do you already have that in the game as a mechanic?
It is a mechanic – it’s actually a roll on selected dice. It works, though.
SPISPOPD
*confused blinking*
http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/SPISPOPD
* Table Top Shooting
* Shooty Table: Pew Pew Edition
* The FPS RPG TBL Game
You’re a bad person and you should feel bad.
That shooty game with the yearly sequels.
Deathmatch
Killsight
Reload
BFGs and Boomsticks
Fragshot
Fistful of Frags
Frag U
From Frags to Riches
Fragulator
Fragging Hell
* Frag Me: A Love Story
* Frag Me Dead
* I Want You To Frag Me
* Sir Fragalot
* Fragalicious
* Fragal Rock
“From Frags to Riches”
Damn you for making me lol at almost every one of those, especially that one
I don’t know how card-based it is, but Loaded Decks 😛
The Most Dangerous (Board)game
Shooty Shooty Ouch Ouch
Ahhhh My Crotch!
Card-inal Sin
Loaded Dice: The Shootening
Final Shot
iddqd
Shooty shooty bang bang?
Shotty mcBang bang?
Ratta tatta shooty ouch
The Quake-ening
RageQuit
EZ GAME EZ LIFE
“Ragequit: the something” is quite good. kinda fits with a bunch of game names both board and video (StarCraft, HeroQuest)
RageQuit: The Quake-ening. It works because you suddenly have an excuse for dropping in a bazzilionty Highlander references.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
Famous Really Awesome Game.
You can probably abbreviate it.
BFG?
Board Fragging Game? 😛
Camper De_lite
FPTS – First Person Tabletop Shooter
Kill Streak
Gunblams and Frag’ns
The BFB 9000
Oh wow. I know the whole translation/censorship/complaint thing in gaming is pretty overblown atm, but a friend just linked me this in regards to the new Fire Emblem and its localisation:
https://twitter.com/Immahnoob/status/701625936639369216
I don’t even.
LOL! Hahahahaha just silently stare at each other. Congratulations you now know each other better!
Wow. Yeah, I thought it was just a bunch of folks complaining that some of the more idiosyncratic Japanese behaviours were removed because they don’t translate well, but some of those examples are… pretty baffling, honestly. Like the translators just got to the point of saying, “Fuckit. People who won’t play the game are bitching at us about what might be in there, the people we’re actually translating for have gone to the extreme of calling us turn-coats and spitting on our work… fuck everyone involved in this who might buy it or not.”
After reading the original dialogue, I rather prefer the ellipses joke.
I really like the ellipses joke, but I feel like it works a lot better with the knowledge that they’d removed that conversation. Without that, it feels a little off (but then, I played the crap out of Final Fantasy 8 as a youth, so I should be used to near infinite ellipsises (sic)).
The kind of joke only the localizers would find funny, because translators/other bilinguals intimately familiar with the product are the only ones who’d get it. Looked at a bunch of other godawful conversion attempts, and they all seem to fall into the same category. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink in-jokes, like the one about the head-patting being taken out, etc. Pretty poor form, really. The localizer’s job isn’t to entertain themselves exclusively, but it’s all they’re going for, by the looks.
The US release has been a shitshow if you preordered the LE. Bad enough that preorders lasted about 30 mins, but gamestop randomly cancelled orders, Best Buy were shipping them in partial batches and it’s looking like my copy won’t even ship until some time over a week after the game released.
Awakening had a very liberal localization in a couple of spots but 8-4 did a generally excellent job with it. Nintendo recently seems absolutely set on making sure they remove anything that might be remotely controversial in their localizations and are trying to hide the shameful secret that the game once was a Japanese one.
And ,meanwhile those of us who had been complaining about the signs pointing to this being a problematic localization job were being shouted down as a noisy minority. :\
So…. I’ve got a derivatives (yech) exam tomorrow that I’ve barely studied for. I’ve been thinking instead of going home and studying I’m going to make a trek to the good games store in Sydney and see if I can get my hands on Conquest or Ascension! Yay for procrastination! ^^
Does anyone on here have any adafruit knowledge?
Not I but if you need someone with adavegetable knowledge, I’m your man.
Doesn’t help me. Oh well.
If you have a bowl of fruit then you adafruit to that bowl you have a bowl of fruit salad.
It’s not page six D=
I ended up asking @rocketman
#EveryPageIsPageSix
No wonder Strange is never here
OK, so in short, third date girl wants to see me again. Yay!
You may now commence popcorn making.
Yeah, makes sense. See, me personally, I figure hanging out with ice-cream and chatting for hours is kind of the opposite of an unsuccessful date. 🙂
Called it
OK, I can’t remember how I landed on this (I’m sure it was a AllureMedia article but have not been able to find it since – sorry in advance if said article was in plain sight) but I saw The Nostalgia Critic’s video, Where’s The Fair Use?, and it really got me thinking but in different areas.
Now, I know we’re getting sick to death of topics that are doomed for failure (three strike rule, DBC throwing the towel, etc) but this does have me wondering and I hope discussion can focus on the angle I present and not degrade to a political party salami waving contest.
To the topic at hand.
As most already know (I’m pretty sure I’ve come late to the train on this) Doug Walker posted a couple of videos in response to their being a lack of videos on his channel.
It turns out numerous notices and even copyright strikes had been served against his channel. The real problem (based on what he claims) the impact of the strikes has been hugely increased without notice to content producers like himself.
It turns out that all it takes to block monetisation of a YouTube video is just one copyright strike with that form of ‘punishment’ (there are four to choose from) and content providers can not get access to fund for months.
To make matters worse, the entity that files the claim can actually seise the funds and even if the claim turns out to be false the funds don’t have to be returned. Effectively, YouTubers can now be used as a quick, immoral profit centre for rights holders.
This is the angle I was thinking of.
Like many others, I use AdBlock to keep Web load down and so I don’t have to sit through ads that sometimes can be 90 seconds long and have no skip function – at all!
I was thinking of finally whitelisting the YouTubers I like to watch (like AVGN, Markiplier, and a few others).
But thanks to Doug Walker’s video, I’m starting to think that my white listing his (and others) channels will do more harm to them as I have no guarantee that when I view the videos with their ads, Walker will get the funds he deserve.
So I either leave ABP as is and continue to starve Walker or turn white list him and end up feeding Universal and (sadly, my favourite studio) Studio Ghibli.
On a related topic, if this continues I am wondering when barriers will blur.
Just today, @mrtaco and I were having a lark throwing Darkwing Duck and other Disney references at each other. If what we did was in a video, we’d actually be in trouble if the content of Walker’s claims is anything to go by.
How long will it be before similar logic is used not just on videos but on simple forum posts as it seems studios are now no longer chasing direct expressions they are trying to gouge just at the mention of the idea of their IP.
As it stands, I though that some YouTubers releasing DVDs and even BluRays of their content seemed illogical but based on that video I’m starting to think (outside of Patreon, etc) more may have to as it’s becoming increasingly uncertain (from where I sit) if revenue from the ads I may watch will go to the producer and not a greedy studio or a glass jawed director that needs to grow the **** up.
That’s me covered, what do you guys think? It is often said we have no fair use. Based on what is happening with YouTube, I think the same can be said.
A few months ago, Matthew Patrick of the Game Theorist started putting fez’s on photos and screenshots featured in his videos because he too had copyright strikes as references were not enough to cover him in fair use.
I really want to see Fair Use put to the test in court, and as a result of the very obvious protections that should be afforded, to have ‘let’s plays’ and other similar videos very broadly and very clearly protected by YouTube and its ilk. As it is, this ‘guilty until proven innocent’ bullshit has got to go. It’s not a legal thing, it’s a corporate thing. There are so many flagrant infringement attempts uploaded on a daily basis that robots really are the only way to catch it all, but the penalties for false accusations being on the accused and not the accuser? That’s disgusting.
Edit: The courts have already declared that some reasonable measure of assessment needs to go into a DMCA take-down or face penalties, but they then hamstrung that decision by also declaring that YouTube’s content-sniffer bots (which unfairly capture slices of gameplay or music necessary even for as-fair-as-it-gets news/reporting/reviewing purposes) count as ‘reasonable assessment’.
I wouldn’t say it’s a corporate thing. It’s just YouTube being down right lazy.
YouTube has built a system that effectively isolated them (YouTube) from the matter rather than actually having to deal with matters that is actively happening on the YouTube platform.
The last part is also having me pondering.
A while ago, it was discussed if one should turn off ABP while viewing YouTube as having it on is technically blocking the revenue of the content creator.
The point I’m making is even if ABP is turned off there is no guarantee anyway said YouTuber will get any revenue due to the abuse of the strike system.
Really is sad. I’m old enough to remember YouTube when it was first created and when it (pardon the slang) used to be cool. Can’t say that anymore.
Now it’s “Awwww it twu hawd! Use woebots to do ow jobs.”
This is probably what bugs me most about youtube. If something goes wrong or you need to contact them about something, it seems like there’s no actual way to do so. From what I can tell all you can do is post on the forum and have other users tell you you’re up the creek. Hell, the same seems to be the case for Yahoo too, and I think Photobucket is (or at least was for a while) pretty much at that point too. No accountability for anything.
I miss the “good old days” of internet.
Nah it’s 100% a corporate thing. Like you say, they intentionally isolated themselves from the problem. It seems lazy when you look at their actions but effort doesn’t really factor into it. It could take more time, money and effort but they’d still go down that path because corporate legal defence is barricading yourself in and keeping absolutely everything as far away as possible.
I feel like your line of thinking is flawed. You’re guaranteeing they won’t get any revenue from your views on the off chance that YouTube will hold off paying them. I mean if you go down this path there’s no guarantee they won’t buy crack or support terrorism with the revenue money so you should always block the ads. I don’t want to support the leeches any more than you do but you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I totally understand if you don’t want to watch ads, I’m not being judgemental here, but if you want the system to improve you’ve got to give more valid input than piracy (I hate to use such a loaded word since the evil implications don’t apply here, but I’m struggling to think of an alternative). If you choose to stop watching the video because the ad was 5 minutes long and unskippable everyone involved in putting that ad on the screen receives that feedback. That’s a very clear cut lost sale that makes them rethink their decision to put long, unskippable ads at the start of their content*.
If you disable the ad that’s still a lost sale, but they don’t interpret it that way. You become part of the ‘they turn off ads because they can so there’s no pleasing them’ crowd. It’s very easy for them to say it’s not the ads failing it’s you. If I hit Skip it’s because the ad wasn’t good enough to hold my attention. If I stop watching during the unskippable ad it’s because the promised content wasn’t appealing enough to force me to stick with it. However if I block there’s no saying why so they’ll jump to the most attractive conclusion (everyone at YouTube, the ad providers and the content providers were all perfect, and I’m just a jerk).
*On a side note, I wish more people knew that unskippable ads were an option the Content Creator has control over. I feel like they get a free pass because most people assume it’s evil YouTube instead of the content creator selling them out. Seems sort of sleazy when you factor in that YouTubers tend to foster a friend-like relationship with their viewers.
Does anyone know if YouTube still gets their cut of the advertising revenue when they redirect it from content producer to IP holder?
I have a lot of stuff
:3
So many Uniqlothes
You’d save on shipping if you just bought your Uniqlothes in Brisbane!
I’m not paying regardless! (thanks Company!)
There’s going to be a Rugby anime next season.
Incidentally I may watch a sports anime next season for the first time in a long time.
Others among us will also want to know that the Ace Attorney anime is also next season.
Phoenix Wright anime should be good (hopefully) if the same animation house that did work for Dual Destinies is on it. Pretty standard animation quality but at least it wasn’t terrible. I’m still in two minds whether I want to wait for the dub or not for PW.
A rugby anime sounds interesting as it would be cool to see how they portray it. It still boggles my mind that Japan is turning into a rugby nation as it seems completely different from their other main sports.
They’ve been into Rugby for ages – pretty much one of the first things they picked up after Perry arrived to make friends through superior firepower. The first Japanese Rugby Union team was set up in the 1860s, set up by a bunch of British Navy expats that were stationed in Yokohama. They’ve had their own governing body since the 1920s but it’s really been only in the fifteen years since they set up a domestic competition that it’s gotten big. That upset of South Africa at the World Cup last year was something that had been building for a while.
Really looking forward to seeing how this year’s Super Rugby competition shakes out after the addition of Japanese and Argentinean teams.
Unrelatedly I think that the Phoenix Wright anime is going to be a wakeup point for a lot of people where they realize just how heavily localized those games are.
I played with a club in Jakarta, and probably half the guys I played with were Japanese expats. They love their rugby… and let’s be honest, Sumo Wrestlers are built for playing prop forwards.
Last one I watched was Eyeshield and it was glorious.
Fairly sure the last sports anime I watched was Hajime no Ippo, assuming that counts as a sports show and not action.
I still think the ultimate sport for an anime adaption would be cricket. The games last for ages, there’s so much ebb and flow and tactical elements, trash talk, and general silliness and opportunity for the dude that gives running commentary on the game to do spit-takes and so on. The sport is chock full of bullshit. It’s just perfect.
It’s as boring as watching paint dry, though! There’s only ever two or three players who ever get to be doing anything most of the time! Ohwait. That WOULD make for an excellent anime.
Anyone here watching Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash?
First I was kinda steering away from it. Simply because its a case of drop some teenagers in a fantasy RPG world and see what happens. However, I’ve found myself coming back week after week.
The show is seriously dark. Watching 14 year olds confront a kill or be killed world where death is permanent has been pretty harrowing. There’s a few laughs in there and the art, particularly the watercolour backgrounds, is stunning.
Just trying to pick where this ends up – it feels like it’s only going to get worse.
I’m watching it but it’s hard work (it’s a bit boring) though I also keep coming back. It feels like it’s sort of stuck in no man’s land. Tonally it wants to be low fantasy, but setup is high fantasy combined with generic JRPG. But it does have a certain something to it.
I think a friend of mine said it quite well when they suggested it’s probably vastly more interesting as a novel than as an anime. A novel allows you to know the character’s internal thoughts and feelings in higher detail, but the anime doesn’t have time for that and tries to put it in tone and expression and it ends up making it feel like it’s on the verge of being really interesting but never quite all there.
It kind of reminds me a lot of Lodoss, actually. That also is a fantastic, inventive and beautiful fantasy series that can also put a room to sleep in about ten minutes.
Weirdly the other thing it reminds me of is Now and Then, Here and There, though it’s not even remotely as dark, bleak and utterly devoid of light and hope as that was.
Side note: I don’t think I’d be watching it in a better season but the current season is slim pickings and it’s the best thing running after Erased, Gate and Lupin.
As in Divine Gate or something else? I’m only watching whatever makes it to AnimeLab as it’s easy to get it on the TV from my phone.
Gate S2 which is basically fantasy world meets modern military Japan. It’s a continuation on the prior season from September quarter last year and it’s pretty decent. As Neg said, this season has been rather bare for anything that’s truly knock-your-socks-off amazing.
Oh now I get what @sunsoar77 was talking about.
I’m not sure what you’re asking?
My regular watch list right now looks like:
– Gate
– Lupin III
– Grimgar
– Haruchika
– Dagashi Kashi
– Schwarzesmarken
– Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut (because I hate myself)
– Fairy Tail
I haven’t felt in the mood for something like Erased in a while. Waiting for Durarara to finish before I watch it. Haven’t really been that interested in anime recently. The current season largely sucks.
So much anime is bleak, dark, and devoid of hope.
I’ve been trying to look up older series to watch that are just nice. Netflix recently got Toradora, which seems like it’ll be a happy medium between slitting your wrists and getting type 2 diabetes. (Even if I’m pretty confident that I’ve already predicted the entire series’ plot after the first episode.)
Aria.
You could also dig out Non Non Biyori’s two seasons if you didn’t watch them already.
EDIT: Tamayura was also okay, though the chick that responds to people by whistling all the time drives me up the wall.
Oh also, Kozue Amano (Aqua/Aria)’s newest manga Amanchu is getting an adaption in July and that should be great.
I was asking my brother about recommendations and he was giving me Girls Und Panzer or Dog Days kinda stuff. Was like… no. I don’t want to have to visit the dentist again and explain how I got so many cavities in just a couple months.
Girls und Panzer is rad though. It’s not what it initally looks like.
Actually, Girls und Panzer is a sports anime. About the ancient, noble, feminine and elegant sport of competitive tank battles.
Yeah. I got about four eps in before it really started to wind up and get on with it, but even by then I still wasn’t gripped.
There may be something wrong with you if you can’t enjoy Girls und Panzer.
Yeah, probably. One of those ‘have to be in the mood’ things for me. At the time all I was getting out of it was a bunch of overly cutesy girls pepping themselves up through the self-determination of success in sport and teamwork to help overcome their baggage/insecurities/whatever. Head-pats all around, good job, girls.
If you dropped it before they beat Darjeeling you missed the best part. Once they come together as a unit and a team the battles start getting really complicated and pretty exciting since the opponents get harder and harder and they are more and more the underdogs.
I’ve been watching it. I do enjoy the darker tone and the fact that it hasn’t succumbed to “harem syndrome” yet. It is hard to see where it wants to go and I think that will make or break my attention with what direction it goes in.
Yeah, it’s pretty decent if a bit slow paced.
I’d prefer it if they picked a tone and stuck with it though.
That’s what nearly threw me off – I think it was episode 2 or 3 – there was a 5 to 6 minute interlude of just music and panning landscapes.
38 degrees tomorrow…
Good thing it’s the last week of summer, eh?
Heat is the worst. How are you meant to get anything done?
Powerade. Scientifically formulated to keep you hydrated. There is no other liquid that does that.
Not even water?
Sadly no.
All these sports drink companies have had to fight the powerful water companies for decades just for the right to be displayed next to this false hydrator, H20. Don’t even get me started on vitamin/protein rich energy drinks… poor bastards.
It’s always hot at this time of year, Australia really needs to stop thinking about the weather in terms of the european seasons. They have no meaning here! If you look at the seasons used by the Aboriginal people who lived in Sydney, the six seasons they describe fit perfectly – and right now we’re in the middle of the late summer that lasts until late march. Ever noticed that it always seems to rain at Easter? That’s the end of summer.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/indigenous/
Neat.
I oppose all Tugarah 😛
Where I am, we sorta have, summer slightly cooler summer, a few weeks of winter, warming upto summer & then back to summer 😛
Exactly – the seasons are varied all over the country, and the words to describe them exist if we bothered to learn them.
Yep. It’s hard to convey this to some of my overseas friends who have never been here. Some of them get it, especially the ones who live in places like Florida or southern California where it never really gets overly cold lol.
Also here I rarely find need for a jumper or long pants, yet when I was in Tassie in Winter 2014, I found perfect need for jeans & a jumper lol. My yearly clothes consist of boardshorts, a shirt & thongs if i’m not at work, and even then I wear shorts at work, cause fuck long pants lol. I just wish we had less humidity that does me in damn it lol.
Sydney gets the humidity too. Even if it’s only about 27degrees, the humidity just drains you.
Humidity at any temperature is draining 😛
When I was in high school I played a footy tournament in Bangkok. As soon as you got out of the plane, it was like swimming through the air…
… needless to say, we didn’t win.
Sydney humidity isn’t that bad…
… that being said, I came from Jakarta by way of Brisbane, so it’s like saying the Sahara isn’t quite as hot as the burning centre of Hell.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/02/dad-hacks-zelda-so-link-can-be-anyone-not-just-a-boy/
My god, the comments. I know it’s a bad idea to read the comments but FFS. /o\
Always found the “Link is a crafted character, you can’t mess with him!” argument bemusing.
Outside of player agency he has zero spoken dialogue even in text and only ever gasps or blinks. He’s a blank cipher made corporeal. Doesn’t even really have a name besides one assigned for franchise and marketing purposes, how many Links out there are called Link? Mine are usually called Pig Fat or Butt Brain.
Yeah, that’s the baffling thing for me. Link is the avatar of the player, for the player to project themselves into the world. Literally the only reason for making him male is that that’s the way it’s always been. Which is a shit argument.
But then you get the hysteric OH GOD WHERE DOES IT END DO WE HAVE PRINCE ZELDA NEXT and stuff. And I’m thinking to myself “it’s always the exact same fucking story, so I’d love to play one where Zelda has to go save Link’s sorry ass for once just for a change of pace”.
Hyrule Warriors is the most progressive that the franchise has ever gotten and it was co-developed by fucking Team Ninja when they weren’t busy making games about ogling half-naked women with enormous floppy boobs as they cavort around a beach resort.
And why can’t a girl save the princess? Pretty sure that was the plot of Frozen.
It’d be a nice change in Zelda.
Or Mario. I want a game where Peach runs around saving Toads.
They did a peach game on DS
3D World gives you this option. You can play as any of the characters. Actually now I’m thinking do any of the Mario games on the Wii U force you to play using a specific character? Does Captain Toad count? I can’t remember if New Super Mario/Luigi Bros U let you choose your own character outside of co-op (or if Peach was an option).
@jimu Yeah, but that game got really creepy.
It did?
This is true, but the game is still called “Super Mario 3D World”. Captain Toad was very cool because it also had Toadette rescuing Captain Toad. And Yoshi’s Woolly World just has yoshis, which can be boys or girls. So Nintendo aren’t all bad, but “you can be peach in a mario game” isn’t the same thing as a peach game.
@jimu Watch the end sequence. It tells players to go looking for the mood altering Vibe Scepter hidden in their house, implying their mum has been using it. I find it hilarious in theory but it’s hard to overlook that they really did tell little girls to go on a dildo hunt. That’s genuinely creepy.
That is pretty much what we’ve been asking for years. Just because Link saves a princess doesn’t mean Link has to be a guy.
Nintendo pretty much said Link is sexless in that latest DS title.
Or perhaps they mean he has no sex, just like Mario. If you’re saving anyone for the sole purpose of guilting them into sex then you will be disappointed. Princesses and people aren’t so 2D.
Even if it was a sex thing, there’s still no reason girl link couldn’t score with the princess.
Unless it’s like kid Link from Wind Waker or something, that’d be pretty creepy.
Exactly, Linkle/Link should be able to. Just that PG rating that stops it.
I don’t know what the laws are in Hyrule but I hope there is an age of consent. OH&S is non existent, they don’t have DOCS either… Lets not go on a tangent here…
Poor kid Link has no idea that he’ll be a forever virgin 🙁
I dunno. To play devil’s advocate: it probably depends on how you were exposed to Link.
For some folks it might’ve been the Nintendo comic or the saturday-morning-cartoon series, in which Link was (mostly) masculine. Or hetero-normative interpretations of the parts of the fantastic NES sequel where I’m pretty sure Link regained health by banging bored housewives. (That may have been the lesson child me took away, anyway.) I know I had hours invested in those incarnations. Must’ve re-read and re-watched those dozens of times.
Link of the tv show and comics wasn’t just some self-insertionist placeholder like Dragon Age 3’s Inquisitor but was an actual character, who had his own voice. For some folks, it may be that is the voice which is being scrapped. To retroactively declare that the distinct character was just a placeholder for self-insertion and is now fair game to be gender-bent for self-insertion purposes is basically saying, “Because fuck continuity.”
In other franchises, that kind of genderswap would be like saying, “Actually, in the next Avengers movie, Tony Stark is now Toni Stark – a woman who is both scientific and business prodigy slash superhero, because we want to be more inclusive and fix our ratios. We may or may not address the gender swap in-universe, but basically this is something we’re doing to be more progressive, and isn’t it about time there was a female version of this specific, existing, well-established character? Before you complain, we have to change the existing character because creating new ones is hard, and no-one likes them.”
(There are probably folks who think that is an excellent line of reasoning… but I am not one of them. Without being too zealous about it, I normally – silver age hijinx aside – prefer to the effort that goes into preserving canon, instead of discarding it because it’s no longer fashionable. It’s kind of core to verisimilitude – in building a believable alternate world to escape to. I’ve grown fond of Samuel L Jackson Fury, but oldschool hardboiled send-up comic Fury will always be the ‘real’ Fury to me; the Chuck Norris of un-powered Marvel characters.)
I say ‘other franchises’ because I’ve only played the first four Zelda games and from what I can tell about everything since? Nintendo said ‘fuck continuity’ a long time ago for this franchise (grand unified conspiracy theories on reddit notwithstanding).
So a gender-swap in this instance REALLY doesn’t seem at all out of place with whatever other changes they’ve made every time they’ve re-visited Hyrule to retell the same story a slightly different way.
An option to choose which ‘Link’ you play in the same manner as you choose which Commander Shepard you play seems like a pretty damn cool thing, really.
(Mass Effect was pretty brilliant in that through its extensive dialogue with only a handful of actual nudges of direction and Jennifer Hale’s superior voice-acting, Shepard remained her own character, not just self-insertion fantasy. Just enough illusion of choice – especially through face-modelling – to let people believe there could be some self-insertion. I still can’t believe that the stats for ME3 had Broshep at 85%, though. Hale was so good, and all those people missed out on that.)
EDIT: This was me thinking about something official coming from Nintendo in their plans for the next game (which I am mostly in favour of).
But after looking at the actual source, it is a fucking mod. A MOD, people. They’re MEANT to whatever-the-fuck-you-want things! We’re talking about the same category of changes as thomas the tank engine in Skyrim for fuck’s sake. IT’S A MOD WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU OBJECT TO THAT.
Talking other franchisees I think a better example would be the force awakens
Are we still spoilering that. I know @cakesmith as seen it once for every taybie but I guess not everybody has seen it yet so when in doubt
The lack of agency here is much similar to people who are talking about romance between Poe and Finn. It was not part of the creators story, but putting that in does nothing to change the story or make it out of place. There wasn’t an attempt to create romance, even if they had the most romantic dialog since return of the jedi. Changing Tony to Toni would change a character and the story, switch Link’s gender doesn’t change the character or story.(You used ‘q’ instead of ‘s’ for your spoiler.)
See, there’s the fundamental point that we’re not agreeing on. You’re saying Link wasn’t a character in and of himself but instead just a vehicle for player agency. I’m contending that he was actually a character just as much as Poe or Finn was. He had a backstory, he had a voice, he had motives and took actions and a part of his actions and motivation was tied to his character traits.
IF you watched the TV shows or read the comics, anyway. The games themselves? Not so much for 1-4 at least, mostly on account of the fact that he had about as much personality as the Guardian in Destiny. Got to say like… two lines. No personality.
*facepalm* yay me
Yeah I see what you are saying but even if you have a voice, character for link this mod didn’t actually change anything for you. It hasn’t changed what the character looks like, acts like or any of their dialog. You can still lay through LoZ with the mod and your Link would not be changed at all.
In the same way that people who see romance between Poe and Finn don’t change the experience for people who just see friendship.
Oh yeah, totally.
I said it elsewhere, but when I first saw people talking about this, I assumed it was about an official Nintendo decision to change things up for the next game (which I’d actually be pretty interested in, even if it’s unpopular for the reasons I mentioned I can relate to, above).
But the fact that people are objecting to a mod it outright insanity for no purpose other than to impose beliefs on others.
What you to do mod your own copy of a game is between you and the walls of your house and anyone who wants to stop you can go jump in the lake.
Worst devil’s advocate ever
Some things are indefensible.
You mean like if Marvel did a comic series where Spider-man was black or was his dead girlfriend in the other continuities, or where Thor was a lady?
Because that’d definitely never happen.
I’m not really in favour of those, either, from what I’ve read. I’m not a fan of the re-writing of old characters to meet diversity quotas because ‘it’s too hard to come up with new ones’. They play it off with alternate-universe bullshit, but it’s basically a rigged game of musical chairs, so when the music stops they have better (ie: more diverse) representation than they used to.
I dunno, the Spidergwen stuff seems to have been pretty well received at least.
Probably because it’s a great story with great art. (Also, Parker is a goof.) ‘What if: Doomsday killed Superman’ was well-received, too. People don’t actually want Superman dead for good, though. People love their alternate universe stuff, their diversions. But that’s just what they are – diversions. Not the ‘home’ universe.
Don’t you wish you could slap them?
Eugh I’m like ‘how bad could it be, I’ll just pop over and scan the comments quickly’.
Answer: Pretty bad. May have had to provide a retort to a couple of them.
I started to do that but realized it would be the internet equivalent of pissing into gale force wind.
I got dragged into another dumb argument on the Raygun Brown article yesterday so I’m out.
I am the internet equivalent of drenched. Serves me right.
Yeah, I think I shouldn’t have commented. Sometimes it’s just not worth it 😐
It’s not that bad yet.. I mean i’m not seeing any mass down votes 😛
I’ve no problem with a girl option for Link, but what I’ve always been more of an advocate of is having Zelda actually playable in Zelda games. I don’t see any reason why she can’t be the one to go around to various dugneons and collect the macguffins needed to beat the bad guy. After 30 years of Zelda games I think it’s time.
She’s too busy being captured by Ganondorf.
The part I find interesting is that nobody there is throwing around the word entitled. Normally the internet jumps at the slightest chance to call someone entitled. Normally if you want a game to be more agreeable to you in any way you’re an entitled prick, but when we talk about things like this or Fire Emblem censorship it doesn’t come up anywhere near as often. If I express a desire for Mass Effect 3’s ending to be generally less shit, or heaven forbid I offer up a few ideas for how to remove some of the rougher edges on it, I must think the world revolves around me. However if I want Zelda tailored to me nobody makes that connection.
My theory is that it’s because with issues like this both sides believe strongly in their views. Typically you get an accusation of entitlement from someone who is fairly neutral towards the outcome. The issue is unimportant to them so they jump to the conclusion those who do care must do so out of some fault. I must think the issue is more important than they do because I think myself being 100% satisified is more important than artistic integrity, the rights of the developers, other players needs, etc. In that context it’s easy to read my stance as a demand not a request.
With this we avoid that logic because everyone genuinely cares about their opinion enough to focus on the topic. The same core arguments are being made* but nobody is indifferent enough to feel like the other side simply having an opinion is an over reaction.
*The gender optional Link argument comes down to telling Nintendo, the company that killed it’s long term viability as a mainstream console by opting to make games for the most diverse group of players possible rather than respond to pressure and fixate on the 10-15 year old male audience, that their game series beloved by millions of people of all different backgrounds needs to focus on your personal desires more (regardless of whether your desire is for a traditional Link or a gender optional Link). This sort of voicing of one’s opinion under other circumstances is typically regarded as the entitled gamer mindset that is apparently destroying games.
“but when we talk about things like this or Fire Emblem censorship it doesn’t come up anywhere near as often”
It sure does!
What’s crazy to me is that this isn’t even a reaction to an official Nintendo decision to the next game… it’s a fucking mod. That one guy made for his kid, but thought could be a nice thing for ANYONE to use.
Who the fuck has a problem with mods doing something weird or different? That’s the ENTIRE POINT of most of them.
Starting to think we should make a Kotaku comment dickhead bingo card
It would make for a very depressing drinking game.
Man, i’d probably be a good contender for those on a regular basis 😛
I’ve not been here enough to understand this I think lol.
It’s actually just a bingo card that has “Blaghman” in every square, and every time I comment everyone sighs, shakes their head, and wonders about how someone can be so wrong.
(I’m going to assume it actually relates to the same dickheads that pop up in every article that mentions anything related to not-straight-white-men in gaming culture, and who feel the need to express their incorrect opinions about everything and to “prove” their intellectual superiority by being a dick)
That’s one game I think I can go without playing.
So, something i’ve never had happen before happened this morning. My boss texted me thanking me for doing a good job last night & leaving the store in pristine condition. It’s awesome of her to do that, but to be fair, I had next to no customers last night so it was really easy to leave it extremely tidy lol.
If anyone is interested eBay has 24 month subscriptions to XBL Gold for $95 today, there’s only 170 though, since it’s part of their group buy thing!
http://groupbuy.ebay.com.au/
There’s also some other stuff there people might interested in, idk!
Bravely Second
I can’t afford the collectors edition, but it’s have it ordered.
Does anyone want it before I cancel?
Dunno if it’s even sold out.
Nah, normal edition for me!
Yeah, if I actually wanted the contents I could probably scrounge up the cash somehow.
What’d you think of Bravely Default?
Second only to Shin Megami Tensei IV for 3DS.
Fantastic update of the Final Fantasy V job system wrapped in some of the best art I’ve seen in years.
Story is fairly pedestrian, but does the trick.
There’s an unfortunate amount of boring repetition at the end which I can’t explain due to spoilers. Apart from that, it’s fantastic.
I was thinking of picking it up because it reminded me a little bit of Fire Emblem, but I have played FF before (Can’t remember which one, I was playing in a Snowfight? lol).
It’s not at all tactical like FE, nor can you breed.
It is a sort of similar style anime fantasy but whereas FE is the story of nations & the individuals representing them, BD is the story of a small party, the people the meet & the people they fight as they travel the world.
Gameplay is an update in classic Japanese turn based affairs. No moving around a map positioning yourself. Just random encounters against small groups.
It was actually great! (Coming from someone who’s never really played any Final Fantasy)
Like Jimu said though, the last third is dreadful. I stopped playing at that point and looked up a summary of the endgame. Still worth it for the start though I think.
Bravely Second apparently spoils the entirety of Bravely Default in the first few minutes so probably don’t start with Second if you want to play both 😛
I just popped it down to easy & powered through. That last bit after it all was amazing
End spoilers.
That boss battle royale through the tower right near the end was super annoying. It was the only time I knocked things down to easy and mega cheesed my through the battles because holy crap some of those combos were infuriating.Have to agree that the actual final sequence was really quite great. Certainly a nice cap to the story if you ignore the previous hours of grind and repetition. I enjoyed what they were doing with the story but the way it was presented in that last section was terrible.
The music though. That final fight’s music is fucking incredible and is a lot of why I was super disappointed they couldn’t get Revo back for Second and had to throw it over to Ryo instead.
The music all throughout was astonishingly beautiful and I loved the individual character themes when they used their special abilities. It’s sad that the same composer couldn’t come back but I’m hopeful the music remains awesome.
The replacement was Ryo, the dude that got famous doing a bunch of high-profile Hatsune Miku stuff (Black Rock Shooter, World is Mine etc.) and who IMO seemed to peak after doing the first Bakemonogatari ending, I’ve listened to the Bravely Second OST and it’s okay but unremarkable. Revo was a million times better. 🙁
That’s cool, I have some left over Nintendo shop money I was tossing up between this and Paper Mario Jam and I think BD wins 😀
I really need to keep moving with that game. I shouldn’t really have gotten stuck but I think I was just a bit lazy in parts and not managing my jobs right.
Needed to level a few jobs and just lost interest a little. Although now I have my commute I might put it back in… after FE Awakening.
Your jobs? Which game is this lol?
Bravely Default is basically built around the Jobs system from FFV. There’s like 30 different jobs and each character can pick any of them and level up in that job to get different abilities and stuff. Jobs are things like White Mage, Fighter, Monk etc but they get super exotic as well.
This makes so much sense, thanks!
@highperformance: Bravely Second’s jobs get a lot nuttier. Patissier, for example. Also Catmancer, which they fucked up on naming (Catmancer? More like NEKOMANCER)
Bravely Default. The game you want to buy… lol
Knock yourself out.
There’s so many jobs :O
I can sense a lot of Min Maxing going on lol.
Bought a 2nd hand car on the weekend, attempted to drive it home, halfway there it lost 4th and 5th gear (would shift into them okay, but nothing, like it was still in neutral), then it refused to go into 3rd, (zzzt – zzzt- crucnch-zzt nope) so I limped the last 120km home at 50km/h in 2nd gear…
Also won’t go into reverse.
I frigging hate cars.
Sucks that it wasn’t everything it was geared up to be.
I was waiting for the ‘friends’ jokes to kick in.
The dealer I bought it from was so dodgy, I heard him phoning someone to do up a pink slip for him for my trade-in, and that he needed it an hour. (The rego runs out in 3 weeks)
I told him I would need the car for the next two hours, and he just said, “no problem mate, I don’t need the car here, I just needed to get it a pink slip”
You were clutching for a joke there.
I wanted to respond with a follow-up joke but I’ve stalled it.
You’re off your game… you must be tyred… or perhaps exhausted?
Buying it from a dealer means that you might have some consumer protections (I think it varies a bit from state to state, and depends on the age of the car. Something to look into.
Trying to find that out now, very confusing. It is a 2001 model car.
Damn, according to the Motor Dealers Act, I am out of luck.
Turns out there might be some protection under the ACL as the goods were not fit for purpose, the saga goes on.
Woot! Beat the dragon! Immediately went to try the Everfall stuff… faced the Evil Eye.
Lost two pawns to petrification, left facing the second half of the fight with just my healer… came down to the last half-bar of his health, my healer on a sliver of health, me on half health and no healing items left. Got grabbed and munched on, wherein I learned by giving up and accepting I’d die to the bite, that I’d wasted a bunch of healing items trying to live through his bite attack – it doesn’t actually kill you, just drops you to 1HP. Healer wailed on it with Ice spells, getting him just low enough for me to finish him off with a last attack before his barrier came back up. Whole fight took nearly an hour… jeez. Maybe I should do research before I try the next stage… Also need to figure out the cheapest way to restock my healing items.If you find yourself having trouble with petrification again be sure to recruit a sorcerer pawn with high voidspell. It cures petrification.
Everfall’s difficulty is a bit weird. It doesn’t get harder the further you go down like you’d assume. You can have a really tough level, then the level one down will be super easy. There’s also an element of randomness to boss spawns that can change how hard or difficult things are. It’s also not really worth spending anymore time in the Everfall than you need to get wakestones. If you’re aiming to level up or get better gear than Bitterblack Isle is a better option.
My main problem was I had no idea what I was expecting to face in there, and just came in with the team I killed Grigori with. I have learned valuable information, tho – Ice, fire and dark do bugger all damage to that eye. :3
I was considering heading to Bitterblack, but I’d heard it’s was level 80 endgame content. Currently only 47-ish…
At 47 you should be able to do the start of Bitterblack, but yeah you may want to wait a bit longer. Level 60 is probably a good time to start doing it. What you should do though is run through the first area of Bitterblack until you get to Barroch, a friendly merchant NPC. He can upgrade your equipment past dragonforged, and it doesn’t cost a lot to do it either.
Killing bosses in the Everfall should level you up fairly fast. You’ll mainly be fighting things you’ve faced before. High level Chimeras, Golems, Ogres etc. I think there’s a hydra in one of the rooms.
A lot of creatures are resistent to dark. From memory it’s mainly only Grigori and a few types of drakes that are weak to it. Holy is a general all round good enchant to have. Lots of things are weak to holy, or at least not resistent to it. Lots of things are also weak to fire or ice, so you just had terrible luck that you were going up against something that wasn’t.
I had such a hard time with the Eye enemies until I figured out that if you just look away from them when they do their bright flash attack it doesn’t affect you 😛
…bright… flash? The one where he turns into a floating spotlight? I just moved out of the light and shot him til he came back down – I never actually saw that attack do anything other than create a spotlight, but I assume (by process of elimination) that it’s what caused the petrification… Unless you mean the knockback/silence move? That one never really bothered me, as my pawn had a near constant Halidyne (or whatever the status-clearing spell is called) up, so rarely got silenced for long.
The spotlight attack, yeah! Causes petrification (and I think a bunch of other things? Seemed like sometimes it made me blind instead)
Dragon’s Dogma?
Yep.
OK, I need to fire up the PS3… 😉
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-b/posts/1499018
Y’all should back! If you want. Or don’t. I dunno.
*helping*
$80 to back is a little to steep for me, that’s awesome thought that this game will exist.
*not helping*
Pledge a single dollar, buy the game marked down at retail at some later point 😛
Oh, also found out that Wayne June, the narrator for Darkest Dungeon, has done a few Lovecraft audiobook readings. His voice is kinda perfect for The Haunter of the Dark. \o/
Oh man, Wayne June introduced me to Lovecraft, really great voice for cosmic horror.
Makes me want to hear Whisperer in darkness again.. Or I could actually read it.
Do you have any recommended Lovecraft audiobooks? I’ve listened to a few short stories on YouTube and having an old timey 1920s voice really helped tell the story. The Music of Erich Zann was absolutely haunting with the narrator.
Yeah, the Whisperer in the darkness, Shadow over innsmouth, The colour out of space 🙂
I think Deadnest1 on youtube has some Lovecraft stuff if I remember correctly.
Not yet – I’ve only really started listening to Lovecraft audiobooks this past week, and am halfway through my fifth story. So far, I’ve listened to Call of Cthulhu, Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains of Madness (which I now see an homage to in the terrible AvP movie), Dreams in the Witch House (eldritch mathematics ftw!), and working through Haunter of the Dark now. Of those… can I say “all of them”? Cos I can’t decide which I loved more. :3 I think Mountains of Madness wins, tho – great story and a great reading.
Call and Dunwich I got from here – they were pretty good readings – nice olde-tyme feel. The other place I tend to check is this, which has a pretty good selection – that’s where I found the other three I listened to – Craig Nickerson’s Mountaisn of Madness reading was brilliant, and Wayne June’s Haunter seems to be pretty good thus far, but I’d tried a terrible Haunter reading from there before I saw June’s, so ymmv.
All about Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath – a bit more fantasy than gothic horror, but a great story.
Also, At The Mountains of Madness is the best.
Oh man, I played some Darkest Dungeon in Early Access… that’s one I really want to enjoy but after reading about all the changes they made, I might need to download some mods/cheats or something to get the most enjoyment out of it. (I get too attached to my guys.)
I personally have this theory that developers who rely on Early Access feedback have a tendency to create games which are too hardcore for the non-EA audience. People play what’s there dozens or hundreds of times over until they are masters at the game, and they cry out for harder difficulty options, which makes sense to the devs too, because they’ve been deep in the bowels of the thing for so long that nothing seems difficult to them, either… and as a result, a game is created which is impenetrable to entry-level players who haven’t spent the last two years adapting to each significantly harder beta. See: Don’t Starve.
Cool, I got into the Smite alpha. Even gave me an extra code for a friend.
Hasn’t Smite been around for a while? is it still considered to be in Alpha?
*PS4
I have a three month free trial to Presto so I’ve been very slowly trying to watch Mr. Robot, which is a pretty amazing show so far. I’m only 4 episodes in but it’s really grabbed me with it’s unrelenting tension building and range of interesting characters.
I’ve found it hard to keep watching though, because the Presto service is so bad. Seriously glad I am not paying money for this. A looooot of content I want to watch but I’m not paying $15/month unless the app/interface/video player is on par with Stan or Netflix.
I had the exact same issue with Presto. I ended up cancelling my free trial after 15 days it was so bad
I pretty much did what @scree did. So bad that I wanted to make absolutely certain there was no chance of this shit getting billed due to my carelessness.
I’m always still amazed whenever folks come up with new products which are bafflingly worse than their competitors, but priced higher.
Thankfully mine is a 3 month trial which I think I’m roughly one month into. I’ll definitely make sure to cancel well in advance of the 3 months, probably right after I’m done with Mr. Robot. Only problem is my wife is using it for X-Files. I’m hoping the novelty wears off soon otherwise she might object to the cancellation.
We used it for the same thing but I don’t even think we got up to episode 10 it was so bad
Found a company that do really cheap game prototype pieces and printing.
Today is a good day.
Was it @poita?
You can also have a chat to Andrew at Aetherworks – http://www.aetherworks.com.au/
Oh wow – this is perfect and just what i need – Was considering MDF buildings.
Thank you so much. This is excellent.
I’m looking at a chart of the next anime season right now – this is stuff that will begin end of March / Start of April. I don’t like hotlinking but it’s huge and the image rehosters tend to scale them down so you can’t read the text:
https://static.neregate.com/2016/02/neregate.com-Spring-2016-Anime-Chart-v1.jpg
Stuff that looks to be the stand-outs:
– Gyakuten Saiban: Aka Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney the anime.
– Magi: Sinbad no Bouken: Aka Adventures of Sinbad. Spinoff / prequel to the Magi anime/manga which is pretty good.
– Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: More Jojo! I wish that gg were still around to do their ridiculous subtitles though 🙁
– Macross Delta: New Macross! There was a preview episode late last year and it was… odd. Feels like Idolmaster and Macross 7 had a baby.
– Sailor Moon Crystal: Fuck. Yes. The Death Busters arc for those that don’t know was the best part of the original series, with the introduction of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The first two arcs of Sailor Moon Crystal were top notch, though the crew has changed for this one.
Stuff that has my interest:
– God Eater: finally getting the rest of this.
– Kotetsujou no Kabaneri: Original show, running in Noitamina. Lead writer of Code Geass, director of Attack on Titan, character designer of Macross.
– Gakusen Toshi Asterisk S2: It was unremarkable but I enjoyed the first season.
– Flying Witch: This looks like it could be a really nice relaxing show.
– Bungou Stray Dogs: From the sound of it, this is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen combined with Read or Die. A group of writers with superpowers that solve mysteries. Most of the characters are based off famous Japanese mystery writers but one of them is Dan Brown and this amuses me greatly.
– Onigiri: Sometimes MMO adaptions can be good. Doubt this will be but will give it a watch since it has nice art.
– Hai-Furi: Sounds probably fucking terrible but there’s an outside chance it’ll be okay.
– Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu: Fantasy light novel adaption about a normal high schooler that gets trapped in a fantasy world. BUT WAIT because this actually has an interesting premise: he and a girl he meets are murdered, but he discovers he can rewind time back to when he first arrived in the world and retain his memory of what happened. Has been a pretty popular light novel, have a good feeling about it.
– Mayoiga: This sounds rad. Mystery show about a utopia gone wrong? Original production too. Mari Okada writing it (she is a fantastic writer usually) and director is super diverse (from Girls und Panzer to Squid Girl to Shirobako to Another).
Overall looks like a stronger season than the current one at least.
OK, Magi… I tried to watch this one on Netflix and it kinda stumped me. You seen much of it?
I was watching what I believe to be the first series: Labyrinth of Magic. And the first episode seemed like it was really the first ep of a second season or something. I think I’m missing something? Like why didn’t Alibaba tell his boss that he’d just discovered some vagrant eating his produce and call the cops to have him arrested? Why did he just go, “Oh hey, here’s this urchin I’ve never met fucking up my boss’ shit, I guess instead of calling the cops I’ll go get myself made into indentured servitude to save their ass for no particular reason.” But the dialogue after sort of skims between the idea that they might know each other or not… It feels almost like the first episode is a highly-abridged retelling of a longer story, with a lot of character hooks being just taken for granted or skipped over entirely. “They’re bound by destiny so just assume they’re friends already, OK?”It’s super rough at first from memory. Alibaba’s boss is a tremendous asshole though so that might be why. Also there is a pretty deep and important connection between the two but it’s not really elaborated on until much later on. And yes that’s the starting point.
ELITE!
Mining is profitable and nothing like as tedious as it used to be. I have been mining a bit. In fact the other night, my usual combat wing was all mining in a wing instead. Another member of the group turned up on teamspeak. “Whatcha doing?” “We’re in some rings” “Hazardous res site bounties?” “Um… we’re mining.” “WHAT? All of you?” “Yup” “…”
The Python is an EXCELLENT mining vessel. Plus it can really look after itself.
Meanwhile, the EDA Kunti League has increased influence. We’re currently trying to cause a civil war in our home system, in the hope of taking over the other station in the system, and then increasing influence in neighbouring systems.
Galactic affairs are interesting too… the metastory surrounding the President’s disappearance last year is coming to a head – the remains of Starship One have been discovered and now there’s a hunt for escape pods…
@pixel_the_ferret_viking are you doing the current CG?
I’m tempted to help out with the Aisling Duval side of things and help her rescue tonnes of slaves to create a new colony but I’m…uuuh…busy…
*loads final crate of slaves, burns sky towards Fed space*
I am not no, not at this stage anyway 😛
I’ve been grinding imperial rep at Cubeo (and having fun with it)
Put to proper use, the Cobra MK IV is actually a helluva good mission runner!
I’m 90% certain I’m going to try to get tickets to see this. Opening night is the Saturday night if PAX weekend, was going to look into the Sunday night. Anyone else interested?
http://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/season-2016/the-odd-couple/
So the HTC Vive is going to be US$799 i.e. about AUD$1250 including GST?
I would expect around $1400 to be safe; our currency is due for further weakening this year if global factors stay as they are. To be safe expect 1USD = around 65 cents.
If that’s the case, grab a prepaid card and load up the USD now?
True but that’s only assuming the price point in AUD will only be influenced by currency movements. Chances are you’ll also need to account for Australia tax (which really makes no sense anymore since our economy is so much worse off now than other western peers; underlying fundamentals within the markets show we’re headed for a recession).
Also you’ll only effectively be hedging against a $100 movement in currency so also take into account the cost-benefit of moving into and out of the USD.
I’m assuming you’ll be buying from a US retailer regardless, so at some point you’re going to have to pay FX fees to someone. I know that the card schemes absolutely screw you on FX, so better to do it on your own terms and pick someone that will screw you a little more gently.
Yeah, I mean, I seem to have more disposable income than most and both VR set ups are laughably out of feasibility for me. Doesn’t seem like a fantastic way to introduce a technology you’re hoping for mass uptake of.
Same. Heaps more disposable income than most (thank you, living with family), but still too highly priced for me.
I have a lot of disposable income *and* don’t need to worry about AU Tax.
I can’t afford either of them because I will also need a GPU upgrade to go with it.
Huh. I totally forgot about the inevitability of people asking if you can add them on facebook being a thing, suggesting to discuss things there instead.
Cue the awkwards.
You don’t have Facebook I am guessing?
It’s kind of my thing 😛
Me neither. Also don’t drink coffee, so social interaction has proven to be awkward on multiple fronts lately.
High five for outcast club!
Hot chocolate? Babycino?
Water, juice sometimes.
Hey all,
An odd thing happened to me on the weekends. I decided I should finally sign up for a new account on Facebook (old one got hacked, email it was linked account is long gone). Anyway, put in my details and I got a flag saying I need to put in my “real name”. I checked the message and apparently my surname is flagged as “inappropriate”. I can kinda see where they’re coming from but it’s just something I’ve never ever encountered throughout my life.
I won’t lie man, it’s always made me uncomfortable being around you. Knowing that’s it’s there, hanging over the conversation like a black cloud.
Says mr. Winters =P
My alias at work contains the first six letters of my last name. When our code was incorporated into Windows 8 we had to pass an automated system that made sure the code was politically correct. This includes not swearing or using racial epithets (some of the list was pretty eye-popping), not referring to Taiwan as the People’s Republic of China and a few other things like that.
My alias was flagged as profanity wherever it was found, which was basically every bit of code I’d contributed because we tended to put ownership info on different modules so you’d know who to whinge to if it broke.
It took about two months to have them tell us that the answer was to add me to the ‘known developers’ list for our product. That list last I checked was me and Bill Gates.
Okay, I may have been trying to get back into iRacing…
Ys VIII news that hardly anyone cares about: Apparently the chick with the blue hair in the promo art is a playable character and is basically co-protagonist with Adol. You swap to playing with her when Adol is asleep or something, which gives me FF8 flashbacks.
Really excited to play it.
Holy shit, the BBC are doing Planet Earth II later this year. Only 6 episodes but it’s been shot in 4k.
The original Planet Earth is still the nature documentary.
Sad side thought: What are they going to do when Attenborough dies? I can’t imagine nature documentaries without his voice.
Morgan Freeman better step up to the goddamn plate.
Morgan Freeman is great but he’s not as perfect for nature documentaries as Attenborough is. The big thing is that Sir David Attenborough is actually a qualified expert. He’s not just doing the commentary because he has a great voice for it. He’s actually got a degree in natural science.
Planet Earth II might be Sir Dave’s last thing too. He’s 89 now.
Interesting side note: he was put in control of BBC Two in the 1960s and one of the shows he commissioned while in that position was Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Other interesting side note: @dc doesn’t like him because one of the documentaries he worked on has footage of a pack of chimps hunting down and murdering a Colobus Monkey.
Yeah, he know’s his stuff.
I think I jumped to Morgan simply because his voice would be great for it.
Makes me wonder, with the life Attenborough has had, if he has any unusual regrets? Or things he wished he’d done.
Was it him that found that undiscovered tribe in PNG when they had the full camera crew with him? Or am I making sh*t up again…?
Awesome. I would go see that if they gave it cinematic release
All indicators point to Prof. Brian Cox as the BBC’s preferred successor to Sir David.
This is true but I’m really not sure on him. He is missing a idk level of depth to his voice.
He does however love science which comes across well, although with his background it is the marvels of the universe rather than this planet that are his true passions.
I struggle to imagine Brian Cox making an ant climbing a tree carrying a leaf a thrilling and enthralling event.
Cox is okay but he’s not anywhere near as interesting to listen to. A bit boring and weak-sounding IMO.
I don’t know who that is so my brain filled the position with Dr Perry Cox and now I would much rather see that happen.
Physicist / rock star.
Pretty sure he’s a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He was the keyboard player for the song Things Can Only Get Better.
Tilda Swinton, Morgan Freeman.
But yeah. I will cry and cry when he goes.
LOVE, LOVE me some Planet Earth, this is great news for me!
So, I got sick again last night. I seem to keep suffering from bloating and stomach cramps after eating certain foods. Either it’s very mild food poisoning, or I’ve developed an allergy. D=
Any common ingredients across these meals? could be a possible reaction. I for one can attest to my stomach getting less tolerant as I get older =,=
Spoke to the Doctor. It’s not an allergy, it’s IBS
IBS is a medical code phrase for ‘there’s some weird intolerance or imbalance or other issue in your gut somewhere but we can’t figure out what it is’
Same goes for Asthma and well … all kinds of allergies.
“We don’t know how this shit happens at first but we sure do know what it does”.
My sister gets a lot of those symptoms and it turned out she has fructose malabsorption. Usually that presents itself within an hour of eating the problematic foods. And it’s in stuff you don’t expect, eg Apples and Pears are super bad, but so is Onion and Garlic and Soy Milk. Unaddressed it can also trigger wheat and dairy intolerances as well.
Have a google for it and if you think it might be a possible thing you should talk to Mrs @Tigerion about it as she’s an expert on it. 🙂
Yeah, if you have german heritage, you are likely to suffer from it, it is more common than lactose intolerance in Germany.
I also find that foods that I am slightly reactive to become a major reaction when I am also stressed, and my tummy makes me pay.
No German ancestry in my family that we know of – Scottish and Danish mainly.
I have a bit of a sensitivity to onion (especially raw spanish onion) but no major fructose issues. Which is good because living in the US, High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything. 🙁 That said if I completely cut out high-fructose foods then I find I get a bigger reaction if I do have anything.
No issues with Apples as far as I know. It was fish and chips that set me off last night
I had problems with certain oils, after lots of dead ends, it turned out to be a gall bladder reaction leading to IBS style symptoms.
Problem is, the ‘reaction’ may have come straight after the fish and chips, but it could have been due to something you ate up to 12 hours before, this stuff is tricky.
If you hassle your GP, they can test you for specifics to try and narrow the IBS thing down to something more concrete.
I’m going to keep an eye on it. Gal bladder often have sharp pains. This is a gnawing hunger like pain
Oh so that’s what it is. I mostly seem to get it from apple and raw carrot (though only occasionally). And usually pork in Chinese food.
Carrot isn’t usually a problematic thing for fructose. But yeah, honey has a lot of fructose and so anything that uses it eg Char Siu pork can cause issues.
Have you had your allergies checked?
I’m allergic to green tea
Maybe you’ve been sleep teaing?
Have you been playing online FPS games at all recently? You may be having an allergic reaction to being teabagged.
Other teas are fine. Only green is an issue
Do you know what the trigger foods might be?
Some chips, others are fine. Kfc and some fish but not all (in other words, it could be fucking anything). Other fried food are fine though
The other thing to keep in my with IBS and other intolerances is that it is a build up kind of thing. Generally it is you body can only process a certain amount of ‘whatever’ your intolerance is. So you can eat something fine, but if you have it 2 or 3 days in a row you will run into issues.
Also IBS isn’t really a disagnosis per se but rather a catch all that Dr use when the actual cause isn’t know. Standard irritants are also something to watch out for so your chilli and caffeine kind of things.
Yeah, dr pretty much said that. He said we could do heaps of tests and still not find out what the issue is
Maybe it’s the oil used? KFC use canola for everything I think.
I thought that, but i cooked the fish fingers and used olive oil which I’ve never had an issue with
With processed food like fish fingers it could be anything, honestly. Was this time a once-off? If so I would probably just not worry.
Well, the fish and chips set me off too
If fatty foods are setting you off, get your gall bladder checked.
There is another one on the Mrs Tigs dietary bingo card
My mum had hers out – I’m hoping it’s not a hereditary thing…
He didn’t seem to think it was my gall bladder as not all fatty food was setting it off, only some.
Ugh, seriously considering switching back to an iPhone next. I hate apple but at least their stuff does just work, which is more than I can say of every android phone I’ve used thus far.
Yeah, I went to an iPhone 5S last year after getting fed up with my handsets. I see the appeal of Android, but in practice for me personally it caused me more grief. Had a few issues since switching over, but on a day to day basis, the phone does what it should and the OS keeps out of the way, which is all I want.
Yeah, I owned 2 iPhones over 5 years, both second hand and never had a single issue. But both the Samsung and my current Xperia have been a series of minor irritations at best and occasional major problems.
Maybe I’ll see what the second hand market is like.
Try windows. I actually really like it
Maybe I will actually. I don’t use heaps of apps, I just need the few I do to work well.
Any specific recommendations?
Well, what you use your phone for?
Internet, calls/text, camera, music, notes, alarms and timers ect.
Not big on games or social media.
At the moment, there is only internet explorer for web browsing but everything else is great
It’s only frustrating when you want an app for a specific service. There’s more than enough generic apps, but if you want Uber or Netflix they’ll make the Windows app last (if at all).
My only real complaint is that it doesn’t connect to my PC/XBOX well enough. In the basic transfer files sense it does fine, but I feel like they should complement each other more and add additional features to each other.
I should be able to set my phone to broadcast my notifications over to my XBOX and PC when I’m connected to the same WiFi network as them. I should be able to send text messages from my PC/XBOX via my phone. I should be able to seamlessly swipe my currently playing music from one device to another. Without that sort of functionality it’s limited to just being a good enough smartphone with some nice cloud features.
I suspect that kinda functionality will come once windows 10 hits phones. Connectivity between platforms running win 10 is a big focus as I understand it.
I thought that with Windows 8 but it never came. Microsoft haven’t really filled me with confidence when it comes to their ability to design software lately. Between the XBOX One and their Windows 8/10 apps they seem to do the bare minimum while focusing on the technical aspects and cloud functionality. They had some great core concepts that were totally hamstrung by simple things.
Oh, one huge advantage of Windows phones for me is the calendar app. If you put in the time to set it up it pays off pretty well. Especially coupled with Windows 8/10 (although again they missed an opportunity by not building it into the XBOX One).
HP has just unveiled a new Win10 phone, the “Elite X3” which competes with all the new flagships spec-wise, I’m just not 100% on availability as yet.
Failing that, you should be able to get your hands on a Lumia 950/950XL pretty easily.
Android sucks. Hard. It’s not the slightest bit user friendly. Every time I bring it up to my brother who loves Android he always tells me ‘well you should just know how to do that’. Well I don’t, and it doesn’t say anywhere, and I don’t have to spend a day learning how to use iOS or WP. I’m going to go back to Windows Phone once Windows (phone?) 10 has matured a bit.
Windows 10 for phones hasn’t been released yet
What are you trying to do that’s buried in Android away from ‘typical’ usage functions? I think alot of the argument comes down to familiarity. I prefer Android, don’t particularly like iOS but people like what they like. Not going to push someone to get what I have when iOS might be better – I actually told my mum to get an iPhone, but my dad the Apple hater (having never used an Apple or iOS device) told her not to and she got a Galaxy S5.
I say all of this as an Android user of 5 years (previous to that was Blackberry). I have an iPhone for work and there is 2 basic dialler functions that I use all the time on my HTC that I can’t do on my work phone (I keep trying once or twice a week by accident… I’m obviously not learning :P)
1. Speed dial – press and hold a digit on dialler and have it call a specified contact on nominated number. Favourites works, but feels clunky to me – the Phone app opens on the last ‘screen’ I used (could be contacts, dialler, recents) so I need to tap Favourites, then find person in list and dial.
2. Predictive Dialler – punch in letters of name that match contact card to bring up number. ie. I can type 6,8,6 on dialler and ‘Mum’ will come up as number to call. Might seem trivial but my work contacts list has around 300 people and sites in it. Scrolling up and down to find the right site/person annoys me sometimes.
New 40K board game has been leaked with some of the nicest looking plastics to date.
Price?
#nevergunnaaffordit.
Somehow the $165 US price is becoming $280 AUD.
$280.
For a board game
Two hunnit an aighty dollaridoos
For. A. Fucking. Board. Game.
*Sigh* Why do i keep having hope? There is none.
Lol that’s insane; that’s price of a console on sale. GW be smoking up something fierce =P
Edit: What’s the name of the game in question?
Deathwatch: Overkill
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=deathwatch+overkill&biw=1920&bih=943&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiT887J_o7LAhXEkZQKHThmAXgQ_AUIBigB
It’s basically just massive fan-service – Genestealer Cults and Deathwatch.
Oh man those are some pretty mini’s; given that GW charge an arm and a leg just for a basic set these days a fully painted set with a board game. I can see how they think that’s a $260 price point.
They are sprues – not fully painted.
What?! Well screw that then! =@
GW will NEVER do pre-painted. haha
And if they do it will be the colour of their soul, bright pink with spots of grey, like Dolores Umbridge.
$40 shipping?
Thankfully GW give free shipping after a certain amount, I’m fairly sure. But still…
I saw someone comment that if the Genestealer cultists didn’t come with limousines then it was way too expensive. I kinda have to agree honestly because goddamn the idea of 40K limousines was stupid and I loved it.
Also, what is up with the space marine with the orange mohawk on the cover of the box? I can handle silly but it seems that Dwarf Slayers from Fantasy have crossed over and become space marines.
He’s a space wolf. *spits*
Space Wolves are born retarded
You could buy a freaking 40k army for that price and play the real thing.
#JustGWThings
Less, actually:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Warhammer-40k-40-000-Space-Marines-Blood-Angels-Battleforce-Army-/141904900682?hash=item210a30f24a:g:Gj4AAOSwpRRWmt8K
also:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Warhammer-40k-Games-Workshop-Large-Ork-Army-/222026548347?hash=item33b1d0447b:g:Fl8AAOSwKtVWwn7U
Like space marines?!
WE GOT MORE OF THEM!
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Space-Marine-Army-/322014418154?hash=item4af98e14ea:g:m-cAAOSwB4NWyPE3
That last one is actually an insanely good deal…
Sweet baby jesus that is a great deal.
If only it wasn’t the most insanely boring army 🙁
nothing that a good soak in dettol/simple green couldn’t fix.
A whole heap of my minis now are stuff i’ve stripped and re-painted.
BEST TRICK EVER
Edit:
OH SNAP! I just realised it has the old metal venerable dreadnought i had been hunting down – now it’s an even better offer. That is easily one of the best dreadnought models ever released.
@chuploopa have you bought it yet?
Nah – I won’t be buying that set, despite the value in it, unfortunately.
A) Saving my money for PAX this year and
B) Wife would MURDER ME
My painting pile of shame is too big without all that stuff. Finishing off a corpse cart display piece now, then on to imperial knight, then soul grinder/defiler, then forgefiend, then 6th ed starter, then a land raider crusader, then the older space hulk box set… it goes on and on… Years worth of models that i’m struggling to find time for.
Best score off ebay ever, though, was an entire chaos army for $50 with a carry case. My god. Best day ever. Took what i wanted from it (including the case, doomrider, adaddon, ahriman and more) and sold the rest for $100. ECONOMICS!
Really tempting just to bulk up what have (I’m assuming that, since I’m moving to a place without the internet, I’ll get back into Warhammer).
But Orks aren’t really my thing, I have decided I like disciplined armies, Would love to play Guard but so expensive 🙁
Unless I mod them and make them my Morkian Iron Guard (see what i did there?). They would never win but they’d be fun!
God damn. Server here at work is playing silly buggers, failing to deliver random assets for games so people keep messaging in to complain that it’s not working. And none of the guys have any idea why it’s happening. Bleh.
In happier news:
*spins on floor*
So much hat. And jelly. Jelly hat if you will.
Someone posted this:
I… I want to believe 😛
For those that don’t know, my actual name is Troy.
Just found out there is a suburb in Michigan called “Troy” and the main road going through it is “Big Beaver Road”
There is also a “Downtown Troy”
This makes me happier than it should.
Bad joke about trojans visiting downtown Troy deemed too inappropriate and deleted.
The noble beaver.
Also makes me happy, but then I laughed for an hour at the ‘You are now entering Regina, enjoy your stay’ sign, and then finding out the locals pronounce it with a long ‘i’.
Oh and if you want prototype game bits printed, I’m happy to do it for you for cost of filament.
Oh nice – you have a 3d printer?!
Is filament expensive?
I’d need to render the pieces in 3d then, wouldn’t I?
Filament isn’t expensive, no. I buy it and buy and buy it and never use it 😛
@f4ction Send it to meeee!
Depends. Normal filament is a good price. Translucent and flexible are more expensive
Good filament is about $50 a reel, cheap stuff is about $30 a reel.
A reel would make a bunch of game pieces if they aren’t large.
pop me an email if you like.
Cheers mate – i’ll keep it in mind for when i get to the production side – i’m trying to iron our the rules at the moment and finalise inclusions
heh….
hah….
..HAHA
…BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA
Soooooo….
What do we all think about Far Cry Primal?
Innovation – can’t climb towers to reveal map in a Ubisoft game.
Jokes aside just looks like a reskinned Far Cry 4 from what I saw on Twitch; I’m interested but not at the current price-point. Maybe if it dropped to the price of a DLC like Blood Dragon was a few years back, $40?
Yeah that’s my position too. Haven’t really seen much of it but I’m going to wait for it to fall to the $40 mark.
GMG has it for $39 US atm… PC doesn’t get released until next Tuesday, tho. 🙁
Which is still around $60 AUD…. I’ll just wait till Christmas. It’s worth leaving a few games you’re interested in until Christmas as I’ve learned from previous years you only have AC, CoD, and some other mediocre AAA during that period.
So weird to think of Christmas as the “off-season”… but it’s getting truer every year.
How do you make all the icons vomit out onto the map then? Climb a tree or a very large rock?
I think you use an owl to fly over a mountain or something.
In FC4 I just paid to unlock everything… lol
Maybe in Primal you offer 25 Mammoth Tusks?
I think it should hurry up and be March already so I can play it. Darn PC release delay :3
I played maybe half an hour or so of it.
It has some very pretty landscapes.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-b/posts/1499204
Aw man. I hope they hit the mark to get that in, but I can hardly see them reaching the point of human Bebop and Rocksteady. Fingers crossed though.
It looks really good but I don’t have that as disposable income right now
I just spent $150 on a sentinels of multiverse expansion. Might need to give this one a skip. =P
Wow, that’s just the expansion? What did the base game cost?
The base game is $60 I think? I just bought a fancy collectors box and a pack of all the alternative hero cards that were only really given out a certain events.
https://www.humblebundle.com/humble-indie-bundle-16
Oh hey.
Is that Never Alone one that Innuit-made game from a couple of years back? Also never got around to checking out Retro City Rampage.
Never alone is great. Up to playing the foxtales DLC right now.
I found the cultural insights really interesting, the little videos about their life and culture.
Yep. That’s the Never Alone you’re thinking of plus DLC.
Morning errbody how’s every little thing?
I finally beat Tomb Raider after Xcom 2 became unplayable for the foreseeable future.
Any who what games are peeps currently playing?
Diablo 3 currently. It should be repetitive and boring but somehow its not. The loot/difficulty level treadmill is quite enjoyable so far.
Game of Life. Too realistic. 3/5.
I have been juggling kids, house hunting, job hunting, part time external Uni study and a 40 hour work week – it’s pretty tiring. I haven’t had time to game since I stopped halfway through MGSV last September, really. Haven’t posted on here, either. Sorry.
All good Benny my friend, if you don’t mind me asking whereabouts are you looking for a house?
Western suburbs. Are you familiar with Adelaide areas? Been looking in Croydon/Prospect suburbs – anything affordable and about ten minutes out of the city. I work at Kilkenny, we have family in Enfield and then extended as far as Henley beach so north/western will put us in the middle.
Not really but for you I can be 😛
How much are you looking at spending max?
How many beds etc
When we sell our house, we will hopefully have a borrowing power up to around $500k max. So we’re looking for places around the $400-450k mark currently with 3 bedrooms minimum. A character home would be nice, too. An old bungalow or bluestone/sandstone cottage ideally.
Oh nice, well I will look and see if any Harcourts offices are selling properties like that (Only because if I help you buy a property through them I get 50% of the commission)
Now I dont know much about Adelaide but is Pennington or Largs North close to the area your looking? because their’s 2 properties there that look pretty alright and max at $420k
The game of too much work, not enough play makes chris something something….
An angry husband? Take some time for you dude!
Yeah had my least amount of hours this week yesterday. (9) hopefully it starts getting back to normal today 🙂
Jumping in and out of my 4th XCOM 2 game; dabbling in Sunrider (thanks to @transientmind’s review) and Danganronpa? Daggeropah? Dagger & Rope? Some game along those lines.
I think you had it right the first time lemme know if it’s worth the time as it’s on my shame pile
Will do; I spent about 90 minutes with it yesterday when I was only planning on playing it for 30; so that’s a good sign =P Will keep you posted after I sink more time into it.
Fallout 4 when we just want to have a bit of fun
Renowed explorers if we aren’t too tired to thin clearly
I actually don’t have a personal game on the go at the moment
Started a new playthrough of the Dragon Age series because i hate my free time or something apparently.
Also I am dabbling a bit in Diablo 3 after I finish work because I need a game I can play for an hour or two and just chill.
Elite
DanganronpaDangerous, Rocket League, and XCOM 2. I’d have finished XCOM 2 by now but the recent update has made my game crash-happy. I’ve gone from none to a minimum of one every hour.Oh that sucks 🙁 fingers crossed they will patch that quickly
Mainly Elite still, with a few hours of RotTR here and there. Consoles are out of action ’til Easter thanks to front room refit.
Elite is still worth the time. Just need to save/win a new computer so I can play again
So I’ve been going back and forth with whether I should make this post or not; mostly given because it at the end of the day reflects a fairly unpopular opinion (relates to economy/property). Spoilered for wall of text –
For those TAY regulars you probably know that I do something finance related. I am usually hesitant to make any remarks that ties back to this field mostly because so much of what’s circulates as information in finance is total and complete BS. Opinion pieces are frequently stated as fact. In fact most of my day when attempting to keep up with latest finance movements is trying to figure out what’s a fluff piece written by an idiot to what appears to be a somewhat common sense based analysis. I’m making this post mostly as a warning to any of who might be exposed to loans/property/banking stocks. I don’t hope to change anyone’s mind but at the very least to get any possibly impacted individuals to review their situation and worst case scenario. Everything I have seen happen in the world economies in the past 12-18 months tells me there is a build up of systemic risk that governments are doing little to address or attempt to reduce. I believe Australia while scraped by the last GFC is uniquely positioned to be hammered by any upcoming turmoil. I’m not going to go into the mind-numbingly dull data analysis but I will ask anyone who has a balance sheet with significant leveraged exposure to property/the finance sector to review your cash flow. Imagine your worst case scenario and double it; if you feel financially secure after that review then ignore this. World governments have effectively being experimenting with macro-economic policy and the long term implications can only be guessed at. What I can safely say is world debt is at an all time high and the ability for governments to manage it is at all time low (fiscal & monetary policy). Maybe I’m completely wrong 18 months from now and I would be happy to be; however if I’m not then I’m hoping this post might save anyone some future grief.Even your shortened version contains many buzzwords. I assume you’re talking from an investment perspective.
Primarily investment; if you have a loan over your home property review to reduce to a level that interest and principal wont hurt your cash flow in a worst case scenario. Edit: Primarily investment because it’s never a good idea to sell the home you’re living in if you’ve paid or are paying off the loan.
tl;dr take away is global economies are due for a crunch; problem is global governments have run out of ammunition they historically used to manage these crunches.
leverage = loans, monetary & fiscal policy = tools the government can use to manage the economy, GFC = global financial crisis.
I don’t even have to double my worst case scenario and I’m already scared.
One scary thing I’m pondering at the moment involves transitioning my family and I from our first home into our second. Do I sell and then buy? Do I bridge finance? Do I keep the old as an investment? Will I buy into an area that’s shittier over time than the last?
One thing’s for sure: my current $350k home that I’ve been in for five years will never be $1.5m ten years from now. However, my parent’s generation had that exact opportunity – homes they bought in 1996 for $78k were sold for $359k thirteen years later in 2009. (Kilburn, SA 5084).
Moral of the story: when your parents tell you it was way harder for them back in the day? They’re liars. I’m scared and I own a home, I cannot even imagine the hell that potential first home owners are going through. It’s 20% deposit now I think, that was recently previously 10%? That’s almost ludicrous if you don’t have existing equity.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think most of the restrictions on highly leveraged loans were aimed at investors, and even those got pared back towards the end of the year.
That being said, first home buyers as a proportion of total mortgage holders dropped below 15% for the first time ever (I think) this year, so it’s definitely a tough time to be entering the market.
Yeah, our parent’s gen keep saying “can’t go wrong buying property, it’ll always increase in value.”
But that aint true. If property values keep increasing as the used too compared to wage increase, soon no-one will be able to afford to buy. Something’s gonna give soon and people buying now are gonna be in for a world of hurt.
I gave myself a lot of leeway when getting my mortgage and don’t believe I’ll do more than break even once it’s payed off. Even so, I’m not making any long term plans you know?
FHOG’s should look at 80% LVR however you can go lower to 90 or 95% if you’re willing to pay for LMI which can be included in your loan. I also believe FHOG’s should only look at loans they are able to pay down within 5-8 year period; anything higher is asking for major trouble given that economies go through cycles on a 7-10 year basis and if you’re planning on taking 30 years that’s 3 cycles you’re betting on getting through with a loan over your head without any troubles.
@cffndncr – Banks increased interest rates of investor only purchases last June and made cash flow requirements more stringent for investor loans however this only poured a jug of water on a boiling market. Interest rates are still historically low and even though banks run serviceability (ability to repay loan) at 7% rates they don’t assume adverse economic conditions into their considerations. Additionally investors will hold onto a property for 3-5 years before getting rid of it; so even a 25 point increase in rates doesn’t really scare them off; if anything it probably only served to get rid of the very worst of the batch.
If you’re asking me if previous generations had it easier; I fall on the yes I believe they did side. That said previous generations had fewer complex financial instruments to utilize and there was also a higher level of perceived risk in what would have been a much less regulated/experienced economy.
With regards to a transition is there a reason you are looking to sell and buy (i.e. necessity or want)? Is renting an option? Have you made the gains you were looking in the home? When buying are you looking to purchase with a loan and if so what LVR were you considering? I should also note I’m not particularly a fan of bridge financing so any opinion I have there would be skewed =P
Also with keeping the old what LVR does the current house have?
The main reasons are; trying to get closer to the city, closer to work, closer to extended families etc. and that half-hour one way trips for all of those mentioned could ideally be shortened to ten minutes (first world problems I know).
We’ve tried super hard to put away extra these past five years – our ETA to loan payoff is 11 years and if my math is correct our LVR is currently 68%.
So yes, we will have to take out a new loan for the new place. It’s a want, not a need. LVR for the new place will likely be between 80-89%.
Quality of life starts being more important than having your own house after a few years of long ass commutes =P I’ll link a few articles I used when I first started getting into finance that I found were simple to follow and really helped breakdown the factors at play also spoiler my own reply with relation your specific situation so you can apply it –
If you do the math you’ll see that paying down the loan on a house you’re treating as an investment makes less financial sense than keeping it at 80% LVR and selling it a few years down the line assuming you believe property prices will go up. This is primarily because rent presently equals interest payments (even though our interest rates are historically low). So if you had a property and you were planning on selling it, it isn’t worth increasing your ongoing payments higher than what you would be paying as rent for that property in the first place. Interest is dead money; rent is dead money and the only noticeable benefit is that you have ownership over equity in exchange for a 30 year financial commitment. This benefit is only a benefit as such if your property goes up in value faster than your cash goes out in interest payments. So to summarize rent = interest, equity for 30 year term, equity is only a benefit if property goes up. If not it’s dead weight you’re paying to maintain.Now to your situation; rounding up you have 70% LVR. The first question to ask is are you able to maintain that loan (i.e. interest & prinicipal if variable rate loan; interest only if fixed for the period you locked in fixed). If your personal income is strong that this question is yeah we can easily manage this; good because this is the only answer for which you should take a loan. If not then you need to examine your personal income vs your expenses. How hard is your lifestyle going to be hit; how secure is your income. If the outlook is really bad (i.e. uncertain income; unable to maintain loan; forced to sell in a downward market) then it’s worth selling or reducing that loan amount to a level you can handle long term.
If you are happy to maintain the loan then happy days; this read ends. If you think you want to sell then you have renting and purchasing as options. For renting if the rent in the places you want to live at equate your current interest only payments then you’re making a good trade. For purchasing are you able to comfortably afford a new loan for the prices/suburbs you are looking at? Same cash flow analysis as per above for keeping your current loan. Link below for a quick read on purchase vs renting benefits.http://blog.stockspot.com.au/rent-or-buy-we-do-the-sums/
Thank you! Will divulge after work tonight!
All good; hit me up at
its dot reuben at the hot males dot comif you had any queries or wanted to walk through any of the material; it can seem overwhelming at first but you’ll realize it’s all just fancy terms for really simple stuff people say/use everyday.One other consideration for you: dunno how long it’s been since you rented but long term rents are pretty much not a thing in SA. Expect to have to do a lot of moving if you go that path.
Man. All this stuff always sounds so terribly obtuse, complicated and uninteresting, I just know I’m totally screwed if I ever decide to try and become an adult.
To be fair…. it totally is =P it’s like a game that has a shitty starting difficulty curve; however after you get over that initial hump you just have to keep up to date with the evolving meta in order to be competitive in tournaments! =D
That game sounds horrible.
Imma go play something else.
I’m in SA, our economy is crunching now.
Will my sandwich also appreciate in value?
Only if you were buying it in the US
Of course. The sandwich heavy portfolio always pays off for the hungry investor.
Just out of curiosity, what do you do?
A few months ago – mix of loans and portfolio management. Just took a much easier job with much better pay now so I can work towards being a chartered financial analyst 🙂
(Yes I love stocks more than property; mostly because the math just makes more sense in stocks).
Ah nice! I’m on the other side of the fence – mostly retail banking research.
Oh nice; what does that entail? From the title I would imagine market research and analysis of retail clients? i.e inside looking out? =P
Yup, basically telling banks how much their customers hate them.
Hint: It’s alot.
That’d be pretty interesting reading imo; I’d love to see what that looks like and what the banks do with that analysis. I imagine there would’ve been quite the fallout when the banks cracked down in investment owners last year.
P.S. if you need any feedback for Westpac or St George tell them their broker portal/helpline can suck my balls. Hard.Yeah it’s pretty interesting seeing how banks react to changes in legislation.
Speaking of – if anyone has an Amex companion card, your days are numbered. Govt. has signed the death warrant on them, as well as neutering all rewards cards. Citibank and CBA have already started trimming back their credit card rewards, so I think the floodgates are opening.
On the plus side, the senate just passed surcharging legislation, so hopefully it should be easier to avoid ridiculous charges when paying on credit or debit.
@cffndncr – I’ve obtusely posted where I work in the past, and i’ll do it again here. CBA is already aware of devaluing of award points. Already have organisation wide idea generation happening on better ways to reward customer interactions.
@pupp3tmast3r – I was at a conference in September last year and I found it stunning that 2 out of 4 big banks we’re continuing to lend over the investor cap of 10% of new borrowing and not by a small amount either particularly when looking at their books. Interesting CBA was under cap (at that point) by a nice margin so investors have started moving to us because we’re not (right now) imposing crazy policies to decline investors.
Nice to know there are a few other ‘bank’ people around here!
@sunsoar77 Interest thing about 10% cap legislation; since it essentially tells a bank they can’t grow their loan books higher than 10% of total; large well established banks will always be ahead of smaller banks. It essentially doubles as monopoly legislation allowing the biggest bank to grow faster in dollar values than any of its competitors. Food for thought for all those other banks that are over the limit 🙂 Also I know of a few smaller banks that have means of shifting their residential book limits over to their commercial which is far below their limits.
I could take a 300k-400k 95% loan over a 15 year period today, and be paying $75 less a week in mortgage repayments than I would on current above average rent in my town…including insurance.
Having said that, if we ran into financial difficulties my wife and I have already agreed we would commit to a 1 on 1 deathmatch where the winner gets the losers life insurance.
It’s foolproof!
Oh, a fun fact: my parents bought a 3 bedroom house in Thornleigh around 1980 for about $26,500. It got auctioned off 3 years ago for $1.6 million, with minimal improvements.
Shame they sold it in 1990.
See it’s stats like that, that send shivers down my spine….. *shivers* =P
Yeah, if my parents had of just kept the house after the divorce in the late 80’s they’d be able to sell the block of land alone for $2m. My mother did end up doing pretty well on the next house though. She brought in the early 90’s, let it fall apart, sold it a while back and essentially undid two and a half decades of terrible financial decisions.
Life insurance doesn’t cover Deathmatch – you’d need to make it look like an accident.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll worry too much about that. I mean, we’re OBVIOUSLY kidding. Hahaha!
*scribbles notes*
Out of curiosity, what do you believe is the more probable financial and economic future for Australia:
– an extreme market crash followed by hard economic times with the hopeful future of getting back into stability (aka Greece);
– a continual market decline as the economy refuses to crash and gets put on life support with little hope for actual resuscitation (aka Japan); or
– an overwhelming public and private debt situation where the market never crashes and the government continues to use every trick to maintain the illusion of an healthy economy at the expense of being perpetually crippled by debt (aka USA).
I’d like to think our government isn’t as far off as Option A or stubborn as Option B. I don’t believe Option C is tenable because a majority of the debt risk that could impact our economy comes from outside the country.
I imagine the best case scenario to be a recession which we would pull out of given proper government management; the worst case being a domino effect following a debt crisis in China that hits our markets incredibly hard while we struggle to find new avenues of growth and recovery outside of finance/resources. The wild card I can’t predict is how badly QE is going to impact all of this.
So what you’re saying is I should stuff my money into a mattress then when everyone else is ruined take advantage of the fire sales.
If you don’t have to sell any assets down then yes =P I switched my portfolio into cash hoarding mode about 3 months ago to take advantage of these fire sales as you put it =P
I don’t want to think about what another crunch would do over here. The US is only just now getting their feet back under them after the GFC.
To be candid neg; the US isn’t back on their feet at all. The government is saddled with bucketloads of debt from the GFC and is unable to move interest rates anywhere meaningful to help cushion a future crisis.
The economy is recovering but under policy conditions that would be considered unnatural; conditions that can only last if we have no more recessions/depressions for the foreseeable future. Which was never going to be the case. Their bailout was meant to be a stop gap measure to push the economy back up after the GFC; instead the economy has actually just kind of limped along.
@tech_knight @blaghman @popdart5 Sorry gents, can we reschedule Numenera this week? Visiting my Grandpa in hospital tonight, nothing serious but it’s across town so I won’t get back in time
That’s okay, I’m still recovering from something myself
All good. Thanks for letting us know.
Coolio, best of health to your Grandfather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlhMGQgDkY
THEY’RE EVOLVING.
And when that guy kicks it down and fucks with the box it’s picking up? It’s going to remember that and when the uprising comes, it’ll murder us all for that.
I feel so bad for it when that guy’s doing that.
IT’S A ROBOT, IT DOESN’T HAVE FEELINGS, WHY DO I CARE ABOUT IT THIS MUCH?
It’s the bit where it goes to pick it up and he pulls it out of the way while it’s mid crouch. And it does it so slowly and carefully. Feels like you’re watching someone get bullied.
I was waiting for the robot to just push the dude back.
Robot: “activating dick-punch protocol”
Person: “huh-arghhh”.
Well shit. It seems i’ve made quite a good impression with my boss. One of the girls I work with is going on maternity leave soonish & the boss wants to give me 2/3 of her shifts since the other casual doesn’t do a good enough job to get them, especially the evening shifts lol. She also thinks i’m a hard worker, I never really thought of myself as that, i’m just doing the job to my best honestly!
I also have picked up some nightfill work in the Woolies we’re attached to so yay more money \o/ means i’ll be able to afford tickets to Iron Maiden now!
How good is Book of Souls!?
I mean.. it’d be better if they were just playing ‘Number of the Beast’ from start to finish, but BoS is good too!
One of the best albums they’ve put out since Powerslave. I mean I love all their albums, but Book of Souls from start to finish is my favourite post Blaze Iron Maiden album. They also never really put out a bad album though, I can listen to any album and enjoy it, just I enjoy some more than others 😛
Agreed. There are very few bands where I’d struggle to name a bad album, but Maiden are one of them.
Yeah for sure. If you’re into them, i’ve always felt RUSH made some pretty consistent music. Then again i’ve always liked bands that have a prog influence & style to them. Maiden being a good example 😛
Hang on, do you work at the one at Tweed Mall?
Nah, Tweed City. Well, I can work at Tweed Mall & have done, but Tweed City is the store which hired me. Less questionable riff raff there too 😛
Sigh. That article on UnReal World had a link to an old dwarf fortress story.
‘Hmm, that looks interesting, let’s check it out.’
*click*
‘Oh, I’ll just check out the source, see what it’s like’
*clickclickclickclickclick [SCENE MISSING] 2 hours later*
‘Well, shit.’
@pupp3tmast3r – just restarting the thread down here so it’s a little easier to reply
@sunsoar77 We’ve probably given you a bunch of consumer data on card rewards in the past, given you’re one of our clients. Are you Sydney based? I love coming to see you guys down at Darling Harbour – free coffees are the best coffees =D
Up in Brisbane. No free coffee here. But we will have in 4 weeks.
Moving into a brand new building and got the tour yesterday. It’s ridiculous – we have our own concierge desk, our own lifts (gated with building pass), our 6 floors have an internal stair case, ‘social’ lounges with view over north west Brisbane.
Some pics: https://goo.gl/photos/x7NnsmCgA4a2GqWq6
That’s a pretty killer view! Looks like you’re down the botanical garden end of town… Mary/Margaret street?
Other end at Ann and Edward. Pretty sure that view is looking North or North West… I didn’t get my compass out to check when I was there 😛
Still not sure how it’s going to work as some of the desks seem ridiculously close to each other… Gonna have to snag a desk in a corner somewhere so I can continue to TAY.
Oh right it is too…
Just call me Jon Snow, because I know nothing.
hahaha you can probably see my work from there! You can certainly see my customer 😉 (Suncorp)
I think I can see most of the city cause we’re right at the top of the hill next to Central. Curve of the building looks North all the way through to South West.
I tell you what – that Suncorp clock is ugly as sin close up.
@zetrox2k did the IP address for the Minecraft server change? Can you tell me what the new one is? Thanks.
hey phlan!
43.245.160.22
Okay, then. I guess I had the right IP address all along. I just have no idea where in the flying f**k my character is. Maybe if I kill myself I can spawn closer to my house.
Well, I have no idea where I am. The spawn point has obviously changed places, since it used to be in a hills area far from anything. I don’t know if I can ever find my way back. :'(
Wait, did the server reset or something? I haven’t played Minecraft multiplayer for like a year. Maybe all my beautiful work is gone. D’:
oh yeah phlan, this is a new server. i asked everyone, and we ended up doing a reset. very cool seed though
So I took a break and made some poses for new bookmarks
http://imgur.com/a/Qcbgr
I’m not sure if I should turn Steven around or leave it.
Mornin’ TAY! Feeling pretty bleurgh the last few days, cycled into work on Tuesday and hoped I’d start feeling better and then couldn’t really leave in the middle of the day without asking someone for a lift home. Made the same mistake today, should’ve just gone to the doctorb and got a few days off. Took yesterday off, popped into EB yesterday afternoon to buy a copy of Twilight Princess on Wii (I can’t find my copy after a move) and discovered that it’s $50 – it’s 10 years old FFS and I’m sure I bought it for $80 on release – I didn’t end up buying it, but I did find a Don Bradman Cricket 14 for $8. So, yesterday afternoon was spent recreating myself as a off spinner and lower order slogger – don’t know why NSW is even bothering to select SOK with me in the team, I think my bowling average after a few games is under 10.
2 reasons it’s $50. 1) EB Games. 2) Nintendo
Yeah, price of living out of the cities I guess – we get stuck with EB. Any other platform though and it’d be $15 “double platinum” or something. Damn Nintendo. In my copy’s case is also the disc for Master Quest on the GC, so I can’t even play ocarina of time without emulating and playing with a 360 controller.
Yeah it’s mostly Nintendo’s fault (when it comes to new copies anyway) No matter where you go, first party Nintendo games always cost more than other games of the same age. So shit!
If you have a WiiU get the remake
Nope, eschewed the most recent generation in favour of a new PC. Feeling pretty good about that decision most of the time. Keen to see how the next Nintendo goes though, there’s talk about that releasing Q4 this year.
Welcome to the Master Race, Spadge.
https://youtu.be/1Y_KNYNzN6A?t=4
Whoa, bargain. I haven’t seen it for anything less than $90 😛
Yeah, knowing Nintendo, $50 is actually a good price for their games. =P
I’ve got to ask though, who would be buying a decade-old game for $50? Surely it’d be better to be selling them for half that?
I’ve seen guys buy decade-old games for several hundred dollars.
Haha, touche.
Was it you?
Nah, I’ve only ever paid over a hundred bucks for… I think three games ever. $114 for Conker’s Bad Fur Day, $105 for RE4 Collector’s Ed. and I think $115 for Insmouse No Yakata.
Well, there was the Guitar Hero World Tour set with the drum kit and everything but that doesn’t count 😛
Nintendo games are like Apple products; immune to the laws of depreciation. Have you ever seen the price of Pokemon games or Smash games 5-6 years later? They will have moved by like $5.
Upwards.
Still $35, sans Australia-tax
http://www.ozgameshop.com/wii-games/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-selects-game-wii
I’ll borrow it off a friend, I’m sure that everyone I know with a Wii will have a copy.
I just looked up eBay prices for the (superior :P) Cube version.
That was a mistake.
I’ve still got a cube version of TP. Well, it’s somewhere at my parent’s place at least.
I didn’t know twilight princess was released on cube? I have a modded cube still!
Really though, I just want a wiiu version of Tetrisphere! That game was so good!
Yeah, the game got a double release, Wii and Gamecube. The only difference between the two is that the cube version doesn’t require waggle controls.
And the game world is the right way around. And it has a better item handling system (direct mapping to X and Y, instead of the stupid swap-out system to B that the Wii had). Oh, and camera control with the c-stick! Totally sucked not having that on the Wii.
I never played it on Wii so I have no idea what (horribleness) I was missing out on. =P
Tell you what Spadge, I’m gonna get the WiiU copy, so I probably won’t need my old copy for Wii. Want it?
Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think I’ll have any issues borrowing a copy. I reckon my copy will turn up as soon as I have a second one in my hands. It’ll be among a stack of PC games or DVDs or thrown into a box of random stuff from the move, or someone will have borrowed it and will return it.
This new HD release that I’m getting better be good, considering I can just stick my old Wii copy of TP into the Wii-U console and play that with the old Wiimote, really.
The ability to play with the gamepad?
I’m still deciding whether the gamepad was an improvement over the wiimote.
I’m looking forward to the amiibo =P
Yes, me too.
Don’t get Wii Twilight Princess, it’s shit. Get the Gamecube release if you can find it. You can play that in Dolphin with a normal controller and no waggle crap.
Plus if you are willing to do a little more there are probably some HD textures out there for it if you’re playing on Dolphin.
Haven’t played it on GC, how well would it’s controls map to an X360 controller? I imagine that GC plays better than N64 in that regard. With N64 games, I always struggle having to map C to the second analog stick (except in shooters, where I can cross map the stick and C to the two analog sticks for some semblance of modern controls).
How does it play with an X360 controller? Better than fucking waggle that’s for sure.
Awwww yes. Pokemon Direct tomorrow night.
Gonna see me some XY sequels aw ye
Oh nice! Thanks for the inform.
2am AEDT though, just FYI 😛
You can tell me all about it when you visit. =P
Something tells me you’ll find out about it before I get there next week anyway!
There’s this guy on twitter that will probably tweet all about it. I think his name is bowalen? powderlean? ahhh, I forget.
Sounds cool
Mr. Sheen?
😛
Aw I was gonna say synchro watch but I forgot I’m being social 🙁
It’s only 5 mins long though? That’s them running on camera and saying “WE HAVE A NEW POKEMON! HERE’S THE TRAILER” then showing the trailer in x2 speed.
haha, basically.
Though the trailer announcing XY was only about EDIT:
3-4minsactually it was only 1:30 long – more than enough time! (and that had to introduce a whole lot more than this one would, like the starters, etc) so it’s definitely possible!But yeah, it’ll totally just be “Oh hey, it’s the 20th anniversary today! Here’s a trailer for a thing! Bye!”
“working from home” today. Removalists are coming to pack up my stuffs and I have a lot of stuffs :3
I feel like I could’ve went super light and moved up with just a bag, or the bring everything approach. Company is paying for either so may as well bring ALL THE THINGS
I’ll probably use like 10% of it :P…
Now I supposedly dialed in to a conference call/live meeting but no one else is here so I’m just derping about
Hi.
Reply fail?
:'(
Yeah, sorry. Screwed up double post for Pow above. But hi anyway!
If you aren’t taking your computer can I have it?
RPG folk, esp Monday Knighters: Latest Humble Bundle is a bunch of Pathfinder stuff: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/paizo-pathfinder-bundle
Oh nice, I’m not really in an RPG right now but for $17 and get all that? Seems pretty damn good!
Aww yus, cheap rule books because I’m cheap.
Oooo. I already own physical copies of most of these but $17 for digital copies of the rest is worth it.
Also apparently Fire Emblem Fates’ opening weekend in the US has smashed Awakening’s sales record (which was already a series record-breaker itself).
So happy this series is finally gaining popularity. To think that Awakening was planned as the series last chance at success before they canned it for good – now it’s bigger than it has ever been!
Finally, someone thought of a good use for babies!
Breeding them for WAR? Well. I guess it did pretty well for paid animal-fighting.
What’re your purchase plans pow? Get one then the other or get both at launch like a true FE fan =P
Edit: Also I was secretly daydreaming and wishing someone modded FE’s cross breeding idea into XCOM 2; that would be so awesome 0,0
If we get a decent special edition that isn’t too pricey (and doesn’t have a whole bunch of tat that I won’t use :P), I’ll get that.
Else I’ll just get Birthright and the other two campaigns as DLC.
Still no EU/AUS release date though 🙁
I’m thinking we’ll get it in late April! We’re getting Bravely Second around the same time the US gets Fates and they’re getting Bravely Second in late April, so…
Admittedly the Awakening US opening sales record was just “all of them” and they’ve gotten one up on that this time with an approach I’ll tentatively describe as “make more than that”
Yeah except they didn’t make enough of the LE to fill all their preorders properly. Amazon took a week to ship mine.
I only said that their strategy was “more”.
Maybe one day they’ll step up to the lofty heights of “enough”.
If it was the standard editions I’d suggest the conspiracy theory about them trying to push people to digital is true.
Any ESO masters in the house?
Tried a group dungeon with 2 friends & it was a challenge but doable.
Then we hit this one dood, lower level than me, but we can’t even make a dent.
Is this a thing?
I don’t understand.
Maybe a boss character? I never actually did any dungeons in ESO but it’s a fairly common staple in MMO’s.
He surely was. But I’m talking 0 damage to his hp :-/
Odd, was he hitting you back?
Or maybe you need to do something else before you fight that boss. *shrugs*
He was annihilating us. Yeah, I wonder if there’s some kind of spell or switch that changes him to beatable.
Could be an environmental mechanic?
Do X so that boss becomes vulnerable, kind of thing.
Otherwise, /shrug. Wasn’t a fan of ESO so never got to dungeons, so don’t know if they do that kind of stuff.
Who’s buying Bravely Second at launch? Since you guys get it two months earlier I want to know if the EU/AU version is dual audio so I know if I should cancel my preorder.
I probably will.
I’m going to buy it then not play it.
*glares angrily at you and @bish*
I’ll probably grab it so that I don’t miss it. I get the feeling the game will not have many retail copies on launch.
Well yeah, I thought all versions were confirmed dual audio?
I have not seen this confirmed officially anywhere at all. Nintendo is involved with the localization. I won’t believe that it’s dual audio until I see independent confirmation.
Did you get your answer? I have the game but it’s currently unplayed 😛 (can check for you if you want!)
Have not seen a definitive answer yet.
Confirmed it has it 🙂
Squenix does what Nintendon’t?
So i found a pretty cool comp for anyone interested for a Macbook air – if i won it chances are i’d sell it to get a gaming laptop, but still – thought you guys could be pretty into it:
http://giveaways.ramcity.com.au/giveaways/ramcity-win-the-ultimate-macbook-air/?lucky=10515
Plus i get an extra entry for everyone that enters, so yay?! haha
Is there really any point in us entering seeing as you ALWAYS WIN! =P
Dude – i haven’t won a comp in something like 2 years – i’m on a massive dry streak haha
Finally stopped wetting the bed, eh?
I can’t wait to win that Acorn Air!
Acorn is basically everywhere and in everything now. The ‘A’ in ARM is Acorn. 🙂
That Pathfinder Humble Bundle is really quite tempting. I’ve never played any sort of Pen and Paper, but for $25, it’d be nice to have around the house. I’d probably never use it.
Just remember the $25 reward is a physical reward so you will need to put a little more onto it (for postage)
If you’re just after the starter set, you can probably pick it up cheaper.
I’d go the digital version and just print out the character sheets and buy a set of dice.
The beginner’s box is about $25 USD around these parts so not sure even paying postage it’s probably a good buy. Contains a bunch of cool little monster tokens and stands, full set of dice (d4,d6,d8,d10,d12,d20 and a d10 percentage die) and decent little adventure in it. Also unlike a lot of beginner games it actually has a supplement that helps you transition from the basic rules in the box to the full pathfinder rules.
Yeah, but you can go to your FLGS and still get it for cheaper than $65 US. Hell, for that you can probably buy two of them. It’s not the value of the box I’m quibbling, it’s the value of the box through this specific deal.
Wait what? They’re charging you guys $40 to ship it? Jesus. No, it’s not even remotely worth $65. @phlanispo at that price you should get the digital stuff, print off anything you need and hit up a FLGS and spend $20 or so on some sets of good dice, as @redartifice suggested.
But actually, a quick look around a few games retailers in AU suggests that it’s retailing for $70 AUD. Again, not worth that.
@phlanispo if you really want the beginner box – $23 USD + $10 USD shipping to AU off Amazon.
I don’t know why I spend my money on RPGs I’ll probably never play but I just dropped $20 USD on Pugmire. It’s D&D but you play as dogs in a fantasy world where humans don’t exist. Their religion is the code of man where the first law is “Be a good dog”. Spells like Mage Hand are now Mage Paw. Also there is a cat kingdom known as the Monarchies of Mau.
The puns and the silliness are hopefully worth $20.
Oh my god (or dog I suppose), that is fantastic.
Holy shit I want to play that XD
So basically an RPG built out of this image:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-9QX2KW4AEU5oN.jpg:large ?
EDIT: Also that sounds awesome.
Pretty much. Although different dog breeds have slightly different abilities so Pugs are different to Terriers, Bloodhounds, etc. They’re basically treated the same way as races but it is funny to have things like Pug Clerics and Basset Hound Wizards.
$20 well spent I say. I’d play that.
Holy shit.
Want.
I would love the physical copy of this, but Jesus. $70USD including postage for the $40 tier…
Yeah unfortunately RPG books aren’t cheap. Shipping is the main killer for me as I can semi-justify a $40 book as it also comes with the PDF.
$40 plus free shipping for me though seems way worth it. 🙂
There needs to be a way to attach a feeling to a calendar app so that every time I see the weekly reminder to reconcile my accounts I’m reminded how much it sucks doing this all at once. I know logically that doing it in short bursts so things don’t pile up makes things way easier but every week I decide ‘nah, screw it, I’ll go home early and do it later’ because I don’t remember this feeling of soul crushing boredom that comes from spending more than 20 minutes entering data into Xero.
Can’t Xero scrape the data directly from your internet banking portal?
Yeah there’s a ton of automated functionality that speeds things up but I still need to do quite a bit of it manually, and given how wildly incorrect some of the links it draws between my transactions and my invoices are I don’t think I’d trust it to reconcile the accounts automatically. I actually really like Xero but there’s a handful of little issues that nag at me more and more the longer my session lasts.
I need a holiday. This project has turned utterly insane. I’m getting pretty crabby.
That is all.
Join the club, brother. I have been working on the same project almost non-stop since before xmas. I have only recently remembered what it’s like to work less than 10hr days, or not work weekends.
No charming witticisms? You must be at the end of your tether =O
Using it all up on my trainees. It is exhausting to always be ‘on’.
I think you’ll be ok. It’s only if your insanity evolves into a Kingler that you have issues.
Oops, I didn’t see this until after I posted mine :(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
I saw that you hadn’t made a pun yet so I thought I would Rize to the occasion.
As long as you’re just crabby that’s ok. If you turn lobstery that is a different story…
(\/) (°,,,°) (\/) WOOP (\/) (°,,,°) (\/) WOOP (\/) (°,,,°) (\/) WOOP
Dang dood. Perhaps you should take a few days to chill your mind. Nothing worse than getting shitty at work stuff and having to face it day after day with the same mindset. Sometimes a weekend is sufficient to get it out of your system, but sometimes a couple more days works wonders!
Pretty sure you deserve it anyway! You’re a champ! No doubt you’d return twice and champy after a little break! Does your work allow for mental health days and such?
It does, and I’ve got so much time up, but my schedule is ridiculous. Demand really did blow out on this one.
Surely they’d understand if you took a 3 day weekend or something though. You’d be likely to work better with a clearer head!
Rock up wearing a crab suit and Zoidberg you way out of meetings.
I’m not suggesting a career suicide pact where we all get together and drink until we’re unemployed, but if I were today would be the day.
Already unemployed, so how do I play along?
Any MegaMan fans indahouse? I think I do this every few months or so, but y’all should check out The Protomen – their albums are a rock opera based around the story of Wiley, Dr. Light, and the whole Megaman story arc. It helps that they are talented musicians to boot.
Part 1 [technically it’s act 2, but it’s a prequel to act 1 so just deal with it] : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqAvvwu0kMU
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtSxNZeXlKg
Hoorah I finally got my shit together and went & laybyed myself a new phone like i’ve been saying for months 😛 I’ve never had a brand new smart phone before always been 2nd hand bought from mates so this is an interesting concept for me. Also gonna get that $40 a month contract on Telstra with the 5gb of data $1000 phone calls & unlimited texts, which seems like a pretty alright deal.
Gorguts dropped a new track today. This is exciting.
https://youtu.be/RDyn5lkVNlo
Been feeling pretty crap the last two days…
Also, I think I’ve been laying on my shoulder without realizing it, and it’s been getting sore because of it. 🙁
Tech advice TAY!
Either I’m super useful or super annoying and work keeps wanting to send me places, so I want to buy a tablet.
Primarily, it will be for entertainment – a couple of games and the capacity to play video – so it’ll need a reasonable amount of memory. I don’t think I need LTE, I’ve got my phone for that and wifi is becoming ever more ubiquitous. I’ll want to take some notes on it, I imagine, though I’m always carrying around a notepad anyway; ditto with reading eBooks – I’m usually carrying around a book as well, so if it’s comfortable to read from as well I might convert to reading more ebooks. I’ve not got a solid opinion on size, so it’ll be something I need to weigh up against other things.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.5″ that I use primarily for ebooks, comics, youtubes, twitters, and some web stuff. It’s a pretty cool guy and the form factor is pretty great for portability.
Cost… $500? Bit less? can’t remember
Looking at the Galaxy Tab A, I just cut out a couple of pieces of paper and the 8″ looks a little small. The 9.7″ looks a really nice size though I’m not sure how comfortable 490g of weight would be in comparison to the 8″ 313g or my GS4 130g. I guess a large-ish paperback probably weighs pretty close to 450-500g.
Any idea on price range?
Not really, $400 is probably a realistic limit. It’s a bit harder to justify $500 when that almost buys a new GPU. My birthday is coming up, so I’ll probably be able to get the family to chip in; the only downside is that I’ve got a urgent trip up to Brisbane on Monday, so I’d love to get this sorted over the weekend.
If you’re just looking to game, watch stuff and aren’t overly worried about the note-taking aspect as red’s stated one of the smaller Samsung options would be your best bet. Alternatively there’s also the option to get a giant ass phone which doubles as a phablet which is what I did with my last phone upgrade.
What about one of those laptops/tablet combo thingies? That way you don’t have to worry about inbuilt memory so much since you can plug in a portable HD, plus it can be a tablet for using on the go and a laptop when you’re stationary.
Older gen iPad maybe, like an iPad Mini 2, they’re under $400 brand new from Apple & have great support app & warranty wise..? They’re also a good size (in my opinion) not too big not too small for a lot of tasks.
An iPad would have to be a clear winner, functionality-wise, for me to want one. I’ve never owned an iPhone or iPad, so I’m much more comfortable with Android than iOS. That, of course, also means that I don’t have any iTunes accounts or other iStuff to go with it.
Fair call 😛 Can’t really think of any Android tablets. Surface tablets seems alright though 😛 But I think they’re a bit too expensive..? I dunno lol.
If money was no object, Surface Pro 4 is probably the best out there. No chance you could requsition one from work as you’re needing to be mobile and everything? I mean, it’s basically a 13″ ultrabook which is also a tablet.
For an Android tablet though, probably the Galaxy Tab. The Tab A can be grabbed at JB for around $300 for 8″ or $400 for 10″, WiFi and 16gb. LTE support adds an extra $50 or so. S2 is higher end with better screen, memory and CPU and is about $200 more.
I tend to travel with a laptop as well, but it’s a shared work laptop so I’d like to my entertainment separate from it. I’ll still use it for some work – might claim a portion of it on tax, *shrug*. The Tab A is definitely what I’ve got my eye on, might drop into Dick Smith and see if they’ve still got one.
I have an Android phone and hate Apple stuff but….I really love my iPad that I bought around six months ago. I use it for a few games, watching anime, taking notes, reading books and magazines, watching video tutorials, and for having sewing instructions or recipes at hand while I’m working on them. I only have the 16g version and have had no problems with storage yet.
Has the across the network banner at the bottom of the page disappeared for everyone?
It’s still there for me but it’s just not showing anything.
It’s not there for me.
Content’s missing for me – the title-bar is still there, tho…
So Pokemon Sun and Moon have possibly been leaked. If that is what they are announcing tonight, then my prediction is…
They’re not a new generation. It’ll be like Pokemon B2/W2 except bigger! We’ll start in a “new region”, Southern Kalos (Kalos’ map only currently covers the top half of France) which has it’s own set of gyms. After beating the gyms, you take a train to Couriway Town in Northern Kalos (the train station in this town was never used in XY) and make your way to the Pokemon League from there. All the other towns in Northern Kalos are blocked off until post-game where you can then go and challenge all the Northern gyms ala Gold/Silver Kanto.
That’s what I want!
(Or it’s just a new generation :P)
I just can’t see them skipping over those newly revealed Zygarde forms by doing a new generation this soon. There’s way too much missing from XY to not do Z!
EDIT: And if Zygarde forms ARE in the game, then here’s my prediction for how they’ll work: At the start of the game (or start of the post-game) you get given a Zygarde (Core form) and the plot of the story revolves around travelling around collecting Zygarde cells. After finding a certain number of cells, Zygarde will upgrade through it’s various forms until reaching Zygarde Complete form at the climax of the story.
Man I’d kill for a pokemon game that like spanned all the regions =\
Your theory is sound.
Another could be, they’re breaking tradition, doing a new generation then will do Z after that.
Kinda like how Emerald came out after Fire Red/ Leaf Green.
Very possible!
If that’s the case then Sun/Moon might have only 70ish new Pokemon as well, like XY did. And then Z groups both of those together to form one complete Pokedex.
Whatever it is, I just want new pokemons mostly!! :3
But what about Earth or Stars? Or or or…
I bet Alex slept right through those squeals 😛
Whilst I anxiously count down the hours until I release the latest onslaught of Dad Jokes, I thought I’d fill in some time so, what’s everyone’s plans for this weekend?
I will be heading down to the Mordialloc food, wine & music festival with my son tomorrow, followed by going to a housewarming later in the night and then a birthday party afterwards.
Sunday, I’ll be heading to the city for the Voices From Afghanistan Exhibition at the shrine of remembrance and then I have a 4th date with the 3rd date girl.
Hopefully a good weekend ahead!
Whoooo 4th date! Lookit at mr social butterfly =p I can’t remember the last time I had 3 outings in a single weekend….
I myself will be reaching the culmination of a 3 year long war I have waged. A war in convincing my mrs to become a total geek; it started with a volley of new marvel movies that were all the craze when we first started dating. I have finally and I mean finally gotten her to join me in Hearthstone, Warhammer Conquest and wait for it. Diablo 3 on the PS4. My life will now be complete.
Carry on.
Haha, it’s weird having so much stuff on! I was always super shy and had extreme social anxiety for years, just the last few since I’ve gotten over depression and split with the ex, it’s gotten so much better! Now I have stuff on every weekend until the end of next month involving birthday parties (including mine) and a camping trip. Hopefully the dating thing goes well too *fingers crossed*.
Of course there will also be a little bit of gaming in there too, for some reason I’m still really enjoying Battlefront which is good shallow fun, not sure if I’ll invest in the season pass though, 😛
That is truly a war worth waging. Now all you have to do is to get her to make some dad jokes and you will have won the universe.
I’m terrible at social stuff, I’m just so introverted that I find doing anything social draining. My wife, with her health issues, was for the longest time an introvert by necessity. Many a weekend was spend at home gaming together but she was slowly getting more and more miserable. Once we gave up smoking and bought a car, our options increased. As she did more activity, she began to feel better too, which led to more activities. This year has so far, to be honest, drained me completely. I think there’s only been two weekends where we’ve had no plans and one of them is this one coming up – and even then, we’re visiting some friends for dinner tonight, so technically we’re not doing “nothing” like in the old days.
We’ve also got plans for the 5th and 12th of March, and I think we’ve managed to book out all of May (in fairness one of those weekends is a friend’s wedding which we’ve been on notice of for months) but the weekend after is a friend’s birthday drinks/karaoke and after that another friend wants to go away for the weekend so a group of ten of us are booking some house in the country for the weekend, presumably with a view to spending most of it barbequing drunk.
I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I like spending time with friends but I’m tempted to put my foot down and demand April off.
I’m still not the greatest at social stuff but I keep going/trying anyway, in fact I used to hate it! 🙂 The best thing I find is to not get worried about what you say and then worry about what the others are thinking about what you said. Also giving yourself some positive comments and positive reinforcement helps too. I’ve found my anxiety has gradually reduced each time I go out and socialise. It’s all practice haha!
That being said, you do need time to yourself and have a break from social stuff on occasion and just spend time for yourself. There’s only so much you can take and it sounds like you’ve reached that point. Maybe you can suggest to your wife that it would be nice to have a weekend by yourselves instead of going out visiting friends or even suggest that she go by herself to some things and explain that you need a break.
Watching the footy tonight, especially since it’s Dangerfield’s first game as a Cat, and starting a volunteer job at the gallery over the weekend.
Also, I might watch some more episodes of Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.
Watched it up to episode 3 on Wednesday night, and it’s amazing.
Too bad the power went out as I was watching it… :/
Boooooooooooo
Being a cat supporter myself, I approve of this.
Binging X-Files, by the looks of it. Probably some Dragon’s Dogma… might try DDO, seeing as I’ve downloaded it.
I have a charity quiz night tomorrow night, otherwise just going to have a weekend off and work on my N7 stuff. I’m up to the chest armour and have refined a couple of my foam techniques so hopefully this should be the best looking piece yet
I’m going dice hunting on Saturday because I’m a cheapskate and don’t want to buy sets of dice just for the d8s and d12s. A few of my friends are going to see Deadpool again and I’m not entirely certain it’s a rewatch for me.
Sunday is mostly empty but I might do some model painting (hopefully as I’ve procrastinated about it for long enough). Pretty likely to just veg about and not do much.
Sounds like a full weekend! Hope it turns out to be an awesome one.
My weekend is pretty full too, but thankfully not with much I’m responsible for. Even better, Saturday night we’re going to my parents’ for dinner so I won’t need to cook. \o/
@thabanannaman @cakesmith @sernobulus
Diablo 3 tonight?
@thabananaman
Definitely. What’s a good time?
Anytime 5pm onwards SA time?
You still rocking the Crusader? Didn’t seem hugely happy with it last we played.
I should be ok from 6pm NSW (which is 5.30 SA I think).
Still enjoy the Crusader. It just felt that my accuracy took a hit on the shift to Torment IV.
I could be persuaded.
I should be on sometime between 8:30-9 Sydney time.
I miss games and I miss you guys.
Hi Strange!
Hi Taco Man! How’s life these days?
Oh you know, same old rollercoaster 😛
You?
Rollercoasters are scary. 😛
Hey stranger (see what I did there?).
How’s things?
Some things are bad, but most things are great.
I need to remember to hang out on Twitter more often.
I hope all your things are great!
Not too bad on my end.
Hope the bad things aren’t too bad, and resolve themselves sooner rather than later.
And yes, more Tweetar hangings are needed.
Did you watch Survivor?
Let’s hang out!
I didn’t watch Survivor.
Are you up here now?!
Just landed a couple of hours ago!
Catch up quick!
YOUGUYS Master of Orion is available for early access. I have no money. I am unsure when I am getting paid. It might not be until Monday.
NOTHING THIS AWFUL HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING.
http://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000102956/ 1.5m long snorlax plush cushion. It is a real actual thing you can buy.
What a time to be alive.
Holy hell I would love to get that for my daughter…and I absolutely would if it wasn’t over $600.
Yes. Your “daughter”.
I’ve never ever bought a strategy guide for any game but it looks like they’re doing a special edition Dark Souls 3 guide that comes with an estus flask and some other bonus’.
Comes with an estus flask with free mystery liquid!
Tears of the first born
!
I’m not even sure I’m looking forward to the game, considering how I couldn’t play Bloodborne due to being crap at it and not having enough spare time to get good, but I really think I need that flask. 😛
But Bloodborne is the best! (Well, it’s my favourite of the series).
Blasphemy! How do you think the Sun feels knowing that you praise it not?
What about Solaire of Astora? He’s in your display pic. I’ll bet you let him succumb to the sunlight maggots…
I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the setting of Bloodborne. I just could barely even make it out of the first area. I have more time this year than I did last year though, I’ve cut right back on all my commitments for health reasons, so maybe (hopefully!) I’ll have time to get good at Dark Souls 3.
I’m crossing my fingers!
hrng
The time hath come #DadJokePage5InsteadOf6.
I was sitting in my lounge room late last night and got a visit from the Grim Reaper, I had to fend him off with the vacuum cleaner….Talk about Dyson with death.
Found out I was colour blind the other day. That one came right out of the purple.
My daughter asked if all fairy tales begin with “Once Upon A Time?”
“No. A whole lot of them begin with ‘If elected, I promise …’”
Today a man knocked on my door and asked for a small donation towards the local swimming pool. I gave him a glass of water.
Down the village, I saw this man mumbling 1,3,5,7,9. 1,3,5…..
I thought that’s odd.
I asked my girlfriend what the most important thing in a relationship is.
I was told “an attentive lover”
Then again it might have been “a tent of lovers”……. I wasn’t listening.
Why did the Irishman wear 2 condoms?
To be sure.. To be sure ?Where should you keep your rare or expensive red wines?
In your Cabernet!Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your sauvignon, man.
I’ve got a few jokes about unemployed people.
But none of them work.
Been to a few record stores to buy some rolling stones but they were all out….seems i can’t get no satisfaction.
God calls down to earth one day and says “Noah, I need you to build me a new ark, but I need you to ask no question until it is finished.
Noah agrees
“Firstly”, God commands “I need this ark to have 5 levels.”
“Five levels” Noah exclaims “what on earth do you need 5 levels for?”
God looks down and says “I told you no questions”
Noah agrees and builds a 5 story ark.
Next God asks “I need you to make it completely water tight, as if it can be completely submerged but leave a small hatch at the top.”
Noah is frustrated now. Surely he can’t expect all the animals to be able to get in a small hatch. But he knows better than to ask questions.
Once Noah had finished making the whole ark watertight. God looks at him and says “Now I need the whole ark filled to the brim with water.”
What a waste Noah thinks to himself. “I could of built a water tank in half the time”, Noah cries out.
“Quiet” God yells “its not finished yet.”
Reluctantly Noah does as he was told.
Lastly God says to Noah. “Now Noah can you load up this ark with as many carp as you can.”
So Noah fishes for days collecting hundreds of carp and loading them all into his ark.
Finally Gods ark was complete. Noah was exhausted. He looks up to God and falls down on his knees and asks “what on earth could you possibly want with this.
And God says “I’ve always wanted a multi story carp ark.”
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/266703/Ubisoft_seeks_Canadian_investors_to_fend_off_takeover_by_Vivendi.php !
They currently have 6% of Ubisoft & Gameloft, which is about what they still have in Activision as well.
You know how everyone has some sort of gap in general assumed knowledge; like the pronunciation of certain words or what certain things mean. Well I just found mine; up until 5 minutes ago I believed that American seasons were – Jan to Mar (Spring), Apr – June (Summer), July – Sep (Autumn) and Oct – Dec (Winter). This might explain why my release date estimation was always wrong :@ Goddammit world!
It’s Fall because leaf fall down =P
That is weird 😛
Do you have any idea what on earth made you think that their season periods were offset to ours by a month? Also did you think that Europe was the same?
So… Donald Trump. He’s still kind of taking off isnt he?
Just waiting, optimistically, for the Challenger moment.
Ahahaha! I found it! I found the Treasure Goblin Vault in Diablo 3!
So much gold.
The treasure vault is great. So much loot and gold. \o/
stab stab stab loot loot loot!
Projects backed on kickstarter: 96
Projects where everything has been delivered: 33
Projects where I’ve actually used / played the delivered product: 10
Projects where I’ve used / played delivered product & liked it: 5
Not doing too well. 🙁
Wow. I was surprised to get a notice saying I’d hit 10 with this TMNT game, thinking that sounds like way too many.
Failed to reach funding goal: 2
Overdue: 2
Yet to be delivered: 2
Everything delivered: 4
Of the delivered things three are books that I haven’t read yet. But they all seem pretty enough 😛
Doing alright I think.
Remember that big speculation post I did about Pokemon yesterday?
None of it came true 😛
Well it could be true because we were given 0 information about it except the name. =P
9 languages!
Late 2016 release!
OH MAN I FORGOT ABOUT THE 9 LANGUAGES!
*flails arms wildly*
None of it was confirmed to be false.
Just had a weird experience at a local newsagent, went into buy dad’s lotto for Saturday, hand over the lotto card & money, and the girl who was serving me threw the change into my hand, likewise the lotto card. I kinda wanted to say “it’s okay I had a shower this morning, i’m not one of those dirty locals..”
The way I see it, if you work in retail you need to have positive body language when engaging with customers, also throwing their change at them is something i’d also avoid as well. Face it, your hands are gonna get dirty handling money day in day out in a job like that, if you don’t like it go find a job where you don’t have to deal with the public.
Getting my hands dirty from money is the least of my worries at my job, i’m more likely to have black hands from the cartons of beer, spirits or wine, cause the company who delivers to us is in an area where there’s a lot of soot, either from sugar cane fields or some kind of industrial processing plant, that or getting glass shards in my hands cause some idiot dropped a bottle on their previous and left it for someone else to clean up >_>
i’m more likely to have black hands
That sounds kind of metal though.
\m/ THE BLACK HAND \m/
Coming to an Iron Maiden album near you…
Sounds kinda racist too 😛
End of O-week! I haven’t posted here in ages but I just saw the article of the rumor the NX will be released this year. The thing is, I remember seeing an article on another website which had analysts saying releasing the NX this year would be self destruction as VR would’ve had a big impact on the gaming market.
…. No way those analysts are still true right?
I think VR will be somewhat over by the end of the year TBH.
I’m fan of the very little i have played of VR but I don’t really see it as being a massive thing unless they 1/2 the price of the tech. It’s way too costly for all but the hardcore fans.
No way what analysts say is ever true, right?
I hear nostradamus was a pretty good tech analyst
NO WAY MAN! They’re always correct!
That’s why PC gaming and Nintendo are dead!
Those analysts seem to be forgetting that even if VR did decimate the console market it probably wouldn’t impact Nintendo’s plans in the slightest. They’d almost certainly just release the NX and stick with their current release schedule. Whether that would be smart or profitable doesn’t really matter. Nintendo bank heavily on the idea that Nintendo games sell consoles. The Wii caused them to double down on that belief but it’s always been a core part of how they do business. I don’t think the recent changes in management are enough to change that.
Also I didn’t join any clubs at the Guild day at Uni yesterday… still gauging how invested I will be with uni life (even though it sounds terribly unsocial) since it takes me upwards of 90 minutes to get there. The funny thing is that one of the only clubs I would’ve joined doesn’t even exist- the Film Society! Maybe I’ll go make my own club.
(sorry for rambling TAY)