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438 responses to “Talk Amongst Yourselves”
Welcome to another week, tayters!
I bought pokken tournament because it seemed approachable, and realised I’m as awful at fighting games as ever! I have no feel for spacing or timing, even though I understand it on an intellectual level.
Maybe it’s partly because the ai flops so unpredictably between just standing still and pulling huge combos. I haven’t gone online because my internet is still all over the place, and this game actually punishes quitters.
When I have that sorted, can I count on you guys to demolish me online so I may be rebuilt from the ground up as a fighter?
Make me hurt!
NNID: Cubits
“what’s tayters precious?”
po
tay
toes
Oooo, I’ll have to add you to my friends list.
My id is Crazyguy1990.
Okay…so you decided to use the math that gets decimals from divisions.
3/2 = 1(the number of twos in three) remainder 1
1/2 = 0 (not so many twos in one) remainder 1
So 1 becomes 10
10/2 = 5 (number of twos in ten) remainder 0 (the zero remainder ends the process)
Solution: 3/2=1.5 (get it?)
So lets work backward…the remainder becomes a new divided number in our series.
So as we work backwards…
x(the first of our unknowns)/2=y (the second unknown) remainder 3
Or…x=2y+3
So here is an algebraic series as the source of 3/2…and yes its a series because 2y+3 (or x) become the next remainder and soforth.
so go graph x vs y and you get wave functions. 😉
You realise that dividing an integer by 2 will never, ever result in a remainder of 3, right?
This is one confusing explanation.
Also, wat.
Don’t worry, it doesn’t make much sense, and I have a degree in mathematics and teach it for a living.
He’s somehow conflated conversion of improper fractions to decimals with a series producing a waveform, yet his equation only produces a straight line and has no relevance to the fractions.
It’s a magic 7.
Dark Souls fans: Play Salt & Sanctuary.
Do it. Trust me.
Picked up Game Dev Tycoon over the weekend, and I think I like it? After some reading, I’m not sure if I understand why the sliders are even there to set development focuses, since there’s an optimal setting for each genre of game – why not just have a “Simulation Game” skill that levels up, rather than giving the players the choice to have the chance of making a good game, or the guarantee to make a poor game?
Ahh, Game Dev Tycoon… I really, really like that one.
The ‘optimal’ setting is something that you’re meant to discover through trial and error, and market research… like the industry has had to. 🙂 There was something really special about creating my dream RPG (which was something like a mash-up of Mass Effect and Skyrim) selecting the priorities I wanted to see in a game, and seeing it go crazy on the charts. Deeply satisfying.
Also, I think there’s a slight bit of randomization in there to keep you from simply picking a genre and setting its graphics/audio/gameplay sliders to optimal positions and keep getting smash hits. But yeah. Grabbing a list of optimal combinations from a Steam guide can pretty much rob you of that aspect of the simulation.
Things pick up in complexity later on when you move to significantly larger offices and start developing your own console/platform and hold your own conventions, but there’s a while there where you can simply knock out respectable ‘optimal’ titles which review well and build your fan base, funding your engine improvements.
I understand what you mean there, and in plenty of other sim/tycoon games I’ll happily do that trial and error – when it comes to object placement, room size, primary:secondary industries, etc, I enjoy that – setting sliders isn’t something I’d consider a great gameplay element though. I suppose that, because gaming is close to my heart, I find it frustrating that their definitions of things like the individual genres, or the development focuses don’t match up with my definitions. I think that, if you were imagine a game like FIFA and a game like Championship Manager, they’re both “Sports/Simulation” aren’t they?
This is probably your fault for liking weird things. 😉
(Actually you can do genre combinations later on, once you research it.)
I love the old city builder games like Pharaoh and Caesar – you tend to get pretty good feedback on industry optimisation when you have one clay pit and one potter and a storage yard filling up with clay or you see deliverymen stationary outside a building because their destination has a problem. So far in GDT, I’ve seen that occasionally, not always, if those development sliders are off, a review will mention it – that’s the primary way you’re going to get feedback on those systems, since the review scores and sales have many other inputs and randomisation to mask what a 20% change in one of those sliders is actually doing.
Tycoon games are definitely for weirdos. Have you played Sid Meier’s Railroads? I love that game, just don’t expect me to explain why.
It’s been a while but I think also once you’ve made some games and done post-release market research, you get little indicators on your sliders; little plus/minus signs which tell you which ones are more important. Probably to reflect your developer’s increased experience with the genre.
And yeah, tycoon games are weird. 🙂
No.
Oh, sorry, I was talking to fans of Dark Souls. 🙂
I get it, but there’s something about the art style that keeps putting me off.
Try it sometime. Or watch a lengthy let’s play. Art considerations go out the window once you’re in the meat of it.
Hey people interested tabletop gaming. So I made the (terrible for my wallet) decision to get back into 40K. And since I have a sizable warehouse I thought I should host some sort of gaming session in a few months (thinking around June/July?). For funsies. None of this power-gaming junk.
Who is interested in playing some Warhammers in the grimdarks? Loops is keen and may have spare minis for someone to use (who knows what points limit we want to use, suggestions? 1850? 2000? etc etc).
I’m in Geelong. About two blocks from a train station. Weeeee.
I’ve got a few friends that are making the plunge back into 40K and I might take that as a signal to begin my own Necron army. So I’m not ready to play just yet but I’ll keep my eyes open for future ones.
Four months is plenty of time to bring a painted Necron army 😛 Just prime them all, spray them with Leadbelcher, wash them with nuln oil and you’re GOOD TO GO 😉
Or just use unpainted stuff.
I’ve got a lot I need to figure out, like what to start out with (Which I was made aware there’s a starter pack on GW and their shop is actually local to me), those point values you mentioned before and reading up on the codex.
The Start Collecting! boxes are great value. A++.
So it looks like we’re going to go with a nice low 1250 points, fyi. Just something to keep in mind 🙂
cc @coldcamv
Alright, I’ll keep that in mind once I get everything sorted then get my list in order in terms of additions to the current army, already got some idea but won’t know for sure until later :). Makes it much more affordable for me anyway.
40k is too expensive for me, unless there’s a cheaper alternative to games workshop
Really depends on what army you’re after. Army choice can mean fewer models or more options with 3rd party minis. Also ebay/gumtree etc are great as stripping minis is dead-easy.
Space Marines! Because their the only ones I’m kinda familiar with…maybe Space wolves
There’s a “Start Collecting! Space Wolves” box that’s come out recently.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Start-Collecting-Space-Wolves
The Start Collecting boxes are good value. Or go down the ebay path, Space marines are plentiful on ebay and you can bathe them in some dettol and water to strip plastic minis.
Hey mate – if you still wanted to come and play i have a few thousand points of each chaos and dark angels that i’d be happy to let you play with – no need to BYO
If you don’t mind an absolute newb playing you can count me in (work pending)
Yeah mate – that’s no problem – I have all the rules and taught my 12 year old brother in law to play when he was about 9 or 10, so explaining things is no issue for me.
Bleh, Queensland doesn’t have much going on in terms of 40K. At least a few of my friends are happy to do quick 500 point battles every once in a while.
Hope you guys have a kickarse time. Do you have terrain sorted or are you going to 3D print some of it?
I have an Imperial Sector piece (pieces, currently about 5 ruined buildings with heaps of leftovers) of terrain but will need to 3D print a whole heap more. Think I might finally bother to make a modular trench board now I have a bit of space.
No play Warmachine instead.
Tried. Wasn’t a fan.
Then play Hordes.
Tried Warmahordes. Not a fan. Basically the lore is what sold me on Warhammer (40K & Fantasy) back in 1992. Stopped playing a few times but never stopped loving the general feel.
Iron Kingdoms has lore. Like with Stryker and the civil war with Menoth in Sul.
I’m not saying they don’t have lore. The lore just doesn’t interest me at all compared to the 40K lore and the (now defunct) Fantasy lore.
I’d be interested. My casual Eldar army is coming along pretty slowly, moving house threw a wrench in the works, but it shouldn’t take much to get it done by June/July. I’m working on 1850 points that expands to 2000, but I’d be fine with running more games at a lower limit, say 1000-1250, or even really small/short Kill Team matches. I’m not that great rule-wise so smaller games probably work better for me anyway.
1250 sounds good to me. It’s easy for someone new to get a quick army up (heck, two “Start Collecting” boxes would probably cover it) and should stop some cheese 😛
Should 😉
I’ll put out another mention later/tomorrow and try to start to get a more focused idea on people so I can figure out how much terrain I’ll need to print! …and maybe some tanks, too!
I’m playing Eldar so there’s no avoiding being cheesy, but I’m also bad so it should balance out. =P
I’m playing Orks so I literally cannot win ever.
hey mark or alex or even logan, how badly does hulk hogans top rope leg drop legal victory over gwaker affect this site and the rest of group. Does gwaker still have a stake in the overseas sites?
I think one of the guys commented on this on Facebook. There will be an appeal due to the huge amount involved so regardless we shouldn’t expect anything to happen for another year or so.
I don’t think Gawker has anything to do with the Australian version of Kotaku (they’re under Allure) Should be fine!
And also owned by Fairfax..
It’ll be interesting to see if the branding is affected, though. The Allure employees may be fine, but if something happens to whatever licence it is that allows them to use the branding (and republish overseas articles), it might be an… interesting situation.
Edit: I hope things aren’t negatively affected for these sites, but it’s pretty hard to see anything wrong with the decision. Those guys were very clearly in the wrong.
I read that the settlement could result in Hogan acquiring the branding associated with all publications under the Gawker brand. The other alternative is that they could declare bankruptcy and everything would be up for grabs in a fire sale. It would certainly be interesting to see who would want to pick up the various publications and how that affects Allure’s contracts.
I haven’t had chocolate for two weeks and have been super good about it. Last night I dreamt that I broke that streak. It was so weird. Now I feel like I want chocolate, but I refuse to break the streak. REFUSE!
Good time of year for it.
Best time of year for it, with all the temptation around. Eurgh
Whazat? I can’t hear you over all the munching I’m doing on the giant chocolate bunny I found on my work desk today morning :O
Have fun running that off =P
Ok ok… maybe I lied. It’s just a chocolate bunny sitting on my desk that I can’t touch till my cheat day 🙁 WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
Morning, TAY.
Bought Pokken Tournament for $75 from Target on Saturday, and I managed to get Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for $8.45USD off Steam.
Anyone else pick up anything over the weekend?
Roy and Ryu!
Just Roy!
Roy’s our boy!
Yoshi’s Wooly World!
Woo, 20002nd post! Since apparently I just missed 20k.
Fairly busy weekend. Went out Friday night to check out this other climbing gym 9 Degrees with Aerialist Girl and another guy from Mondays. It was weird. And different. And weird. Very vertical, rather than the more hanging-type bouldering I’m used to. Also they go higher. With shorter mats. Also seemed to have a wildly varying level of difficulty between climbs of the same type all around the gym, Totally killed my shoulders, was feeling it for the rest of the weekend. After we were done there we went around the corner to a nearby pub for dinner, they’d just closed the kitchen but were nice enough to open it up against just for us. Phew. One of the other guys from this gym came along too, and was telling us all these stories from when was growing up, getting shot at in Africa and racing elephants and all sorts of crazy stuff. Aerialist commented I was being very quiet, I was just like I have absolutely nothing to add to this 😛 On the way back to our cars, the topic of Initial D came up somehow. Then Daytona. And Time Crisis. And “omg we should play some Time Crisis!” So we fired up the convoy and headed to Broadway for some brief arcade time. I totally won the first race of… Midnight something-or-other 5. Then she just, *just* pipped me for first on the second race. Bah 😛 Played the basketball thingos, I’ve always sucked at them but seemed to get a pretty good rhythm going this time. At the end of the first round I was second to Africa Guy, something like 50-60. Then after the second, it was 106-109. Dammit, so close!
Saturday night was out with Dan and Flu and co. Been ages since I’ve been out to the city at all. Or even seen most of everyone 😛 Finally got to see the inside of Frankie’s, every time friends have tried to go there in the past something or other’s ended up happening to prevent it. Didn’t get any pizza though.
Ended up downloading the Pokken demo on Sunday to try it out, with how much my friends were talking about it. Gotta say, it’s a pretty shitty demo. I could barely figure out what was going on at all, the “tutorial” it offers actually contains basically no explanation of the game mechanics other than you need to build up your special meter to use burst power. Wow helpful. One of the guys was kind enough to actually explain things, and it helped a little. But I still suck at fighting games and this one is super weird, so will probably give it a miss. Which would be for the better, given backlog and impending VR flood 😛
I haven’t even hit 10k posts yet 😐
Pokken Tournament is a pretty cool guy. Had a bit of a play on Saturday.
Weavile is the best.
I went online and won my first match so now I’m going to quit while I have an 100% win rate.
Gardevoir is the best. So much swishy dress!
I’d like to type up what I did over the weekend but I just resumed my gym routine after 5 months off due to an injured wrist….. *collapses mid sentence*
Just go back to the giant chocolate bunny.
Impromptu dinner with a friend Friday night turned into late night drinks & Cards Against Humanity. We played through the entire deck with our mysterious 4th player Rando Cardrissian taking 27 points, because apparently complete randomness is funnier than carefully crafted comedy bombs.
Then dinner Saturday night where I discovered I cannot drink irresponsibly anymore, and wound up cancelling a trip to Costco Sunday morning – which I think frankly was a relief for the friends we were taking as guests who were nursing similar hangovers.
Spent all of yesterday feeling miserable due to a combination of hangover and toothache I should probably do something about really soon. On the upside, my boss is in New Zealand most of this week so pretending to be busy will be easier than ever.
Decided I am well and truly done with Far Cry 4. Decided I didn’t feel like going after all the collectibles and started the Valley of the Yetis mode, which TBH annoyed me. Maybe it was just cause I had to start over with no money, no skills, etc. and I’m assuming I didn’t get to the “good part” (since I saw a loading screen tip about riding Yetis or something) but the prospect of starting over, getting swarmed with punishing enemies that kill me in one hit, and building base defences was just extremely offputting and I decided to uninstall the game rather than continue. I might reinstall to co-op the campaign with my wife whenever she gets around to it (because I did find it very enjoyable to play overall) but otherwise I definitely got my money’s worth, since I bought it on sale with all DLC bundled in for $27.
Tried Lords of the Fallen which was free on XBL Gold at the moment, which is a good thing because I enjoyed roughly half as much as I enjoyed Dark Souls. I decided after ten minutes I wasn’t going to enjoy it and uninstalled it. Maybe if it had been more interesting I would have embraced the challenge (apparently it’s easier/more accessible than Dark Souls) but instead I got bored and frustrated. When the first enemy you meet takes 5 hits to kill and one hit completely drains your stamina bar but he can spam attacks at you regardless of your dodging and using your shield to block does nothing, it’s like… I could get good at this, but why?
Pacman, Pacman CE, Galaga and Geometry Wars went backwards compatible recently, so I installed them then promptly uninstalled all of them except Geometry Wars. I just don’t have the patience for old games at the moment. Galaga feels unresponsive and I feel like I have played more than enough Pacman for one lifetime. Geometry Wars however is still the bomb.
Started Massive Chalice. Got bored, quit. No point to this game at all if you’ve already played XCom, it rips it off but does everything worse – another black mark against the Double Fine name, if you ask me. I liked the ideas driving it but the city/soldier management is too distant and removed to be interesting (much like the world and design of Brutal Legend was great but the RTS boss battles that broke the flow were total rubbish). The combat is XCom-lite and arbitrarily punishing. I feel like good tactics can counter the bullshit in XCom whereas Massive Chalice just unrepentantly pushes your shit in to make you feel bad, plus the RNG is just nonsensical.
I had a busy weekend.
Bloody Rando. Fuck that guy. How is he so funny?
Yeah I got Massive Chalice at launch and have barely played it. XCOM is probably a poor comparison as a lot of the tactical planning comes from breeding in that game and RNG on fertility rates. If you’ve bred the right team then you’re set for a few battles regardless of strategy. That said the scaling in difficulty was ridiculous and there was no clear guidance on how you should or shouldn’t progress in the game. I think I lost a few times to lack of proper fertility rates and quit the game. There’s definitely a good game in there somewhere but the battles are bare bones and the management aspect is nonsensical due to a lack of any genuine control or guidance
Dark beer – how long is it going to take for it to become popular again? We’re a country of people who like bittersweet things – dark chocolate and coffee both spring to mind – and craft beer is growing at an extraordinary rate, I had a 4 Pines Stout and a Coopers Extra Stout last week and they’re both delicious beers. Lots of people are going to have only had Tooheys Old, and that’s just plain awful in comparison; that’s going to turned them off darker beers, but there’s plenty of good options out there now.
CJ got us to try this one on the weekend that was likened to a Golden Gaytime.
It was super weird.
I’ve had that, thought it was pretty tasty. Definitely a dessert thing though, I wouldn’t be lining up for a third and fourth one.
I’m not a beer guy, so I would only be able to take maybe a centimetre off the glass, tops.
Dark beer is a winter drink.
My fridge says otherwise. A cool porter on a hot Summer day is fantastic.
You can often find the white rabbit dark out and about these days which is a fine drop
I love Carlton Black, but I’ve never been able to find it in bottles, only on tap at certain pubs/clubs.
This makes me sad.
I much prefer Toohey’s Old over Carlton Black, but I do agree that it can be a struggle to get a good dark beer on tap. Pale Ale is the king at the moment. At least a good pale or amber ale is still more interesting than lager.
ugh. lager.
For me, it’ll be popular around May or June and remain popular until September when it’s too warm for dark beer…
Hey everyone. So I would like to get Mum to play the walking dead game, but I need to increase the time that they give you. Does anyone know if there’s a mod for that?
Also, I would like to put it on my tv, but I’ve never used dual monitors before so I don’t know how to go about it
Depending on how new your PC and TV are, you may just be able to grab a long HDMI cable (should only go for a few bucks if you ask around) and plug them directly to each other. Depending on your graphics card’s defaults you may not even have to do anything else at all, with regards to messing around with screen settings in windows.
As for timers and accessibility… there are a few different hacks and mods. Nothing official, though, far as I could tell. Could try this link, for example. But before you do that, maybe just try the space bar, first.
My pc is 7 years old so i think it has pci and the old vga connection. Names may be wrong though
If you can identify the pin on your card you can get a cable that converts it’s signal for an HDMI plug in on your TV. e.g. I was using a DVI to HDMI cable a few years back on my last card. Alternatively you should be able to get a converter that can turn your PC pin to an HDMI output for a plain HDMI to HDMI cable; that said might be cheaper to get a converting cable.
Even then, if you can’t use HDMI you’ve got to dick around with audio, too.
Doesn’t seem to be a quick fix for the timer thing, you might have to dig around forums and mods for that. It does appear to be a requested feature though
With regards to the TV depends on your TV and PC setup but like transient said if you’ve got the right input slots an HDMI cable should handle it. All you need is to connect the graphics card on your PC from your monitor to your TV. There’s various HDMI cables that can do that depending on the pin your card uses.
Anyone else here into Grim Dawn? I’ve had it since early access and am now crunching through the proper release. Really enjoying it so far.
I’ve wishlisted it but that is as far as I have gone
Yeah same here; I’m curious but I have more polished ARPG’s I want to work my way through. Might pick it up a few year’s down the line if there’s ever an ARPG drought. Curious to see how Wolcen/Umbra will turn out though!
It’s a steal at it’s current price. Fully functional game that’s got a deep skill and loot system. Dev’s are pretty good at engaging the community and releasing updates too.
Ok! Workout people! I need input; while I’m fairly savvy on the topic myself I could use some input from other experienced sources either for fine tuning or rehauling – @highperformance @liondrive @othergymjunkietypes
So at the moment the routine is upper body and upper core 5 times a week in the morning, lower body and lower core 5 times a week in the evening and a 2.5-5k swim everyday. The ideal here is to lose weight and maintain/slowly build strength. A lot of the upper body routine at the moment is body weight oriented with lower body being high reps low weights. Worth noting I can’t run due to a knee problem so swimming’s the only cardio I’m able to do.
Good lord, that’s a lot of gym time!!!!
Me personally, I’m going for strength training lately, so I’m going before work three days a week, workout A is barbell squats, pendlay barbell rows and barbell bench press, each of them increases by 2.5kg every session until I can’t complete sets.
Workout B is barbell squats, deadlifts and overhead press, increasing weight the same way.
I’ll do warmup/cool down on a treadmill, and occasionally throw in ex-bar curls and skullcrushers if I feel like isolating my arms a bit.
Nice one; looking at your routine you’re focusing on core strength? You’ve got the right idea with increasing weights/reducing reps with progressive sets. Just be careful because a lot of the workouts you’re doing can easily cause damage so don’t increase the weights to a point your posture is compromised.
Unfortunately I have to double down on my routine because of the lack of available cardio options. Because of my knee running, cycling, anything that puts excessive strain on my feet causes issues. So to help maintain cardio and lose fat I do high reps low weights in the evening + swim. If I could go for a long ass run I would prefer doing that to what I’m doing atm.
Hey man, sorry for the the tardy reply. I’m in O.P office so I gotta be discreet!
My suggestion is to incorporate a H.I.I.T style weight lifting program if cardio is difficult for you, my suggestion if you’re looking to lose weight/build strength:
Swimming 3x per week
Weight lifting 2x per week
Dead Lifts 3×12-15×65%1RMax
Chins 3×8
Push Ups 3×30
Dumbell Deltoid Flys 3x12x10kg
Dumbell Deltoid Flys 3x12x65%1RM
Tricep Dips 3×30
2 mins rest between circuit set
Then I would finish off with
Planks 3 x 2mins
Single Leg Glute Bridges 3 x 8
Norweigan Crunches 3x10repsx5 different crunches (An exercise I made up, where you do 10 reps of 5 different lots of sit ups, with 25 seconds rest between lol).
If you try out the program, let me know how you go! 😀
Nice one, thanks dude. I’m actually looking at hitting the gym 10 times a week (twice x 5 days) and swimming everyday. At the moment my upper body routine is alternating between chest + back vs shoulders tris and bis for four days and one dedicated day for legs. The evening routine is abs + squats + calf raises + leg raises. I’m already doing chin ups, push ups (3 kinds), lat pulldowns, lawnmowers, shoulder press, flys, different bi curls and chair dips + overhead tri lifts.
Any thoughts on upright rows for the shoulders? I do 1-2 sets of those but I’m worried about my posture with them at higher weights. Also if you get a moment mind giving me the breakdown of your crunches? Atm I’m only doing half raises, leg raises and obliques.
I definitely hear you on the weights investment, more muscle content = more energy burning even while you’re just relaxing.
That would be a huge program, you’ll be ripped AF.
You’ll also be able to take up competitive gaming following that, lots of esports athletes end up training to hone their reflexes and cognitive functioning lol.
Upright rows are fine, start with a lower weight and build up gradually. Any exercise I’m feeling particularly nervous about (lower back, neck innervating exercises) I start with a weight I should be able to comfortably lift and then build up from there.
The crunches are:
1. Normal/Classic stomach crunch (Crunch up until your palms touch your knee cap, down and repeat)
2. Knees at a right angle with knees together, crunch forward and touch the balls of your ankles
3. Legs wide apart with knees at a right angle, crunch forward until you feel your abs strain (not in pain, but with fatigue)
4. Legs straight in the air, reach up and touch the balls of your ankles
5. One leg straight, the other knee bent at a right angle, crunch forward reaching your hands out
6. Same as above, switch your legs though lol.
Ahh bicycle crunches, forgot all about those! I’m already doing the others, 3rd one only partially but yay I’m somewhat on the right track =P Lets see how the results come through in the next few weeks 😀
Also now I’m hungry, meal no.3 you’re up =O
(Man one down side is all my free time is used up in cooking and working out, but I have to admit to feel a shit ton healthier just a few days into this routine).
It actually does, I know people who load up on stuff like ‘Core Powerfoods’ to fit their Macros and spend and ABSOLUTE mint. It’s tough being super healthy lol.
I’ve actually got the diet down to an affordable level? I think I’m spending 144 bucks per week for 6 meals a day which is not more than I used to spend and it incorporates beef, chicken and fish. Researched most of the ingredients and I’m mostly in the clear with dinner being a little unhealthier than I would like (carbs and virgin olive oil) but I think the routine should more than compensate for that.
Just impulse-bought a Driving Force GT with pedals because it was ten bucks. Whelp 😛
Fucking great bit of kit that, I pretty much taught myself to drive with that & Gran Turismo 5 and playing stuff like ARMA as a driver and using an actual wheel is infinitely better than KB/M
I’ve only had one wheel before, and it’s a Speed Force for GameCube. And it only works with like two games I own. And it’s fucking amazing 😛 (Especially for $15!)
Just wish I could’ve used it on PC via the USB/GCN adapter, but considering how cheap this thing was I figure it should at least be as good. Only annoyance is it looks like the stick is fixed to the right side, instead of being movable to the correct side? Oh well, I’m set enough for some VR racing games now.
Yeah the stick is a moulded part of the frame and only really an up/down toggle rather than a real gear shifter, you’d need the G27 for that
Well hello TAY…
Such a lovely morning, no work for me and I just finished downloading Dark Chronicle, AKA Dark Cloud 2, to my PS4. House all to myself (minus two rabbits) and there’s a french press of coffee steeping in the kitchen. If only I has a spread of donuts like in Twin Peaks I could have phrased this differently.
Hey all,
Work’s been crazy busy for the last week so I’ve barely had time to check in on TAY! Had to go to Sydney last week for a day of training which was awesome (Yay Tableau! Rah rah rah!) but then as soon as I got back to Brisbane I got moved on to a budget project which has meant some late evenings, which I’m generally against but actually felt good. I *wanted* to stay back to make sure all of my numbers were decimal perfect and didn’t resent it at all.
Also had the joy of starting to get my recurring injuries when jogging looked at. Turns out my feet / legs are biologically fucked. I have a myriad of small problems that individually wouldn’t be so bad but taken together means I’m pretty much always 5 minutes from injury. It was surreal to see my feet / legs in slow motion and freeze-frame where I could see (for just one example) my left foot toes planted with heel about to strike and my right heel was already lifting rather than bearing weight. It’s kind of like I’m always half jogging – not a good thing!
So I’ve got a bunch of stretching exercises to do and I’m having orthotics printed on Wednesday. It’s actually pretty cool how they take a digital imprint of my foot and feed it in to a kind of “reverse 3D printer” that starts with a block of foam and then erodes it until you’re left with my personal foot-care device.
And I’m also going to require regular massages which … painful as all hell. Short term pain for hopefully long term gain. One of the amazing things was being told that after 16 years of thinking I couldn’t ride bikes any more that my original dr had probably misdiagnosed me and it’s just that my hamstrings are as tight as steel bars. It’s going to take a long time to stretch them out but with time and regular treatment I may actually reach something approaching normality.
This whole “Best Version of Me” initiative of 2016 is turning out bloody fantastic. I’m feeling really good right now. (Except for my legs. Which are really sore. Time for more Voltaren.)
Where did you get that diagnosis from bob? I’ve had leg problems for years and a mix of physios and docs have never gotten it right :@
So 16 years ago I began having problems specifically riding bikes. What was happening is whenever I’d make the cyclic motion on the pedals I’d feel this “pop” and part of the outside of my knee would visibly pop in and out of place. It was, understandably, excruciating. So I went to see my regular Dr and they said that my knees were mis-formed and I essentially “grew in” to the problem through puberty, which is why I was able to ride bikes as a kid / younger teen. Dr said it was likely (I had to look these up to remind myself) Chondromalacia patellae (CMP) or Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) – and the options were a knee reco or to stop riding bikes. I chose to stop riding bikes, and every time I’ve tried since then (maybe 2 or 3 times) the problem has recurred in exactly the same way. I can actually make it happen on command if I lay in a certain position and rotate my knee.
The masseuse said that what it actually looks like is my hamstrings are extremely tight, to the point that they’re visibly shortened (the podiatrist said exactly the same thing). When I’m flexing my knees to cycle the tendons are slipping over the knee joint because they can’t move anywhere else and that could be the “pop” I’m feeling and seeing. The thought is that as we treat my hamstrings / leg muscles they’ll stretch and loosen and give my knee adequate room to move.
I hate it when they get in there with forearm or elbow. I had a lot of with done on my calves when my heel was messed up. I’m probably overdue for some maintenance.
Also, parkrun PB! Non-stop 5km at 7:20 pace 😀
Woo! Way to go with the new PB! o/
There was so much forearm and elbow work. Made worse by having his entire weight bearing down on my muscles and then being asked to bend / unbend my knees. -_-‘
I’m pretty sure physiotherapists were medieval torturers in a previous lifetime.
Hola Tay. Busy weekend, lots of board games
Friday night went to a friend’s house and played Commander. Tried out my newly built Noyan Dar deck: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/noyan-dar-dudes-who-are-lands-who-are-dudes-who/
Managed to fight off 3 other players to come second out of five in our group, which was fun. I really like this deck. Also played the card game Entropy, which is quite good once you get the hang of it- the rulebook is a little jargon-y but it’s basically a role-selection set collecting game.
Saturday I went to the Hungry Hippo with some friends from Canberra who were over, had a lot of fun playing different games. The Hungry Hippo is great.
Sunday, had a committee meeting for the 2017 Terry Pratchett convention, I’m super excited about some of the stuff we’re doing. After the meeting we…played board games, just to break a trend.
Also managed to do a bit of work on my N7 armour, I’ve almost finished construction of the back piece which is the last bit. I need to keep some pieces separate for painting and integrating the lights, but I’m looking forward to strapping it all and getting all of the foam out of the way so I can finally clean all of the scraps and foam dust out of my loungeroom, it’s a goddamned tip.
A Monday Morning Question: I watched a couple episodes of Daredevil. Which other superhero needs a limited-run TV series?
Phantom
Colossus because Colossus (An x-men one could be cool but interesting to how to keep it contained)
Wonder Woman
Harley Quinn
The Phantom is so good.
Deadpool & Cable. Obviously. (Sigh. Never happening.)
Punisher. In the style of Punisher Max – Ennis’ more grounded run. I want an aging hero!
Sentry has some possibilities, as the essentially un-used Deus Ex Machina answer to Superman.
I liked the more recent Inhumans run, too. I don’t even care if they’re unethically shifting focus because Fox is hanging on the X-Men. Some Black Bolt? Medusa? They’re a bit… weird, though. Not exactly ‘Jessica Jones’ relatable.
Moon Knight is begging for that treatment, but might be considered a bit of a ‘darker/edgier wannabe Daredevil ripoff’. Dude is straight-up damaged.
Captain Marvel would be bad ass, but the loftier movie treatment is probably more fitting, there. Although, grab a TV series of ALL the Avengers hanging out in Avengers Tower, dealing with being room-mates more than saving the world? I’m all over that.
Venom, yes? Yes? Maybe? Yes? Honestly, his stand-alone run wasn’t actually that good, I just want to see him treated well on-screen. That Spiderman 3 outing was pretty bad.
…
I’d step over so many bodies to get a Transmetropolitan series happening.
I’d love Transmet.
I NEVER want The Sentry in live action. Dear gods that whole character was a fucking mess.
Completely absurd, and if you read a summary of exploits, unabashed Author’s Pet.
It’s kind of like a play on the old Superman problem: “How do we write a plot that can’t be resolved by Superman fixing everything by hurling it into the sun before anyone can even say, “We have a problem?”” The solutions in every major event to stop Sentry from just ‘rocking up and fixing everything’ have been unbelievable.
***
I actually have doubts about a Transmet live-action. The art was so crucial. So much world-building contained in all the extra details. Many of the monologues would lose their punch when you have to expend so much suspension of disbelief in someone waiting for them to actually be completed.
***
I think an Ennis Punisher run has legs… could do. With the balls to put in a seriously unknown hard-case lead. But I say this as someone who loved The Shield and especially the premise behind Hack. (And David Morse I’ll watch in anything.)
Bernthal has been a great Punisher in Daredevil S2 so far.
The thing about Ennis’ punisher, though, is it’s so over the top it’s almost Itchy and Scratchy.
Uhh… are we talking about the same one? I’m not talking about Welcome Back Frank, and its ilk, which were pretty damn itchy and scratchy, sure.
Punisher MAX… oh. Just did research. It’s not the cartoonish one. But it’s also called Max.
I’m thinking of the series that ran 2004-2009 – the one that sort of broke with the Marvel continuity.
Basically no capes turned up in any of them except for a brief appearance by Nick Fury in Valley Forge, Valley Forge and some other one.
The Phantom.
The Ghost Who Walks.
Well that’s a new record
Applied for a very low level IT job and sent the application in on Friday night, 8:36 this morning they sent the rejection which means my application managed to last, at most, 36 minutes, perhaps even as low as 6 depending on what time they start.
I don’t need them anyway, I’ll go & build my own IT position! With blackjack! And hookers!
10/10, would support IT Position with blackjack and hookers. In fact, screw the IT position.
But only if it consents.
And doesn’t charge too much, not like I can afford it on the salary I’d be paying myself…
Finally played Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar
Super interesting looking game
I’ve seen it played but has always been in progress by the time I arrive
So weekend! I’ve had coffee and am able to think/move again! I bought and played Dungeon of the Endless…. Man that roguelike is awesome. Typical level of finish and polish that I’ve come to expect from all the Endless games. Worth picking up for anyone who enjoy’s Tower Defense games + rogue likes. It’s brutal even on the easy difficulty and I barely manage to win one game on the easiest difficulty.
Aside from that I watched some Daredevil; seems a lot more actiony than the last season; absolutely loving Elektra’s performance though. She just oozes this “I’m just as likely to kill you as kiss you” vibe. Probably the best actor in the series atm. Thinking about it now I also really liked the way the Punisher was portrayed; it’s almost like the Daredevil series is more about the side characters than the main characters. I was more interested in Wilson Fisk last season and I’m more interested in scenes with the Punisher and Elektra this season. I’m a few episodes from the end but really enjoying the series 🙂
Hey guys,
Our ARK: Survival Evolved Server is now up and running… If you want any further details as to the settings running, check out our site,
http://syndicateofgamers.com/2016/03/20/our-ark-survival-evolved-pvp-antiraid-server-is-live-syd-au/
Server is hosted at the Equinix Datacentre in Sydney, and has AntiRaid Weekdays enabled. Current config as follows:
AntiRaid Weekdays – Base raiding is only enabled between Friday 8pm AEST and Sunday 12pm (Midnight) AEST. The rest of the time, structures take 0% damage from other players. We feel this mechanic is important in giving people a chance to defend themselves, as we believe everyone has school/work/social lives, and figured these to be the most suitable hours where the vast majority of users will be active.
PVP Enabled – Anything outside of peoples bases is FAIR GO. You can choose to trust, assist, walk away, its all fair game. Don’t be a dick camping and sniping peoples Dinos in their bases. You will be banned.
Speedy Nightcycle – The Night cycles through at twice the speed. This may be tweaked further.
20% Faster Taming Speed
50% Faster Resource Respawn Rate – Trees, Shrubs, Rocks
20% Slower Stamina drain
30% Slower Player Food Drain
30% Slower Player Water Drain
@cakesmith @blaghman @sernobulus @gorzilla @pixel_the_ferret_viking @f4ction @rize
I only have access to the internet at work, so I wouldn’t bother tagging me in future! 🙁
waa? how did that happen?
Personal choice when I moved. ADSL or nothing. I chose nothing (once you go 100mbit you never go back!).
It’d be fine if I had TV reception 😐 But I don’t. And I gave away all of my DVDs a few months ago so I have about 40 BluRays and my computer stocked stuff and that’s it.
So now I’m getting back into Warhammer and reading and riding my exercise bike.
i know what you mean i went from 100mbps/10mbps to 7mbps/0.6mbps… now im on 20mbps/0.8mbps.
still id take that over nothing at all… bald move there f4ction… honestly dont think i could do it. I depend on it way too much… same as the mrs…
well done though man, whish i had the guts to do that!
Once I get TV reception I’m sure I’ll be fine but right now it’s driving me insane. I spent Saturday at my folks place and watched all of Daredevil S2 because I knew it was my only chance for a while 😐
Hm… HM…
played so much Terraria over the weekend.
didnt want to think, so I figured a bit of mindless digging / building was called for.
few friends jumped in & we all dug a hellevator & then they started building a minecart track across the whole map while I repeatedly ‘helped’ by summoning the Eye of Cthulu on them.
good times.
anyway. got to work this morning & co-worker asked the mandatory ‘how’s it going?’ thing.
of course, the answer is ‘fine’ but honestly… i dunno. I mean, i’m not curled up in a ball under my desk crying, so it’s not bad. but I just cant remember feeling any different for the last 6 months. I’ve got no perspective on the question. i’ve got nothing to compare it to.
but yeah. the etiquette of polite office conversation sorta precludes responding to ‘how are you?’ with ‘it’s been 6 months since i’ve been properly happy with things, & I cant remember what that feels like, so really have no idea.’
anyway. how’s things with you lot?
I am glad all I get in the morning is a hello from the lady that sits next to me. Although I’d rather not have to deal with even just that, especially since half the time when I go to try and speak in the morning/when I’ve been quiet for ages I’ll just end up choking and making some kind of unrecognisable sound instead.
Why do people have to go and be nice for? Inconsiderate jerks.
I’ve really enjoyed getting back into pleasantries and conversation with people at work. Even if most of it is meaningless, surface level stuff, I’ve still learned that the other 20-something year old guy reads fantasy, and used to play LoL, and that the pretty nurse is still pretty (what this means is that I can’t handle a full sentence around her without stuttering).
So yesterday I ran a game of 40K Chaos. I swear I don’t know how it even works but my players are either the luckiest or just the most brazen bunch of heretics I’ve ever seen. They killed a fiery Warp daemon by setting it on fire and all of them managed to avoid the fire burst of destruction that it unleashed before it died.
Now they’re talking about setting a star on fire and forcing it to go supernova with Chaos sorcery. I’m going to have to try and counter their lunacy with even more lunacy.
killing a daemon with fire… who knew to try that? These guys did!
So did Tom Jones.
If they want an opportunity to attack a star, give them the opportunity. Have the star come to life and attack them back.
No idea how you’d go about balancing a C’tan fight so it’s fair for both sides, though.
In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is no such as balance.
That said, the idea of corrupting a star and turning it into a giant Pac-Man to wakka wakka all over space was briefly considered.
Decided to play through Spartan Assault. It really is a lame attempt at microtransactions swindling as I thought. But what annoyed me the most was how they were desperate to try and make Sarah Palmer likeable. They don’t understand that people hate her because of her personality, saying she’s saved dozens of civilians and killed thousands of Covenant with no support doesn’t change that.
I also decided to start up Titan Souls since I got that for free. Man, I don’t think I’ve ever been turned off faster by a game. The execution is just weak. First major problem I noticed is that the controls suck. There is no reason why dodge and run can’t be different buttons, but no, you have to roll before you can start running. Even Gears of War managed to make this work, and there was still an option to switch to different buttons.
Next problem is that there’s no way to tell where you’re aiming. There’s no dotted line, so you’re just going to be firing widely and hoping you get a hit. Also, for some reason aiming and firing are the same button, so you can’t cancel your shot. Unless you roll, but that’s just annoying.
I get that the point with bosses is that they kill and die in one hit, but there’s no setup to their patterns or whatever. Every time I met a boss I died immediately because he could fly across the ground into me, but there’s no indication that they could. In any other game with health my reaction would be, “Oh, so that’s his deal, better watch out for that”, but here my reaction is, “Hmm, I wonder how this boss plays out oh I’m dead”. Then I have to go back to the checkpoint, run all the way back, dodge his first attack, then die to his second because I had no idea what was in store me for.
Oh yeah, for some retarded game design reason, the checkpoint is at the start of the area and not right before the boss at their front door. So you have to run back every single time you die. Considering how fast they want this game to be, you want to jump back into the battle as fast as you can.
I didn’t read the whole thing because I misread the dodge button as the doge button
Wow
Such button
Many press
tl;dr – doge is dodge?
I was skimming, misread it, was really confused and realised it was just the dodge button
It took a while but on Sunday evening I finally ran my first Pathfinder game. It was a scenario using the Beginner Box ruleset and pregen characters for a fighter, cleric, wizard, and rogue.
We began with the PCs in a prison, brought up on smuggling charges. The King’s consul offers a repreive if PCs help with a problem. Everyone moves to the throne room where King Donkey Kong informs them that the kingdom’s banana hoard has been stolen and the PCs crimes will be forgiven if they investigate this heinous theft. However, first the PCs must remove the remaining threat form the banana treasury.The PCs check out the first level of the treasury and fight a group of klaptraps (dire rats), then move into the banana storage pit where they fight off a collection of gnawtys (goblins) and their leader, a very gnawty going by the name King Beroby (goblin king). KDK has been watching the fight from the top of the pit and appluds the adventurers, saying their mission will be detailed further in the morning, once they’ve rested for the night.
One of the players decided that a spooky skeleton had been following them since they were released from prison. After all the battles, and while searching for loot in the remainder of the treasury, they finally noticed the skeleton in a room skirted by deep troughs of water. The skeleton was unresponsive to all interactions. One character dove down into a water trough after seeing a glinting reflection. At the bottom was another skeleton, covered in royal jewellery, that conveyed a telepathic message. The players ruminated on the jewellery and the skeletons for a bit, finding that a crown was from a distant royal relation in the Donkey Kong Country, and a necklace had an inscription of love from DK on the back.
It was a tremendous learning experience and I’m already feeling confident about running games in the future. I am a little unsure if I opened too many story threads but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we may see a continuation of the story.
Sounds like you did great, lots of things to look forward to and as long as everybody has fun then you’re doing it right.
Congrats on your first session. I have to admit that the idea of doing quests for King Donkey Kong certainly would put me in a good mood.
Please tell me that the royal anthem is the DK Rap and that the main enemy is going to be King K Rool.
Forgot to mention that the PCs were a bit special:
Rogue = Diddy Kong
Cleric = Dixie Kong
Wizard = Lanky Kong
Fighter = Chunky Kong
The rogue had a soundboard for Diddy Kong that they used to communicate and respond to events.
The consul was Cranky Kong and Kiddy Kong made an appearance as a guard. We jumped pretty deep into the world of the Kongs.
DK Island Swing was the intro to the game but we haven’t arrived at the DK Rap yet, I do however have plans for it.
So I was having trouble trying to grab this hold at climbing tonight, since I was sitting too far out from the wall to get the right angle. I figured alright, desperation move, I’ll just try and swing right across so I can get my weight over and hang from it. Instead, I just punched the hold straight on with my pinkie knuckle. Thfuck?
It was alright for a while but now it really aches down at the base, right near the wrist. Bleh.
I’m baaaaaack. Crazy weekend, watching the Melbourne Rebels… in TOKYO!!! 😀
Most mental weekend, starting with a day wandering round by myself, whereupon I met some good German people and wound up drinking with them. Friday my mate arrived, and we went to Robot Restaurant. http://www.shinjuku-robot.com/pc/?lng=en This was very nuts.
Saturday, RUGBY. Packed stadium. Full strength beer and sake and unfamiliar stadium fudz. Epic. Plus Rebels won outside Australia for only the second time in their history… 😀
Sunday so much sushi near the famous fish market, then catching up with an old friend from the UK who happens to be working there. Left my rugby mate behind, he’s staying for an extra week to see Kyoto with his girlfriend. Good idea!
And then 10 hours home on a nearly empty 787. 50 passengers. Nearly 400 seats between us. We took a row each…
Good to be home.
How awesome is Japan?
Very awesome.
http://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-bravely-second-side-quests-changed-due-to-overwhelming-feedback-from-japanese-players–349956.phtml
What utter shit. The reason that Bravely Second had all those edited sidequests was that the Japanese players had a sook about the fact that regardless of which decision they made, there were consequences and the characters reflected on them and made players feel bad.
Apparently in Squenix / Nintendo’s happy utopia you’re not allowed to feel bad about the consequences of your decisions so they’ll make sure you can only feel happy.
Utter and complete rubbish.
It’s a change for the worse… but I feel better about that as a change in response to customer feedback than some insulting editorial interference on the part of the localization team.
The Japanese gamer market makes absolutely no sense to me. They dive full on into mobile and pachinko crap and but complain about Bravely Second making them feel bad. Do they want to be coddled and just have flashy win buttons in their face all the time?
This is the same playerbase that was up in arms over the treatment of Alisha in Tales of Zestiria mind you. In summary, “waaah you announced her first so we thought she was the main character and she’s not”.
Wow, all those criticisms about Japanese RPGs having choices where the No response just loops the question back are starting to make sense.
I wonder how Japanese players dealt with getting a Game Over in Paper Mario for not going on their quest.
One line in the statement “an unsatisfying disconnect between their intentions and the characters’ reactions” sounds like ludonarrative dissonance a la Nico from GTA4.
The statement reads as if side quests were set up in a way that players were making a decision that produced unexpected results. That would be a case of poor narrative rather than players chucking a hissy.
As I understand it, the sidequests require you to pick between to sides. Afterward, the characters are sad about the side they didn’t pick, rather than happy about the side they did, so the story’s written such that regardless of what you chose, it feels like you might have made the wrong decision.
IMO if that was the case that was something they deliberately baked into the plot and taking it out because it made people feel bad is a ridiculous reason.
EDIT: Also Ludonarrative Dissonance is when there is a disconnect between the narrative of the character and the way they behave in the game. Uncharted is a great example of it. Nathan Drake is a loveable rogueish everyman who cracks wise and generally seems like a pretty fun guy. In the cutscenes. Then in the game he brutally murders entire armies of guys without batting an eye.
Big chunk of tooth broke off this morning when I was brushing. Fingers crossed that I can get a dentist appointment before the long weekend.
Thursday, and I’m on the standby list for tomorrow. I hate teeth.
Well that’ll gum up the works.
Thursday morning is going to make it kinda tricky to sneak into work early and hide a bunch of Easter Eggs.
Yeah! Someone cancelled, now I can go and get this shit sorted today.
@dc the walking dead s06e14 discussion
What a s stupid way for Denise to die. She finally gets her courage up, has the confidence to face her fears, which is really fucking hard, especially with panic disorder, only to be shot by some fucking arseholes.I feel like they could have developed the character some more before killing her off. It just seemed like the most pointless death ever.
Eugene on the other hand. I thought he was being his cowardly old self again, but it wasn’t the case. He had a lot of balls, pun not intended, to bite that strangers ball sack.
All through the episode I was glad they were taking time to develop the minor characters. You can imagine my fist shaking when they kill said minor character in the very same episode. Haha! Really hope we haven’t seen the last of Carol, but I like this arc she’s going through, unable to kill for anyone any more. You just know the show’s building to something big, though. The Wolves reveal is going to be bad for our group, I wager.Hi DC!
*waves* GET YOUR ASS TO
MARSTWITTER!I did. And now I’m back 😛
they’ll really be out for blood now. And they know how to get in.I think Carol’s non-killing arc is over. That’s why she split up with that guy.
Watched the episode last night, and I was literally thinking to myself as she was giving her speech, “Boy, it sure is cool that two of the minor characters are getting a story arc, it’s nice to have a break from the core group for a while……. HOLY FUCK, WHY!?”I guess the writer felt they wanted to do a little segment on the price of hubris, ironically which never seems to befall onto rick.i don’t think Denise was like that. Rather she was trying to get Daryl and Rosita to understand how she sees them. As good people who are amazingly strong. She’d only just overcame her fear of killing a walker, only to die in such an awful mannerI suppose you’re right, if they really wanted to hit the hubris thing on the head they would of killed Eugene, when he started talking that phase two stuff i wanted him to die so badly.that’s just how Eugene thinks. He’s inyo RPGs so it would kind of make sense that je thinks he has levelled upSUBTERFUGE
I’m currently just starting a rather interesting public 5v5 team game (First 5 players to join are Team 1 and battle the next 5 players as Team 2) after just finishing my first public game (placed 4th out of 8th, would have been 1st or 2nd if not for a totally dick betrayal) but it’s reminded me….
SUBTAYFUGE 3: What Is It Good For?
All war, all the time. Domination victory based on how many players we get (i.e. no mining). Anonymous names, no treaties.
Who’s in?
A third Subtayfuge? You want to give me an ulcer?
That game was hardcore bad for my work productivity.
Yeah, that’s the other reason I won’t participate in this go-around. Though I was less obsessive the second time
Hope to see you for SUBTAYFUGE 4: Why Can’t We Be Friends (4v4 Team Game) in that case. ?
I’ve been surprised at how “not stressful” it’s been playing a public game. Maybe because I don’t know who I’m playing against. The only stress moment was when I had the total dick betrayal mentioned above. My response was to move ALL of my drillers (350 of them) to my only mine and then sit there for the rest of the game.
So I got one of them fancy pants Phantom Glass screen protectors (which are gorilla glass 3) for my new phone & well I had some troubles with it after installing it as per the instructions, so as their warranty covers user error (which i’m still certain it wasn’t but eh whatever) I got in touch with them just asking for some help & why would it be leaving bubble down the side. They said they’d just flat out replace it for me & I wouldn’t even have to pay for postage which is really awesome. Especially since postage cost me like $13 on the original since it was coming from Canada & was in a bulky-ish package.
I’m just really impressed with their awesome customer service, hopefully this next one works as intended!
Saying that the Dbrand skin I order for said phone turned up last week. They’re pretty awesome, a bit tough to install on the device but once you’re there they look really nice, also means I don’t need a case on the damn phone which I like.
Also been using the iOS 9.3 beta, man night shift (iOS version of f.lux) I wish iOS had something like this years ago..
Oh cool. JB is having another warehouse clearance sale. There seems to be some alright bargains!
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/features/online-warehouse-clearance-sale/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=jb-au-20160322-online-clearance-sale
Which category has games?!??!
None 😛 haha.
Just came across a Kickstarter for a pretty tiny mATX (18 litres) case. It looks cool & seems cool. But damn, a lot needs to revised on it as Dimitri from Hardware Canucks points out in his video overview of it. Also $250 USD is a bit steep :/ but it is a powder coated steel chassis which is nice.
Definitely looks cool, but yeah, $250 USD when it’s pretty similar to a lot of other cases around… Granted, it’s custom built, and as you said, powder coated, but still… by the time it’s shipped to Aus and changed currency, it’s almost triple the price of a lot of other m-ATX cases.
Yeah. I’d rather get the NCase M1 for about $250 AUD. At least it includes fan filters & a slim optical slot, this case has missed the mark and probably their kickstarter by the looks.
Spaghett’s last song played game time!!!
Overboard by Poets of the Fall – my favourite band of all time
How is everyone?
I’m still loving the division 😀
Snakehips – All My Friends.
I really enjoyed The Division, but just got kinda bummed out by the prospect of the gear-grind treadmill the last few times I logged in, so I’m just gonna keep it on the hard drive for when any content drops come out.
I don’t know, for me (who sunk a shit ton of time into Destiny) I am still loving it
But then I also loved Diablo
Also strangely I cannot get into your typical MMO’s
I feel I have tried most of them, just can’t do it
Including ESO and Wildstar and of course WOW
I’m the same – I think for me it’s the combat systems. Destny, The Division and Diablo all have pretty great, impactful combat. I’ve never seen an MMO with a decent combat system. I liked ESO’s beta – running Fungal Grotto with a competent team was great fun. But the final release just fell flat. I made it to level 35 in WoW because I really pushed myself; haven’t made it far past 20 in any MMO since (except SWTOR… I think).
I never got out of the starting area in ES beta, just could not get into it
I’m pretty sure I only kept playing long enough to do the dungeon because I met a friendly Argonian mage near the first city on the first day; we got on well, so we levelled and ran quests together for the whole beta. He never got the final game, and levelling solo was boring as hell (especially for a subscription-based game), so I drifted off it.
I just….I can’t explain it
I have always tried MMO’s for friends (except for Wildstar, I was just curious) and can never stick them out
WoW was the one I got the furthest in, mostly because my brother lived WoW, I think I got to 80? Maybe only 70, cannot remember
Yea, it took me trying 6+ different MMOs before I twigged as to why I found them so utterly dull. Hell, I’m big on story, so I should be absolutely devouring SWTOR… but I feel no compulsion to go back to it, to find out what happens next, despite being halfway through a really quite cool story.
@os42
Give me something like the bullet king to farm and the daily challenge missions and I am all over it
Actually, I just really enjoy the gameplay, setting and the intricate world
Jamiroquai (feat. M-Beat, or M-Beat feat. Jamiroquai depending on where you get it) – Do You Know Where You’re Coming From?
Great track.
En Livstid I Krig – Sabaton. As cool as their new albums are, nothing beats the Swedish Carolus Rex.
I’m starting to see precisely what I expected to see in the Dark Zones – well-geared players reaching their optimal loadout and farming players in lower-level areas. Had a group just open up on us last night – we had no loot to steal, cash and keys aside – I think we must’ve beat the miniboss just as they arrived – we didn’t even get a chance to pick anything up. We legged it, they got two of us as we left the building. They chased our third and cornered him in front of a checkpoint which he couldn’t enter because he was “in combat” (I still think you should not be classified as “in combat” unless you shoot back, but hey). Long story short, we all lost nearly an hour’s work in XP because “well geared people are bored and irritable.” I was really hoping to have lost interest in the game before all the dickery started… *sigh*
Into The Airwaves by Jack’s Mannequin.
The Occupants – I’ve Been Thinking
Relaxed alt-rock by the Gower bros, of COG fame.
Hey Lifehacker fell off the bottom of the page.
You mean someone ‘fixed’ the bottom of the page? =P
No.
There’s still no Popsugar down there.
It’s Monday for me.
And my weekend was a fucking bust. I did absolutely nothing again because I had nothing to get up for. So I sat around at home and hermited and watched lots of netflix. Finished Arrow S3, Watched all of The Flash S1 and Daredevil S2.
Arrow was okay but either the weirdo Aussie guy they got to do
Ra’swasn’t very good, orLiam Neesonhas forever ruined the ability for any other actor to portray the character for me.I really like The Flash. Way more than I expected to, really. It really works and it’s got that lighter and more pulpy tone that makes it a nice counterpoint. Hope I’m not waiting for too long for season 2 to hit Netflix though it seems like their agreement with CW is that it appears on Netflix after the home video release so probably a while away.
Daredevil S2 was really unfocused. Didn’t start to feel like things were moving adequately until about five episodes in. Too many unrelated threads, not enough of an overarching story to tie it together. I enjoyed it but it’s the weakest season of the Netflix marvel productions so far I think. Really suffered from not having a good antagonist and it feels a lot like they couldn’t decide if they were making a second season of Daredevil or the first season of The Punisher.
Arrow
I thought Nable was fine, but they didn’t really give him enough meaty to do- it was really a whole arc of “why should I care.” The fight on the hilltop, for example, was really good and established him as a threat, but they didn’t follow through well enough.Agree.
Deathstroke was by far the better villain. Real solid connection to the Arrow, plus an enemy that felt extremely dangerous with carefully laid-out plans and nearly impossible to beat. Ra’s al Ghul should make Deathstroke look like a child though. They squandered his potential quite badly.I’d really love to see a developer like Rocksteady apply the Arkham City approach to the Green Arrow. I think it’d work really well. Just probably a much harder sell than Batman is, I guess.
I’d be down for that kind of game.
I say it far too often but I’d love to see the engine from the new Tomb Raider games used to make an Arrow game. I mean the first Tomb Raider is basically just Green Arrow Origins.
It really is. And it’d work pretty fabulously, you’re right.
I’ll have to agree to the rocky start to the punisher; it’s like they told two stories in the span of one season. I can understand the challenge of wanting to develop both the punisher and elektra equally but the end result is a slightly more fractured storyline than previous series. Still…. really enjoyed the two new characters all said and done. Matt, Foggy and Karen come across almost one dimensional against the new talent though….
Also this weekend I did a little bit of gaming. Played some more World of Warships but got sick of it pretty fast because I was playing like shit. Was going to try and finish Trails of Cold Steel. Didn’t touch it.
Did play an hour or so of Senran Kagura: Estival Versus on PS4. It’s fun. There’s some questionable additions to the formula and the three conspicuous holes in the character roster really make me sad (XSeed couldn’t get the license to the trio of Ikkitousen guest characters because Tokyopop still has the manga license and they’re jerkfaces that don’t want to let me play with the Ikkitousen incarnation of Lu Bu in my Dynasty Warriors-alike) but it’s basically more of the same as Shinovi Versus, but a bit more refined. Haven’t played with everyone yet but it feels like they’ve rebalanced a few of them (noticed that they gave Yozakura ridiculously long animation cooldowns after firing off her attack strings, but buffed her attack power heaps for example). Still has some shit checkpointing issues which is a shame (if I fail the final duel at the end of a level don’t make me re-do the ten-minute grind through the level again, dammit).
On one level I got to play with one of the new characters and proceeded to beat my final opponent so hard I blew her clothes off and sent her careening into a hot dog stand, resulting in her being covered by giant hot wieners. Game of the year.Do not pursue Lu Bu!
In Ryofu’s case you’d be forgiven for doing so though.
Hey gang.
Most of might have heard of the Mega Game, a huge multi hour event that combines elements of combat, strategy, politics and warfare into a fun event. In Western Sydney, specifically Narellan (just past Campbelltown) we’ve hosted two of these events and we’re gearing up for a third called “Brave New World”. Set in the near future in a futuristic/cyberpunk world, Brave New World will involve (hopefully) nearly 100 people.
We still have about 13 tickets to sell, and the game will be played on Sunday the 10th of April. All the details and how to buy tickets are on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/westernsydmegagamesociety/ and on the website http://wsmegagamesociety.com/
Hopefully you can come play!
I can’t attend this one but I wholeheartedly endorse this concept. Had a lot of fun at the Megagame last year playing the Machivelli to @trjn’s Prince and the photographer to @alexpants’ king Wizard. Who was in a secret alliance with @gingerchris86
King Wizard sounds like an awesome job title.
The cloak and Mustard Pants of office was a sight to behold
Also, I’m one of the moderators.
Wait… that probably means others won’t want to play :p
Also, whatever happened to the video of Unrest in Idrinor you guys were filming?
Who wants to do some co-op campaign runs through Dead Space 3, Army of Two, and a 4 player run through Gears of War 3? All on 360.
40th day or regular AoT?
I have 2 on disc and I got the 3rd for free with Gold.
There was a third Army of Two? I loved the first, but remember the second being kinda average.
Anyone know much about dual citizenship? My grandmother is a Dutch citizen, having only been a permanent resident in Australia for 54 odd years; I’m not sure about my (now deceased) grandfather though. Assuming he was also a permanent resident when my mother was born, she would’ve been eligible for both Dutch and Australian citizenship at birth and as far as I know has never claimed her Dutch citizenship. Dutch citizenship laws give the right to a person born to a Dutch parent to claim citizenship themselves – I’m curious if that right extends to children to citizens who were not citizens at the time of birth. Say, if mum were to claim her Dutch citizenship, would I then be able to? It would be super handy to also have a EU passport.
All I know is that Australian citizenship doesn’t preclude out other citizenship so long as it is lawful for the other citizenship to be dually held. For example, in the past U.S. citizens were not allowed to hold the citizenship of another country (taking the oath of another country was considered to be contrary to the citizenship provisions of the USA) – and hence could not hold dual citizenship with Australia. When that changed (Supreme Court ruled that a US citizen had to formally renounce their citizenship to a consulate for it to be revoked) it became legal for them to hold Australian citizenship dually.
Cite: USA/Australian dual citizen.
Does’t really help with the Dutch question but the tl;dr is: check with the Dutch citizenship requirements. There’s nothing on the Australian side that would stop you.
We have been through this with @Batguy – it’s pretty tight to get dual Dutch citizenship and will absolutely depend on whether your mother is still eligible. Things like whether your grandparents became naturalised Australian citizens, and whether there was a cut-off for your mother to apply for her Dutch citizenship are things to look into. Good luck.
It’s all laid out quite clearly in their rules. About 10 years ago, the regulations went something like this:
– If your grandparents were dutch nationals at the time of your mother’s birth, it passes directly to her
– She retains said nationality passively until she is 25, or gets married to a non-dutch national, or actively takes up another nationality. She may apply to keep it active beyond 25.
– If you were born during that period where she had nationality, then it passes to you until you reach 25, get married, etc.
In my case I would have qualified if my grandparents hadn’t taken full Australian citizenship maybe 4 years before my Mum was born 😐
Thanks! So, not great news for me. At least my wife can get UK citizenship, too bad the registration costs 1100GBP.
Hello TAY !!
Weekend was good. Enrolled myself into a rowing club and have been going good. Continuing with usual sports on the side (Volleyball, Brazilian Jujitsu and kick boxing).
Been continuing with the reading as well. Any book to suggests? I am into philosophy and Buddhism.
I had some fun playing Division with friends @spaghetts on the weekend. Although, I am not sure it will keep occupied as long as Destiny. There’s not much mechanics in the game, just cover, pew pew and repeat again and again.
Its more fun with friends than alone, for sure.
How’s everyone going ???
PROOF
@freezespreston was drunk at work!
Was there ever a question that Freeze is drunk at work? I mean, like, all the time.
I mean his work does sell hip flasks and there is a liquorland & bws like right across from the shop totally plausible 😛
If you know a better way to deal with a public facing position I’d love to hear it.
No, that’s the correct way.
I served about 5 customers while barely able to stand or even see anything and not one asked if I was okay so they probably assumed that too.
I did it. After putting it off for 18 years, I’ve finally completed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
It’s alright, I can definitely see why so many people would love it at the time. But I can also see it’s where the formula started and how much hasn’t really changed since.
Unlike many Zelda games following it, you actually have more than one use for many items.
Considering I didn’t need to keep opening the menu, the Water Temple wasn’t annoying at all, but can definitely see how that could have pissed off so many people back in the day.
Although, I will shit on anybody that thought Dark Link was hard. Wasn’t a challenge at all.
Wheel get!
Seems to work just fine, although the box was missing the power adapter. Luckily it seems to take the same one as my GCN wheel. Also, it seems it fits with that one’s lap adapter which is kinda cool. Not that that thing was overly useful, especially since I seemed to be wearing nylon shorts half the time I even tried to use it. But still, nice to know.
Now if only I had something to test it out with other than the calibration screen 😛
Burnout Paradise?
Just because it’s the best racing game there is.
I do have that I think. On 360 😛
Burnout 2 was what I used my other one on, so it would be fitting.
What’s your Steam ID?
For… research purposes.
It is… not.
As in it doesn’t exist. Not as in me disagreeing with you 😛
Also the wheel seems to work fine in the Windows config thingo, but trying it out in Burnout (test copy >_>), the steering would just instantly go hard-right when the wheel hit the point just left of centre. Other than that worked fine though, so probably just something screwy with the game.
Well now how am I supposed to donate a racing game to you? >_<
And yeah I know Paradise works great with an XBox 360 controller (that’s how I play it) but I’ve never tried it with a wheel. Not sure if it’s supported or how the controls would be mapped. Likely an “unsupported device” issue.
What wheel is it?
A T300, a G29, one of the Fanatec wheels?
No it’s something actually affordable 😛
Driving Force GT, for the princely sum of $10. Think the guy might’ve made a pricing error, he mentioned he “kinda fucked up” when I picked it up. Good on him for not just cancelling the order or something.
Oh, cool.
You can try it out on stuff like BMW M3 Challenge and RaceRoom, plus there’s always Race 07 which is going for about $3USD on Steam.
\o/
Yakuza Zero confirmed for localized release \o/
Star Ocean 5 is out in summer in the northern hemisphere so 3-5 months away, and will be dual audio (thank god) \o/
Trails of Cold Steel II dub recording is progressing well \o/
Hyper Light Drifter is finally releasing next week \o/
So ummm, I saw an advance screening of Batman Vs Superman last night. Took a mate of mine who’s a big DC buff, and I’m fairly certain the high pitched whistling noise throughout the movie was him going “SSSQQQQQQQQQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” for 151 minutes.
I was a little confused at first, but I get it. Squee, not scree =P
Hey no need to draw attention to his speech impediment like that 😛
Shhhhh, don’t hype it! I’m trying to keep my expectations very, very low. This process is being helped greatly by reading reviews.
Welp… it finally happened, I’ve now got a small Necron army sitting in a box at home ready to be put together and painted, my wallet may be crying right now.
Not as much as Mum’s =P
But in all seriousness, she deserves that limited edition statue
It is a fine statue, worth getting at least one of something you really enjoy.
Yeah, the Daryl one wasn’t so good, so I think she made a good choice
Sweet. Always nice to hear someone choosing a non-Space Marine army. How many points?
It’s a “Start Collecting!” box, so 580 points according to a quick search.
Necrons have always been my favourite, the more I read of them, the more I admire them.
Those sets are pretty cool. I’m always tempted to pick up the Tyranids one for a small painting project/Kill Team army.
Yeah now when I look back at f4ction’s post on the point limit, my eyes just widened, I’m pretty sure I’m going to go broke if I try to get that many points worth. The Start Collecting box is great value for money but individually expensive as heck.
GOOOOOOOOOOD MOOOOOOOOORNING TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Spaghett’s last song played game time!!!
Imperium by Machine Head – it’s playing right now!!
At work I am doing data entry and am in a room by myself so it’s earphone time all the time!!
How is everyone?
Also, Rest in pieces to Bullet King, we hardly knew ye, but god did we love ye
EDIT* Shit, page get 😀
The Sound of My Sobbing as I Masturbate in the Shower by FreezeSPreston
THIS IS MY JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM
It’s Freeze S Preston Esquire!
Fun fact: Every time I see “Freeze S Preston (Esq.)” I pronounce Freeze S to rhyme with Jesus in my head.
That is a fun fact
I always just think of Bill and Ted, no complaints
Stop using shampoo as lube, or at least use the No More Tears baby shampoo for crying out loud.
Ne-Yo – Because of You
Anberlin – Impossible.
Knockin’ on heavens door – Guns and Roses
Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Murder on the Dance Floor.
(Don’t blame me, it’s not in my library. It’s on the radio. …OK, now it’s in my library because I just realized it wasn’t in my library.)
I love that song, nothing to be ashamed of.
I also love Eiffel 65, also no shame, none
Garbage – Sleep Together
Garbage being my favourite band I’m all hype for the announcement their new album is coming out in May, so this week I decided to listen to one album per day during my commute (with a ~50 minute runtime and a 1 hour 15 minute commute each way it means I’m listening to each one about 3 times) starting with Shirley Manson’s original project Angelfish, then onto Garbage, and today is Version 2.0. Tomorrow, Beautiful Garbage. With Friday being a public holiday I’ll probably just have to listen to Bleed Like Me and Not Your Kind of People next week, since my wife hates Garbage – especially their last two albums which I think she feels completely jumped the shark.
I hadn’t listened to the last album until recently and they didn’t do a lot for me, so will try again when I’m in a different mood.
Bleed like me is ok but wasn’t really anything on NYKOP that took my fancy on first listen. Will be interested to see which direction the new album takes, hadn’t even heard there was a new one coming.
Bleed tbh takes an aggressive stance on certain issues like body dysmorphia and sexuality that in 2005 was a bit old hat (I still love tracks like Bleed Like Me, Why Do You Love Me and Sex is Not the Enemy). It was powerful but rather dated on arrival, like a recitation of issues they’d covered in tracks like Androgyny and Cherry Lips but angrier. NYKOP has a strong first half. It falls off in the second. I find that’s always the case but some of those songs like Milk and My Lover’s Box grow on me over time. The back half of NYKOP hasn’t yet but the first six tracks are quite strong. I love Automatic Systematic Habit, Control and the title track.
Last song for me = Madchild – Dickhead
Got me a VIP meet and greet ticket for his Brisbane show on May 4 yesterday! SO FUCKING HYPE!!!!!!
Enjoy 😀
Shall do! Wish I was gonna have my surgery before the show, but doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. Still, shouldn’t stop me from enjoying it! Just gotta figure out how I’m gonna get there.
The Threat is Real – Megadeth.
Also, Equal recognition for named NPCs! *raises sign* RIP Soretto, Erskine, Belzer, Riot, Chains, Cpl. Dorsman, Fumes, Sgt. Jacks, Strings and Apollo. Manhattan is barren and cold for your absence; may you be rise to fight again via some sort of daily or weekly respawn system.
I think I only really farmed BK, so alot of those others are likely alive for me
I am not sure whether I kill BK (and put him out of his misery) or leave him alive until they fix it
Because, I don’t just want them to be gone forever, I want them to maybe go on a respawn timer.
Make the PVE world more interesting in that way 🙂
#NotJustBK
Suicidal Tendencies – You Can’t Bring Me Down
Tool – Hush
I finished the walking dead season 2, the telltale game, last night. I was constantly restarting, because I would hate my decisions, choosing the other one, and have the same outcome. I knew this. I knew it, and yet, I kept trying.
TWDs2 was probably the worst at recognising and incorporating player choices to date (though I’ve not played Tales from the Borderlands yet so that could be a contender in spite of the rave reviews it’s received). I’ve never criticised TT games for the illusion of choice because realistically real freedom of choice and branching story paths is a bit much to ask, but I’ve always enjoyed how I can shape and personalise my narrative. TWDs2 was like “lol nope” when it came to that (while still being enjoyable to play by telling a pretty great story).
I was agonising over choices, despite the fact I knew they made no difference
Tales has better run-on implications to your choices than the others
Good ol walking dead! I remember getting the ending where Clem and Kenny turn away from the shelter together =O That was a great season! Next up TWAU?So far I guess I’ve only played TWD 1 & 2 and TWAU and half of Game of Thrones and I reckon TWAU is my favourite so far.
Yeah TWAU got me into the Fables comics as well after I played the first episode so by the time the whole series came out I had a pretty good grasp of who/what everyone was. Pretty cool setting, hope they make another series in that world!
TWAU?
The Wolf Among Us, based on the Fables graphic novel(s?).
I thought it was another walking dead game. I am disappoint =P
Next step is to get Mum to play
Do not be disappoint. Wolf is actually better.
There is a Michonne-based TV tie-in game by Telltale if you’re keen for more TWD, but I think only two (of three) episodes are currently out.
What transient said, if you enjoyed TWD you will love TWAU. Definitely worth playing through!
But money D= i’ll wait for it to get cheaper
Oh definitely wait for a sale. Not that it’s not worth the price, but it’s a couple of years old and on sale so frequently that I’d hate to recommend not waiting for a sale. You’d just be throwing money away.
Edit: unless you were referring to Michonne’s Story, in which case yeah, still go ahead and wait. Again, Telltale games go on sale with such regularity that while I feel bad not paying full price, I never, ever have.
I got the ending where Clem, AJ and Jane end up at Howe’s. I invited the family in.Oh my god.
I have just borne witness to one of the most legendary of mythical support beasts.
The scanned-and-attached printout of a screen capture.
*adds Hall of Fame tag*
My favourite is the web-form which has been printed out and filled-in by hand, then scanned and emailed. Because they couldn’t figure out how to get a signature on to the webform. The signature which is not asked for. Because to submit the form you needed to ‘sign in’ with a unique username and password which is much more secure than a scanned signature.
Ahhhh damn if I don’t love the stories that Subterfuge creates.
So I’m playing in a 5v5 “team” game where the alliances were determined prior to the game starting. I engage in a cold-ish war against the player to my southern border and he sends 50 drillers against one of my factories…. Not realising that I’ve got reinforcements on the way… and I’m about to pop an Engineer to that location. Suddenly his 6-driller-remaining victory becomes a victory for me with 21 remaining.
So modelling this with the time scrubber I think… Hmmm, he’s left his Queen at a generator and because he’s sent all his reinforcements against the factory he won’t be able to respond to a move against it, unless he uses his other factory, which is only 30 mins closer than mine. … Time for a power play. Set my drillers to launch at 2:30am. He’ll have 30 mins to respond or my drillers will hit the Queen. He’ll either have to lose the Queen, or vacate the generator and I take it with no losses. Win-win, right?
Wake up at 7am to check what the scenario is. He’s been on 30 minutes prior, seen all his potential losses and resigned the game. I didn’t even consider that as a possibility.
1 down, 4 to go.
That’s how I got a queen capture in Subtayfuge 2- very fine timing.
Yeah I’m getting very quick with the mental calculations while dragging rules across the map. I’m playing less total time but the time I am putting in I’m putting to better use now.
Well, for those of you playing along at home who don’t have bookface, I’m still sick and off work. I finally got a letter from the hospital yesterday with an appointment offer!
So I rang the hospital as instructed, to arrange a time and day to go in, only to find out that the offer had been redacted due to the doctor deciding he’s going to take a holiday during the period when my appointment was able to be set. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU……. Was supposed to be the end of April sometime, but now won’t be til March at least.
So now I’m back on the waiting list again. Have to wait a couple more weeks before they can book me in because they can only book appointments up to 6 weeks in advance :\
So shit…… */me sulks in the corner
It’s bloody ridiculous how they can send out appointments then have the doctor just cancel. Like, I know people have real lives and need vacations once in awhile but your health and wellbeing is in his hands, and in the meantime I assume you’re still not able to work?
That was my thought. I mean, once they send the letter, you’d think they’d be committed to hold it unless the patient chooses not to take the offer. Even the chick on the phone yesterday was a little miffed by the finding. I gave her my reference number, and she got all confused.
She then proceeded to say it seems a bit silly that they’d send it to me and then cancel.
I am indeed unable to work until I’ve had my surgery, as I am still having daily issues with dizziness and passing out and narcoleptic symptoms, as well as involuntary muscle movements in my left leg. Thankfully I’m at least getting sickness benefit from Centrelink, but there’s only so long I can live on $600 a fortnight, as it only just covers my rent.
Was so surprised to then get that sms today with another offer though. The lady said it would likely be a couple of weeks before I would get another one, so I’m thankful that it didn’t take that long to find out. At least I was able to update my work and give them some kind of timeframe.
I’m so sorry that you’re having to go through this. May I ask, are you going through public, or private?
Did you mean May?
er yeah May :0
Man… what a joke. today I got an sms saying I have been sent a new letter of offer, for an appointment on May 11! Called up and confirmed straight away! 9:30am!
Also @scree, it’s public.
=/ You think they would hurry it up a little instead of pissing you around, but I guess you have to be dying and then some.
You would like to think that, especially given my specialist waited like 3 months to submit the bloody referral, but my GP said he wouldn’t be able to justify bumping me to a cat 1 even though that had happened, as the assessors would not accept it unless I was going to die before the surgery. Still, at least I have a date now. The end is coming.. not fast enough, but at least it’s on the way at last!
Yeah I waited nearly 3 years for ‘urgent’ surgery, then got a call out of the blue asking if I could come in for it the next day. It was a total scramble, but I sure has hell didn’t say no.
Good luck with it mate.
Tyranny looks to be really interesting =O Can’t believe its coming out this year!
lalalalalalalalalalalala I can’t hear you
Almost looks like it may even be better than PoE.
@tigerion Did you guys see the article on PCGamer? Sounds like you’re going to a Judge Dredd type character restoring order on behalf of the new evil overlord!
And that exact description makes me want a similar Obsidian-designed Judge Dredd RPG. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t work.
I AM THE LAW. Combat, dialogue, interrogation/interviews, detective work, interaction with other Judges, navigation between multiple areas of Megacity One, regular exp-generating perp-arresting/executing random battles… Dredd is perfect for a PoE-style RPG.
lalalalalalalalalalalala I can’t hear you
Looks very cool but I haven’t played any of the recent cRPGs in my library so I can’t comprehend being able to play this any time soon, therefore it doesn’t existOh yeah same; that doesn’t stop me from adding to my pile of shame though 😛 I still haven’t even loaded up the disc for Darksiders 2 on the PS4 and I bought that over Christmas!!
Hey I started that one!
There you go, objectively if I’m allowed to get Tyranny so are you if we use DS2 as the scale =P
I can’t fault this logic.
TO THE HYPE TRAIN *CHOO CHOO*
That wouldn’t be hard.
Heeeeeeey… that almost makes it sound like you think PoE wasn’t amazeballs! Which it was.
Maybe it was if you could get past the ponderous pacing and stupid unnecessary fatigue system that made the actual game part an utter chore.
I’ve regretted putting large sums of money into Kickstarter stuff before but Pillars of Eternity probably has my worst dollar-to-satisfaction ratio 🙁
Yeah, found it to be a bit bland with irritating mechanics myself.
Especially in the wake of Divinity OS which was a similar game done much better.
@tech_knight @popdart5 @blaghman
NUMENERA
TONIGHT
8PM SA TIME
IF THATS OK WITH YOU GUYS
SORRY FOR- Sorry for yelling
I’m good with that.
Should be all good for it tonight.
Just a gentle reminder, dear taybies, that our fully-sick @welbot might need a few extra dollars for pesky things like rent and food while he’s sick and waiting for surgery.
Cheers for the share! Don’t anyone go crazy though! I’m not in struggle street right now, but still a ways to go, so not confident enough yet to say that I won’t need any more donations. 🙂
Small donations atm would certainly be appreciated though 🙂
Hooray for consumer affairs!
Some of you may remember that I bought a car and the gearbox died on the way home, and the dealer basically said ‘tough’ and refused to do anything about it. The car was a 2001 model and had 250,000km on the clock so I thought I was out of luck.
I contacted consumer affairs, gave them a bunch of info, answered a few emails and they took over from there.
I got a call yesterday to say that the dealer is shipping a replacement gearbox to my mechanic, and is refunding $250 to go towards labour charges.
I’m stoked as I really couldn’t afford the repairs.
Unfortunately I already bought another gearbox, but I can try and sell it, and the $250 is a help (the labour is around $4-500) but I am so pleased that the system worked. The dealer was abusive and terrible, so it was great not having to talk with them myself.
I strongly recommend lodging a claim/complaint, it was pretty painless and got a result in the end.
Hellz yeah mang! Sometimes the system does work! Reminds me of when my work tried to ditch me with only a week’s pay in lieu of notice. I checked all the laws and got confirmation they were doing the wrong thing, and ended up getting 2 weeks pay in lieu of notice, plus 6 weeks redundancy plus holidays! The government fucking sucks 99% of the time, but occasionally the systems they have in place are a real life saver! 🙂
Great to hear you got it sorted, even if it did take a mammoth effort on your part!
Question for you cosplaying artistic types after reading the new article in TAY. Is there linkage between cosplay and profession prop work in movies? I.e. I guess I’m curious if cosplay is like the indie equivalent of try to break into the industry?
Um um @redartifice @scree @cookingmama @tech_knight ? lets throw in @mrtaco for good measure
Yeah, if you’re good and that’s what you want to do? Really it’s about who you know, for something that niche, but people like Volpin Props http://www.volpinprops.com/ have moved into professional prop building.
But that’s not why most people do it, and it’s certainly not why I do it. I do it because it’s fun and I like the material.
I think it tends to flow in the opposite direction. The “professional” cosplays are often made by people who have developed talent elsewhere, and the cosplay is just their way of showing off their craft. That’s not to say that a talented cosplayer couldn’t break into costume design/prop design/etc but at some point you’d need to start studying your craft to be able to take it from hobby to profession.
Personally, I use cosplays as a way to learn/practise sewing skills, but there is YEARS of work between what I do and say, someone who sews for theatre or movies. I’ll be happy if I can get to the point of being able to sew costumes for a school play, or the local christmas panto. For me, it’s absolutely a fun hobby and the reason I cosplay at PAX is because standing around in lines is more fun if you’re in a costume.
Man, it’s gonna be so cool when we’re all bloodborned up this year.
How many people are BB-ing it up this year?
At last check, myself, @cookingmama, @freezespreston, @sernobulus, @thecracks. I know @blaghman was in the conversation at some point, and @transientmind was at least a willing supporter.
Interesting
Somehow I don’t think the PC release will be done before PAX, However it would be kinda cool to do a group cosplay thing. I guess I could watch some lets play to see what I think
Its not getting a pc release unless theyve announced something really on the qt.
Don’t crush my dreams.
It is possible and they have made statements around it but nothing is confirmed. There was apparently a steam listing for it the was found and subsequently deleted.
But I can live in hope
But if you need screenshots or anything like that let us know
Is everybody going as a hunter or what is the plan?
@tigerion yeah, all hunters with different sets
I merely personally see it like a fashion/costume designer, just used in a different culture and theme (of course on a smaller level as you’re only one person or a small group), and used at conventions instead of catwalks to show off to the crowds. All those cosplay photos are really no different to modelling clothing/bags/watches/etc, just used in a completely different theme and culture and not necessarily for sale.
I’d say there could be a connection, but like any part of showbusiness, it’s all about working your networking, maybe you are friends with one of the staff and they give their executive director your name (Say they ask for suggestions for a prop/costume designer for a comic book movie) if you know how to make props at a very detailed level, your cosplay photos would be your portfolio to apply for that job. It shows to the people in charge that you can design as well as craft and colour.
My portfolio.
Redoes everything 3 times, until it’s decided to be a level of near perfection that I’m happy with.
…
Let me unpick that, I’m unhappy with it. D=
I don’t see why not as it would be considered experience. I know that several people have managed to get into professional costume design from cosplay. I think if you have the talent, then does it really matter where you started?
Also, just as a note, cosplay prop making isn’t quite the same as film prop making. Most cosplay props are one-offs, film props are multiple-ofs
Most of my props and such have a set of highly detailed plans and measurements drawn out so I can easily recreate them should the need arise. Which it never does, but y’know 😛
Yeah, I use templates, but it’s more methods of manufacture are a bit different- more moulding and casting
It seems like a pretty cool job to have. Maybe I should’ve tried aiming for that instead way back when.
Hey cool, BI is now included in the bottom black flag thingy. Sweet.
Interesting. Although I do kinda miss the Sugar stuff
PC parts ordered!
Scary times.
Oooooh, whatcha get?
I’m still hoping my i7 920 holds out for another 6 months until we see Polaris/Pascal cards and AMD’s Zen chips.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/k32wGX
Just this, I think. Very hard to find some of the parts here in Sydney, at least at places that still had them in stock and where I could go pick them up myself instead of having to pay/wait for delivery. Got two out of three orders ready to pick up, third was the largest but all the items were marked as being available within 24hrs so should be right to go grab everything this afternoon.
Nice, I’ve been wanting to try an ITX build myself. No graphics card though? Or is that part of another order?
Already got it a month or two ago, from one of the ebay sales. GTX 970.
I got this one because it had a handle and I thought it looked cool, then fit everything around it 😛
Especially the motherboard, trying to find something with a tonne of USB3 ports but so few of them do. Even the ones more expensive than that.
I’m still running a 920 myself. Performance wise it’ll still hold its own for a while, just pray your mobo doesn’t crap itself, cos it’s impossible to get replacements these days :\
To be perfectly honest, I’m kinda hoping it does, then I’ll actually have a reason to build a new machine… at the moment it’s still in the “want” basket, not the “need” basket.
*EDIT*
Aaaaaaand I just realised this is last week’s TAY…
Woo, it’s Friday-esque! \o/
Thursday is the best Friday.
I’ve been dabbling in a number of free to play Japanese mobile and browser games recently. and none of them have stuck for me. Yet I always find myself coming back to Kantai Coillection and I’ve been thinking about why that is.
When you boil it down, all these games are a single core gameplay mechanic combined with a bunch of housekeeping to service that. Whether it’s a rhythm game like Love Live or Idolmaster Cinderella Stage (aka Deremas), or it’s an action game like Battle Girls High School, or a strategy rpg like KanColle or Terra Battle or Granblue Fantasy, this is the bit you’re actually engaging with the rest of the systems in order to play.The way it generally works is you have a set of characters represented by something approximating a trading card, though it would be very wrong to say these games are card games, as they are not. It’s simply a useful abstraction. You build up a set of these characters, put them in a group and they in some way enhance or change the core gameplay piece. In most games they basically are stat sticks which can evolve over time as you play. They’ll always have artwork which appears in the core gameplay when the character is used, giving a cosmetic improvement as well. Some have better stats or stat caps than others. You can evolve their stats by either leveling them up by using them in the game, combining other cards with them, or in some games both.
The games all use a randomized system for obtaining new character cards, called a Gacha system. This is pretty much universal. It’s based off the same kind of idea as gashapon toys. It’s basically a lottery. In pretty much every game there will be a bunch of different gachas you can engage with, usually a ‘common’ one and then some kind of special one. The common one takes a common currency, and the special one a premium currency. Some have multiple special gacha. Others will rotate them, changing which characters might be available in the special set.
This is also where the cards analogy is useful again. Each card is assigned a rarity for the gacha system. Most games have four rarities (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare or Super-Rare) and some may have more levels (Deremas has a top-end SSR category for example). Some games of the more RPG-like persuasion have equipment cards that are similarly tiered. Generally speaking the SR/SSR stuff is what you want and anything C/UC is trash for newbies. The chance of getting a high-rarity card is super low (I believe that Deremas is 1.5% for example). And of course, if you’ve run out of premium currency you can buy some in exchange for real money. Buy 5/10 spins at once (depends on the game) and get an extra one for free! Plus double the chance of the highest rarity! Want to use a specific character? Either you need a ton of luck or a ton of money.
There’s also usually a third currency in the game, which is some kind of stamina meter. This regenerates over time, and playing the game part of the game costs stamina, thus putting an artificial limit on how often you can play the game. Everyone should be familiar with this concept. A lot of games also have some kind of player level which goes up as you play the game and in a lot of cases allow you more stamina. Some also will give each character a point value and give each player a point maximum they can use in their group tied to their player level as a way of slowing growth as well, usually to stop players buying a ton of overpowered SSRs via gacha and making the game too easy.
So then, what does KanColle do differently?
For starters, there’s no stamina system. Or there is, but it arises from the mechanics rather than being explicit. You have four currencies. They regenerate to a maximum value depending on player level. You spend them to obtain new cards and also spend them to play the combat part of the game – cards sent on combat require fuel and ammunition )and bauxite for carriers) to be replenished afterward, and may require fuel and steel to repair their hitpoints. The regeneration rate is decent and by the time your level is in the 30s or 40s you can play for many hours without running out. The characters themselves also have a built-in stamina-like system. Going out on a sortie builds up fatigue which starts to reduce their effectiveness, at which point they need to rest for 5-10 minutes or so There is no premium currency in the game. You can spend real money to buy resources, but it is much more efficient to just get it through the game.
KanColle doesn’t have a true gacha system. The pool of buildable ships doesn’t change very often. You can obtain new ships by constructing them, which costs the same currencies you use for everything else. You choose how much of each to put into the system, and depending on the combination you have different changes at getting different characters (if you want a chance at a battleship you pump up the steel and ammunition you put in). It’s still very randomized, but it’s more interesting and far more predictable. Equipment can also be built the same way.
The game also allows you to gain new character cards by playing the game. It’s not unique in this but most games will instead reward premium or basic currencies for use in the Gacha system or will reward a ticket for a free go. Instead, KanColle’s battle maps have random drops and there are many that are only available as drops on certain maps – they can never be constructed.
In Gacha games, the top-rarity cards are usually far and away the best of them. They will have stronger abilities, better stats, higher level caps and better artwork. KanColle has rarities assigned to cards and rarer ones are harder to obtain theoretically, but rarer cards don’t necessarily mean stronger cards – Kaga, for example, is the best aircraft carrier but is a lower rarity than Akagi. Many of the best destroyers in the game are common. By the time you’re a veteran player you’ll likely have had dozens of Shimakaze (supposedly SSR) but likely won’t have, say, Kiyoshimo despite her being only theoretically R.
The game is extensively and completely voiced. Every character has voiced lines. All the core things you do in the game (entering the base, changing equipment, going in for repairs, going out on combat etc.) has a unique voiced line for each character. This is quite a rarity. Most games like it instead reserve voice for the high-rarity cards – some like Deremas will even have lower-rarity versions of the same character unvoiced (note that KanColle also only has one card for each character and doesn’t have multiple cards with different art for the same character or anything). The voicing makes a huge difference because each of the characters has that little bit of extra character. Combined with the fact that common cards can be competitive and the less punitive approach to obtaining them and it basically comes down to letting you obtain and use the characters you like based on their artwork or their voice or whatever floats your boat. You can even select one of them to be the ‘secretary’ and hang out in your headquarters (which basically the front menu) and greet you. Many of them have hourly lines, many gets special lines for certain seasons and some even get different artwork for certain seasons. Other games will do this by introducing a new SSR card that has the new artwork.
There’s also the fact that they’re very lenient when it comes to storage space. By default, you have 100 card slots (and can pay to expand this in 10 slot increments). 100 is enough to have one of about half of the possible cards. Other games usually have ridiculously low limits in the 20s or 30s.
Like many F2P games, KC has countdown timers for a bunch of stuff. Repairs and construction can take multiple hours (I’ve had carrier repairs take >24 hours before). There are in-game items to insta-complete the countdown and you can buy them for real money, but it’s easy to obtain them in-game.
So I guess when you boil it down, I keep coming back because it’s not punitive. It encourages you to keep playing constantly and doesn’t penalize you for playing ‘too much’. It lets you get a lot of enjoyment without paying for it through the nose. It beats out Gacha games primarily by virtue of not being one. And when it comes to Android later this year it’s going to end me. 🙁
I find it odd that those kinda (gatcha) games are apparently so popular. Surely the bs is pretty obvious and easily avoided for something better.
But then I don’t understand people who play pokies either. Maybe it’s just a matter of psychological hardwiring.
Some of them have pretty fun core gameplay. It’s just the other bits around it that are shit. And some are less assholish about it too. Battle Girls High School for example is a lot of fun and while it has a gacha system you can get enough for several goes at it just by playing for a bit, plus no stamina to stop you playing.
The fact they limit your ability to play for a longer session is one of the things I can’t understand about a lot of them. Why would I waste 15 minutes on your game if the other one can let me spend an hour if I want to?
@jocon some hots during the long weekend?
Sure. I haven’t practiced at all though.
While fun with friends I can’t summon a whit of enthusiasm to play mobas solo.
Lol fair enough, I think I managed one game during the week. I have little to no game time on the weekdays on this new routine so we’re probably at the same skill level as last we tried xD
I’ll drop you a text and we can run a few matches tomoz, or you drop me a line when you’re free.
Gym/diet update
So I started a 6 meal routine earlier this week and I can’t believe how quickly my body’s gotten used to 6 smaller meals. I literally get hungry like clockwork every 3-4 hours as the day goes by even thought I feel fairly full after each meal. Which is kind of crazy because when I started I was struggling to eat each meal but now I’m inhaling the food like it’s mana from heaven 0,0My Gym/diet update.
Pulled muscles on Tuesday sawing branches, so exercise was out of the question, considering it was hurting to walk.
Diet wise, still haven’t had any chocolate. I need to probably break my daily iced mocha habit, but it’s really the only naughty thing I tend to have, aside from the occasional wedges or chips once a week.
Hey Puppetmaster, are you monitoring your weight? I’m not, because I want to focus more on eating healthy, as opposed to losing weight.
Yikes, that said real manual labour is like twice as effective as a workout than going to the gym so.. goodwork on the sawing bad work on the injury! =p
With regards to weight one of the first things I got told and still believe is do not monitor your weight. It is one of the poorest and most idiotic ways of monitoring your actual health. For me I’ll know I’m making progress if i lose waist sizes, increase weights and see more of this flab disappearing.
I have more sawing to do today. It was supposed to be my brothers job, but he is lazy.
I don’t think I can trust my waist sizes as I sometimes get bloating. Not to mention I only need to lose something like 5 kilos to be in a healthy weight range anyway
You could probably lose half that weight if you just sat in a sauna for like 3 hours =P Don’t put too much stock in weight scree, it’s more important for you to be healthy.
Yeh i’m not weighing myself. Rather just trying to eat healthier
Mornin’
Wound up doing 12 hours at work yesterday, 7 hours in BWS (we had 6 pallets about 530 cartons of booze to put away thanks Easter) & then I did 5 hours in nightfill. Next pay is gonna be so awesome especially since i’m working this weekend which is double time i’m told!
JB at Broadway had ALL THE AMIIBOZ!
I hate those things. But they’re cheap.
So I only bought 4. That’s a fair compromise.
Did they have Shovel Knight? Sort of want, but I’m not sure it’s actually around anywhere. Never seen one IRL before.
Nah. Not sure you could ever buy that without some kind of special EB order?
Apparently it was at Target, though never seen one there for myself. And JB have it up on their site, though if you try and search for stores with stock it only comes back with one place in Rockhampton and another in Perth.
Calling @thecracks
If I see one out and about I can pick it up for you.
Nah, it’s alright. I thought he was out last year but he was one of this year’s ones, so he wasn’t ten bucks. Don’t really want him for $24 😛
Spaghett’s last song played game @redartifice
Building Better Bridges by Listener
Such an interesting spoken word project/band
How are we all??
Also, Happy Long Weekend 😀
MyGrain: Final Frontier.
Not a particularly interesting band but suitable to pad out a playlist.
I should really get around to trying out google play music. Was not a fan of Spotify but I haven’t listened to anything new in over a year. Even though I know some favoured bands have released new albums.
Garbage – Cup of Coffee. It wasn’t the song that was up next when I arrived at work, but I was feeling melancholy and it has amazingly powerful emotion in the vocals so I reverted back to it for the last stretch of my commute from the train to the office.
It’s Spag(h)ett!
I should live in Salt- The National.
cc @rocketman
BamBam – Drink you sexy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydo2iqoNVoc&ab_channel=leesha (NSFW Lyrics)
Poisonous Shadows – Megadeth.
Tired… Turns out, thus far, getting a group together and sticking to DZ5-6 is a pretty safe way to avoid rogues. New death penalties are pretty nice – only losing about 1.8k XP per death, so about 7 kills. Half a rank from 50… I have no doubt I’ll have spent all my phoenix credits and DZ cash before the weekend. 😛 Very much looking forward to the four day weekend – won’t be near a PS4 so will be able to fix my sleep schedule. \o/
Record Collection – Mark Ronson
Whole album is full of foot tapping keep working songs.
The Drones – Private Execution
From their new album, which is excellent in a strange & menacing kinda way.
The Whitlams – Ease of the Midnight Visit
Benny Benassi – Satisfaction.
Awwwwwyeah.
What the fuck is with Twitter constantly trying to kill off Tweetdeck 😐
No longer supported on Windows after April 15. Super shit!!!!
Really?
What a bunch of arseholes.
Yeah.. They’re trying to push everyone to login to tweetdeck in a browser. I don’t see why they can’t just leave the app running. Makes no sense to me. I’d much rather have tweetdeck running its 3 processes than Chrome running it’s 5 or 6 that it always runs (due to extensions I have installed). Stupid thing is, they’re still allowing use of it on mobiles, just not windows… why?! Bastards!!
The hell is with virus-riddled emails this year? Never used to be this bad, but now we have a (supposedly) good spam filter, I’m seeing 1-2 hitting the filter every few days, and another 1-2 getting past it every week or so. Hell, even had a couple get past Google’s filtering and into my personal inbox… It’s easy enough to spot them and delete them before they can do harm, but it never used to be this bad…
Started playing Trails in the Sky (FC) last night.
Been meaning to start it for a while & figured it was time.
First impression: the dialogue is genuinely not completely rubbish. there’s no forced exposition, which is a wonderful change from most JRPGs i’ve played. & there’s nothing (so far) about the two leads that makes me cringe like every other depiction of teenagers / young adults in video games.
Controls are a bit weird with the M&KB, but that’s something I’ll get used to.
No apparent menu shortcuts, which sorta sucks. Why cant I press “I” to open inventory?
Combat is solid turn-based stuff, but nothing overly new. But I think it’s got potential for a fair bit of variety with the Quartz system. Feels a bit overwhelming right now, but I have a feeling I’m over-complicating it & that it’s more intuitive than i’m giving it credit for.
Verdict after the tutorial: so far, so good.
I’ve been a part of a 10 man Netrunner league for the last few months. It takes the standard Netrunner tournament format, where each match is a best of two because of the asymmetrical nature of the game.
We’re up to the final match of the final round. I’ve drawn every round so far and now need a draw against my final opponent to make the finals (tiebreakers are based on how well your opponents did and my opponents are all top of the standings).
Hooray for mediocrity?
Three people so far have drawn every round. This is a serious problem that Netrunner has.
The new tournament rules have addressed this somewhat. Allowing players to concede and intentionally draw. Well, intentional draws don’t cut down on draws but concessions probably do? I don’t know.
Won the last round and moved into third overall. That changes who I have to play in the finals but shouldn’t change the result. Both of the top two players are incredibly tough to beat. Oh well, it was a damned good run that isn’t quite over.
Endlessly F5ing away. Still no confirmation e-mail. Or anything new on other sites. Humbug.
Shouid call them up and ask if it’s ready. I know that Umart up here often have the order done, but they don’t get around to posting the email til later in the day if they get busy.
Actually they were one of the fast ones.
I could’ve sworn that all the items I grabbed from Mwave were marked as available within 24 hours, but now that I log in and look at my order one of them has come up as needing stock. Lame.
Edit: Aawdaieuhskjnhfselkrjfdfkd they’re closed til Tuesday too. Worst.
Just saw Batman V Superman and it works out pretty well. The start is a bit hit and miss but I think that actually helped it. It starts off a bit dense which makes it seem lighter when it changes gear and thins out. It’s no Dark Knight but it’s no Dark Knight Rises either. It didn’t do anything offensively bad but it made me feel like I was going to have a problem with it, and then won me over before I got fully into the ‘this sucks’ mindset. A bit like when you go into a movie with low expectations.
I’ve got to laugh at the part during one of the big destruction scenes where Wonder Woman calls Batman out on bringing Doomsday back to a populated area. I think it proved that all they had to do in Man of Steel was acknowledge it. They didn’t have to give it some iron clad defence they just had to acknowledge that the characters were aware and from that point out it wouldn’t nag at the audience.It wouldn’t have been anywhere near as bad if Superman had of just went ‘Zod, I’ll fight you if you make me, but we have to do this somewhere else’ and Zod was like ‘you killed Krypton for them, so I’m going to make sure you hear them scream as I kill you’.
It was a bit weird that Batman killed like 150 people, but people tend to be more forgiving of Batman since they like him more so I don’t think that’s going to be a huge issue for people.
@scree was Project Zero 2 on Wii any good? Saw it at the shops today for… I forget if it was $30 or $35. Don’t think I’ve actually seen a copy before.
Yes. It was with the british voice actors instead of the american ones. It also has the reaching part of the game, like in project zero 5.
You Australians with your four day Easter weekend. All my hat :(.
(I don’t get Easter off here)
Mwahahahahaha. 😀
Don’t worry I get the Friday off and that’s it.. The. It’s back to work, sadly works gonna be empty since we have like no stock and won’t be getting more until Wednesday hoorah for public holidays fucking every thing up lol
If I had today (Friday) off like other people I’d have been able to go to Sakuracon. I can go tomorrow but all the merch will be sold out and I don’t really know anyone so I’m kind of on the fence about going.
Damn. With any luck it might not be though!
Friday is my usual day off anyway so it didn’t make much difference to me :/ haha
Ahaha, holy shit, they’re making FLCL season 2 & 3. I’m done. I’m maximum done. I literally cannot even.
Except it has all the hallmarks of being a complete disappointment at best case, utter shitshow worst case.
There appears to be genuine intent on recreating what made FLCL good. Bringing The Pillows back, some solid heads on board the production crew, slight indicators that this is more a passion-driven project than a cash-making one (VP of Adult Swim says it’s his favorite anime? don’t quote me on that.)
Man, I just want to believe. FLCL is, for better or worse, probably my favorite anime.
Nope. You need to read the press release.
– Kazuya Tsurumaki (director and writer) is only back as superivisor
– Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (designer and animator) is only doing character design
– GAINAX are not involved at all (Production IG bought their stake in the FLCL production company last year)
– The director is a nobody (his only notable credit was the Psycho-Pass movie)
– The writer has never worked in anime (wrote some J-dramas)
FLCL was a product of its time. Tsurumaki was deliberately attempting to break the rules and experiment with what were new ideas at the time. Produce an entire OVA series the way they’d approach an animated TV commercial. Give free reign to the animation team to go all out with their styles (you can see Hiroyuki Imaishi’s fingers all over several episodes). Use a band for the soundtrack. Do the animation work on computers using the new digital techniques that were just rolling in in the late 90s.
Nothing about it aside from the animation is remarkable or different now, and the original animators aren’t involved (if they were, the press release would be talking up the involvement of people like Imaishi and they’re not). Production IG are doing it alone, where last time they basically contracted all the production work to GAINAX. Most of the best animators that worked on it have moved to other companies since then. Several of them left to form Studio Trigger. Many others (including Tsurumaki AFAIK) are now at Hideaki Anno’s Studio Khara.
It also feels incredibly unnecessary. FLCL was good because it was short and sweet. I don’t want or need more. I’d be super excited if the FLCL creative team were getting back together to do a spiritual successor or just a new show (hell, the last time those guys were in a room together we got Gurren Lagann!).
I especially don’t want some board of executives at fucking Toonami having ‘creative input’ on it, which will happen since they’re the ones holding the purse strings. We’re probably going to end up with a flashy, boring Americanized mess with absolutely zero substance. Last thing I want is another Space Dandy.
“Man, I just want to believe.”
I understand full well what FLCL was. It was a passion project to the fullest, and to reproduce such creativity is madness. But I’ll be damned, because when I went backpacking couple years back, I chose between the FLCL Manga Omnibus and The Bible. I chose the former simply because I thought I wouldn’t have the patience to read it. So for better or for worse, I carried around a goddamned FLCL manga for an entire year as my sole source of reading material.
What I’m saying here is, man, I know the odds. But I’ll be fucked if this ain’t the closest thing I got to a sequel to the goddamn bible.
I JUST WANT TO BELIEVEEEEEEEE
Oh no… Man, I had only heard good things about Space Dandy, too. (Hadn’t seen it yet.)
At least tell me Voltron is safe. I watched the trailer with my youngest brother on the weekend and it seemed legit, and when the netflix logo went up, saying the entire season would be available in June, we both made exclamations of happiness.
Maybe you’ll like Space Dandy? I couldn’t stand it. It’s got really good animation but it’s basically constantly over the top and nonsensical and ends up feeling like a drug trip.
I’ve been very slack about getting around to various series lately. Anime burnout perhaps. 🙂
Just binged the last half-dozen eps of Gate to its conclusion (which all turned out lovely and nowhere near as dark as I feared it could – which is part disappointing, part huge relief), but that’s about it.
The last season sucked shit outside a couple of okay shows like Gate and Erased, so you didn’t really miss out.
Hell, I have hardly been watching as much anime as I used to and have been binge watching stuff like Arrow and The Flash instead. Happens periodically. Just get anime burnout, often happens when there’s a bad season or two and honestly the last 6 months hasn’t been great for it. Sometimes when I hit this I go back to older seasons and finish / watch some stuff I didn’t get around to when it was fresh but I haven’t felt like it this time.
Upcoming season looks promising. A few high-profile things (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Macross Delta, Sailor Moon Cystal: Death Busters, Phoenix Wright, Magi: The Adventures of Sinbad) plus beyond that there’s another 15-20 shows that look like they might be promising. New stuff from Trigger (Imaishi is directing short-format show Space Patrol Luluco while the rest of the studio is doing a full TV series, Kiznaiver) the animators & director of Attack on Titan are working with the writer of Code Geass for Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, the requisite light novel adaptions for the season include Re:Zero which has a really interesting setup (another modern-kid-in-fantasy-world show, but with a time loop involved where he keeps dying and resetting back to the start), an interesting-sounding mystery/thriller thing called Mayoiga, PA Works have their 15th anniversary show, which is a Mecha show for the first time (they usually do drama stuff) and a bunch of other stuff. Expect to see some impressions later in the week when things get started.
First Rifts have shipped 😀
My order status has not yet changed 🙁
So, Batman Vs Superman.
I’ve spent a good better half of a hour ripping on it with cakesmith and blaghs on teamspeak, so I shall summarize my thoughts for this post.
Batman good. Everything else bad.
“Better half of an hour” actually means “an entire hour” from my perspective.
Batman sooooo good. I kinda wanna watch it again.
THE GANGSTER LONDON FIASCO
Starring
@cj as Georgio, from Eastern Europe. Chicken Fancier and former Fancy Fancier, Giorgio wants to make his fortune with fake passports provided by
@thecracks as Four-Toes, small time fence and petty criminal, part of the socialist left in the 80s- which is where he met
@beeawwb as Ryvre (pronounced River), hardcore animal liberationist and housebreaker. Ryvre puts the safety of animals ahead of his own, much to the frustration of
@redartifice as “Fancy” Phil, former boxer and husband of Giorgio. A burglar with aspirations on something bigger, he just wants to get back at and get his prize chickens back from Giorgio
With special guest stars
@blaghman as Dimitri and Devitri, Head and 2IC of the russian mob. Some say they’re the same man, but that’s nonsense, as Devitri has a moustache.
and
@alexpants as Carter Caldwell, senior figure in the Foreign Office
Highlights
Georgio Convincing Four Toes to buy chicken cages
Fancy and Ryvre getting into an argument about socialism mid-break-in
Four Toes non-specifically protesting at a nonspecific protest
Rubbish strippers at 10am
A Deal with the Russians, which always ends well
Carter Caldwell being too concussed to remember a safeword, though the photos came out well
A secretary with an NHS nose job
A second deal with russians
Chickens flying the coop
Ryvre practices what he preaches with animal protection, with disastrous results
A Standoff
Emergency medical care provided by Doctor Discreet, who is a veterinarian with interesting ideas about blood compatibility
A Mexican Standoff at a Russian club
And the outcome
Georgio, disappearing, plotting revenge
Fancy, tending chickens and teaching boxing in low-security prison
Ryvre, who would be a pariah except his dead, his coffin spat on by his animal liberation colleagues, and
Four Toes, smelling of roses, a british crime kingpin on the rise
What a Fiasco!
How was Dr Discreet to know chicken blood and human blood don’t mix.
If you ever decide to run a Fiasco round on a Sunday during the day let me know so I can join in.
Yay.
Wake up at 10am, casually scratched my nose, only to have blood start pouring out of it.
🙁
The Lifehacker article on TED talks for dealing with burnout is pretty good.
Kelly McGonigal’s science on stress, in particular, might be particularly useful for anyone feeling the pinch right now. Lot of stuff rang true in that.
psssttt
hey you
we have a new TAY
I knew you were still here. 😉
Psst. Thanks. You’re neat.