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Shorty's Profile
PALGN Casual
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Username:  Shorty
Joined:  17 Dec 2007
$poons:  24.00
Total posts:  227 [Show all]
[0.03% of total / 0.11 posts per day]
Post Score:  120  ( 121 / 1) [Show all]
Total votes:  24 [Show all]
Location:  Sydney, Australia
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Occupation:  Systems Engineer
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Biography
A network engineering graduate turned systems engineer who is now an aspiring game designer.
Shorty's Recent Forum Posts
I'm actually kinda glad this has happened because the game is great, so now more people can enjoy it.
If Abbot's saying it, bet dollars to donuts that his "fix" will make the system more restrictive.

JP2daMC wrote
In some ways, it's too many petitions and gamer submissions that have led to this situation.

The AGs are now saying they have too many opinions from the gaming community, and not enough from the wider community in general. Whatever that means.

So if anything, you need to back off and let the AGs get opinions now from other interest groups.

Pushing too hard now will not be beneficial.
I think it's the obvious double standard. The Australian government's quite happy to listen to the ACL whenever they have a complaint (which seems to be all the time), but as soon as gamers speak up about an issue that directly affects them, suddenly they want to hear from the "wider community"?
Gamesta wrote
I'll stick to free PSN thank you.
If PlayStation Plus enjoys any level of success (or at least avoids complete failure), it will be in spite of this.

If it's not unreasonable to argue that most of what people want out of an online service is the ability to play against others over the Internet, and that this is already being provided by the normal PSN service for free, then you have to wonder what else is there that people would want and whether those things are worth paying what they're asking for it. So far, I'm not convinced.
As much as I liked Hawaii, if they can make Ibiza as much fun to drive on then I'm looking forward to it.
oomlot wrote
Actually, the current delay is due to it being remastered for 3DTV. It's true of course, that the top gear thing was well known even before prologue came out, it's weird that the news is being repeated. It should be this year, or at least hopefully some time before Forza 5 comes out.
Oh, for crying out loud... icon_rolleyes.gif

Maybe I just haven't seen it properly demonstrated, but I'm still not sold on 3D for gaming (are there even going to be any televisions to show it coming out in the next six months?) and I would much prefer they focus less on the "3D" feature and more on the "actually released" feature.
I loved the original. Burning rubber around the streets of Hawaii was fun, there were plenty of races, the properties you could buy were sweet and there was a ton of extra cars available for download (I think there were five packs in total and I bought all of them).

So yeah, I'm hoping this sequel will rock just as hard.
I agree that planet scanning can get a bit grindy. The trick I've found is to only bother scanning planets that are rated "Rich". Anything else is a waste of time.
I won't be able to make it but good luck to them anyway.
NegativeZero: I don't think it would be very realistic to expect Atkinson to change his mind about the rating all on his own. Hopefully, what the public consulation will do is both demonstrate widespread public support for the rating (thus contradicting his claims of a "vocal minority") and get the other AGs on side so that they can lean on him. So even if he still chooses to stick to his guns anyway, it would be more difficult to do so in the face of overwhelming public and ministerial support.
I like Green Day, so I'm looking forward to this. But even if I didn't, and this may seem like a bit of a crazy suggestion, I could just not buy it. And in case anyone wants to argue that this game would delay RB3, I'm sure Harmonix are capable of working on more than one game at a time.

On the other hand, I totally agree with fetidchimp's call to release RB2 here right now.
mipac wrote
Rebellion have commented on the ban, they will not be releasing the game here in any form.
Where did you hear that? The last I heard about it was that Sega was considering an appeal.
So apparently the game is too violent for minors. What a shame. If only there was some sort of rating that would Restrict the game to people of 18+ years of age. That way these situations could be avoided.
JackSlack wrote
See, this is where I think his comments represent an opportunity to us. If the landscape can be hit to where it's in our advantage, the idea of trying to argue to Atkinson, "Look, we're agreeing with you. The classification board is hopeless. We want to reform it too. We're in agreement that these games shouldn't be played by children. Couldn't we come up with a system that lets adults play them, in accordance with the stated goals of the classification board that adults should be allowed to read or view what they want, and finds ways to keep them out of the hands of children?"

The nice thing is that taking that line, "We want wholesale reform" rather than 'We want an R18+ rating" is that it gives us the moral highground and rips away our opponent's arguments.
I think this ties in with what you said above about Atkinson not really thinking that these types of controversial games should be available at all. That's why he's seeking to have MW2's classification reviewed. That's why he asks whether gamers "need to have all that extra sex/violence/whatever in those games".

I think that he believes these games should get into the country and is attempting to use his position to enforce that, one of the ways being to block the kind of change that is being sought.

The fact is, many of his arguments are really a matter of taste, and last I checked, it wasn't his job description to enforce taste. It was to enforce the law. If he doesn't like games like MW2, he's perfectly allowed to exercise his rights and freedom by not buying them.
Matrix6 wrote
PALGN wrote
"I have no trust in the Classification Board to apply the guidelines sincerely and correctly..."
In the political world, he pretty much walked himself out of the cabinet.
He spent most of the Radio National interview ragging on the Classification Board and saying how they couldn't be trusted. If I were the ACB, I'd be looking to make some kind of formal complaint, because he effectively slandered their entire organisation on ABC radio. Can you imagine the uproar if, say, the NSW Premier had gone on radio and said that the NSW Police were all corrupt and incompetent?

Doe's right. At this point, he's refusing to listen to any form of rational argument. In the short term, we should be looking to work around him, like Queensland is doing with their petition to institute their own R18+ rating.

In the longer term, I think we need to completely rethink the function of the Classification Board. The Internet and the many other competent overseas ratings systems have effectively made them obsolete. The likelihood that the ACB is going to find something that the ESRB or PEGI missed is practically zero. It's redundant regulation, so instead let them rate the ratings systems. Have them analyse their methodology, figure out if the system is solid and if it is, let their ratings have legal backing here. The government saves some money, we get an 18+ rating for games and everyone goes home happy. It's certainly a better idea than, say, the ACB applying their broken ratings system to the iTunes App Store.
Re: LEFT 4 DEAD 2 RC'd (3 years ago)
That doesn't really address the main problem, which is that our classification system is completely broken and is actively prevented from being fixed.

Crank wrote
Ridiculous, huh? Especially the fact that an entire enemy character is gone. Hopefully there are no issues with the region free version I have ordered. If so, I'll have to get a PAL copy from the UK.
I think the even more ridiculous part is that enemies won't catch on fire if you throw a Molotov or use incendiary ammo. What kind of crazy shite is that?
Infested Jibbs wrote
After dumping 3 points into the magazine size increase skill as well, my shotguns that had 2 ammo capacity now have 4!

Sledges shotgun shoots all 4 shots in the blink of an eye now, it just ATOMISES anything up close, plus found an S&S sniper rifle which already had an upgraded magazine....so now it has a clip size of 19 haha.

Crazy ass fun!
The magazine modifier is easily my favourite skill in the Borderlands tree. There's something about turning a six-shooter into a 13-round death dispenser. icon_cool.gif
I'm with Obsolete on this one. In the proper context, I can see the argument for doing this.
I think Kai's comments are pretty realistic given the more niche genre and higher learning curve of DJ Hero. I hope this game will be well supported, though, because it looks like it has potential.
I'm a bit disappointed about DJ Hero Renegade Edition getting delayed but at least I'll still have Ballad of Gay Tony to tide me over until next week.
Re: LEFT 4 DEAD 2 RC'd (3 years ago)
If anyone's interested in the link, here it is.
Re: LEFT 4 DEAD 2 RC'd (3 years ago)
The craziest part of the whole fiasco is that the "edited" version actually ended up being less gory than the original (and on par with the German version of the original), on which the CB was perfectly happy to slap an MA sticker. It's yet another example of the hamfisted and inconsistent framework under which the CB is forced to operate.
What I don't understand is why these changes suddenly necessitate removing dedicated servers and user mods. Surely there was another way they could have implemented some Prestige-like ranking system while still allowing players to run their own games (perhaps a "certification" system that players could use to see if a game being run is the "official" version with ranking or a custom/hacked version). I'm not a huge PC gamer, but even I'm starting to think they've thrown the baby out with the bathwater here.
The problem is that Sony back is trying to straddle two worlds, here. On one hand, Sony wants to maintain their existing good relationships with games retailers, which prevents them from providing too much of an incentive to download games via lower pricing or to push digital games that can't be resold. On the other hand, Sony doesn't appear to consider itself strong enough to brave the storm and just do it anyway. So they provide a half-baked "compromise" approach that pleases no one, especially the customer.

It's a similar reason to why downloadable games on the PSN or the Live Marketplace have the same RRP as the physical copies.
MikeZombie777 wrote
You all think Australia is a free country? Pigs ass. You think "she'll be right mate"? Pigs ass. There you have it people, due to your apathetic BS we have finally lost one of the biggest games of the year.
I'm not sure there's much more us citizens can do. There's only one person standing in the way of changing the classification system and he steadfastly refuses to change his mind. Not to mention that he's in one of the safest seats in South Australia. I abhor this situation as much as the next guy, but what else can you expect to be done?
He actually has a point. The last high-profile child porn arrests have been the result of diligent police work rather than any kind of filtering technology.
Quinsisdos wrote
Apparantly, they're banning Second Life now. This might be considered a good thing, though.
No, they're not.
Fly wrote
Actually I don't think she was, if you're referring to the blonde data analyst that was Rachael Taylor. However there was one recurring character although it was rather minimal in one soldier who died during Blackouts initial attack reappeared as a different character.

That is none other than Glenn Morshower who played;

Transformers: Colonel Sharp
ROTF: General Morshower

Remember him now kiddies? icon_lol.gif
Not to call Megan Fox ugly or nothing, but I actually found Rachael Taylor even more attractive. And having her use her native Australian accent seemed to add to that, bizarrely enough.
Call me when they've finished patenting it and started implementing it. Because they need to start making up for taking it out in the first place.
I thought it was pretty good, despite its flaws. Michael Bay's grandiose (to put it kindly) directing style is suitable for many things, but comedy isn't one of them. The dogs humping, the robot humping Mikaela's leg and most of the "Sam's mum gets high" joke could've been cut entirely with no problem.

But in terms of robots fighting and shit blowing up, they did a good job.