When I was a lad "a year ago" I remember my schools shitty muck up day. Wow, uni makes time fly. 

This is going down as a blog which is my space to write about shit and what I think about it. (It'll probably get attached to general but the blog post tag should deter 'cool story bros') 
 
As some of you may know, I'm an Australian boy, born and bred. So a bunch of the whiskey premium stuff really doesn't apply to me, which is totally fair enough, the Australian audience is freaking tiny compared to US, Canadian and European ones.  Not what this blog post is about.
  
I've always watched the videos on GiantBomb in the lowest quality in order to save my 50gig a month bandwidth cap. Watching the last 5 minutes of the Deadly Premonition endurance run each day kind of had me missing the point. So HD really isn't for me.   

 The tshirt I'd have to pay some shipping fees through the nose in order to get (again, nobodies fault) 
 
Just the whole BombCast thing has really disappointed me, I freaking love that thing, why tamper with it? Of course it's one of the biggest assets of the site so why not try and tap into that audience. I think, have an optional fee to get the bombcast a few days earlier. Say paid users get it on Monday, free users get it on the Friday? I'd happily pay a yearly subscription for that. Jeff was talking about tiered Xbox Live subscriptions on the 'cast last week and I think that's what Whiskey should have.  $25 AUD (so roughly $20 USD?) a year for early casts I'd be down for.
 
I've grown so accustomed to the 2+ hour Bombcasts that 1 hour won't take me through my monster train trip to uni every day. I know I could wait but I just don't see the use in splitting the audience over features that some of us mightn't use when there are a bunch of viable ways to get people to pay and still have the bombcast relatively unaffected.  
 
Anyone else have ideas?  I love my bombcast too much to let it get trampled in the forums without anyone giving more options. 

Alright, I'm just gonna be plain and simple here. 
 
There is a fucking possum (OR POSSUMS) stuck in my wood heater in the lounge room. 
 
First, I hear a rustling and look through the glass door and this big furry mass drops down from the chimney and into the heater. Great. Dead possum gonna stink up my hose OR SO I THOUGHT. 
 
I then realize that there is no clear way to the chimney through the top of the heater so now I have 2 problems. 
 
1) Dead possum threatening to stink up the house.
2) How the HELL did it get in there. 
 
I go on cleaning the house, thinking I'll just deal with it later but no, the plot thickens.  
 
The possum is alive. Alive and well. Inside the impenetrable heater. How the hell am I going to deal with this super human possum capable of passing through solid concrete.  
 
I've got a few mates round and I think we are going to make a 'track' to the front door for it to run out of but we have NO IDEA how to make a possum track. 
 
Pics incoming. We're too busy freaking out.   
 
Update: Pics of the beast. 
 

Hey guys, this is a bit of a guilt blog because I just got the '1000 profile views' quest done from some guy (who actually was very efficient and helped out a bunch of people) who worked some magic. So I figured that I'll give something (through my exhilarating blogs) back to the site rather then exploit and pump it with spam.  <3 you Giantbomb.
 
Back to the original title, that being that Naughty Bear was a system seller the other day and it made me think a lot about the different mentality between 'hardcore' and casual gamers.  
 
So I'm working 5-9 shift last Thursday and a guy and his girlfriend come in looking for a copy of "dangerous bear" so I explain to them that it might be Naughty Bear they are looking for, which it was. The customer service ego gained 100 experience points. They said they were looking for the Wii version of the game which I explained that the game only came out on the 360 and PS3 and I saw dreams crash. crash and burn right before me.  
 
Disappointed couple pull a fast one on me and say "well, we'll just have to get one of those then, wont we?" So here's a couple who evidently only casually game on their Wii looking to spend upwards of $400 (AUD) on a new console JUST TO PLAY NAUGHTY BEAR.  Sensing their ignorance I say the game didn't receive rave reviews which they didn't care about and just wanted to play something "that reminds me of conkers bad fur day"  
 
So I do the whole; 
"are you going online"  
Nope 
"do you have a blu ray player or TVR?" 
Nah, dvd works just fine but it sounds interesting.
 
So I lean them toward the PS3 mainly because they aren't going online and the guy was  keen on GT5 (He had only played untill number 3 I think and was super excited from the trailers running in store) 
So bla bla bla I talk them through the PS3 and it turns out we didn't have a copy of fucking Naughty Bear for PS3, only 360. Thank god they weren't kids or there would have been tears all over the place. 
 
"ah, that's a shame, just have to get one of those Xbox's then" 
 Bam. There it is. Naughty Bear sells a system over Blu Ray and Gran Turismo 5.  
 
I get the guy to pick up Forza 3 telling him that it's a fantastic driving game and he should really enjoy bla bla similar to Gran Turismo bla bla. The couple pay for their things and leave the store, happy as Larry.  
 
Now to you Duders. I pose these questions; 
  
What Multi-platform game would sell you on a system?  
Do you think advertising of games to a wide stream audience actually gets  more stuff sold to non-gamers or was this just a rare occurrence? 

I've made a topic about this, searched blizzard forums and tried to call customer support but nothing. So I'm taking some time to vent to your lovely ears/eyes GiantBomb, and maybe even find a solution. I'm playing Starcraft II and having a great time with it, super rewarding to see your skill level rise (well, I know I'm getting better at least) but there is one giant mind exploding fucking annoying problem. 
 
I get roughly 2-6 points a win, which I've heard isn't normal. 
Whenever I loose, all my accumulated points are taken away, regardless of enemy skill level. 
Sometimes when I win, I don't get any points at all :-D! OMGTHNKZSC2 
 
Now, I wouldn't get so hung up on the point thing but it seems like that is the way to level up and advance leagues? 
 I have about 250 points in the 'bonus pool' but I have no idea what exactly that is.   
 

I'm the guy behind the "getting destroyed and loving it" post. Now that I read it back I kind of feel that the wide eyed optimist in that post is slowly dying. I see him getting beaten...badly, again and again without ever touching the ground. 
 
I've decided to main Rose because I really enjoyed her moves and I connected with her timing (in training mode at least) and I've beaten the arcade mode on hard with her with some troubles, but I got through it in the end. Now, I know it's not like playing against real people but it helped me to get a slight grasp on what the hell I was doing. 
Trying my luck online I've played 46 matches (at the time of writing) and won 2. Getting a few rounds here and there which could have easily gone either way, it's just that it usually goes the other.  
 
Some games are real close and I love it. However, more often than not it's me joining, copping a hit, getting comboed /dizzied, loosing and repeat for 3 rounds. I don't feel like I'm learning anything from these games and its just making me doubt that I'll ever actually 'break the barrier' and be able to pull out combos on a regular basis.  I mean, it's fun, but for fuck sake, stop matching me up with people who end up booting me because the games are boring.   
 
So Street Fighter, I'm going to stick with you (har har) but if this happens for another 5 hours, I'm done. 

As some of you guys might know, I work at a game shop in Australia (creatively called GAME) while I'm studying my Journalism Degree full time. I'm often exposed to tons of interesting people, for better and worse. Most of the time it's just 19-25 year old guys with their girlfriends browsing, the dad with the kids and wife agreeing to "meet him back here" is also another popular customer. There is (with every retail job) the angry mum and the snot nosed- little shit of a kid who gets whatever he wants by whining hard enough.  
 
Yesterday, as I worked through my 3-9 shift, this group of 11-12 year old kids came in and for fuck sake...you know those kids who scream and swear on Xbox Live/PSN/Steam? Yeah, they're like that in real life as well.  
 
As they went around the shop touching displays and messing up the games (which I have no problem with, they're kids after all) some of the shit that came out of their mouths was just fucking terrible.  
 
"Bioshock 2? thats a fucking shit game for pussies, I was waiting for the girl to give me a blowjob hahahahah" 
"OMG NAUGHTY BEAR this bear kills shit n stuff, ill give you a blowjob if you get that game man!!"  
 "The PS3 has internet on it so you can go on redtube on the big screen *giggle like little girls*" 

So, the mum comes in from another shop carrying a bunch of bags and stands with the boys as they decided which game they wanted.  
 
"How about this one?" said the mum as she picked up the On Sale Mirrors Edge 
" Shutup mum, you don't get to talk in here" 
The mum just turns around and smiles at me as if to say 'Oh those boys :-D'
 
I stopped paying attention and served and greeted a few customers and the kids and mum came up to the counter with a copy of Bioshock 2 (Rated MA in Australia, the highest our shitty rating system goes at the moment) and I say to the mum "Is it ok that this is MA?" which she replied "he gets whatever will shut him up" and again, I got the 'those boys of mine hey ? :-D!!' smile.  
 
The mum pays for the game and leaves the shop.The kids stay behind to see if they can annoy me by asking if I was gay or if i thought they were attractive.  
 
Anyway, this is a call out to anyone that works in retail, any similar stories? and do you think the age of saying stuff you would only say on the internet in real life is upon us?

So I just picked this game up a week or so ago, been really enjoying it as my first fighting game ever. Been 'maining' with Ryu (I'm too much of a scrub to say I main in someone right now)  and I've gotten a little handle on his moves. At about 5 hours of play under my belt I thought "Ah yeah, I'll jump online and see where I'm at.." 
 
JESUS CHRIST. 
 
Lost 3 matches 
Got perfected for 2 rounds 
Got a guy to a next hit wins situation..still lost 
 
To my surprise I didn't rage at all. I was quite content. I was glued to the screen after I lost so I could watch the guy who just destroyed me so I could see if I could pick up on anything. After reading lots of stuff from the community about this game that seems like the idea. So yeah, I was thinking of maybe giving Rose a go, I really like the look of her moves and style but is she a tricky character to get into?  
 
I'll continue getting destroyed online for a little while, hopefully I can actually put some of the theory into practice and actually win a match. If not, it's still fun and that's awesome. 

Listening to the latest Bombcast when the guys were talking about the state of the internet really got me thinking. I've always been disgusted by some of the stuff  that gets posted on message boards, chat rooms and just the internet in general. Animals getting beaten, child porn, racism, sexism, homophobia the list just goes on of shit that is on our internet.  
 
Dave thinks it wont be fixed,
Jeff has hope,
My hope is fading. 
  
The cynical answer is obviously "don't look at it" but why should I avoid one of the most powerful and influential tools ever created because a ton of the users are complete assholes?  Is there anyway that we can 'fix' these parts of the internet? I mean, like the guys said, there are still god awful people on Facebook and their names (and other personal information) is all readily accessible from anyone who really wants to find it.  Will there ever be a day when I can join a live stream chatroom during Womens Super Street Fighter IV competitions and not be flooded with  literary diarrhea? I really like the internet, but fuck sake, there is a LOT of shit out there.  
 
What do you guys think? (please, someone come up with the solution quick) 

Ok, so Modern Warfare 2. Let me begin this by saying I bought the prestige edition, went to the midnight launch and finished the single player that night. And it was fucking awesome. Then I moved on to playing multiplayer. Lots of multiplayer. Untill this day I've been on and off with MW2, its my 'in between' game. So, I think it's safe to say that I do really enjoy it, well used to enjoy it.  
 
I'm now around 9 days of total time in multiplayer and I've just about finished my 3rd prestige (level 66 I think)  and a K/D of 1.32 
 
So here's why last night I put the control down and said "I'm done with this shit" 
 
- Spawns: No, don't spawn me in front of people, OR spawn people I've just killed behind me, that's not fun, it never was.   
-Luck?: How is it that I can go 14 kills and say, 3 deaths one game only to then go 5 kills and 12 deaths?   
- Getting spawn trapped in domination, wow what a great system this game runs on. 
 
It's just so frustrating to see a game I've put so much time into screw me ever third match, I don't feel like I'm getting better, I feel like a lot of the time it's just the luck of the spawns.   
 
Also unlocked the 2500 kills call sign with the M9 ,which made me feel a lot better.
 
Anyway I did have a ton of fun with this game with my friends and I thank it for that. I also have some night vision goggles, and I think thats pretty snazzy too.  
So, Kthnks MW2 for the good times but I'm done now, time to wait for Haloz.