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Was there seriously only two games that interested me on PC that was shown at E3? No... There was only one exclusive (Civilization V) and Portal 2 (which is going to be on consoles as well). There are more that I consider more console than PC... but here's what I found interesting about these two games.

CIV5
PALGN have an interesting preview of Civilization V. Seems like a lot is changing in the series, but I think it's too early to tell how these changes will play out in combination with each other.

Quote:

..the game will feature 10 policies: tradition, freedom, autocracy, commerce and growth. If you get fully upgrade at least 6 of these, the you get access to the ‘utopian’ social policy, which allows you to build a wonder.

Anyway, looks interesting. Go read the preview they have some screen shots too.

IGN has a Behind the Scenes video, you can view it here
Portal 2
I think we can put our differences behind us... for science... you monster...
There's some cool looking stuff in Portal 2. From the interesting looking plot (wait, wasn't this supposed to be a prequel... now it's a sequel) to the new features (like goop) It looks like it might be able to stand alone on it's own.

Check out all Part 1 of 3 of the Portal 2 E3 demo in the youtube vid below

Work is rather flat out and at some point in the last month I got whacked by the flu. We've also been working hard on the wedding and honeymoon planning.

But June is so busy! I mean not only is the World Cup on, in the derby world there was The Great Southern Slam, my birthday is slap in the middle of June and then there was E3.

There's just so many things to blog about, but so little time to do so. So expect next to no posts in the next few days... well I'll try, but we'll see what happens.

Don't forget that the deadline for submissions for the first issue of Hit and Miss Magazine is tommorow.

So if you have any photos of scapes, stacks, bruises, derby tatts or want to send a letter to the lovely people who write HAM or other stuff then you better send it in to info@hitandmissmagazine.com.au.

Quickly, what are you waiting for?

I assume that we'll see the first issue before Great Southern Slam, but watch @HAMRollerderby for details.

Found this trailer for Going Postal the other day. Not sure that the golem's look too crash hot, but I suppose they're supposed to be old golems (if I remember from the novel). Looks good, but I can't find out when it's supposed to be released (and how much lag there will be before it's seen on our shores).

The latest issue of KZone comes with a LEGO Harry Potter tin that fits a DS.

Urbabe is incredibly excited about the release of LEGO Harry Potter (the video game), but I'm not so keen. Just don't love Harry Potter that much. How about you?

Well if you are keen to get the game, you can get it from play-asia. The game is region free on the following platforms PS3 , PSP, PC and DS and at these prices it does make it worthwhile to get it from overseas.

There's also the Japanese and US versions of the 360 game which are not known to be region free yet.

The game comes out at some point in June, so you'll have to... wait.

I don't know anything about Harry Potter so it makes it hard to put in witty references to it.

Eh, two bits of news that I missed.

SSRD has decided upon thier two teams named Cutthroat Charmers and the Dolly Rogers. And it looks like there was much glitter and sparkles to be had at the disco.

And the VRDL were on Weekend Today on Saturday... here's the vid

With the Minifig Collection coming out just around the corner, LEGO have brought out a Minifig minisite. The site contains wallpapers, posters, games and so on, but it also contains bios for each of the Series 1 Minifigs.

Each bio contains a quote, a history and ratings for Strength, Creativity and Speed. It's all a bit silly, but there are some funny ones and some really odd ones...

For instance Quote:

The Deep Sea Diver loves the water and can often be found swimming around in fish tanks and bathtubs, hoping to spot rare and exotic fish.

It's been a little while since I posted a round up and it's exciting times for roller derby in Victoria. Not only are there quite a few bouts going on, but there's a lot of fundraising events coming up in the world of roller derby.

And a little further out on the horizon, it's the The Great Southern Slam. Set to be held at the Adelaide Showground on June 12-13. Teams from all across Australia and New Zeland will battle it out to determine who is the most awesome. The two day event will feature five friggin tracks (split between two pavilions).

It's sure to be the most exciting thing to hit Adelaide since... ever?

VRDL
Season 5 of VRDL cotinues to be popular as ever, though not without intrigue, but possibly more about this in a different (more grumbly) post... There's been a few injuries which meant that the Dead Ringer Rosies weren't in 100% health at Birthday Bash, which was both a shame for those players and Rosies supporters.

The results of the first two bouts of Season 5 were:
Burn Your Brass (13th March) – Dolls Au‐Go‐Go (204) defeated Toxic Avengers (134)
Birthday Bash (17th April) – Toxic Avengers (216) defeated Dead Ringer Rosies (139)

The next bout will see the Rosies face off against the Dolls. If the Rosies win the match then it'll be one a peice and I presume it'll go down to point differentiation (which may be a little close). But we'll see what happens.

Check out thier Myspace, the VRDL Facebook group or the VRDL blog.

Oh and tea towel merch! Brilliant idea... Will probably end up buying one next bout if I have the cash to do so.

GRDL vs BRDL
The BRDL are facing off against the GRDL's teams to find out which is the most awesome regional Victorian team. The GRDL have published the dates for the 2010 season.
2nd May – Atom Bombs vs BRDL in Ballarat (Eureka Blockade)... that's TODAY at 3pm if you're reading this on the day that I post it.
6th June – BRDL vs Psychotics in Ballarat
25th July – Semi Finals at Leisuretime Centre, Bell Post Hill
15th Aug – Finals at Leisuretime Centre, Bell Post Hill

GRDL
Fundraising for the Maulrats' trip to Great Southern Slam is trivia at the Wharf Shed Cafe (includes finger food) on Friday May 14 @7PM sharp.

Buy your ticket and get more details at the GRDL website!

$25 per ticket, name goes on doorlist.

Check out thier Myspace, GRDL Facebook Group or the GRDL blog.

BRDL
BRDL played a great bout at Daylesford Chillout festival back in March (wow, that long ago). It'll be interesting to see how they do against the GRDL teams though.

On a personal note, we got there a little late, I was driving (I'm an L plater) and this was on the day of the hailstorms. We had to pull over for 10 minutes while the hail just slammed down on the car. Only managed to miss the first 10 or so minutes though.

BRDL are also having a fundraiser called "I ♥ the 80's ROLLER DISCO" on 8th May at Doug Dean Reserve in Delacombe. Dress 80's, Dance 80's, Skate 80's. Check out facebook for more details.

Also check out the BRDL Facebook Group, the BRDL Forum and the BRDL website.

South Seas Roller Derby
SSRD are having a freshmeat Info Night on May 4 at 7pm down at Peninsula Skateworld. Learn about the League and Sign up for Bootcamp. Details at SSRD's Freshmeat page or blog.

They are fundraising for thier first bout by having a roller disco . This one is on the 2nd May from 7pm-9pm (that's TODAY same as Eureka Blockade which is on earlier in the day, but a fair distance away) Peninsula Skateworld. Get dressed up all retro like and disco baby...
Quote:

Dress up, cos there’s prizes for best outfits, raffles with awesome derby prizes, & games galore

all rollin’ out to the roller disco tunes, under the sparkle of the glorious mirror ball…

Tickets are $10 adult, $5 kids (under 13), $20 families (2adults,2kids). Check the SSRD blog for details

Check out thier Myspace or Facebook.

Media
VRDL appeared on the Circle
Weekend Today this weekend on Channel Nine (I hope it's on Sunday)
Hit and Miss Magazine looks interesting. Check out thier facebook page and thier website

General
Check out my Google Calendar Rollerderby Victoria calendar and my Rollerderby Twitter list which contains tweets from rollerderby groups and peeps across Australia. Will be adding more as I go along.

And of course, if you ever want to let me know anything... just send me an email.

Hey! Club Nintendo has updated their Star Catalogue (on April Fools day... why?)

Anyway there are three different folder and bookmark sets, each contain three folders and two bookmarks for 800 stars.

There's also a pencil case for 1250

And my favourite, Mario Party Playing Cards for 1500 stars.

You can see them all at Club Nintendo

It's sort of weird. While the Copenhagen talks occur and just before Christmas, the Australian government seem to be pushing out all the backlog they've been sitting on. Within a day (give or take hours) the discussion paper on An R18+ Classification for Computer Games was released by the Attorney-General's Department and the ISP Filtering Live Pilot Report was released. Obviously the filter report is getting more attention because I suppose there are more internet users than gamers.

While I would love to actually give the two issues thought and create a deep, well thought out treatment of each, I don't have the time. But if you are looking to do so, here's some of the quotes that may be useful.

But I think the political landscape will get shaken up next year. With G4C pushing forward, the Democrats rebuilding, a possible election purely based on Climate Change and the Sex Party and the Pirate Party challenging the status quo... it's going to be crazy.

I'll probably deal with the R18+ a little more in depth. But first, let's look at some of the views of those involved on the ISP filter...

The Libs want the results audited...
Quote:

Our concern with Labor’s proposed mandatory filtering plan has always been that it would be both unworkable and ineffective.

..there should be an independent audit of the trial results released today. This audit should occur as soon as possible.

The Pirate Party thinks the ISP filter breaches Article 19...
Quote:

This policy ... will put the Australian Government in breach of Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
1

Whilst the Greens think it's all a bit pointless
Quote:

"The pointless nature of this proposal is set out in the report itself, which admits that the filters will be circumvented by people seeking blocked material... "esting showed that the filters used for the ACMA blacklist only were more easily circumvented than other more complex filters used to cover a wider range and volume of material."

The Australian Democrats think it's all a bit of a waste of money
Quote:

The Australian Democrats remain opposed to the mandatory clean feed as a waste of tax payers money and a violation of their freedom, as well as establishing a bad precedent for Government control of information.

Quote:

"Those who have been able to access the report have been disappointed with page after page of jargon and graphs, the missing context of any assertions is horrifying. There's not even details of how many people participated in the trial, whether they requested to do so or really under what sort of conditions."

The Sex Party thinks that there's too much to do...
Quote:

Senator Conroy’s decision to create a black list of Refused Classification (RC) websites would mean that 95% of the world’s four million adult sites would need to be listed and blocked, according to the Australian Sex Party.

Ms Patten said that the Minister was trying to sell the mandatory internet filter against child porn and sexual violence but in fact it would ban mostly depictions of legal sexual acts. ‘Senator Conroy also appears to have ignored the reality that a new classification scheme for classifying websites in Australia will be necessary to cope with the flood of adult website operators who will want to have their sites rated to ensure that they fall below the RC line”, she said. ‘The Classification Board are flat out coping with magazine and DVD submissions to worry about websites”.

Electronic Frontiers Australia points out that Labour haven't explained clearly what it's all for...
Quote:

“Successful technology isn’t necessarily successful policy. We’re yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers’ money on.”

And Google Australia seems to have feel it's all a bit too much...
Quote:

Google, like many other Internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results. But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information.

In comparison, the Australian Christian Lobby think that it's not enough...
Quote:

It has also proven the technological principle that can be extended to deal with other harmful X zand R-rated material on the Iteret. This is now clearly feasible and we need a review in three years that might test this in practice, particularly usig third party providers of URLS

iiNet use some diplomatic language to insinuate that the filtering won't do what Labour think it will
Quote:

"iiNet has previously raised concerns with ISP level filtering which it believes is unlikely to have a significant effect on illegal activity. As the Government has decided to introduce legislation, iiNet wants to make sure any changes introduced are workable."

While Optus has released a statement stating that
Quote:

"Optus acknowledges that it is the government's responsibility to strike a balance between protecting Australians' desire for freedom of expression and access to information, with the need to improve online safety and limit access to illegal RC content," said Krishnapillai.

Anyway, just found that Gizmodo have put together Obligatory reading on the internet filter issue, covers most of the above, but has some extra stuff in it, so check it out.

I've probably forgotten lots of things, but I'm busy with... stuff... like work and stuff... tell you later...

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