A day late again, but lots to get through, plus the added confusion of us accidentally not putting up a Chatterbox post on a couple of days.
Still, got there in the end, so if you missed any Chatterbox fun this week, here's the best of what the readers had to say. This week: tragic romance, facial hair and why you should never walk out of a film (especially not Don't Look Now, you muppet).
Okay, brace yourselves. Here goes...
Friday saw a smattering of talk about PS3's new trophy system, reined in slightly by the fact that only Super Stardust was compatible at the time. This inexplicably gave way to a short Manic Miner vs Jet Set Willy face-off, into which Lazybones lobbed the tangential, "Auf Wiedersehen Monty was a peak in gaming". There was talk of game trade-ins too, specifically, what you could hope to get for titles like GTA IV and CoD IV - it seems to vary from chain to chain, and even from store to store. It's topical stuff, of course, what with HMV's decision to star dealing in pre-owned games.
Monday began with an explosion of questions - what are everyone's favourite GTA moments? What does the Xbox 360 look like through a CRT TV? Was Andy Cole a good signing? OfficePest's 'best musical score' topic received lots of replies, with plenty of Japanese RPG classics cropping up. Briefly, the subject of girls and FPS games emerged prompting LarryLoxley's recollection of a familiar theory:
Someone was doing a piece on this before. They argued that the reason why most 'blokes' like games is because men are all about the visual and the spatial (think of mens ability to read maps and enjoy p0rn) wheras girls are all about the emotional and the abstract. Hence a game about your 'feelings' and 'empathy' may switch around the roles of running around in circles whilst looking up at the ceiling.
Continuing the feminine theme, a conversation developed about office crushes (or "workplace trouble", as they became known). This was instigated by DanBob's Morrissey-esque post about unrequited love amid the 9-5 routine (see below). What a sensitive bunch. From there, literature, specifically everyone's top five favourite books - Alan Moore, Joseph Conrad, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Raymond Chandler all cropped up. Is this a videogame site or just about the best darn book club on the web? (For the record mine are Catch 22, Treasure Island, Lord of the Flies, Great Expectations and Blue Afternoon by William Boyd).
Tuesday felt like Déjà vu - More warhawk, Silvefox having router problems, someone asking if Ferrari Challenge is any good (It's okay! If you really like Ferraris!), lots of book chatter... Then a discussion about the differences between music festivals in the north and south: north = punk and nasty, south = cider and chilled. And chilled cider.
The first mention of E3 took place on Wednesday morning. Then Roarrr picked up on something I meant to blog about but didn't get time - Sony's fascinating Zombie game, Last Guy, which uses Goggle Earth to create battle locations. With my typing 'skills' I'll have to be careful writing about that game in the future - how long before I inevitably get the vowels mixed up and create my own Google Earth/videogame lifestyle sensation?
And then, somehow, shaving took over...
Today. More football, more Linux, the rain, the rain... the rain it raineth everyday.
Movies The Kingdom Wall-E Mamma Mia Hancock Stardust The Mist Don't Look Now Funny Games
Games Warhawk Metal Gear Online Race Driver Grid Chuckie Egg MGS4 Buzz DMC4 Blood Siren WoW Harvest moon
Music Neutral Milk Hotel Sonny J Bon Iver (yay!)
Questions of the week Accrington Stanley? (Riffmagus) Best musical score in a game? (Office Pest) Anyone here with a knowledge of USB hard drives? (Amipal) What did you have for breakfast this morning? (Tony Hayers) Which films have you walked out of? (NickT)
'Cultural' concerns of the week Smoking bans in Amsterdam Installing linux (again!) Bonekickers King of Shaves living up to its brand name The fact that 'Monkey Tennis' has a Wikipedia entry
Quotes of the week "It sounds like you have the London bowel-quake" Dr Lazybones gives a bug-ridden NickT the benefits of his medical expertise.
"Someone I 'know' on World of Warcraft reckons he's put in over 300-350 days of played time since release. It's only been released 3 years. So in the last three years he's spent nearly a third of ALL HIS TIME (including sleeping etc) playing the game. His really makes me want to weep." Beardofbees - are you that friend?
"Damn, did I write a long wall of text again. Sorry I really am sorry I cant help it. damn.Typos, ah I cant be bothered right now. You know what I mean. damn." Gamesblog veteran GWX returns and proves that he's still very much running on incorrect firmware.
"It's strange when you share a tender moment with somebody, just when your eyes meet theirs, and for a second it's all so close, yet so far away. A divine sadness. I hope to God I don't start to stalk her." DanBob with a oddly moving/scary aside amid the game soundtrack chatter
"Walkers Sensations Thai Sweet Chili Crisps are clearly the best. You know you all agree. And if you don't, eat one, and the dizzying high from the ridiculous amounts of addictive substances in them will change your mind." CBPodge goes where the Walkers marketing dept daren't.
"I'm from Canada, and quietly read Chatterbox when I get home. Don't mind me. I'll get the lights when I leave, like I do most nights. The place is empty when I get here, but I make sure I at least sweep the floor before I go." KidDork - Chatterbox goes pan-global!
