Domo Kun

I'm very nostalgic towards old games. Nintendo are amazing at evoking nostalgia! Especially in the Zelda series! I'm nostalgic towards Sonic the Hedgehog, he was my childhood hero, and, of course, playing Ocarina of Time for the first time. My N64 years were my golden age of gaming. However, nearer the end of the console's life, I lost touch with gaming for a few months (perhaps 6 odd?). I decided to trade in about 25 of my 30 odd games. This is probably the worst mistake of my life... I think I only got about 180£ for it all too. I'm getting a bit upset just thinking about it Non video game wise... I miss going to school (although I wouldn't want to go back...), I miss old friends i've lost touch with. I miss football stickers! That was weird, collecting pictures of grown men...

Interesting... is this what modern racism comes down to, people not wanting to have to be too respectful to each other? It seems to be a hard balance. People must be able to criticize one another, but they can't be allowed to be horribly offensive to each other. Where's the line between those two? On this issue of political correctness gone mad, I find a few problems. There's the issue that, sometimes, it's pathetic. For example the arguement over 'black british', taking the american model of 'african american'... who cares? The rule should just be to be nice to everyone. Words develop negative connotations if we over evaluate them. Yet there's a counter arguement- political correctness has done so much good for this country. Surely everyone will argree here that the fact that television programmes now feature black people on it is a good thing. It reduces fear of other people that people, for some stupid reason, felt they couldn't relate to in real life. I personally belive... with not much evidence, so bear with me... that the rightwing newspapers overexagerate political correctness gone mad. If a government watchdog suggests an idea for making the UK a nicer place to live in which is quite farfetched, pointless, or a waste of time, the daily mail will jump on it and make it seem like a lobby of x minority have forced our government to give in to them. I think the daily mail rile up the masses in anger because they have nothing else to write about. Opinions on that?

Warioware will help them learn their English verbs!

To that I'd say that everyone in the world is special and requires special rights, wether they be black, british, female, male, white, relgious, athiest, french... anything. I don't think muslims are special, but I don't think I am either, and I wouldn't want to be insulted by anyone. Oh and yes of course those who threaten murder should be put in prison. I'm worried you guys are going to think I'm defending the violent ones... But surely it's better not to be called these things because it means you haven't upset anyone... right...? That is, unless you actually are racist, homophobic, and sexist... Ah that's not exactly what I meant though. If I was using the 'it's my religion' (or, it's 'their religion', as I don't have a religion) card, I mean it in relation to perception. I suppose I would translate the card as, 'this is my perception of life and the world around me. I am very set in my ways, so please try to understand why I did what I did.' Hmm... that's a bit far fetched... Do you get me...? Those that were offended (not those who staged violent protests, I'm not defending them and wouldn't), were offended in a way that you and I can't be offended. There's this amazing thing that, to them, does exist and is more sacred than life itself, regardless of how much proof there is or isn't for it. Considering that we have people in this world that don't need hard proof in order to belive something, we need to work with them and try to understand them to stop violence and hatred. I say this assumeing that stopping violence and hatred is the most important thing in the world. Perhaps you'd consider free speech/democracy/ something else to be more important, which is fair enough, but in that case, my arguement doesn't really apply. I don't know how to reply to this... I didn't see any evidence of it while in Syria, but it's not like I've lived there... I was only there 10 days. Egypt and the UAE? Surely not!? I suppose I'll have to take your word for it.

Urm, okay. I don't want to offend you man, I'm just trying to have a calm discussion about this... I don't understand, what is the religion card exactly? I assume you mean when I said that to the very religious, this is offensive? I don't see why that isn't a valid point, please elaborate? I would argue that as religion shapes how you percieve the world, it can be just as important a factor as where you're born, your political beliefs, etc. I don't want to sound insulting, I'm not trying to 'get one back at you', but you've just proved my point a little by saying, 'maybe the media in the Middle East will grow the fuck up, and stop printing genuinely anti-semitic cartoons daily', because the media in the middle east doesn't print anti semitic cartoons daily. So now can you understand why people in the middle east found the anti muslim (as they saw it) cartoons so offensive? Don't you imagine people were saying things like 'I wish the Danish would just grow up and stop printing islamaphobic cartoons daily'. This is my main point, don't point the finger at people. Try and understand others. (p.s. I am NOT claiming anti semitic cartoons are in any way okay, just saying they're not a hugely frequent thing in the middle east) While I was in Syria I didn't see any anti jewish things. I saw anti-israel, but there's a difference (argueably not... Is there a difference to Syrians...? I think so, but I can't be 100% certain.). The anti Israeli things said stuff about the war in lebanon, as it had just ended when I went. I saw many jewish artefacts in the damascus museum, I don't think an entire country of nazis would allow such a thing as a dug up sinagogue in their national museum. Islam teaches tollerance of other religions. Although that's gone out of the window for a tiny minority, how would Syria and Lebanon function if this wasn't overwhelmingly the case? 20% of Syria, and 40% of Lebanon is Christian. Edit: I should add, I don't think you're racist or anything, I just don't belive anyone would ever hate another group of people if they truly understood them. No offensive, but I don't think you understand the middle east or islam very well. Hope you don't find that offensive... sorry...

I'm not defending the protests like the ones you mentioned, I'm just saying there were an infinate number of peaceful protests that weren't covered because they don't make good headlines. Of course I think that banner and all the rest of it is disgusting. Countries in the middle east with free press? That's a hard one... Only Iran and Saudi Arabia have reeeally strict rules. If you're a reporter in Syria, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, you can't just write anything, but there is a degree of autonomy. Mind you, according to Reporters Without Borders, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, North Africa minus Libya, Oman, the UAE, and Yemen have a similar level of press freedom to Brazil, Argentina, Mongolia, Mexico, Thailand, India, Turkey and many more so called liberal democracies. My point? It's not as bad as you think! I won't defend those who thought the Danish government was to blame for what happened, but it seemed to me to be a huge misunderstanding and a case of ignorance. Make what you will of it though. I have only one gripe with what you said, and that is you said that Denmark is a place where you 'can take the piss'. Although it's taking the piss to you and me, to some people, it's insulting beyond belief. I think that's the essential difference that both sides need to acknowledge. I totally agree. I suppose I'm saying that even in an awful circumstance like the one over the cartoons, 'we' in the west should compromise and try to explain ourselves, instead of hating those who hate us. That would be a step forward, and even if we don't recieve a similar apology back, it's better than creating even more hatred. People need to apologise just to keep the peace, even if they don't think they've done anything wrong. I suppose after apology can come attempts to explain why you consider what you did acceptable. Also, the newspapers reaction was to show frighterning images of horrific protests, instead of trying to explain to their readers why people feel so strongly about this issue. Obveously trying to explain what was happening is preferable to hysteria. Which culture is right and takes precedent? I'd say neither too! It's easy to create a secular arguement against what happened, but it's also just as easy, if you're religious, to create a counter arguement. I'm not a religious person, but anti religious movements worry me. It's just dividing people into religious and secular, highlighting difference and understating similarities. I suppose with every conflict in which there is difference, people have to try to be the first to understand the other side. It's a pretty much eutopian, unrealistic idea, but we should at least try on a personal level. Right now, it seems to me no group of people are more misunderstood than muslims. If you're interested in what I'm saying, read Orientalism by Edward Said - It's a classic.

So if I found the previous two Prime games rather boring, should I get this one? I was realling looking forward to a Goldeneye/Timesplitters style shooter on the Wii...

While the protests were hugely overblown, you guys aren't taking into account the cutural relativity of this. Those cartoons are offensive both because they depict Mahammed, and because they show him in a negative light. The level of offense caused doesn't translate into secular society. Also, there were so, so, so many peaceful protests, the violent ones were the ones you saw. Which protests are the media going to show in their papers, the violent ones, or the peaceful ones? Oh and the fish is right, because many countries (NOT ALL!) have state news in the middle east, blaming the government was a thing that stemed from ignorance. note that I'm seriously not justifying any of the violence that took place, I'm just trying to point out that I don't think you realise what those pictures actually meant to those people. I firmly belive that if people truly understand each other, they won't hate one another. In fact, right now at University, I'm doing an essay on why ethnic conflict starts. Most scolars I've looked up so far put it into people dividing themselves into groups. So, secular and religious, jewish and muslim, serb, croatian and bosnian. It's a 'we're not like them' mentality. Sadly, I've seen many members of this forum discussing how essentially, they don't understand other people and they're scared of their ways or they fear them for their inclusion into the UK's soceity. I'm scared this country's going backwards in terms of tollerence.

Everyone who's said racist or 'partially racist' things (negative things about immigrants/I don't like black TV channels etc), which paper do you read/your family reads and which TV News do you most often watch? Those who hate racism and think black people are all individuals etc etc etc, which paper do you read? Which news channel do you watch? I'm half arab, half english, so obveously I'm not a fan of racism. I read the guardian and watch channel 4 news. I'm often disgusted, however, by the way channel 4 makes the middle east seem like such a backwards place. It's lovely, plan your next holiday for Syria everyone. Edit: Just read back a bit on some of the posts. Some are clearly not well informed. I've seen an awful lot of crazy anti islamic things. The thing that I was most taken back by is that Mikey said 'most muslims want to turn the UK into an Islamic State'. I don't want to insult you personally at all, but quite simply, the TV programme is wrong. Out of interest, how many muslims do you actually know personally? Of the many many many I know, not a single one wants the UK to change at all. Some may disagree with some of the things that happen in this country because it's forbidden by their religion, but that doesn't mean they would even think of telling people here what to do. People in the UK have problems with the way Iran and Saudi Arabia are run, but that's fair enough too. That's what freedom of speech is, surely. More than 99.99% of muslims in this country, I promise, think this country is great! Most have objections to the country's foreign policy, but that's fair enough, right? I'm pretty sure most white people in this country have the same problems. What I'm really trying to say, my main point, is don't 'other' them. Don't create a situation where it's 'us' and 'them', because that's completely fabricated in your (and the extremeists') mind. I promise, any false problems/misconceptions you have with them, they'll have with you, so do the good thing and be the first to accept them. I promise they'll accept you back

Get a Japan Rail Pass! You can use it on any JR train or shinkansen. VERY useful. Get a guidebook. And visit Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Himeji, Nikkou and Ise. Also, stay in a cheap ryokan. They're very clean, and at around 12£ a night to have to share toilets/bathrooms, it's worth it. Try Gojo Guesthouse in Kyoto. Google it! That's where I stayed and made one day trips to other places using the shinkansen and my rail pass. I stayed with a friend in Tokyo, so I can't help you there.

Maybe they just don't have any new things to show us?

I don't really understand this issue, or why they chose to include the call to prayer in the game. I suppose it's kinda like having someone preform the lord's prayer over the top of this scene instead...? Either way, if someone's offended, it's not like taking this small sound clip is a big deal. However, this was bloody rude - Oh well...

I'm really enjoying this. I've played about 8 hours now. Has anyone noticed how similar it is to Twilight Princess in little ways? Some examples - The wolf, the way the barriers pop up when you fight enemies (as the wolf in TP), the first dungeon being in the forest, the evil black stuff that takes over the world like the twilight on TP. But, it's also so original, don't get me wrong. A bloody wonderful game. Has anyone looked at the map? It's actually set in japan! Question - Do any real japanese cities appear in the game? Thanks.

Oh dear me.

Stick the wii remote to the guitar shell and have to preform rock star poses please.

Don't worry! This happened to me too! It appears to be freezeing, but it's not, it just gets stuck for bloody ages! Leave it and it'll pull through. Enjoy your Wii!

I've noticed not all the mini games appear to be in the multiplayer option. Am I correct? Do you have to somehow unlock them or something? Help!

Ah!? This has happened to me twice. I just fiddle about and it somehow started working again both times. It only ever happens when I start up Zelda though... coincidence?

You really think so? I might have to keep my old strap...

I'm stuck on the Water Temple... bloody bugger. I breezed through the Fire and Forest Temples, but I can't find another small key to open the door to get to Dark Link (the small key door in the same room as the moving flatforms with the hookshot grippy bits on them). I've literately been into every room on every water level. Bloody hell, what am I doing wrong? Can anyone help?

Is it not possible that we'll see games that are '60hz Only' (a la Wind Waker bonus disc), no?

Sorry, what's MMO?

Wario Ware is a Japanese launch title!? Lucky buggers...

I'm going to name mine Hitler or Stalin.