Idle Thumbs Episode Discussions

Idle Thumbs 106: Imagine the Man

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:48:11 +0000

Idle Thumbs 106:

Imagine the Man
This week on Idle Thumbs we talk about the video games we've been playing and laugh at each other, but our A/B testing has shown that those things don't really bring in the key demos we're looking for, so we're probably going to just replace this episode with a picture of a woman in a thong, drop a sleazy tagline on it, and claim for some reason that it's rated AO. That should do the trick.

Games Discussed: Tammany Hall, Thomas Was Alone, Dota 2, Spooky Sound Effects Record, Wartune, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dark Souls & Demon's Souls, Sleeping Dogs

Idle Thumbs 105: XCOM Obama

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:54:42 +0000

Idle Thumbs 105:

XCOM Obama
It's Discovery Week here at the Thumb, where we play a bunch of games whose fun comes from learning how to play them. We finally sit down and play our first campaign of Risk: Legacy, Chris falls into CandyBox and Starseed Pilgrim, and Sean takes to the stars to face the nation's most formidable foe.

Games Discussed: Risk: Legacy, CandyBox, Starseed Pilgrim, XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Idle Thumbs 104: Emblematic of the Dissonance

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:36:01 +0000

Idle Thumbs 104:

Emblematic of the Dissonance
This week on the Thumb, all is laid bare in the weeks-long game of Neptune's Pride, Sean and Jake break out of jail, rob an embassy, and learn something about themselves, and a person is killed inside a video game and it is surprising and meaningful.

Games Discussed: Grand Theft Auto V, Sleeping Dogs, Monaco, Neptune's Pride 2: Triton

Idle Thumbs 103: A Person-Shaped Thing is a Person

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:54:54 +0000

Idle Thumbs 103:

A Person-Shaped Thing is a Person
In the darkness of space it becomes hard to tell friend from foe. It seems landing a crew safely in unknown territory is harder than you thought. You realize your mistake: "I'm low on fuel; need to load up." Without getting up, a simple gesture is recognized and your display flickers to life. "One 16-pocket crazy crust cheese pizza, please. Extra olives." Satisfied, you lean back and wait.

Games Discussed: Neptune's Pride 2: Triton, Pizza Hut for Xbox 360, Kerbal Space Program, Papers Please

Idle Thumbs 102: Standing on the Shoulders of Babies

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:10:20 +0000

Idle Thumbs 102:

Standing on the Shoulders of Babies
After an engineering malfunction left our first recording attempt dead on the launchpad, we strip off all the weird bits, hard reset the equipment and try again. We disclose this only in the spirit of early-access game development.

Games Discussed: Neptune's Pride II: Triton, Kerbal Space Program, Prison Architect

Idle Thumbs 101: Introduction to Video Games

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:56:21 +0000

Idle Thumbs 101:

Introduction to Video Games
There's an old saying in video games that when one door opens, there's probably another door inside of that one that looks sort of the same, and you have to open it, too. We complete BioShock Infinite, Nick and Chris take their first delicious bite of StarCraft 2 in a long while, and Jake's intro stock plummets.

Games Discussed: BioShock Infinite, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing, Injustice: Gods Among Us

Idle Thumbs 100: King Chromin' For A Day

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:10:48 +0000

Idle Thumbs 100:

King Chromin' For A Day
Break out the fireworks, giant creepy parade floats, and ominous presidential statuary: it's the Idle Thumbs centennial! In honor of this, our 100th episode, we talk about one game for the duration. But how could you not when that game is the new BioShock?

Game Discussed: BioShock Infinite

Idle Thumbs 99: "I'm Blown Away"

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:22:27 +0000

Idle Thumbs 99:

"I'm Blown Away"
In this knock down drag out episode, we get in each other's face over competition and learning in Dota, and dive deep enough into SimCity that we kind of run out. Odds are high that you'll be blown away.

Games Discussed: Dota 2, SimCity, Occulus Rift

Idle Thumbs 98: Happy Dishonored Return of Nick Breckon

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:23:29 +0000

Idle Thumbs 98:

Happy Dishonored Return of Nick Breckon
Out with the old and in with the old! Say goodbye to Dishonored jokes and say hello to the past. With citizen demand for current hosts dwindling, you better zone some residential because a hip new family is moving back to Cool Town.

Games Discussed: SimCity, Anno 1404: Venice, Zafehouse Diaries, Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures, Castle Doctrine, Gorillas.bas, SimCity 2000

Idle Thumbs 97: The Dash Rendar Synergy

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 01:14:54 +0000

Idle Thumbs 97:

The Dash Rendar Synergy
Jake and Sean are joined by Olly Moss and the rest of the population of England during their merry jaunt to the Baftas. Chris was left behind in San Francisco, where he's probably still playing Zuma.

Games Discussed: Kentucky Route Zero, SimCity, Thomas Was Alone, The Silent Age, Shadows of the Empire, Assassin's Creed, Pandemic, Twilight Imperium, RIsk: Legacy

Guests: Olly Moss, Duncan Fyfe, Lawrence Bishop, Ben Andac, and Alex Ashby

Idle Thumbs 96: Historical Beef

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:51:55 +0000

Idle Thumbs 96:

Historical Beef
This week, Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker stopped by the Fancy Space to talk Tomb Raider looping back on itself, witness the culmination of Chris' Zuma addiction, and wonder what the PlayStation 4 means for gaming's past.

Games Discussed: Tomb Raider, The Banner Saga: Factions, Zuma Deluxe, Zuma's Revenge

Idle Thumbs '95: H.D. Cool Spot

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:28:28 +0000

Idle Thumbs '95:

H.D. Cool Spot

Your first choice runs ahead, sliding over the embankment and out of your sight, lost to the sparkling dunes. Your second choice is fine, but seems preoccupied with aesthetic decisions made by architects of the future, and he too fails you with time. Resigned, you accept your fate. Your third choice. The worst choice. Video Games.

Games Discussed: Karateka, Anno 2070, SimCity Beta, Journey, Zuma Deluxe, The Receiver, H.D. Cool Spot

Idle Thumbs 94: Readers Like You

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:31:28 +0000

Idle Thumbs 94:

Readers Like You
DICE was attended, and games were played, but the bulk of this subdued episode dives into the Idle Thumbs mailbag for questions from you, the readers.

Games Discussed: The Room, Might & Magic Clash of Heroes, Craps

Idle Thumbs 93: Babywall the Horse Armor

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:13:19 +0000

Idle Thumbs 93:

Babywall the Horse Armor
This week on Idle Thumbs Sean incessantly burns things, Chris gets lost in a world of bespoke puzzles, and Jake talks about a video game he's played. Plus we talk about all the stuff Gabe Newell's been talking about.

Games Discussed: SimCity, Spore, Little Inferno, Antichamber, The Unfinished Swan

Saturday Morning Streams

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:17:29 +0000

Maybe at one point these will be worth their own thread, but for now here are all the Saturday Streams (and a couple other one-off videos) that we've done.

For those who haven't noticed (because they're super irregular and infrequent), we've been streaming games on Saturday mornings on twitch.tv. Some of them are old games from when we were kids, some are just games we love, and some are games none of us have played before and wanted to discover them live and shamefully in front of an audience. Also some of them have special guests!

Note that because these are recordings of live streams, they often have pre-roll, and sometimes glitch out weirdly, but hopefully you'll find some entertainment and illumination among the chaos. Enjoy...

Pikmin 2 Head-to-Head
Most people probably didn't know that Shigero Miyamoto's team made a competitive RTS game, and fewer know that it's super good. Jake and Chris play a couple hours of Pikmin 2's relatively unknown, but surprisingly robust split-screen versus mode.

BioShock 2: Minerva's Den with Steve Gaynor
Idle Thumb's very own Steve "Hot Scoops" Gaynor was also the lead designer and writer on the BioShock 2 DLC "Minerva's Den." When in town for the weekend we played through the entirety of Minerva's Den with Steve at the wheel providing a realtime director's commentary on the game.

Minerva's Den with Steve

Tennnes
Tennnes is a simple-but-deep same-screen competitive tennis game, a throw back to '80s sports games, with the mechanical fidelity modern game design allows. We took a break in the middle of an Idle Thumbs episode to play a bunch of it. Enjoy!

X-Com with JP LeBreton and Evan Lahti
The original X-Com has a notoriously steep barrier to entry, but PC Gamer's Evan Lahti and Double Fine designer JP LeBreton help guide us (and you!) into the game in a way that we've heard actually works.

DayZ with Evan Lahti
Sean and Chris are guided through the brutal world of DayZ with the help of PC Gamer's resident DayZ expert and evangelist Evan Lahti. Watch Sean find a bicycle and go for a lovely ride through the apocalyptic wastelands, realize it was all a dream and fear for his life.

FTL: Faster Than Light
After many ill-fated attempts at managing his ship's crew's journey through some particularly vengeful patches of space, Chris plays through his first ever successful FTL campaign live, with lots of incredible back and forth from the audience.

Minecraft
For a while, Idle Thumbs ran a Minecraft server. It's currently closed, but take a trip through the Thumbs server that was, with us and all the other Thumbs who logged in for the stream.

BioShock with JP LeBreton
Frequent Idle Thumbs guest and game designer JP LeBreton worked on the original BioShock, and takes us through some of the game, including his level, Arcadia.

As a bonus, JP brought in and played "Arcadia Demade," a Doom II remake of his own BioShock level, re-creating Arcadia's spaces and encounters as faithfully as possible using only stock Doom assets. Worth watching for the Houdini Splicer encounter alone.

Super Black Bass
A bass fishing sim for the SNES, Super Black Bass was one of those games from your childhood that you played a lot even though you knew you were only understanding half of what was going on. Sean shows Jake and Chris how it's done.

Super Black Bass

Idle Thumbs 92: The Mind-Tech Contingency

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:45:50 +0000

Idle Thumbs 92:

The Mind-Tech Contingency
We come up for air from the fantastic SimCity beta to find ourselves in another place, lost in a world where firing a gun in a video game is a complex and specific act, an unfortunate world where there is cyberpunk crap everywhere. With special guest Steve "Hot Scoops" Gaynor.

Games Discussed: Receiver, SimCity, SimCity: The City Simulator, Escape from the Haunted Ship, Hundreds

Idle Thumbs 91: The Clapper

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:58:12 +0000

Idle Thumbs 91:

The Clapper
Hundreds of tanks surround the place, murderers around every turn. With no games in sight and nowhere to run, all hope was lost until we were saved by a trip to podcasting school by special guest Shawn Elliott.

Games Discussed: The Ship, Neptune's Pride, Planetside 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Far Cry 3, Fez, Waking Mars, Mainichi, Miasmata

Idle Thumbs 90: Passive But Deadly

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:51:22 +0000

Idle Thumbs 90:
Passive But Deadly

Triangulated coordinates. An esoteric puzzle. An impossible cipher. The door opens to reveal your captor -- a man; a beard; mirrored shades; the infallible dictator of a banana republic. But upon second glance you realize it's not a fearsome generalissmo -- it's just Nick Breckon.

Games Discussed: Miasmata, Escape From The Mysterious Room, The Ship, Tropico 4

Idle Thumbs 89: The Ship Economy

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:18:30 +0000

Idle Thumbs 89:

The Ship Economy
Your jet ski lies outside, beached and on fire. Cassowarys peck at the glass door, firmly latched. In one hand, C4; the other, a detonator. As your eyes adjust, before you can make out the faces of the patrons and tellers turning your way, you realize you're already speaking. "Give me all your gift codes to The Ship and nobody has to get hurt."

Games and Hardware Platforms Discussed: Steam Box, The Ship, Dota 2, Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, Perspective, Zombies Run!

Idle Thumbs 88: Lacks Restraint

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:03:09 +0000

Idle Thumbs 88:

Lacks Restraint
This week we get into the weeds a bit when discussing Far Cry 3 and are subsequently asked to return to the mission area. Plus: immigrant stories in gaming, and the realization that Cart Life is amazing.

Games Discussed: Cart Life, Grand Theft Auto IV, Far Cry 3

Idle Thumbs 87: Spray Spin-Grill

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:13:46 +0000

Idle Thumbs 87:

Spray Spin-Grill
Execute commands to survive. Assemble Spaceteam. Alert Sportsfriends. Shoot sad snake. Spray Spin-grill.

Games Discussed: Spaceteam, Sportsfriends, Far Cry 3, Letterpress

Idle Thumbs 86: Always Support the Danger Layer

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:17:31 +0000

Idle Thumbs 86:

Always Support the Danger Layer
Though the lens turns inward as Amnesia Fortnight consumes Chris' life and Sean leaves the country for adventures abroad, we discover that the real Secret of Monkey Island is to play it with some little kids from The Bahamas. Jake continues to exist.

Games Discussed: The Secret of Monkey Island, Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight, Far Cry 3, The Walking Dead

Idle Thumbs 85: "An Indulgent Dateline" or "An Indulgent Episode Title"

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:41:27 +0000

Wild beasts!

Idle Thumbs 85: "An Indulgent Dateline" or "An Indulgent Episode Title"

Call me Halo. With Sean away, Idle Thumbs is accompanied by Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton for a long walk in the first person perspective through jungles and space stations and all sorts of places. Join us!

Games Discussed: Far Cry 3, Far Cry 2, Crysis, Halo 4, Halo: OSDT, The Halo, Waking Mars, The Dig, Gameboat For Kinect

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Idle Thumbs 84: Nineties Cockpit Freakout

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:28:26 +0000

Video games!.

Idle Thumbs 84: Nineties Cockpit Freakout

You've been through this mess before, your view-cone ever narrowing, but you like the challenge. Then, it all goes wide. Silence. You drift free, frozen; the infinite vastness of space envelops you, strangles you. You feel upholstery. Twin petals at your feet. The glass comes down, securing the seal as displays tink and blip to life, shielding the endless blackness from sight. You grip your SideWinder and you are home.

Games Discussed: Grand Theft Auto V, Halo 4, Halo: ODST, Hotline Miami, Mark of the Ninja, Star Citizen, Super Meat Boy Galaxy, Dark Souls

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Idle Thumbs 83: Free Macintosh Warez

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:37:25 +0000

Our SEO is ruined.

Idle Thumbs 83: Free Macintosh Warez

Day four and you're almost there. Coins pile up, infrastructure is laid down. You miss your friends, even if you never knew their names. You wanted to kill everyone on earth, but the person you killed was yourself. Welcome to real life.

Games Discussed: Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube, The Kill Everyone Project, Real Lives 2010, Frog Fractions, The Visit, Mark of the Ninja, Dishonored, Glider, Imperial 2030

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