69 replies to this topic

[Jake]

Broadcast Jones is my father.

Idle Thumbs 66: It's Broadcast Jones!

Please firmly affix your paperboard keyboard overlay (included) for an easy overview of all options made available during this podcast. Q: Witness Chris experience Dota 2 for the first time, W: Discover which games secretly co-exist in the Silent Scope universe, A: Wrestle with what makes games exciting as a medium, S: Toggle shield configuration (forward, rear, or balanced).

Games Discussed: Fez, Dota 2, Driver: San Francisco, Skate, Demon Souls, Burnout Paradise, Journey

Direct episode download.

iTunes page.

Keep the RSS fed!

[Roswell47]

I still find it super weird that the podcast is actually back. In some ways it feels like it never left.

[George B]

end of fast for podblasted cast masters

[barichnikov]

If you want a true WIZARD in dota2, you might want to check Invoker, when you've played a few more hundred hours. He's one of the most complex heroes in the game, but he's closer to the WIZARD idea than Warlock!

Edit: (posting as I'm listening to the cast) Invoker has that thing like manually inputting things in the keypad. He has 3 different magic orbs that he spawns around him, and depending on the orbs that gravitate him at the moment, he can "invoke" 10 different spells. It's pretty hardcore. You basically can change them on the fly, which puts the skill ceiling SUPER HIGH for this hero. Pros are pretty insane to watch play him.

[gregbrown]

Oh man, I remember making a Command & Conquer site on Geocities with cropped photos of each unit, and going through all the upcoming Tiberian Sun screenshots and cropping out each unit and having a description next to it and it all being in wonderful, wonderful <TABLE>s.

The conversation about the Civ V reference card just caused some serious proustian flashbacks.

[K-bohls!]

I haven't listened yet but am excited to see Driver: San Francisco make an appearance in this cast. I recently picked it up from the Steam Sale and just finished it up, it is a very impressive game. The story is the most notable part and is really enjoyable. It is handled in a smart way throughout the course of the game with the last few chapters being a really great payoff. I do feel that the execution is hampered by subpar dialog and voice acting however. The gameplay is also pretty good, one would expect races + cop chases for ~10 hours but Driver: SF takes those and tweaks some variables (such as leading cops to a certain location, making sure two certain cars get 1st and 2nd in a race) + adds new gameplay modes. It only felt dull during extended play sessions. Over all it would, and should, have a cult following but I feel Ubi-soft's DRM killed most potential for that.

Plus muscle cars are cool.

[Henroid]

This discussion about self-awareness of being overwhelmed is the best thing,

[Henroid]

Sean should have checked to see if the pigeon was secretly the treasure goblin.

[dibs]

Oh man, I play dota 2 with some irish people and 2 of us play a lot together. The other guy is a lot better than me, which didn't caus problems for a while. I had a string of wins recently however, which seems to have put my MMR up a bit, and now mine and the other guys MMR combined push us into the High skill bracket. I'm gone from a 8 win streak to getting destroyed 2/18. All my might has been stripped from me. I feel for you guys getting glimpses of greatness, but beware it comes and goes!

[I_smell]

I support the idea of Idle Thumbs Origins and Idle Thumbs Rising. Maybe this newest one could be Idle Thumbs Revengeance?


...Ugh, I take that back. You were right.

[pabosher]

I was hoping for The Idle Thumbs Video Game Podcast Episode One.

[OJR]

Great casting as always, but I couldn't agree less with the interpretations put forward of Driver San Francisco. I thought it was so much more ethical than most games, with it being actually impossible to kill anyone. The game goes out of the way to make it clear that everyone gets out of every crash just fine. Oh except Tanner himself, the only guy in the game injured in a car crash. Plus the story doesn't take itself at all seriously and the tone is light and fun all the way though, like a daytime cop show. And Reflections suck at anything that isn't awesome open world driving so they just did awesome open world driving. Trying to tone down the violence, trying a fresh aesthetic and working to a dev team's strengths, plus really innovative multiplayer? Shouldn't we be celebrating all that?!

[Merus]

I am excited for more of Sean's Irish stories. I could possibly do less of Chris' concerning obsession with San Francisco stories, though.

I suspect that in a few years people will react with surprise that I've never played a lords management game and don't intend to, and my explanation that I'm really not fond of having to lose for hours before I start having fun won't really wash.

[youmeyou]

I support any open world driving game that does nag me to participate in pointless boring facsimiles of real life boring activities. (I'm looking at you GTA 4!)

I also bought Driver SF during the steam sale so I'll see how I fall on the moral judgement side. Do they pull a Die Hard 3 and have people jump out of your way with insane reflexes thus making it impossible to run anyone over accidentally?

[Chris]

Great casting as always, but I couldn't agree less with the interpretations put forward of Driver San Francisco. I thought it was so much more ethical than most games, with it being actually impossible to kill anyone. The game goes out of the way to make it clear that everyone gets out of every crash just fine.

I may have missed an explanation of this or something, but how can that be the case? With so many horrific car crashes happening all the time, it's pretty hard for me to swallow that everyone is always fine after them. Also, using that logic, couldn't you just put a disclaimer on any game ever and say "Despite the actions this game's protagonist takes, everybody is fine."?

Oh except Tanner himself, the only guy in the game injured in a car crash. Plus the story doesn't take itself at all seriously and the tone is light and fun all the way though, like a daytime cop show. And Reflections suck at anything that isn't awesome open world driving so they just did awesome open world driving. Trying to tone down the violence, trying a fresh aesthetic and working to a dev team's strengths, plus really innovative multiplayer? Shouldn't we be celebrating all that?!

I didn't play the multiplayer so I can't comment on that. The aesthetic and tone weren't really impressive to me (except the soundtrack, which was totally rad)--I agree with Sean that it kind of felt devoid of aesthetic.

The parts of the game that were simply driving around in the open world were fun; those are the parts I liked. But to me Burnout Paradise did that stuff better, and felt much more coherent to me as a whole. I did also have some fun with the jumping around mechanic, but it didn't seem like a feature that was making or breaking the game.

[Twig]

I love Burnout Paradise and I wish they would make another like it.

my explanation that I'm really not fond of having to lose for hours before I start having fun won't really wash.

Well, that assumes that anyone ever really has fun. It is intense and insane and exhilarating and grotesquely engrossing and, you know, all that kinda stuff... Though I almost always enjoy my time with the game to some degree (even when losing), I very rarely actually have fun, hah. But, as always, YMMV.

[pabosher]

Now that I've had a chance to listen to the episode:

Thanks guys for answering my question. It was super rad - I rarely write in to my favourite media outlets, even fewer times get mentioned - and so to hear you discussing what it is about video games that makes you tick was super awesome.

To Chris: I'd just like to clarify something I said in the e-mail, regarding my interest in developers even during times of disinterest in the video game medium.

As I mentioned in the episode of Buried in the Credits with Steve, I'm a student studying Anthropology. I love people. I think they're weird, wonderful and amazing, and the art that people produce is an extension of that. When it comes to my personal preference and what I find interesting, I just want to talk to people and find out more about them. It's why I created Buried in the Credits which, in my opinion, is actually pretty different from the vast majority of video game journalistic outlets. Talking to Marek Ziemak from CD Projekt RED about why he thinks Eastern European games are so bleak and depressing compared to typically 'western' games is so much more rewarding to me than pretty much anything specific about The Witcher 2. I think that a lot of video game enthusiasts - at least, those I listen to and find interesting - will talk about a game's themes or mechanics and ask 'Why?' that mechanic works well or doesn't. 'Why does The Walking Dead forsake traditional adventure game solving, and instead focus on the story and player-choice mechanics?' That is an interesting question, don't get me wrong, but to me it's more interesting to ask 'Why did Sean, Jake, whoever it was, decide to make Lee a black character? Why choose a little girl to be the one he's looking after? What is it about them and their past experiences that led to this decision?'

I think there's a good example of that in the Steve Gaynor episode of BITC, wherein we're discussing why the themes of Minerva's Den are as they are, and he talks about his real life; his then-new wife, etc. Even if I hadn't played MD (which I have, and loved) then I still would've found that interesting.

PS: Thanks Sean for the plug; I will be in LA in early September and may be hopping by SF if you want to sort something out?

[dibs]

I am excited for more of Sean's Irish stories.

Well, the twist is that Sean was born in Cork. Cork is actually a separate political entity only related to the Republic via its history. The rest of us don't mind the secession as they are all langers down there anyhow.

[empika]

Loved the talk about kids being just poking at games and being enthralled even though they have no idea what the hell may be going on.
It reminded me of one of my first gaming experiences when I was about 7 or 8, Midwinter on the PC. To this day I have had no idea what that game was about or what you were supposed to actually do. I have just read the wikipedia article and had my mind blown, I'd never have guessed that was what the game was about. I'd like to see a remake as it sounds awesome!

http://en.wikipedia....ter_(video_game)

Also, I can still remember most of the keys from X-Wing + Tie Fighter :|

[Kos Luftar]

Nice episode. So happy you guys are back again. Can't wait till my shirt gets to me so I can represent lol.

Anybody on the cast or on the forum, participated in the Guild Wars 2 betas?