Henroid

I'm not using actual forumer names here, but we had a bit of a hiccup in name uses and I had to assign a new name out. Hopefully the instructions get to where they need to go before the game starts.

I'd be more than happy to random-name moderate for anymore groups of people that want to do so. Just organize your cast and give me a ding on here. Edit - Let me add by the way that I haven't really gotten to know anyone here yet so name assignments were totally random, it was impossible for me to apply any sort of bias one way or the other. Some of the names were, uh, interesting.

All names have been shuffled and handed out! Please create / change your name for the game and you all have a blast.

Two more folks have to check in and then I'll assign your names!

I've agreed to this plan. Submit your names to me, and I will hand out your assignments.

This was very weird. Via Joystiq. So my friends and I immediately ask, "What the hell is Nordic Games Licensing AB"? Google and Wikipedia do not offer straight answers but someone pulled up that it's JoWood Entertainment. And I guess Nordic Games does have a site: http://www.nordicgames.at/ So uh... I guess those things aren't going to last long.

You know what Homeworld needs? GUNS AND BADASS MARINES.

Yeah, that actually doesn't display while the game is on its 'pause' mode (when players are joining). I checked back on it a couple hours ago and the game had started, and suddenly I was able to see my money in a more convenient way. That was a little silly I felt.

I think all listeners of Idle Thumbs (well, the ones who join the community here) are playing NP2 by this point. I just joined a random game so I could get my bearings. I'm terrified because I'm seeing the decisions the other players made regarding their starting infrastructure and realized I made dumb decisions immediately.

I dove into a game at random just to try this out and see what's changed. I like that speed as a research has been done away with and replaced with the hypergate thing. But I can't seem to find any indication anywhere in the UI about how much funds I have. Edit - Nevermind, the "Galaxy" tab shows funds. Kinda more subtle than I'd like.

That is totally awesome and I would appreciate it. Twitch doesn't work well for me at all.

Gosh, so this is the first Zelda game reveal that has me cautiously optimistic. I'm not sure how that mechanic of moving along walls will work out. My biggest criticism (face value at reveal usually is silly but this is about how it looks, so face value criticism counts!) is about the graphics presentation. It looks really weird to me. The lack of line art to define things rather than leaving them borderless like in Wind Waker is not working for me here. And I don't bring up Wind Waker to be a butt about it - that game looked great. But it's because the perspective was different, the game had a certain flow, and the color palette was incredibly vibrant. But in this, it just looks... I dunno, it alienates me.

What, no Jake? Or was he not allowed because they thought he was going to get the measles?

Not really, it kinda feels like too little too late. Like I said, Starbound is around the corner (or later this year, whatever) and is starting out with way more content. Plus, the Terraria content update was at first an XBLA exclusive, they didn't want to put it out on PC. Not until people complained about it in droves.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Steve Gaynor's The Idle Thumbs Podcast?

It sounded like we were on the cusp of surviving the Mind Kill.

I would say it's more about the context of the game and environments we're put into rather than what's occupying the environments. In Fallout 3 I search every nook and cranny because that's an environment where I want to scavenge to survive. Conversely in Half-Life 2, while there are things to observe, you're on the go constantly and that level of attention to detail isn't really necessary (supplies are usually placed in a manner that makes them appear to be on display, or the hidden caches have the Half-Life logo spray painted by them).

In their defense, it is mildly amusing to imagine alien life saying that stuff in tropey alien tones.

Oh god and by the way, the idea of Neptune's Pride 2 being playable from smartphones frightens me. I don't have a smartphone and already feel like I'm at an inherent disadvantage. This is horrible!

Coming up on the reader mail segment (wow it starts right on 60 minutes in, on the nose) but I wanted to get to a couple things before I forget. First, Nick was mistaken about Don't Starve and its beta access. The game is still in beta, but it is launching on... the 23rd I think? The Chrome access was just Chrome access in parallel to Steam access. The versions are all the same (one of the most recent updates to the game actually made it Apple and Linux compatible), it's not any sort of porting thing or whatever. I've been playing the beta for the last few months and it's been growing in depth substantially, with the sort of "campaign" or "story" mode being the last thing they really added to the game and worked to finish (everything else was about getting all the systems in place). I recommend the game highly and hope people like it. The most intriguing thing is that the Klei folks had a goal of circumventing any of the sort of low-investment, guaranteed survival tactics people were developing as the beta pressed on, and I'm pretty sure Klei have succeeded. Second point, just a brief note about Prison Architect; a couple weeks ago I got into a strange, brief argument over Twitter with someone who seemed to think the game was irresponsible and gross. Not for anything regarding its details in how it works, it was all just from the face-value of a game being about operating a prison. Which wasn't fair, obviously, but it also is too bad because it's not like games about this subject matter get made frequently. Okay, so, crowd sourcing. This is something people have been talking about regarding this game that's in development, Starbound. It's a spiritual successor to Terraria (which is a side-scrolling sort of Minecraft game) and actually employs the artist of Terraria. The devs recently launched a pre-order / beta-access drive for the game and it seems to be working out well, though I've found myself (and others) discussing with people how I'm hesitant to invest early. And it's probably for a silly reason, but essentially I invested early into Terraria and ended up feeling burned by it (though, not in any deep way). I read their sort of plans and goals for the game and figured I'd get behind it. It certainly was fun from that day one experience and even beyond the official release date it saw a few updates here and there, culminating in one major update. And then it all stopped, and the team disbanded. All the roadmapped ideas they had for the game left unfulfilled. This is where I start to lean back and forth on both sides of the fence, because on the one hand I wasn't shortchanged for what dollars I put in - especially after that one major content update. I had a lot of fun, no denying of that. But at the same time all the now pie-in-the-sky plans didn't get fulfilled, which was sorta what I was feeling like I was investing in in the first place. Like I got a good game, but not the one I was sold on receiving over the long term. I probably sound like a total butt about it, but that just made me a little wary about investing in things early. It comes down to paying for promised features vs. paying for what the game is when it launches. It's a strange thing to say and all considering that Starbound in its alpha demonstratable form has way, WAY more to it than Terraria. It's just that I've now applied an idea of only paying for things in advanced when it's from people I know can deliver. Not to suggest the artist was the reason why Terraria didn't deliver for me, it's that I haven't played any games the Starbound team has made (or is making, I actually don't know if they've launched anything yet). The artist is just a coincidental factor.

I came back to listen to this episode since I'm horrible and sorta missed it when it was fresh, but I really appreciated the implication that in LoZ: Wind Waker the second quest was Link just living an imagination of being the Hero.

Hot damn, that was not the overall reaction I was expecting to Bioshock Infinite. I listened back to last week's episode to hear the contrast (which is something I enjoy in general, perceptions changing). It sounds like the game has excellent individual pieces to it, but the summation of those pieces results in too much of... everything, I guess. I can't comment on specifics because I haven't played the game (but I didn't mind hearing the spoilers, whatever, the context is generally lost on me). Anyway, Sean mentioned briefly that he's been playing freemium games (or whatever term he used) and wanted to know what extent he's been exploring that design of game. It's something I've found myself engaging a lot over the last few years as a result of my personal circumstances when it comes to making a living, and I value it for two reasons. First, I have content I can digest without paying and I don't feel wrong for not paying (unless something really, really stands out like Cart Life) (oh! On that note I should say it's not just freemium games but games that are free to obtain anyhow, like Spelunky on the PC or whatever else). Second, I feel like I have a lot of perspective on this design of game and the market places surrounding them that a lot of people don't have, and usually they don't have it by choice. So it's interesting arguing against their assumptions with my experiences. What I really like about this approach to games is that it's actually super consumer friendly. You have access to the whole game, and if you want more of it or more options you can put in a varying amount of money. There's zero risk or loss in trying them out, vs. having to buy a game or play a limited demo. Really surprises me when people get hostile toward these kinds of game. Though to an extent I can't blame them when Electronic Arts starts to make a mutated form of that design. Side note: When Chris said "Creepy sounds!" I imagined it in text form as "Creepy sounds™!" I really enjoy Chris' ability to dump on things like that.

So while it's going to be nonsensical to link a YouTube video with zero english in it aside from class names, here: For people who don't know, EO is a dungeon-crawling RPG series on the Nintendo DS that goes back to the oldschool RPG design of being brutal as fuck, and that's on top of the level-grinding nature of RPGs from that time. It may actually be appropriate to quote Idle Thumbs here: "It'll rape you through a hole." So part 4 was announced as being a 3DS title when the 3DS itself was announced, but now there's actual things about the game! First off, it looks like the class choices are really condensed compared to even the first game, and the designs / types of characters portrayed are brought back a few steps from the sort of zany, "not take itself seriously" stuff from the previous games. Second biggest change is that the enemies are animated in this one. Third change: FOE clouds are gone, with actual enemies on your dungeon-crawling screen. Last thing I noticed from that video above is that apparently in battles there is a front row / back row system that applies to the enemies you're up against. If you don't mind grindy RPGs, I really do recommend this series. But I have to say, start with the first game. Because if you play the games out of order at the moment (especially if you start with part 3), the previous games will seem like broken messes due to all the fixing that has gone on throughout. Not broken in the way of being unplayable, I just mean streamlining things. Edit - By the way the games have, what I find to be, incredible soundtracks. Like from EO3. And (which is a beaut!).

So who makes it; Telltale, or Double Fine?

Thanks for taking my non-question guys. Also I am not French, just half-Mexican / half-Portuguese.