Niyeaux

"Canada always makes the arms" had me laughing pretty hard. It's true!

I played through Mirror's Edge for the sixth or seventh time this weekend. It's still the most beautiful game I've ever played, despite being almost six years old now. It's also still one of my favourite games to play through in general, and is probably my favourite game period of the last several years (with the possible exception of Dark Souls). My current rig can run it at max settings with all the cool PhysX stuff on, so I took some fancy screenshots.

-IGN.com

Game got funded, woo! I backed for ten bucks, so I'll be Getting all of y'all's Jets when this thing comes out.

(emphasis mine) The part I've bolded is really the crux of the issue for me, and I think it's awfully fucking uncharitable to your fellow human beings to think that all it would take for them to want to slaughter millions of people is to be enticed by a sharp-looking outfit. If you can't appreciate some of the aesthetics of the Nazi regime without by extension sympathizing with their ideology, that's something that's probably more of a personal problem, rather than something a Video game developer can be held responsible for.

I can't get down with that last sentence. I think all it says about the creators is that they're willing to divorce the aesthetics of the Nazi party from their actions, and I don't really have a problem with that. Like I said, the Nazis aren't evil because of their uniforms, and there's nothing inherently evil about that particular style of design. Sure, a lot of people are going to immediately associate that look with the Nazis and their actions, but I think maybe it's unfair to hold a creator accountable for the things your brain is free-associating with their imagery.

I watched 9 episodes. When there were four consecutive episodes of Eren trying to pick up a fucking boulder, I packed it in. I haven't seen a show that had so little respect for the audience's time since I watched Dragonball Z in high school. Also, what is it about serialized anime that leads to everything being barely-animated? I guess it probably has something to do with the release schedule/time constraints, but holy fuck, outside of the combat scenes where they're zip-lining around all over the place, the rest of the show is practically a slideshow. Like, fully half that show is close-ups of people's faces while they talk to themselves and their eyes do that weird wiggle that apparently indicates emotion in anime, while everything else is a still frame for several seconds at a time.

LTTP as usual, but MAN does it ever seem weird to me to not be able to divorce really broad aesthetics of ship construction and uniform styling from the ideologies and atrocities of a very specific political party that used them. I don't get how borrowing aesthetics that were at one point used by someone who committed atrocities can in any way be said to be trivializing or condoning those atrocities. Their aesthetic choices are not why the Nazis were evil, so to say that those aesthetics are inherently taboo because someone bad used them once - or even invented them, which it could be argued they did - seems super odd to me.

So uh...I just watched the first few episodes of Attack on Titan, because some people recommended it to me. It's one of the worst things I've ever seen. Like, it's bad in pretty much every way an animated series can be bad. What the hell do people see in this?

This is sort of a tangent, but I'm immediately skeptical when anyone tells me that something current is an absolute must-watch or the greatest thing ever or whatever. Like, there's a huge difference for me between being told Mad Men is the greatest thing ever and being told The Wire is the greatest thing ever. I'm way more inclined to believe someone saying the former is a person who's either bought into a current cultural phenomenon fairly uncritically, or is someone who is deliberately attempting to appear relevant by gushing about something the people around them are talking about a lot. (Yes, I realize how cynical that sounds.) I don't even trust my own opinion of things that have recently been released and are being talking about a lot. Partly because I think my initial reaction is coloured by the hype I hear around the launch of that thing, and partly because I think it just takes a long time to fully digest your experience with a creative work. Like, I didn't even like Dark Souls that much the first time I played through it, whereas I now think it's unarguably one of the most important games of the last several years.

Is it just me, or is something weird going on in this thread? There's a bunch of people showing up with brand new (or close to it) accounts and pretty obviously causing a deliberate fuss.

We should set a time that we can all convene in the Thumbs steam group chat room, and form up into some squads.

Maybe you should, y'know...not ignore that. Maybe people with different perspectives than you have things to say that you should listen to.

At what point was Idle Thumbs ever not willing to discuss social issues in games? If you're getting upset about the inclusion of that discussion in this podcast, you were prooooobably never a part of this community in the first place, and you will not be missed when you storm out in a huff.

Doge 2048 mentioned on two episodes in a row, eh? I can get down with this. Also, yay Danielle!

The part about hating on Google Glass wearers had me in stitches, because the way Chris describes it is exactly how I feel about it.

I've played a solid 200 hours of this game now. I'm Gold Nova 1. If anyone wants to play, I would be super down to play with some other Thumbs. Do you guys have regular competitive teams/partial teams happening yet?

I just got an email this morning from D3 Publisher, saying that the North American localization of Earth Defense Force 2025 is going to be playable at PAX Prime this weekend. YESSSSSS. For those who don't know, this game is the direct sequel to Earth Defense Force 2017, which is in my opinion one of the most enjoyable games of the current console generation. The Japanese version of 2025 was released in July, but the North American version is taking its sweet time. Current prediction is for a February 2014 release. Nonetheless, I am stoked to play it at PAX, and stoked to buy it when it finally reaches our shores. This is the proper sequel to EDF2017, developed by the original Japanese developer Sandlot, who didn't actually do that crappy offshoot title EDF Insect Armageddon. Here. Watch these trailers and revel in their excellence:

I too have been playing and enjoying this. If anyone wants to party up on Xbone, my gamertag is the same as my username on here. Let's robotfight!

Yeah, it's a real bummer that EA is publishing this. Particularly because I'd like to play it on PC, but there's an ice cube's chance in hell that I'm installing Origin, so I'm going to end up playing it on Xbone instead.

^I like how everyone who has ever heard that podcast can tell you're talking about Arthur without you even saying it.

Just freelancing for them, so I can pitch stuff whenever I like, and they tell me whether or not they want it/have time and money for it. I'm working on a second feature of similar length for them right now, but that's all I've got on my plate for now.

Thanks pal. That article was more work and more time than anything else I've ever written, so I'm glad it doesn't suck.

[sHIPPING INTENSIFIES]

Shit guys, I'm on the front page of motherfucking Polygon today. http://www.polygon.com/features/2014/2/6/5361004/fighting-game-diversity