Polish Hill

"I guess I'll chop em up and make em into legs." - Nick Breckon

Curious as to why there aren't more cricket games. Might be over simplifying it but are there also any solid rugby games? I suppose its possible without the American market profitability is that much more difficult but I could be entirely off point there. Having never played cricket or a cricket game I would think it could do something similar to most baseball games. One analog stick for swinging and the other for aiming. I would assume that would handle batting which should be the most difficult aspect. I'm sure more nuance would be ideal but I wonder if that would account for most swings or if it wouldn't satisfy the average player.

I was a huge fan of the first Horizon game but can't see myself buying an Xbox One and my 360 is failing. I'd be more than happy to play the 360 version but sadly I'll probably skip it for fear of losing progress or not being able to play at all. Glad to see that series return though, not particularly revolutionary but Horizon felt just a little like Burnout Paradise in the open world aspect. The racing was fun but I enjoyed just driving around mindlessly even more than the competitive aspects.

Roster to rooster is the best of typos

Ucantalas I agree and think its shortsighted that many professional leagues have been fine with just a single annual game now being made. As far as I'm aware there is only one MLB, NHL, and NFL licensed game. I think profitability is made quite difficult due to how expensive that licensing is. Just ten years ago I believe all three of those leagues had multiple games (All 2K made I think). There was a completely broken Ashes cricket game this past year that Giant Bomb did a quick look of. But as complete novices I think they were just checking it out since an official apology was made and the game removed from Steam. I can't point to any studies but anecdotal evidence has shown me that people who don't enjoy soccer will happily play Fifa games since they are relatively easy pick up and play. They may get frustrated after an offside call ruins a scoring chance but during the next World Cup they'll see that happen, remember what it is and maybe get that much closer to becoming fans or respecting the game more than they otherwise would have.

Ha, I really want to broach the subject of cricket with some of my coworkers in India since I've seen a handful of Indian Premier League games but the potential for it to come off as racist is too awful to bear.

It seems very much like baseball although I wouldn't use dumbed down or boring to describe it. Maybe just different. Baseball is very constrained, hit the ball in this triangular area and advance your runners. If you are a particularly skilled hitter you might be able to drag on an out, fouling many times regardless of the final outcome. Cricket with what is essentially rotating pitchers and 360 degrees of field where the ball can be in play lends to much more creativity. I also really like the idea that a batsmen has to pick and choose where he attacks the ball. I've only seen the shortened version T20 but guarding your wicket with less aggressive strokes versus swinging for the fences presents a very interesting mental aspect. Not to mention every once in a while a guy will just let the ball glance his bat, it goes away from the catcher and lazily rolls to the outer boundary, taking everyone by surprise and netting a nice 4 points.

Danielle never seems like a guest, just a Thumb who makes occasional appearances. It is wonderful and I was excited to have her on another episode. Also, that Jake pig noise. Gotta have it.

Can't say I'm a huge hockey or baseball fan but I do support the Pirates and Pens when they play. Cutting the cord last hear has mostly snuffed out my sports watching but I still follow most leagues in podcasts and online daily. American football remains my favorite but I have a number of soccer teams (Spurs, Chi Fire, local USL Pro team) and am finally getting around to learning the rules of cricket because sure why not. Anyways, go Steelers and Penn State I suppose.

Anyone here have thoughts on Vinny leaving the Giant Bombcast? Patrick moving back to Chicago wound up working out relatively well and created some nice new content but its certainly a little scary for them to have to welcome in two new hires to the podcast. For the most part everyone seems to be excited for Vinny but fearful for the future. I look forward to what he'll do in NYC and can't wait to hear who they wind up hiring.

I look forward to Nintendo trying to pass off their near field game as original. Sony will probably come up with a snark filled video or off the cuff barb that gets at Microsoft requiring the Kinect as the huge blunder it is. Microsoft airs their 30 second Halo 5 video with no real gameplay footage. (Although why announce it if there was going to be any kind of suprise?) Even though I don't see anything Oculus related happening I would really enjoy a live demo during a keynote that ends in the demonstrator ripping off the machine and violently vomiting onto the stage.

Want to chime in with support for robotslave. I've only ever played the tutorial of Dota 2 and though I haven't watched many pro matches I'm happy to consume every Dota Today because I like the guys and enjoy listening to people talk about something they are passionate about. I've heard this echoed before in other podcasts (for example if you aren't watching a show but listening to its analysis on a podcast you must be crazy) but for the most part the personalities are enough to deal with much of the confusion. The only bit I would add is that many American pro sports commentators explain basics of the game or keep explanation of strategy at a fairly basic level. While this certainly is frustrating if you are a much more experienced watcher and the audience is more broad than I expect the one watching Dota 2 matches, novices or folks who just want to watch without playing certainly exist. And I want to reiterate this was a great episode since most of this probably reads negative and I don't intend that to be the takeaway.

I enjoy the fact that the Xbox Arcade edition came with a 256 MB memory card and relatively quickly not many Xbox Arcade titles could fit on that.

All of the preorder and bonus content is extremely frustrating to me. It seems like that added content rarely adds a whole lot (Assasin's Creed 3 had a short Mayan temple where you got a sword at mission end) but there are certainly cases where it felt like actual game content was pulled out as a special edition feature. The glaring offender to me was the squad member Javik in Mass Effect 3. It was frustrating to hear how much he added in party dialogue as reviewers remarked that it seemed a strange omission. I fully understand major game companies desire to exploit fans who have fully bought into a universe's lore and want to provide additional content to satisfy those desires but I wonder how often it pushes folks away from the franchise, rather than ensnare them further. I know it certainly hasn't improved my opinion of any AAA game.

Just a few American sports names. Chad Johnson becoming Chad Ochocinco Ron Artest becoming Metta World Peace The short lived XFL (Vince McMahon of the WWE's attempt at beginning an American football league) allowed players to put whatever they chose as a name on the back of their jersey. Rod Smart's "He Hate Me" was the league's best selling jersey. And per Wikipedia apparently this was a thing that is hilarious:

Some might say this episode was "super good." -e- I somehow missed this is the episode title which makes me super bad.

Somehow this Thumbs related talking point feels off topic now but the telepresence robot has arrived and vines are being released. I cannot wait for this week's episode.

Another complaint I've heard from friends with "smart" TV's is the UI is poor or out of date and updates are non-existent or difficult to obtain. As a Chromecast and Roku owner my main concern with the Fire TV is how does all this fragmentation shake out in the next few years? For now everyone is playing nice and I can watch Amazon video or YouTube on my Roku but I fear the day where one of these services is no longer supported or completely removed. Maybe that isn't a reasonable business decisions but it still is early.

This was great, wish it could have gone for another hour to expand on the Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and current stuff.

Just started the surprisingly longcast (nice way to start a Thursday) and am excited to have another Danielle episode. She was great last time and I expect more of the same in 152.

Regarding what Rodi mentioned about the random chance it also seems a little odd when Dendi chooses a character he's never played and goes ahead and essentially wins that match because of it. The narrative they are trying to get across is that it is an extremely bold choice and his ability as a player allows him to overpower the other team. But it seemed extremely strange and felt more like desperation. It also gave that "random" vibe a little more credibility even though it likely isn't the case. As for Betrayer, what's the deal with the goofy armor sound effects? The Giant Bomb quick look is just strange hearing these cartoon sounds that seem to be the exact opposite of what the game is trying to portray. Here's your brooding stealth game with a side of anvil clang, odd.

I'll preface this by saying I've played almost no DOTA 2 but do listen to DOTA Today. Also, I'm probably a terrible critic. Free To Play was enjoyable and while I think it did a good job of exploring the various reactions family members could have to the idea of a professional gaming career it seemed to ignore many other topics. I agree with Sean that it did a great job of showing how big the prize pool of the International was compared to other competitions. And while I can't recall the someday it will be bigger than the NFL comparisons my guess is its probably just framing a statistic like we often get with more niche sports (MLS attendance is larger than the NBA and NHL). It certainly didn't read like an advertisement because while the Source cinematic stuff was interesting and the money is cool some of those guys come off as broken. The player with the girlfriend storyline was just depressing not to mention the fact that the film talks about Fear as being the old guard and also has a quote from someone saying a career at 27/28 is pretty much not viable. And his team finished 7th. It may not translate into the narrative the documentary was trying to build but I wish they would have examined the training or how a casual player becomes a professional. We got a glimpse of how Dendi's piano playing might have helped his work on the keyboard but that was short. Even if these players are doing full 12 hour days just in the game it feels like there has to be something more, how do they strategize or what sets the teams apart? The Chinese team had some aura but they never delve into how or why that's different and the concept of teams of a single nationality versus mixed are only briefly mentioned. Overall it was interesting and as someone with a vague understanding of the game I enjoyed it but it seemed like it could have been more. Give me a summary of the players earning potential or talk about sponsors. Maybe even look at the controversy possible when dealing with young adults that don't have much or any PR training? But yea, Free to Play.

Its interesting how prevalent the "lost pod" seems to be. I know its happened to Giant Bomb, Marc Maron, and countless others. I'll chalk it up to the complexity of the process but its always a bummer and even more so if it means the cast won't be the same for new 150. Ah well, hopefully 150 Part 2 is as great as Part 1.

As another 26 year old who had little experience with the Simpsons I agree that its significance may be a bit overstated. Obviously I wouldn't know many of the references but I also missed the majority of Seinfeld and felt that was brought up far more often. Curious as to what Will Smith was talking with the guys about though. He talked about building his own cabinet on a previous Thumbs episode unless that actually happened on a Bombcast or something so I was hoping one of the guys would remember and they could add that bit. Really looking forward to 150 and the Campo Santo announcement today though, exciting time all around.

I deleted, redownloaded, and relistened to the whole thing again. It seems like the file may have been replaced with that portion now censored. Or I am insane. One of these is true. Either way, very interesting.