Jake

Idle Thumbs 235: Plaited Haircut of the Whale Our attention is split three ways this week, all thanks to Anno 2205. Jake sits in his island city patiently awaiting the new Super Mario Maker update. Nick spends his time on the moon, never sleeping, launching missiles until there's nothing left to nuke. Spaff sits alone in the arctic, huddled for warmth. Meanwhile, buried deep beneath the earth in a recently unearthed fortress of his own design, Chris sits down in a barber chair. "Give me an Erich Schaefer," he says. His barber knows exactly what he means. Games Discussed: Anno 2205, Rebel Galaxy, Downwell, Super Mario Maker, Fallout Shelter Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Thank you all my suspicions about Nick and Chris are confirmed.

Moved old games to new subforum. Let me know if you want any changes.

Would you guys like these threads stickied and the old winter jam threads moved to a sub forum? (Or any other moderation tasks like that?)

Idle Thumbs 234: Mister Neighbor Mister Neighbor has something great in store for you this week, once he's changed into some comfortable shoes. All he has to do is walk out of frame and suddenly you're somewhere new. You hope Mister Neighbor takes you to the factory to show you how the machines put together your favorite things, but it could be anywhere. Maybe you're on a spaceship, traveling from port to port trying to broadside a merchant ship. Maybe you're still falling down that infinite pit of blackness you find you return to in quiet moments. Maybe you're on hold forever with technical support. When you tell your mom about Mister Neighbor, she looks concerned, and tells you that's not his name. Games Discussed: Rebel Galaxy, Torchlight, The Sequence, Operator, Downwell, Nuclear Throne, Resident Evil Notable Js Discussed: J Allard, J. Rodkin, J. Breckon, J. Peterman, J.R.R. Tolkein, J.K. Rowling, J.G. Edwards, Joseph "J.G.L." Gordon-Levitt Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Maybe I come from a slightly different dimension where that's how it's spelled.

It probably is but they probably also cut the camera in there!

Classic Internet discussion in here.

Idle Thumbs 233: World of Blanks When walking through a place you've walked many times before, you see a small hole in the ground, decide to climb in, and now you're falling forever and ever and ever, unable to stop, unable to return to the life you had before you found the hole. This is the video game Downwell and this is Chris Remo's life after finding the video game Downwell. Elsewhere, Nick Breckon has gained control of an aircraft carrier. Games Discussed: Downwell, Star Wars Battlefront, Spelunky, Daddy Long Legs, World of Tanks, World of Warships, World of Warplanes Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Idle Thumbs 232: Happy #DishonoredHalloween Not so long ago, on a night not unlike this very night, the people braved the sewers of rats, donned their nice masks, and celebrated the first Dishonored Halloween. You should have been there. Now, three years later, Dishonored Halloween's gone corporate—a sold-out shell of itself that's not even about the same things. Games Discussed: Sublevel Zero, 80 Days, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Daddy Long Legs Holidays Discussed: Dishonored Halloween Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Because that's just the name of his game company. :\

OH MAN that album cover and that fucking music track. 90s PC Gaming Is Here.

Every Star Wars poster starting with the Special Editions has been pretty gross and aimless. The actual original 70s/80s ones were great, as was the Phantom Menace teaser image with Vader's silhouette (regardless of how shit the actual movie was). This one continues to be boring and bad like 99% of the 90s+ posters. I respect trying to make defenses for the Struzan stuff because he is great at what he does and they are painted posters instead of Photoshop and whatever else, but it's clear that even he didn't care about the Special Edition and Prequel one sheets the way he does about other clearly transcendent work he's done.

Idle Thumbs 231: Computer Processing Unit Using this custom-built glimmering console of knobs and sliders, we have calibrated the podcast to be perfectly suited to your taste. The sliders have also been tuned to provide you with incredibly fat bass, a catchy counter-melody, and a breathtaking view. The view initially featured twelve cavemen stabbing a mammoth to death with a bunch of spears, and some possible hints at greater lore, but we turned that off with one of the knobs. Games Discussed: Far Cry: Primal, Panoramical, World of Warships, C.P.U. Bach, Super Metroid, Super Mario 64 Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Idle Thumbs 229: Sneaking for Carl This week we deal in fear. Danielle (who is fearless) finds a new horror game love in SOMA, Nick's time with Metal Gear Solid V comes to the confusing and bleak end he feared was there all along, and Jake is feared lost, last seen entering a ghost house of his own creation. Chris fears a hedgehog made entirely of pinky fingers, and we think that's fair. Games Discussed: SOMA, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Super Mario Maker, Undertale Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Yeah its camera was bad but it was the first pass at the camera philosophy that eventually got good and became the standard.

I also think it's interesting as an exercise in "which elements of Bach can skilled programmers who appreciate his work even attempt to successfully replicate programatically, and which proved almost impossibly elusive?" I think for Sid Meyer (and most everyone else involved in CPU Bach's creation or appreciation), "This computer will replace Bach" was never in the equation.

Yeah it had nothing to do with whether we played it. We just didn't want to implicitly (or otherwise) endorse video games for money on the show. It felt gross to be paid to tell readers to download a game.

Fucking Rayman people.

It's pretty good and did a lot of things right. See I can be positive about Mario 64.

That was Nick not Spaff.

Man I just made the most Video Game Forum Guy post I have made in years. Woof look at that mess.

Boo. There is a cohesion to almost all other Mario games that is absent in Mario 64. While there are all sorts of weird ideas ("Big World" "Pipe World" etc) they are all riffs on a theme, and each game ends up feeling like it has some sort of center to it. With Mario 64, though, it seems like the centering thought was "we have no limits now in 3D so we can do ANYTHING!" and then made a bunch of low res garbage versions of any idea they came up with. I think "tech demos" is being too unkind because while the worlds do just feel like an arbitrary smattering of whatever the fuck and drift dangerously close to that, the place where there is cohesion is in Mario himself -- his move set and the way he controls is amazing and revolutionary in Mario 64. I just don't think the rest of the game he was put in was very good. 3D Mario was used much better in Sunshine, but ultimately he was used perfectly in Super Mario Galaxy. I think people give Mario 64 a pass because Mario himself and his movements and move set were so shocking at the time, but compared to Super Mario Bros, or even Mario 3 or Yoshi's Island or something, I don't think there is a comparison. It feels like they were so dazzled by the technology that they forgot to actually use it in service of something specific, and instead took this great movement set they built, and used it to give you a tour of "What 3D Games Can Be Like."

Idle Thumbs 230: A Farewell to Junior Mints An era ends as we say goodbye to Danielle "Junior Mints" Riendeau, who is off to New York for love and (somehow) lower rent. We are saying goodbye to Danielle in three ways: by talking about the new Cities Skylines expansion and its improved offerings in poop flow management, by playing hours of else Heart.Break() as a symbolic gesture based on the name alone, and by starting a new podcast you'll hear more about in the coming months. Games Discussed: Cities Skylines: After Dark, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, else Heart.Break(); Super Mario Maker, Undertale Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Yeah I love hearing them do weird/wacky voice stuff because I think of them as Nathan Drake/Booker DeWitt (aka "90s Disney Animated Feature Male Lead" performances but in a thing ostensibly for adults).** that isn't to say what they do is easy or anything. I hope That was apparent on the podcast. Casting those roles in a way that sits well in the exaggerated and total-cartoon-like world those games create, but delivered in a way that helps mean you don't really notice the wackiness of it, is a specific and weird skill.