Jake

Chris didn't tell anyone about the controller until after the ep was recorded. He spent that conversation being all NDAd up and exclusively discussed gman.

Say nothing!

Idle Thumbs 124: Blockbuster Black Case Nick falls into a created world - a world both more real and more horrible than our own - from which he may not return. He is lost to us now, reachable only from within the rift, in his virtual dream state. Chris is lost as well, but it's in the intricate workings of an iPad app about Beethoven. Games Discussed: Oculus Rift, Polo, Soccer, Burn:Cycle, Godus, Where is my Heart?, Superhot, Beethoven's 9th Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Lords. Idle Thumbs 71: Nothing's as Good as Ya Eat 'Em In which Chris and Sean take a ride a through a verdant countryside with the Daisy Lord and Jake attempts an analogy he ultimately regrets. Games Discussed: Diablo II, Diablo III, DayZ, Team Fortress 2: Mann vs. Machine, Gears of War 2, Borderlands 2 Direct episode download. iTunes page. Feed RSS. Handy blog link!

Huh? What does "streaming multiple games at once" have to do with the announcement? I think you're expecting more from this than what it is. The idea is that you have your steam client running on a PC in another room, and you basically take over that PC and video mirror its contents to your steambox. Like airplay mirroring on iOS. It's not streaming any game content, just transcoding rendered frames. There's presumably no "server" component other than a video transcoder.

Haha oh man THAT would be amazing.

Hmm.

Idle Thumbs 122: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9: Colon! You peek around the corner and squint into the darkness. Nothing. You peek again, your hand gently resting on the door frame. Still nothing. Or... You flick open your camcorder view screen - the night vision already enabled - and see two tiny dots staring back from the end of the hall. They know you're here. They know. Deep breaths now. Deep breaths, then run. Count to three. Idle Thumbs One Two Three. Games Discussed: Outlast, Spelunky, PlayStation Vita TV, Dota 2, Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 3 Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Idle Thumbs 122: Mario's Picnic Things all started so well. We're joined by Mark of the Ninja's Nels Anderson and the Internet's Olly Moss for a lovely vacation that is sure to be ruined. Games Discussed: Mark of the Ninja, The Last of Us, Netrunner, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, Ticket to Ride, Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3, Grand Theft Auto V Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Idle Thumbs 121: (I Know You're Having Fun But) I'm Still Working Everyone plays Super Pole Riders and has a blast, Sean pushes Papo & Yo, Jake grapples with the reality of Plants vs Zombies 2, and Lord Remo deigns to tell you which Star Wars movies are good and which are bad. Pay $3.99 or listen to two additional episodes to unlock Nick Breckon. Games Discussed: Super Pole Riders, Rockstar Table Tennis, Papo & Yo, Plants vs. Zombies 2, Scurvy Scalawags, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Far Cry 2 Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Spoiler: we were all down the street that night at Dear Mom for Chris' birthday.

Yeah the production design in BTTF and Ghostbusters both are pretty fantastic. The weird "token-vehicle-centric '80s adventure comedy" subgenre. I remember wishing that Ecto 1 and the DeLorean were unlockable vehicles for Test Drive on my Apple IIgs. They would be if that stuff was coming out today. (Of course, BTTF probably couldn't come out today, because Marty isn't saving the world or the president or defeating an alien conspiracy or anything, he's just solving a personal problem.)

Can robots love?

GBA player! True! It seems different that this one is literally Vita hardware but with components cut, and cost cut. It's usually the reverse, as you said (stuffing a system into a pocket version and charging a lot for it) or a weird add-on (GBA player). The Vita TV is the perfect "why don't they just..." made real. It's weird.

Nice ghost costume. Idle Thumbs 67: Dot Gobbler Idle Thumbs spends a day at the video arcade, or more specifically at the California Extreme arcade expo, for an opportunity to relive some nonexistent kid's slowly fading memories of destroying castles, marbles with human faces, and the worst Halloween of his life. Games Discussed: Rampart, Castles, Marble Madness II: Marble Man, Dot Gobbler, SparkZ, Grid, NFL Blitz, Fez, The Walking Dead Direct episode download. iTunes page. Keep the RSS fed!

Did I say August at the opening of the episode? This seems pretty easy to overthink. For me a game is over when the last piece of game content goes away. I think that's especially the case in a game like The Last Of Us, where the cinematic stuff is at least intended to be making commentary on the interactive stuff.

Sorry I tweeted.

The fucking Western Union guy in the rain is so crazy good. What a good, specific thing to have in that movie.

The back half and cliffhanger of BTTF 2 is my favorite stuff in the trilogy (other than the entire first movie).

Serious brigade

Idle Thumbs 104: Emblematic of the Dissonance This week on the Thumb, all is laid bare in the weeks-long game of Neptune's Pride, Sean and Jake break out of jail, rob an embassy, and learn something about themselves, and a person is killed inside a video game and it is surprising and meaningful. Games Discussed: Grand Theft Auto V, Sleeping Dogs, Monaco, Neptune's Pride 2: Triton Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

They tried to do it with the hobbit but couldn't pull it off quickly enough so they went back to annually, which is still bonkers.

The Marvel movie universe feeling like a very expensive, slow motion TV series supports that. It doesn't impact all films obviously, but it impacts a measurable quadrant of them, and changes what kinds of films get made and get theatrical space booked.

You are doing the same thing -- having two separate conversations and not realizing it. I am not saying that the iPhone in app purchase model specifically applies to TV and music. I am saying that modern technology is shaking up all mediums with the introduction of new ways to acquire, parcel out, and by extension create, new works in those mediums. It's different per medium. Software of all kinds IS being impacted by in app purchases, music is being altered by digital music stores and single-song/mix/playlist based music players, and television is being changed by streaming and dvr.

There is far less popular music intended to be consumed in album form (in favor of ala carte singles purchased digitally) than there used to be, and there is far less scripted television written as self-sufficient one off episodic stories (in favor of DVR/stream/purchased season passes which are binge watched or subscribed to in bulk). DVRs and later Netflix are probably a major contributor to the current "golden age of television" for this reason, and it's getting even weirder as we start seeing things like streaming-first TV by Netflix and Amazon, where episode length isn't even an issue.* The decisions aren't as intensely modifying as they are in video games, but they're present. Anyway I think Chris and I were talking about separate things on the cast, but it was somehow framed in a conversation as if we were arguing related points. I was never denying that PvZ 2 is a different kind of game than PvZ 1. I was trying to be very clear that I was talking about consumer purchases of content on a digital device ("add more music" "add more apps" "add more app content") being a successful, and universal thing so it is potentially not as noticeable a change to people who see games as a commodity more than a creative medium. I wasn't denying that the change is one that is totally disruptive to the game itself, more aggressively even than other mediums which have been disrupted by post-digital business model shit -- I actually completely agree with that, I think it's irrefutable. * You're probably right that films are relatively untouched, because their distribution is still basically same as it ever was (theater --> living room).