Jake

I think your memory is playing tricks on you.

More like burn by non inline spoiler tag.

We'll avoid that particular dangerous looking science. Do you guys have any recommendations for things to check out while exploring? Is there a notable subway line yet?

Hey guys, we're talking about doing a tour of the Thumbs server on a Twitch livestream tomorrow morning. We want to show off some stuff you guys have done and also none of us have really spent any time on this epoch so it seems like a potentially cool thing to do. Obviously due to build permissions being required, people won't be able to vandalize the server or anything, but I was wondering if anyone would be up for being around tomorrow late morning/early afternoon Pacific time to help be an ambassador to any guests?

This happened! BioShock! We'll be better about creating threads for these before they happen in the future, but for now here is a thing to let you know about cool Internet content! Our good friend JP LeBreton was one of the designers on the original BioShock. You may know him most specifically for Arcadia, which was his level on the game. He came by the Thumbs office this morning to do a playthrough of the opening of BioShock (on which he also contributed) then we skipped ahead for a full commentary-laden look at Arcadia itself. As a bonus, we also played through JP's "Arcadia Demade," a front-to-back interpretation of Arcadia he made as a level for Doom II, using only stock Doom assets (with the exception of the undersea skybox). The video is split into a bunch of parts because we had a few issues with streaming, but you can check the whole (four hour!) playthrough on the Idle Thumbs Twitch.TV channel. Enjoy!

For me TF2's sweet spot was right after all of the classes had their first big update, but before the Steam Community/MannCo store came out. Each class basically had their default loadout, and one alternate set to tweak them slightly. It wasn't quite as clean as the initial locked-in release, but there were few enough variations that you could easily tell what everyone had, and it gave each class a little bit of offensive/defensive variant so you could have duped classes on the same team serving slightly different purposes. I'm sure everyone has different "sweet spots" for when TF2 was ideal for them, but that was the time for me. It feels way oversaturated with crazy unlocks at this point, but I still enjoy hopping onto a server occasionally and killing guys. I played a lot of QWTF and couldn't stand TFC at all. The movement and jumping and reload time and way the netcode worked were all baffling to me. It felt like a completely different, way clunkier game. That probably wasn't actually true, but I couldn't get into it. (This is actually true for all HL1 engine-based multiplayer. TFC, Counter-Strike, and HL1 DM all drove me crazy because the movement just felt crappy to me for some reason.) I played some Q3F when that came out, but the closest thing to capture the feeling and tone for me of my friends old QuakeWorld TF LAN parties is definitely TF2, even if its mechanically very different.

Pretty sure't it's actually spelled iD.

I think Homebarrelin' was discussed in the end of Kickstarter livestream. http://twitch.tv/idlethumbs somewhere.

WELCOME Idle Thumbs Progresscast THE THIRTEENTH ONE Two thousand years in the future, the world has collapsed into a nightmare of destruction and despair. Only Idle Thumbs remains. We won't take so long next time. In the meantime, wander through the wasteland with us as we discuss video games, the web, and progress. Video games discussed within include: Dota 2, SSX, NBA Street, Super Black Bass, Sid Meier's Civilization II, Terrence Malick's Civilization II Read the full Kickstarter update. Direct episode download. Keep the RSS fed! .

No wind!Spike balls!

I loaned SSB:Brawl out to various people years ago and my GameCube memory card got lost somewhere along the way. I can never go back! If I ever play SSX Tricky again, it will be with all stock characters. If I play Brawl again, nobody will be unlocked (Luigi! ), etc. A lot of my favorite non-Nintendo console games are also from this era (and I played most of them on GameCube). Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil were both of that generation, for instance. There was some good stuff there in the mid '00s.

Pikmin 3 for WiiU is the thing which doesn't have online, and that is the thing people are disappointed by.

The original Surface, the table, now lives under the oddly-named "PixelSense" so D&D and photo folks can still have their crazy table. BigJKO that image is entertaining, but deliberately (and in a pretty trollish manner) avoids the differences of the multi-touch display, and the modular nature of the Surface's design. I don't really want a Windows-based tablet, and I have no way of telling practically who out there will want the Surface, but some of the stuff MS is trying is, I think, pretty cool.

Yeah, it's about 40 minutes into Games Kasavin, the last GDC '11 conf grenade.

The chat's not recorded by Twitch, which is a bummer. There were about 100 people watching, and the chat is about what you'd expect which is a mess of memes and some actual Q&A about the stuff we talked about. If we do these more regularly in the future, one thing we had talked about was doing a realtime reader mail at the break or the end or somewhere in there, so there would be unique content from them (which would be archived on the Twitch site). Right now it's just an experiment though.

If they do a desktop rev later this year (iMacs, minis) and we don't see the Pros get a bump along with that, it seems like it will be their end of life for sure. I haven't owned a desktop Mac since the G5 was cool, mostly because they're too expensive to justify, but I will miss having them out there as a cool thing I can't afford or justify but still think I should own.Edit! MacRumors has some quotes about the Mac Pro. Sounds like at least something will be happening next year, whether it's a bump of that line or a change in the lineup, who knows.

So public! Idle Thumbs Progresscast The Twelfth One The Progresscast goes one-time, rule-breakingly meta, as we discuss recent events in our own day jobs. With special guest Steve "Hot Scoops" Gaynor. With Steve announcing a new game (and starting a new company!), Sean and Jake shipping the first episode of The Walking Dead, and Chris starting as the Community Manager at Double Fine, it seemed like it was one of the few good times to actually talk about ourselves and what we do when not recording Idle Thumbs. Enjoy, or dismiss, at your leasure. Thank you. Note: This episode contains spoilers for the first episode of the Walking Dead game. If you haven't played it yet and are spoiler-averse, look out. Read the full Kickstarter update. Direct episode download. Keep the RSS fed! .

Nobody sleeps in my car but the secret small animals who surely make their home there in the trash.

Measurably less cheap than Novato though.

Welcome! Wait, what position? The Terra Linda neighborhood in San Rafael is maybe affordable? One town further north, Novato, is probably the most affordable, but it will mean you run the risk of ending up in the San Francisco morning commute for a bit if you time your drive wrong.

Doug got the Idle Banter theme ported over. Woo!

The pacing of a lot of his stuff is weird towards the end. I thought both Cryptonomicon and Anathem had crazy endings. He doesn't really relish the aftermath of his stories at all I guess, and just getting there is what's important.

I'd recommend Cryptonomicon as well, as it's one of the straighter ones in terms of setting. I havent read the Baroque Cycle yet though so I can't speak to them.

That system is so badass. That and the cable car cable spooling stations. So fucking good. I know there's a better article and photos about it but this stuff.