Chris

The Dawn of War II Multiplayer Beta is currently available on Steam for those who own the standalone Soulstorm expansion for Dawn of War. Soulstorm can be conveniently purchased for the bargain bin price or $7.50, or some other amount of money if you live elsewhere probably. Those who don't own Soulstorm can play the beta whenever it becomes open next week. Those who are in it, feel free to add me and send me invites if you see me online: Steam: chrisremo ( http://steamcommunity.com/id/chrisremo ) Live: The Idle Thumb ( http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=The+Idle+Thumb )

Here it is! "BioShock 2 lead level designer JP LeBreton joins us for this accidentally retro-filled episode to recount the rich tapestry of game music, talk up the LucasArts classics, and dream of a world where Grand Theft Auto was reimagined as a 1930's Warner Bros. cartoon." "Games discussed: BioShock, Monkey Island 2, Gravity Hook, Assassin's Creed, Tomb Raider: Underworld" iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293436552 RSS: http://feedproxy.google.com/idle-thumbs http://www.idlethumbs.net/

"Lock and load." "Rock and roll." "Light 'em up." "Roll out." "Give 'em hell." "Fuck you." "Fuck you, alien scum." "Die, fuckers." "Son of a bitch." "Damn it." "God damn it." "Fuck." "Motherfuckers."

This seems like the type of thing towards which people will--either deliberately or inadvertently--act civilly disobedient on an extremely broad scale, and it will end up becoming irrelevant or appropriately modified.

It's true, games writing is terrible. I think we sort of felt that topic has been discussed a lot though, and we're not sure how much we have to contribute to the discussion beyond "Yes it's true a lot of games writers are lazy or not particularly good writers."

Well, Jake did describe his job in pretty much those exact terms, nearly word for word, on the podcast.

That is a pretty rad avatar

Oh man, sorry about that. For the life of me I couldn't remember where I found that thing, and so I assumed I must have just encountered it on the internet.

I wish they'd unlock it in the other direction. As someone who didn't play tons of DOW and COH, it is shocking how up-close I feel. Especially when I'm running the game in 1920x1200 on a 24" monitor--it just seems insane that I can only see such a tiny part of the field at any given moment. I'm constantly trying to zoom out.

I'm liking this more and more. And this sounds stupid and obvious, but it's amazing how crucial teamwork is in the 3 vs. 3. Again, I know that's obvious, but it's really exacerbated by the fairly restrictive attitude to resources and unit counts, plus the fact that you're dealing with upgrading units on an individual basis rather than being able to pump out new units that are already upgraded from more advanced structures. A single player really can't do much since so much of the game is about land control. It means that public team games can be completely terrible, but when you do get to play with people who are interested in working together, it's awesome.

I'm sure a few of them accidentally blue themselves.

Those interested in playing with other Thumb folks can put their info in the multiplayer networking thread: http://idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6241

Some podcast decided to thoughtfully comment on a bunch of other gaming podcasts, and we were so honored to be included in that illustrious group that we just had to share it with our listenership. And welcome!

We're back for real, except for Nick who is sick for real. And by sick, I mean ill. And by ill, I mean totally rad. Also, he has contracted an ailment. "We loudly ring in Year of the Video Game with a double episode of post-holiday potluck warmth. Like a worried mom, we lecture about driving under the influence of video games. Like a drunk uncle, we can't shut up about "ol' Spelunky." You know (wink), "the Tomb Raider?"" Games discussed: Prince of Persia (2008), Tomb Raider Underworld, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia (1989), Nobi Nobi Boy, Osmos, Brainpipe, Spelunky, Bus Driver http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293436552 http://feeds.feedburner.com/idle-thumbs http://www.idlethumbs.net/

Software patents always seem malleable anyway. I don't really think there are many things iMuse does that haven't also been implemented by plenty of other studios and middleware companies at this point. If LucasArts wanted to put a lock on all that shit, they would have had to been on that long before now.

I want Relic and THQ to make a lot of money off this game so I don't really mind.

This game is fun and seemingly simplistic enough that I may be able to delay the point at which I become horribly raped by people on the internet

Just...games that look like this, I guess. I have seen a billion other third-person "action/adventure" games that look exactly like the screenshots of this game, and they're all forgettable. Also "mini ninjas" seems like the kind of concept that somebody thought up before any meaningful game concepts were thought up, which is of course why it turns out to be a third person action adventure game, the go-to genre for uninspired game premises. I could be totally wrong about this game. But I'll be very surprised if it's not completely bland.

The Wii ones are all 640x480, which is the Wii's resolution, although Wii games never end up having that much anti-aliasing.

As much as I like Io, I very rarely find games in this genre and style to actually be good.

I don't remember ever really seeing them at the same time. You have to actively bring up the Steam overlay.

I didn't pay any attention to the achievements for Fallout 3, I just like having my buddy lists for Live and Steam available as frequently as possible.

I saw some of this at a friend's house one time and it seemed like typical stupid sitcom bullshit. But it's hard to judge a serial based on an isolated viewing, so I don't pretend my opinion is informed.

It didn't bother me. In fact, I kind of prefer having both. Since I actively use my Xbox Live account, and I actively use Steam, I pretty much want as many games linked into those systems as possible.

Bronstring? Marek Bronstring?