Chris

If they exist only in the Escalation missions, I'm totally fine with them. They're just a crazy artificial constraint. It would be weird if the main game also required you to dress up in a certain outfit and use a specific weapon to kill your target, but as a component of Escalation it just kind of exists as its own thing.

Yeah it's definitely much better. It's just a challenge since it isn't our job, so we have to schedule all this stuff in our free time.

Haha, cheers, this is out of control.

Haha, owned. (Although, in our defense, we were referring to the fact that, compared to online video and online text, podcasts remain the dumbest form of online media. I'm sure in the future the robots will parse our ever syllable and meaning, but for the entire history of podcasts they have basically remained dumb MP3 files that you download to your computer or other device, and that's that.)

Yes! I think you're right. This is the game I was trying to think of.

Idle Weekend May 6, 2016: Top This The Weekenders are joined by freelance game critic extraordinaire Heather Alexandra to discuss AAA game franchises' ever-present need to top themselves. Will every major franchise end up in space? Is marketing to blame? Is Saints Row really the best? Plus: Overwatch, Blizzard's candy colored shooter, and Kim, a Rudyard Kipling novel adaptation. So, basically the same thing. Discussed: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, Mass Effect, Saints Row, Overwatch, Rudyard Kipling's Kim Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

nobody cares

You should write in to questions@idleweekend.net!

Idle Weekend April 22, 2016: Getting Ready to Rumble With both Weekenders starting a love affair with Street Fighter V, this week is all about coming to blows with fighting games and the real-life combat sports that inspire them. The depth, heart, and complications of controlled violence—in real life and its digital formats—offer a great deal for us to wrestle with. Discussed: Street Fighter V, fencing, boxing, MMA, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, The Billionaire's Vinegar, Gang Leader for a Day Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Good luck everyone, this is going to be awesome!

Good

Idle Thumbs 256: The First Great Brand War It is 2017. The stench of scorched mozzarella stings your nostrils. Brand warfare has emerged as the dominant vector of economic and military conflict. A delivery bot rolls your way, and you frantically dig a receipt out of your pocket, showing a recent order for a medium half-sausage, half-pepperoni. Too late, you realize your mistake: this is a Taco Bell bot. "Okay, I will destroy humans," it offers cheerfully, then everything goes black. Discussed: Hitman (2016), Sumer, Microsoft Tay, Domino's Pizza, Robot News Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

proflowers.com, click that microphone, and enter the offer code "thumbs"!

Haha, this is a great example. You should write in to questions@idlethumbs.net!

I don't remember anything we have ever discussed on Idle Thumbs

Haha, oh man. I've encountered the "green plumber" several times, and I didn't pick up on the joke. I've never seen "red plumber." I just figured "green plumber" was some kind of obscure terminology for a plumber who works specifically in agricultural contexts, like irrigation.

This is such a good observation. I don't have much more to add. But I love this.

Welcome!

Soundcloud-hosted podcasts are back up. Really sorry about that, folks!

(To refer to an entirely unrelated concept)

Perhaps...

Hey new folks!

Yeah, I can relate to this. There's definitely an anxiety I have about multiplayer "intruding" into what I have already internalized as a single-player experience that is more fundamental than the specifics of its implementation in any particular game. That's not to say I shouldn't try and get over it!

God damnit, Nick. Or Jake.

Hell yeah I did. Sadly too late for the recording of this podcast.