Chris

Do it! Next Sunday hopefully.

I just updated the Dark Souls III stream descriptions to include the cocktails prepared in each. I remember today's since it was so recent, but can anyone who has recently watched Part I confirm that the three drinks were a Mai Tai, a Royal Hawaiian Cocktail, and a Hurricane?

Usually when there's an unforgivable title oversight, it's because we didn't write down the superior phrase after it happened and no longer remembered its occurrence by the end of the episode. It's always a minor tragedy. Yeah I'm with you on all of this.

Just added original air dates to these, since most of the YouTube ones won't reflect the real dates they were recorded.

Whoa, nice thread.

Welcome to the forums!

Yep. Hopefully very very soon!

Weird! He's definitely credited as having worked as an editor on the first edition of the game in the credits in the rulebook.

Idle Thumbs 257: "Some Kind of Drifter" or "Rigid Body Rat King" Outer space is burning, ravaged by the never-ending military-corporate conflict factory that is EVE Online. While reports are still coming in from deep space, we can confirm that just like real wars, Spacemonkey's Alliance is involved, as is Killah Bee, 1ronBank, and the Moneybadgers. If this is all too much for you, know that IKEA has released a piece of VR software that lets you chill out in a perfectly clean, virtual kitchen forever. Discussed: EVE Online, IKEA VR Experience, Hyper Light Drifter, Hitman (2016), Bombmeister, NBA 2K16 Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Yep:

It may be true that some people don't have to play multiple hours straight to improve, but I don't think I'm one of those people. Also, if they take as or more time than a big single-player RPG, they're basically already out for me when it comes to completion. There's just no other form of entertainment in my life I devote that amount of time to and I can't really figure out any way to allocate my time that would make that possible. I'm not making a value judgment, it's just a matter of pure practicality. I wish I had time to get good at games like this but I don't actually think it's possible given my realities. Those links you posted unfortunately make the time commitment seem even less feasible to me.

I understand this for sure, and I think we sort of alluded to it, but the other part of being a child that helps enable this mentality is a surfeit of time. Nick and I streamed Dark Souls III yesterday, mainly with him playing, and after dedicating five-plus hours straight, he improved a huge amount. But realistically, most of the time I either don't have that much time to spare, or have to prioritize my free time alongside other non-video-game activities, and so there's just no way I'm going to be able to apply that kind of resolutely patient mentality.

I've always just told people "You're technically supposed to pick your victory conditions but let's just say everyone needs 10 destiny and 10 story and call it a day."

Yeah I was very clear about this up front and I think everyone had appropriate expectations.

It's PDT right now, yeah.

Oh man. They were definitely joking. It's sort of concerning that someone thought they might not be, haha. I hope not very many people got that impression. As for that silence: Crap! I'm fixing it now.

With the right group that stuff is hilarious at the table too! (Nice house rules, though.)

Episode is up!

Idle Weekend April 8, 2016: I'm Walking Here We here on Idle Weekend are pretty fond of story-based games, so you can imagine we have fond feelings for the genre terribly known as "walking simulators." The weekenders chat about Adr1ft, a space-walking simulator, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, a ghost walking simulator, in order to suss out the future of the genre. Discussed: Adr1ft, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Tacoma, Firewatch, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Gun Street Girl (Adrian McKinty novel), The Fall Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Idle Weekend April 1, 2016: Now We're Let's Playing with Power The question used to be whether or not to play a game. Now, it's whether or not to Let's Play a game, and man, we wish we had a better term for it. Controversy over whether or not Let's Play video cut into indie sales has us pondering the ways and means of the form. Elsewhere, we tackle the evergreen subject of "objective" game reviews. Discussed: That Dragon, Cancer; Life is Strange; RUSE; Murdered: Soul Suspect; X-Wing: Alliance; The People vs. O.J. Simpson; Daredevil Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

I have absolutely no idea what any of those pop-up diagrams in this game mean.

Idle Weekend March 25, 2016: The Way Wii Weren't The Weekenders ponder the strange case of the Wii U, a weird console from a company that only makes weird consoles these days, with some of the best games of the last few years. Has Nintendo Splatooned its way into the Wii U's demise? Is the Wii U the new Dreamcast? Discussed: Wii U; Splatoon; Game Boys: Triumph, Heartbreak, and the Quest for Cash in the Battleground of Competitive Videogaming; The Private Eye Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Haha wtf, why does this work this way??

Good observation! I think I'm doubly poor at this because I'm just not very good at picking up on things like attack signaling by enemies--especially in a low-resolution game like this where the sprite animation is very low-fidelity. (Not a bad thing, just the game's style.) I'm already bad enough at it in really detailed fighting games, but in a game like this I think I'm basically not even aware of it. I'm totally at ease in a game like Spelunky where I know that AT ANY TIME a given enemy could do a certain thing, so I know how much distance to keep or not to keep, or how to react in a tiny split-second if something suddenly goes from zero to Happening, but the idea of getting right up in an enemy's face and being aware of an oncoming attack signal is just totally intimidating to me.

The Idle Book Club 12: Umberto Eco Chris and Sarah stop into the studio for an impromptu podcast in honor of Umberto Eco, the Italian semiotician and author of esoteric novels including The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum. Eco passed away just days ago, and we felt it was appropriate to pay our respects—and share some choice quotes and personal experiences. Join us! Books Discussed: The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Prague Cemetery, Numero Zero Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes