Chris

Now with more ambiance Standalone Expansion PAX 2: Valve's Chet Faliszek Nestled amongst rowdy board game players, the Idle Thumbs crew pins down Chet Faliszek of Valve to discuss Left 4 Dead 2 and how Madden offers but small comfort to Browns fans. Games Discussed: Left 4 Dead 2, Civilization 4, Civilization Revolution, Open-World Crazy Chain Weapon Big Claws, Madden NFL 10, football

Shit, I'm sorry man. We tried the FOX Grill but it was just completely full. (I had tried to make a reservation about a week earlier but they weren't taking any.) We lucked out with the Taphouse but yeah I was worried some people would show up late to the old location.

Man now we can't even tell ourselves apart!

Yeah it was rad! Thanks for coming! And about Dirty Dancing, I was at GameStop the other day specifically looking for hilarious shit to give away to Thumbs, and the discovery of that game fulfilled my goal beyond my wildest dreams. Please play it and write in.

The nature of a postmortem only requires the game to have been completed, not released. It's a development-related article, not a marketing one (although publishers frequently try to conflate those distinctions). In the case of the Torchlight piece, it's not a postmortem, it's an art-specific feature about how they've gotten to their current style.

I don't remember what the first actual game I played was, but I think the first software I ever used was WordPerfect, in the days of white text on a blue background and bold or italic being represented by different-colored text.

At one point there was a Wikipedia page about me, but it looks like some guy deleted it a few years ago citing lack of notability.

Welcome, folks!

I suspect you are thinking of Michel Foucault the philosopher, rather than Leon Foucault the physicist.

I've been keeping a list of what I've completed this year. It's fairly telling. There have been a lot of "larger" games I've made a real effort to complete, but have just proven too boring or endless or uneven after hours and hours, so many of the games on this list are just a couple hours long. Anyway, here's how it stands right now: Hitman: Blood Money Tomb Raider: Underworld Mirror's Edge Far Cry 2 Dr. Dobbs' Challenge Deuce Assassin's Creed F.E.A.R. 2 Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa (haha) The Graveyard Rhythm Heaven Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Defense Grid: The Awakening Musaic Box Plants vs. Zombies Blueberry Garden Little Wheel Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal Trine Chains And Yet It Moves Sam & Max 201: Ice Station Santa Sam & Max 202: Moai Better Blues Zuma Deluxe QWOP Droplitz Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 2 - The Siege of Spinner Cay

It is an excellent film worth seeing.

Yes, I would recommend The Name of the Rose first. They're both pretty heavy reading, but Foucault's Pendulum takes a lot longer to really get into full swing (after a deceptively, but alluringly, tantalizing opening). It's much denser. The Name of the Rose is frequently punctuated by extreme bits of medieval historical arcana (I learned a bunch of stuff!), but the flow of the story never lets up for long.

The credits are on YouTube and Gilbert is credited alphabetically with all the other Hothead employees.

It's a huge difference to me, between the ION and the standard kit. The ION is much quieter. I use the stock pedal, and the combination of soft rubber drum pads and the weak plastic original pedal make for the quietest combination.

You should be able to play it on as many machines as you like, as long as you're only signed in with the account tied to it on one machine at a time.

Downloadable content thread in this subforum

Would you be willing to go to an actual official (haha) Thumbs meet? We're trying to nail down a time and place so people can hang out for a bit.

Hand-delivered by horse bag "Up On This Boss" This week on the Thumb we dive into the many meanings of Nintendo's mysterious inflatable horse peripheral, reel at how many GameCubes are turned on right now, and debate whether "Castroid" is a game genre or horrible medical condition. Games Discussed: Shadow Complex, Civilization Revolution (iPhone), Punch-Out!!, Bionic Commando, Batman: Arkham Asylum (Demo), Mass Effect, Waluigi's Waluland, Nintendo Horse Bag

The comment on disassociation was more with respect to the series as a whole than to MGS4 specifically. In MGS4 I really just felt the cutscenes were incredibly tedious and in many cases extremely dumb.

Is that the movie? I can't find the word "awesome" in either IGN's review or preview of it.

No worries, we just thought it was funny because we never think of any good promotional ideas ourselves!

This is actually different to how he played Joker in the animated series. That character was more maniacal. In an interview he said that once he actually saw the character design and overall tone of this game, he deliberately toned it down because he didn't think the animated series Joker would fit within the game's world.

We may have forgotten to actually talk about StarCraft II "With Starcraft II 2" With fleeting, ghostly visions of long-decommissioned Dragoons still haunting their minds, the Thumbs crew attempts to discuss StarCraft II while staving off the effects of sleep deprivation. Jake draws pictures. Plus, rumor has it Far Cry 2 makes its triumphant return--and there's only one way to find out. (Read the games discussed list.) Games Discussed: StarCraft II, World of Warcraft, Far Cry 2

I thought it played well on PC, including with mouse and keyboard. I like having mouselook for camera control.

I didn't. I thought it was quite clever, but not at all innovative. I was pretty opposed to its placement in that category.