Thrik

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Everything posted by Thrik

  1. Idle Thumbs Readers Slack & Discord

    It looks like this doesn’t work again, also is Slack the preferred choice over Discord (if there even is one)? If someone can DM me an invite that’D be superb.
  2. Photos of things

    This thread might be a complete flop, but let's try! I thought it'd be nice to have somewhere we can share photos we've taken, and if there's an interesting story behind them even better. I got my first reasonable camera recently so I've been pretty much snapping anything I can. Few shots on and around a church wall I happened to be sitting on. I decided to poke the ant hole after and about a million ants came gushing out. My grandparents' ragdoll:
  3. my god http://kotaku.com/grim-fandango-is-getting-remastered-for-ps4-vita-1588420206
  4. Thumbsters? Thumbers Thumbos? What is the correct parlance? Anyway, it recently became apparent that a few of us on here have embarked upon a journey to create lovely music and our discussion of this has been getting a bit lost in the 'Life' and 'Plug your shit' threads. I personally am a complete novice after starting to do composition and production for the first time this year, and I think at least one other person here is similarly new to the process. So don't expect pro-level stuff from me, at least! Hopefully we can all learn from each other. Sharing and getting feedback is a valuable tool for becoming better. So this thread is for anyone on Idle Thumbs creating music to show what they've been working on. I'll also keep this opening post updated with portfolio, SoundCloud, etc pages if people let me know that they'd like them to be added (I'll probably just include SoundCloud ones as I spot them). Ozzie: SoundCloud Patrick R: Bandcamp Problem Machine: SoundCloud Thrik: SoundCloud
  5. So Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain were both Metal Gear Solid 5 in disguise. Kojima really needs to find better things to do with his time. Trailer coming soon. Screengrab: http://kotaku.com/metal-gear-solid-v-is-official-fox-vs-xof-461177345
  6. Remedy's 'Quantum Break'

    Finally, actual footage rather than CGI and GIFs. It might not show much, but this is enough to get my excitement glands whirring: I love the concept of the story and gameplay, and I'm getting excited just thinking about what kind of insane stuff Remedy is going to be able to do with it. And the fact that it's the Max Payne developers making a game all about time manipulation... well, damn. I'm guessing we're going to something resembling a fusion of Alan Wake's insane set pieces and Max Payne's time-control gunplay, resulting in a game that's theoretically going to be the best thing ever produced. It'll probably fall a bit short of that, but I've been very happy with Remedy so far.
  7. Quantum Break coming to PC

    Sounds fantastic when you're on crap-ass broadband like me. Surely to god the lack of some people's connection quality hasn't been overlooked? Or do they just get horrendously compressed rubbish?
  8. No Man's Sky

    Haha, wow. I was just peeking at a gameplay video and holy crap the the UI is a lot like Destiny's. The ship customisation screen is so lifted. I mean it works, but Destiny's novel and superb UI is a significant part of its identity (especially bearing in mind how much time you spend there) so to have another space-orientated game use such a similar approach seems like a missed opportunity to me. Then again, the similar might help to endear it to the masses — something that was potentially a conscious design decision — so I can't completely condemn it.
  9. Rimworld

    What an absolutely excellent story haha.
  10. Backlog Busters

    I'm just a silly bastard and keep watching TV shows rather than continuing to play the games I'm halfway through like MGS5 and Uncharted 4 even though I think they're absolutely excellent.
  11. Rimworld

    Ah right. I guess because I keep all the gaming shit like Origin and Steam tucked away on a separate partition it doesn't bother me so much. Origin and Steam are both pathetically under-developed though — both still look like hell on a high-pixel density display. So annoying when I use them. I know Windows generally isn't free but if you ever get the opportunity to grab a Windows 7/8/10 key I'd highly recommend installing it with Bootcamp. I noticed that the same games installed on both Windows and OS X literally run at twice the frame rate in some cases, or at the very least a good chunk faster. It's a very effective way of getting more gaming life out of an ageing (or even new) Mac, if that ever becomes a concern.
  12. Rimworld

    I'm liking your anecdotes about this game. I think I'll get it this weekend. The guy really should mention Prison Architect on the website though, ideally where a whole load of other games are prominently cited as influences. Only seems right.
  13. Rimworld

    The Sims has always been available on Mac? Although I personally run it in Windows via Bootcamp because the performance is better.
  14. The Nintendo Wii U is Great Thread

    Yeah you really don't want to be mix and matching those things. For example the wrong one charging an iPhone would probably melt it. I've outright killed a laptop by plugging the wrong power brick into it.
  15. Pokemon GO

    Social aspect is clearly referring to the way that the game has brought literally tens of thousands of people together IRL who'd never otherwise have met. From a purely academic point of view I'd be fascinated to know how many lasting friendships or even relationships result from this game. I know that with its spiritual predecessor Ingress this happened a lot — in fact I know a woman who's met several dates through it. It's definitely missing a lot, but in all honesty the whole app screams 'exploratory prototype' to me. I can't imagine that they expected this kind of sudden popularity and would imagine that there'll be lots of additions in the coming weeks and months to milk the fad for as long as possible. Nintendo's big question right now is presumably whether or not it has the legs to be an enduring cultural phenomenon like Ingress. Without the masses of people playing it everywhere leading to in-person encounters the shine would probably wear off fast. Perhaps more than anything this game is revealing most people's innate desire to connect with others in the real world, and for those who struggle with that it's perhaps a really nice ice breaker and feeling of being part of something. It's not just a idyllic fantasy — people really are connecting through this thing.
  16. The Nintendo Wii U is Great Thread

    Well Nintendo certainly seems to be on a roll this week! I too would definitely grab a SNES version for the convenience and nostalgia/collectable factor of the physical unit, if it came with key favourites like DKC1–3, Super Mario All Stars, Mario Kart, and Super Mario World 1&2.
  17. Pokemon GO

    It's basically just what we all dreamed of as children, right? Being able to go out in the world and catch Pokemon. Not some virtual world in a console — the actual world. Just like the earlier games' characters' adventures would just be random shit that happens to them while out and about, the same can happen to you while playing this game. Will you find some rare delight? Nearly get eaten alive by a bear? Meet wonderful new companions? Get mugged? It's all part of the adventure. Of course the game is ropey as hell. It's noticeably rough for an iOS game, with lots of blurry textures and UI elements. Animations and transitions feel clunky and overly time-consuming. The overall performance of the application is bad even on an iPhone 6S Plus. But see my previous paragraph for why none of that matters. Personally I'm basically done with it after one morning since it came out in the UK. I can see younger people absolutely loving this, and clearly many older people are too. I'll probably delete it soon. It's been a fascinating fad to see happen though, one that seems to cross generations like few other phenomena.
  18. Didn't see a thread covering either of these so thought I'd create one for this absolutely wonderful new trailer for the Nathan Drake Collection: Really brings back how splendid this series was, true classics that I'm delighted will be preserved in the finest condition with this remaster. Weirdly I feel a bit nostalgic about it even though it's not even that old a series.
  19. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    Is this even the case when you're listening to the cassette tapes as you unlock them? I'm not particularly far in, but I've been enjoying a steady supply of new narrative-orientated tapes as I complete each main mission. I've been treating them like the codec conversations of the older games, where I just sit and listen to them while having a cup of tea or something. It's a lot like MGS2 in that respect, seeing as that game was probably 90% codec to 10% cutscene. It's different but still nice, and actually I feel less obligated into enduring the long stretches of narrative on the game's terms; instead, I can dive into it when I can't be bothered with actual gameplay. I've also been hearing quite a lot of Big Boss in these conversations, whereas in the game proper he's basically a silent protagonist — which makes sense seeing as you can swap your main character for others, such as a woman with a voice of her own.
  20. The Witcher 3: What Geralt Wants

    We've just published an interview with two environment artists who worked on The Witcher 3 and its upcoming content. It's a development interview so might be of interest to those into that side of things.
  21. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    In Peace Walker you could pay relatively little attention to all the base stuff and the net result was the game just became considerably harder because your equipment was less varied therefore you had less perfect-tool-for-the-job options. There were occasionally moments where you actually needed something like C4 so a little grinding was needed to get some money and research, but honestly only a few times. The Peace Walker Mother Base was literally just menus so it was a lot more boring. Everything about it seems a lot better thought out and implemented this time around. In both games Mother Base is essentially a second game in and of itself, which a lot of people seem to really enjoy but I can see how all the resource procurement and management could grate on some. Just ignore it and see what happens, report back for the rest of us.
  22. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    What possible reason could you have for not buying this game immediately?!
  23. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    Yeah that is absolutely ludicrous. For all of PC gaming's technical advantages, that we're still stuck with DVDs in an era of games often being 15–40GB is downright daft. For people like me with relatively slow internet connections (still sadly common even in UK cities), digital distribution isn't a good solution with all forms of digital media continuing to balloon in file size.
  24. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    Right you early delivery BASTARDS, I'm getting this tomorrow and I can't bloody wait!!!!!