Roderick

Okay, I'm quite near the ending, like someone else above me I stopped before the final battle because I was exhausted just having had another one. I had played the whole game on Brütal difficulty and really liked the challenge. Ambushes and stuff were difficult, but doable with double teams. It rarely felt unfair. But during the pre-final battle I just got steamrollered to death a few times, so I put it to Gentle and was done with it. I both love this game, and am frustrated by it in equal measure.

Oh, that was amazing! Just, heartwrenchingly beautiful ^___^ Such overwhelming love for the universe, for science, for the future!

All quite true. Is there any difference in singleplayer enemy AI between the difficulty levels? I'm playing on Brütal and so far it's pretty doable. I get the feeling the Squealer races are a bit harder (perhaps a different ghost is used?), and enemies are tougher. But I don't know the other differences. Also, I'm curious if there's already something to say about how well the game is selling. Anybody any hot news on it?

About halfway through, maybe a bit further, and I'm starting to really dig the stage battles. Once you wrap your mind around what it is, it's pretty fun. Looking forward to mastering the nuances even more!

Yeah, what the fuck? Did you all spawn lives or something?

Fantastic Mr. Fox is out? Or, at least, soon? Thanksgiving, I thought? Gotta see this movie!

I've been playing Brütal Legend for a couple of days (local toy store was selling it before the street date, bless the rock gods!), and it kicks major ass. Man, it's fun! The crazy thing is, my expectations weren't even high. I was thinking it was going to be a fun game and nothing more. Maybe because I'm not particularly a metal lover. But the game proved exhilirating from the very start. I think one of the main things that makes me love it is the presentation. From the logos (,,Double Fiiiiiiiiine!") to the Jack Black intro, to the menu (fucking gorgeous!). And this is the pervading theme in the excellence of Brütal Legend, in my opinion. The gameplay is a jack of all trades, borrowing from GTA, Zelda, Guitar Hero, Batallion Wars, Assassin's Creed. And taken on its own, these elements fare from good to bland. But the excellent, rich presentation; the heavy metal sauce that ties it together; the attention to detail and the sheer amount of fun exuded from every model and texture, make it rise far above the mere sum of its parts. I wasn't expecting it at all, but Double Fine has done it again. Can't say the final word yet of course, but so far it's fantastic. I mean BRÜTAL!! (PS. I'm about 4-5 hours in and so far the RTS component hasn't been overshadowing the rest at all. I hope it stays that way.)

'Allo 'Allo WOULD be a great Telltale series yeah, haha =) Couple years back I met with the actors behind Herr Flick and Helga as they were attending a comic convention. They were wearing their outfits and everything. Superb. I actually don't know if my taste in movies is good. I mean, of course it's good because I like what I see. I generally tend to enjoy lyrical, dramatic sci-fi/fantasy. Stuff that's epic, as far as that cliche goes. I abhor vapid action movies with plotholes and am absolutely disgusted by the plots of recent Hollywood blockbusters. Terminator, Star Trek, Transformers, they all had shitty plotlines (even if they might have been enjoyable emotionally). Come on, Hollywood, you can do better than this!

Holy fuck, why did you make yourself suffer through reading the bios of the entire Mos Eisley cantina? That's crazy! For my part, it obviously depends on the sci-fi setting, both methods of storytelling have their merits. It's reactionary to denounce the one or the other, depending on which style is currently in vogue. Now personally, I like it to be able to delve deep into a universe if I so choose (Riddick, for instance), but then I also love seeing something like Solaris, where little is explained. Or sometimes a universe is so flimsy it wouldn't survive closer scrutiny (like the excellent Space Truckers), so it's a good thing there isn't too much exposition.

It's all about preferences I guess. I use Premiere, but if I had a Mac I'd use FinalCut. All video programmes share their oftentimes infuriating lack of control and weird glitches though.

Came across this on Texel. Couldn't resist.

Well, most recently I had a whole day acting like a jackass cracking up randomly amongst other people and family whenever I thought about Nick grunting Jingle Bells in that old-man-voice. But over the previous 5-odd years, Thumbs has always felt like a goddamn little bastion of internet excellence, a place I gladly call home. No matter what form it has taken over time. Oh, and it has also introduced me to a dose of shame when I think back to the single article I published here about product placement. Damn, what a pretentious twerp I was, and an idiot at that. Brr!

Is it Samorost day yet? Whoops, wrong forum

Yeah I don't know about Half-Life 2. The graphics look kind of meh. Crysis looks hot though.

Holy fuck I saw that thing when I visited Paris (and La Defence) this spring. It's truly, ugly.

Holy shit!

Yeah, hype is almost always a bad thing. I will browse early trailers to see if something catches my interest, but after that I tend to make a decision to either avoid all hype or be swallowed by it. For instance, with The Dark Knight there was really no choice, I had to be swallowed by it. The lure was too great. With Brütal Legend I'm more careful, only taking in bits and pieces. Other things I avoid completely, like Mass Effect 2 footage. That's also possible because I already know I'll get it, so checking it out will only spoil things.

A Big Lebowski

But, this thread makes the Idle Thumbs things less fun. It's like when you start explaining a joke. This may be worse.

The Rambo.

This kind of takes the fun out of it all. Who did this? They must burn.

I don't see it as hypocritical that he's a skeptic yet also a professional 'mentalist' kind of magician. It's quite clear when he's 'performing' and when he's truly advocating an opinion on the way of the world. About District 9:

Foolproof, that!

I'm surprised to read about the opinions on the maze in Spinner Cay, because it contrasts my own experience. I thought it was weird that the first maze in Tales was a really smart 'puzzle' maze, whereas the second one in Spinner Cay was just a run of the mill, regular ol' maze. To me, that felt like a weird step back, like I was expecting something more puzzley from it.