miffy495

Whoo! Got it working! I hope to have some local multiplayer around the laptop in the hotel room at PAX. The friends that I'm traveling with and I used to spend hours a week clustered around a computer playing Armageddon after school back in the day.

I own the first 11, because up to that point every time I finished watching one the next was on sale. I would cut off after 9, as at that point (even though 8 and 9 do have a noticeable drop-off in quality) the ratio of gold to crap begins to swing in the wrong direction. If you stop at 7, you're seeing only amazing Simpsons, but you are still cutting yourself off before some legitimate classics. After 9, you're pretty much good.

Yeah. I think I'm just stuck waiting for a patch now.

I really want this game patched. I have it installed and bought, but every time I try to start it it crashes to desktop at the Team 17 logo. And yeah, DirectX is up to date.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 complete. I can't get over how much more I liked this game than Modern Warfare 2. There are points that are much more irritating, design-wise. CoD6 had really refined it's interface, as it probably should have by that point. BC2 had a horrible grenade indicator that killed me more often than it saved me, all the dust from the explosions and destroyable cover made it so that half the time I couldn't see three feet in front of my face, and had this weird thing where when it loaded in a checkpoint the vision faded in after the rest of the game had finished loading. This meant that in one section 2/3s of the time time my save loaded with me just gaining control as an enemy sniper's kill shot penetrated my brain. That was fucking infuriating. Speaking of checkpoints, they were way too far apart. On several occasions, I lost 15 minutes or more of progress due to not hitting a checkpoint anywhere in there. Either have GOOD checkpoints, or allow quicksaves. While I'm talking about lost progress, there was one mission where I played for over an hour, rescued the guy I was trying to rescue, fled the scene on an ATV, and then was unable to get off the fucking ATV. Like, ever. I had to replay the entire mission in order to see the half second cutscene where my character gets off his fucking quad bike so that I could play the last half hour of it. Go PC gaming. That's a lot of bitching for a game that I liked, but I really did enjoy that game a hell of a lot. The setpieces were great, especially the ending. The characters had so much more personality than CoD6, and the conspiracy thingy was much more believable as well. I loved the banter between my squadmates, and actually came to like them in that action-movie sort of way. I never gave a shit about anyone in CoD6, despite how much they tried. The destroyable cover and buildings were great, despite how much I wished on a couple of occasions that they'd put a "THE BUILDING YOU'RE TAKING COVER IN IS FUCKING COLLAPSING!!!" notification on screen. Getting crushed by a roof seems an anti-climactic way to die after all the shit I survived. Still, fantastic game as far as linear modern shooters go. I had way more fun than I thought I would going in, despite the frustrations that came along with the design. Recommended.

Having played the PA games, I seem to recall that there was no voice-over and everyone spoke in text bubbles. I played these a long time ago though, so I may be mis-remembering.

Ok, so between David's post, the fact that a coworker who is currently reading the series left the first two volumes on a shelf at work, and the fact that I had an hour with nothing to do today I have now read the first two volumes of Scott Pilgrim. People (specifically, people in the Scott Pilgrim game thread) were giving me crap for being down on the series without having read any, which is a position I understand, so I figured I'd give myself something real to say about it. My verdict: Meeeeh... In the entire first two volumes, the only actual laugh I had was Nice to see a subtle and well-executed Monkey Island reference, plus it had its own version of the joke, rather than ripping it off completely. I dug that. Otherwise, the video game references don't feel as casual and conversational as people have been describing, but rather forced and Juno-esque. There have been a few good ones, but on the whole, disappointing on that front. The non-referential dialogue I'm actually enjoying more than I thought I would. It feels pretty accurate and well-done. I also like that pretty much every character except Scott seems to be very vocally of the opinion that Scott is a total waste and way too into being a childish ass, as my worry going in was that this common geeky stereotype would be exhalted rather than shown as the negative that it is. Very glad to be proven wrong on that front, though now I'm even more worried about the fans who do think that Scott's personality is something to aspire to or be proud to identify with. As for the fight scenes, they're easily the worst part for me. They feel stupid and ancillary to any part of the book I was actually enjoying. As soon as they get into the pseudo-mystical bullshit about portals and coins and items, I check out completely. I feel like if they just cut all that out, it may be something much more enjoyable. The long and short of it, I'm not hating it or loving it. I'm decidedly meh on it. , perhaps. It's popcorn reading. You enjoy it well enough while you're doing it, but don't have to think about it at all and it leaves you feeling somewhat empty. If my coworker brings in the others and I have more time to kill, I wouldn't be opposed to reading them, but I'm also not driven to go out and find more to continue it. The very definition of , in fact.

Ditto. I started going through the back catalogue again right before it was announced that The Idle Thumbs Podcast was ending, and have just made it up to series 2, episode 2. As such, I still haven't heard the new sadness, but want to thank the crew for getting it together and making the site vibrant again, and also express my hope that Jake wasn't kidding about a Scoops/Video Games/Famous cast. I'd listen...

Huh, well done David. You just took all that apathy towards Scott Pilgrim that other people's descriptions had instilled in me and made it sound more interesting. A good friend of mine wants to take me on a bro-date to see it, and I am now no longer dreading this.

Alright, done. Wasn't sure if I'd do it without the 4-pack or not, but nuts to it. I'm in.

How has everyone just passed right by this???

So is there going to be a reasonably large thumbs contingent playing this game? If I'm going to get the $2 preorder discount, it has to be before tomorrow afternoon as I'm going out of province and won't be back until after release. Would it be worth it, or should I wait for a sale to get my worms on?

Talking to a coworker, I think I figured out what bothered me most about this game. Weirdly, it was the moments of brilliance. They showed how much the team was capable of, so it bothered me so much more that there were only 4 or 5 of them and the rest of the game was pretty bland. If those moments weren't there, I probably would have accepted it as a reasonably good sequel to Bioshock that didn't really do anything special. After seeing those bits though, all I could think during the rest of it was "Ok, I know you can do better. Damn it."

I remain on an incredible tear. Bioshock 2 has been completed now. It was really a game of ups and downs for me. There were a few moments of mind-blowing awesome such as but also far too many moments that feel like they could have been pulled straight off the cutting floor from Bioshock. Overall, I quite liked it, and I think I actually preferred the endgame to that of Bioshock, which kind of lost its steam after the big reveal. I liked that the twist was . The one major complaint I have is that, with one exception contained in the above spoiler tags, the underwater segments were a tonne of potential with almost no payoff. They were linear corridors from one airlock to another with no combat, no exploration, and the only optional thing to do harvesting those creepy Adam slugs. I really wish they'd been used to greater effect. Make me find my way. Throw an angry octopus on my tail that I have to fight off with my drill or something. There's a whole damn ocean out there, so why was I put on a claustrophobia-inducing narrow path of coral that happened to lead straight to where the next section of indoor game was? Bummed me out to see so much promise in the concept wasted like that. Also, that game was freaking hard. I've never dropped down the difficulty after starting a game before, but Bioshock 2 made me do it for the first time. Goddamn big sisters were still fucking terrifying even on the lower difficulty level. Still, good game, and mechanically an improvement over Bioshock. Unfortunately, it's impossible to recreate the "wow" feeling that kept me going through most of the first game, but the sequel had a few points that really did keep me motivated, even though a disappointing amount of it felt pretty same-y. EDIT: Holy hell, I just looked at a text file I've been keeping of games that I've finished this year. I have 31 games on there. 36 if you count all the expansions for Fallout 3. Considering this is a year in which I am working full time, spending a lot of time with my girlfriend, finished my honours degree, and made the Dean's list, that's fucking ridiculous. I'm feeling very accomplished, even though it's just vidja games. (although, in fairness, 11 of those are Sam and Max episodes [from my replay of the earlier two seasons and what has been released of the new one], so they're pretty short.)

Actually, this (Fate of Atlantis) is the only LucasArts adventure that I have not beaten. I really need to install it on Steam and get on that shit. Snooglebum, considering a lot of this site's original crew migrated over from things like Mixnmojo and Adventure Gamers, I'd say that a year or so ago you'd be all by yourself. Since the podcast attracted the new audience, you're probably in much better company but that's no excuse to remain ignorant. Get the pack on Steam, as well as the remasters of Monkey Island 1 and 2. Loom is pretty good but not essential. I love The Dig, but people seem to disagree with me about that quite a bit. Fate of Atlantis is really good from what I've played, but I need to do more of that. Monkey Island (both) is absolutely essential. I'm really hoping for a Day of the Tentacle Steam release someday, but in the mean time those releases should do. If you get the chance (though they're incredibly hard to come by these days) Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, and Full Throttle must also be played. Seriously, with so many of them on Steam, you really have no excuse. Unless you get really stuck they shouldn't take you more than a couple of sittings. Play those things and feel better about yourself.

The most important thing I can tell you is that there's no narration. None. It is almost exactly 88 minutes of home video footage of babies spilling things on themselves, but more professionally shot. If that still sounds like a thing you want to see, by all means, go for it. I won't judge. Not my thing at all though, and it made me a bit sad that a theater that normally puts on socially relevant or at least somewhat challenging films (along with things like our 80's slasher movie festival in October, of course) was using a time slot on that in order to stay financially viable. Oh well.

It may be irrelevant after the exchange that's happened since (haven't been online for a couple of days) but the way that the quote you took was intended was actually about the impression that the people describing the book gave me, not about the book itself. I can see how it could be read as speculation about the text, but was not meant as such. You folks are right though, I should read the book before criticizing the content. I was not intending to criticize said content, but we wouldn't be here if at least a couple of people had read me as such. Until a couple of months ago, the books, movie, and everything were completely off my radar, so this is me coming in mostly cold but being disappointed by the bits and pieces I have picked up. I will try to read the first volume sooner or later (currently my graphic novel quota is being filled by a read-through of the Locas series by Xaime Hernandez) but don't feel it is entirely necessary in order to register my overall non-plussed reaction to what Scott Pilgrim I have been exposed to. As far as I can tell, it is Juno but with Sonic Youth and similar replaced by Video Games. I liked most of what was referenced in Juno but found the movie incredibly irritating because it felt like it was trying way too hard to pander. I get the same impression from the trailers and similar for Scott Pilgrim. As such, rather than get excited and be really let down like I was by Juno, I am simply keeping away from it until the hype blows over.

Heh, interesting. I just started it earlier this week myself. Have only played the opening episode so far, but I'm liking it a whole hell of a lot. Not much else to say yet, but it's kinda cool that this thread revives right as I start my playthrough.

Played at my theater for a month. Will be starting an encore in a week because it made us so much fucking money when we were in our slowest period of the year (who the hell sees art films in mid-summer? Nobody but the hardest of the hardcore). Do not underestimate the appeal of the babies. I hate this movie, but it kept me from worrying about my theater going under this year, which is rare.

Well, every now and then I get gripped with the urge to play a racing game. I don't know why this is, seeing as I can't afford a car in real life and have only my time going through driver's education to know what it actually feels like behind the wheel, but that's how it is. The feeling struck again this last week, and in my weakness I purchased both Wipeout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. My thoughts on Wipeout are not so fantastic, but man am I loving this GT. After finishing both the C and B classes, my thoughts: Love love love the cockpit view. Granted, Project Gotham has been doing this incredibly well also, but that game has so much emphasis on style and showing off your driving that I find I do better from an external view. With GT's focus on actually driving your car rather than showing it off, the cockpit view is a far more natural fit. And it's beautiful. My mother's boyfriend dotes over his car like no one else I've ever met (a 2003 BMW Z4) and this car just happens to be in the game. Bought it, in the same colour he has, and showed it to him the other night when I went for a family dinner. Looks just like the real thing, and he played for about 2 hours just drooling over the realism. First time a cockpit view has been my preferred way of playing a game. Would've probably done the same in Forza, but for whatever reason that game doesn't give you the option. Speaking of Forza, I see the guideline they pioneered has made it into other games as well. This is my first Gran Turismo, so I don't know if it was in any of the earlier iterations, but I think I prefer this guide to Forza's. Not only is it more subtle, but if you're going way too fast around a turn, the game will actually tell you a recommended speed at which a sane person would take the turn. Very helpful, and has greatly improved my virtual driving. Seeing as the first Forza was the game that made me give driving games a chance, largely because the guideline so drastically helped me figure out how to play them, any refinement to this system gets a big from me. Also, realism. I've taken to watching race replays simply so that I can marvel at how damn good the game looks. If it weren't for the occasional fake-ish looking tree or the way that grass only waves in chunks, I'd think this was a TV feed. Those small details are pretty easy to ignore as well. It took me a few views of race recordings to realize they weren't done perfectly either. Beautiful, beautiful game. I'll be using it to show off graphical prowess in the future. GT5 is now my benchmark for realistic graphics. On the subject of realism though, I do want to complain that you can't damage your car. I'm not asking for Forza's level of detail where specific parts of your car get damaged and it can hurt your performance, even a Project Gotham level of detail where your windshield will crack and your mirrors fall off would be decent. I know manufacturers don't want their cars to be smashed up by the game, but most of the cars are so pretty I'm desperately trying to avoid doing so anyway. Would it really hurt to make the impact of brushing a rail as I drive that much more obvious, rather than something I forget about 3 seconds after it happens because it has no real bearing on the game? Free DLC is a plus as well. When I bought the game, I had an extra 15 minutes to wait before I played it because it had to download all the extra content that had been released since the game came out. That's what I get for waiting 5 months, I guess. The fact that I don't need to pay for these bonuses is greatly appreciated. I'm looking at you, Forza. I'm not going to pay $2 for a car I'll have to unlock later anyway. On the subject of DLC, the stuff you can pay for is pretty cool. All of it video through GTTV, from what I can tell. This makes it the first legal way I know of to own episodes of Top Gear in North America. So rad. Love that show. So what if it's only 3 episodes right now? More shall come, I'm holding out hope. ...wow, that's a lot of thoughts. Keep in mind this is coming from someone who is not really a racing enthusiast. My backround for these games consists of PGR3 and 4, both Forzas, a bunch of Burnout, Mario Kart, and F Zero. I'm stretching it out to include Mario and F Zero just to make the list longer. PGR3 and Forza 1 both came free with my 360 and original Xbox respectively, and Burnout 3 with my PS2. Gran Turismo is the first time I've bought an automotive racing game that wasn't a sequel to one I've already owned. I gotta say, I absolutely love it. I'm not sure how the online works for it, I only had a quick poke around and didn't see any options for inviting friends or anything, but if there's a way and any Thumb wants to race, let me know. I'll probably lose horribly, but what the hell, right?

Aah! Being polite will destroy everything! Quick, someone flip a coin or something!

Holy shit, the Vaselines have a new album? Done.

Yesterday morning when we woke up, the girlfriend said to me: "Hey, do you wanna go watch The Expendables today?" I, of course, said yes. So off we went. Holy crap. That movie is absolutely exactly what it wanted to be. Let's not worry about plot at all. The guy who played Morales on Oz is a general who just overthrew an island South-ish of the USA, so Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, the guy from Ghosts of Mars, and some UFC fighty guy get hired by Bruce Willis to kill him. Morales has Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren working for him. The only other thing you'll ever need to know about this movie is that they spend about 10 minutes showing nothing but the crew of heroes planting explosive charges around a compound, pretty much saying nothing but "HOLY SHIT I BET YOU GUYS CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THESE THINGS GO OFF!" Statham and Stallone are shown drinking several beers while piloting a seaplane. Mickey Rourke paints a guitar. A Somalian pirate has the top half of his body forcibly removed from the bottom half. Etc, etc, etc. Earlier this week I was talking to a friend of mine who derided me a bit for wanting to see this movie. "You really want to go watch those old men flail around for a couple of hours?" she said. I responded enthusiastically, which brought a sheepish grin and a "...yeah. Me too." You already know whether or not you'll like this movie. If you're like me, see the damn thing in a theater.

I take some exception to that. All I pre-reviewed, and I made this clear while doing so as well, was the impression of Scott Pilgrim from the people who were salivating over it in the early going of this thread. They made it sound like about the most unappealing thing possible for a gamer-targeted comic. This does not mean that it actually is, but what I was told sounded like that. It could be fine, but based on the recommendations here, I'm more pushed away from it than I am drawn to it.

Holy fuck Kolzig. Glad you're ok...