Wrestlevania

Finally got around to buying Insect Armageddon on Steam yesterday and playing for a few hours last night with Denial and StaticKitten. I'd forgotten how EDF ramps up as an experience. The initial hour or so feels light, arbitrary--like Space Invaders done in 3D (who remembers Rage Software's Incoming then?). But as we progressed towards the end of the first chapter - five stages in total - we began unlocking some much more interesting weaponry, and fighting a greater variety of more challenging enemies. By the colossal boss battle at the end of chapter 1, we'd all been won over by EDF's mix of chaos and customisation I think. It's not going to be for everyone, but if you like shooting stuff with a couple of friends, and can give it an hour or so to warm up and show you what it could do, I think you'll have a lot of fun with Insect Armageddon. To that end, I've setup regular Sunday games of Insect Armageddon on the Idle Thumbs' Steam calendar throughout March (you'll need to click forward in the calendar widget to see them). Would be great to get more Thumbs involved.

All my character seemed to have on him was a battery-powered torch. I didn’t even try my inventory via the mouse wheel or number keys—there seemed absolutely no reason to, nor context where it would be necessary.

I decided to expose and accept the limitations imposed on me, as a player character, very early on. Maybe it's because I'd read just enough about Dear Esther to know that it was something out of the ordinary and not meant to be experienced like a typical FPS. I thought, "the designers must be limiting me for a reason, so I'll go with it and see where they take me." As the core motivation for the player character slowly became apparent, it seemed obvious to me why you can't run or bunny-hop . Why would you even want to? Wouldn't it be fair to say, if you were allowed to do these things, that the game would be guilty of trivialising it's subject matter?

I've just played it through in a single sitting, having nothing better to do on a Friday night. And you know what? I loved it. I'm dismayed at so many people who must be trudging through this constantly chanting to themselves, "it's the Half-Life engine, it's the Half-Life engine," apparently with their fingers in their imagination's ears. There are some really trite, short-sighted criticisms being spewed about this as well, such as the vegetation being two-dimensional (as in the RPS unreview). Really? That's the best you can come up with as critical appraisal of something? "Shoe-gazing" in its most literal sense. Suspension of disbelief is one thing; constantly driving around in your mind's eye in a giant pedantic bulldozer quite another. I really am stunned at just how many people apparently can't just get over themselves - or the tropes of a withered husk of a genre - and just allow themselves to be absorbed into a small group's creative vision. I think Dear Esther is something quite unique and special--something to be treasured and applauded. And I'm very glad I gave them some financial encouragement to do more.

Wizardstarter

This is mesmerising, like a living 'negative' image... aIX3ntiTV-g

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Happy birthday, Doug.

Format-wise, I don't own the game as yet. But it's something I've really wanted to try for ages. I'll get it on PC if you already have it. It's pretty cheap on Steam too.

Aw, cheers mate. I've been missing the multiplayer too--especially the big GTA4 rampages we used to have. It just felt like it was becoming more complicated to organise cross-continent, and that the games were stagnating for people.

For no other reason than I couldn’t find it here already with a quick, lazy search. Without further ado: YATTA! rW6M8D41ZWU

Dudes. I have had home-cooked steak and just watched my new Drive Blu-ray – a very good day. Aw, I was your first time?! I look forward very much to L4D3 being confirmed any day now for further Thumbing fun! (I’m shit at most other multiplayers.) Yes sir, any day now… Just you watch; any minute now…

As long as the core experience is consistent and fair, there's no issue. If everyone can get to a decently high level at the same speed, then fair enough. If you're that invested in the game by that point, then pay to go higher or don't pay and stay around the middle of the game. It's when the developers deliberately and massively retard your progress unless you cough up that pisses me off. [see the abysmal APB Reloaded system]

Whoop, the closed beta was just announced! ...but the official launch date for the finished game is December?! Anyway, you can sign up here. And yep, this is my personal referrer link - it should help improve our chances of getting into the closed beta if we sign up as a team.

Very much agree; it looks fairly typical of an FPS, but it's much more interesting than I expected. Great environments and varied gameplay, and the guns are meaty.

Having left the game alone for a while ("ridiculous second boss is ridiculous"), I finally got around to completing Deus Ex: Human Revolution this week while I'm off work caring for my wife post-op. I can see why it was well-regarded, given the amount of careful design and polish put into the gameplay systems as well as the environments and so forth. But, beyond the superficial stuff, the game wasn't exceptional in my opinion. Even discounting the boss battle nonsense, DEHR felt repetitive and even a bit bland at times. I did mix up my approach to gameplay, specialising in hacking early on, plus sneaking around and using the silenced pistol a lot. I didn't really use the takedowns until much later in the game, once I felt more confident with how things worked; I'm not a big fan of stealth games usually, as I tend to be as clumsy in them as I am in real life. I liked upgrading the guns, but didn't really enjoy firing them all that much; they felt a bit flat and disconnected. The stealth system was good - mainly, in my opinion, because the AI was excellent - but I didn't buy this only for the stealth element, as I enjoy gunplay and the hacking stuff more. Speaking of hacking, once I got my head around how hacking worked, I enjoyed the sense of risk the hacking mini-game creates. I also liked upgrading Jenson and getting tactile feedback in-game with new or enhanced abilities. Overall I'm glad I finished it, but it's not a Must-Play in my book. The music is fucking brilliant, mind, and the characterisations and voice acting were much better than I was expecting.

I've never watched Community, but I think it might be time to start (even if it might be too late): ebuYMnY289Q PS: This only works if you've watched at least 90 seconds of Glee.

Forza Motorsport 3 Wednesdays (1pm MT / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT) After last week's riotous - if not slightly random - opening night, I've been giving some thought to how we can make Formula Thumb into a decent, organised race event every week. Primarily, it would be great to have a few set classes to race every week so we can get a decent garage each and race more competitively. At the moment, I've nothing firm in mind, except maybe we should have an official "Formula Thumb Cup" car perhaps? I'd like to nominate an E-class Abarth 500 as our official car; not too slow, but not stupidly quick and also a lot of fun to race in. Keeps things close and fun! What do others think? I'll update this post with details of the sorts of class races we want to do each week. No-one seemed bothered about going higher than R3 last week, which is fine with me! My current thoughts on fun, regular class races are as follows: E-class - Formula Thumb Cup - Super Minis (would include anything from Abarth 500s to the humble Toyota Yaris) D-class - Hillclimb & Urban - Imprezza/Evo face-off - Vintage racers (<1980) C-class - Tuned production - Truck/SUV face-off B-class - Short track - Drift series A-class - Stock car R3 - Supercar / high-performance road car grand prix 'F in the A' - Take any F-class car and Frankenstein it into A-class I'd like other class nominations and race type suggestions from other racers, please!

Right, so, Forza Motorsport 4's been out for a couple of weeks now (ish), so who'd be up for some reg'lar racing with other Thumbs once more? We used to hold these on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, 3pm EST / 8pm GMT / 9pm CET. Of course, as the Thumbs massive generally seems to be off it's collective arse and earning a crust nowadays, the mid-afternoon type approach on a weekday is going to be awkward for you non-European types. None-the-less, the FM3-based nights are some of my fondest multiplayer memories. So it'd be extra splendid if we could organise an afternoon/night that's most convenient for those interested. So here be a Doodle, for sorting out the best day for the most people. A/S/L please.

Given GTA IV is stupidly cheap on Steam this weekend, would anyone be interested in resurrecting Grand Thumb Auto--this time on PC? We might even be able to get some fruity modness happening.

You underestimate the Thumb... This is still on my 'To Play' list, but has never been in stock when I visited a local store to get it second-hand. Good to know people are still coming to it and finding it a lot of fun; will have to make an effort to find this online.

A belated "MUCH WIN!" to you.

...wow!

Tis!