Wrestlevania

He was very different to begin with, understandably. I would imagine most people would be after crashing a rocket car doing ~100mph. He's back his cheese-mongering, Housewive's Favourite best though. Only difference now is his hair has become more stupid.

Precisely. The very worst, though, are his "this is quite good, and this isn't quite as good as it should be. So, basically, it's OK. Ish. Sort of." ~fade to black~ Can't seem to handle shades of grey, or is edited in such a way that the grey's filtered out largely. This, again - along with the audience grooming - is further indication of how the programme has changed since it originally restarted. It's gone from being a decently-written, sexless journal to a tabloid-lauding lad's mag.

I'm an insufferable petrol-head (ask any Thumb who's joined in our regular Forza 3 sessions on Wednesdays) but I find Top Gear stilted and fake to the point of being irritating in the extreme. "New" Top Gear started well for the first half-dozen series' a few years back. But then it seems that either their budget was slashed, or - more likely - key members of the original team responsible left the show. The formula is now so tired I've not even bothered watching the last three series. Which is tortuous in itself, because they still produce amazing footage at times, when reviewing/demo'ing a new car or out on one of their entirely fake races somewhere interesting. It's just the sham "news" stuff, and the fucking interviews! Same shit, different-yet-deliberately crappy shirts, stupid hair and fake, clearly planned jokes/interruptions. Every. Single. Week. It's unbearable.

For the newer Steam-powered Thumbs (welcome!) I add stuff to the Idle Thumbs Steam Community calendar - both for Steam and Xbox Live - so have a look in there for upcoming events. TF2 this Thursday!

Definitely up for some racing tonight, having rebuilt my humble Formula Thumb Abarth 500 in preparation!

Watched The Wolfman earlier in the week; really quite disappointing, mostly because of the completely unconvincing use of CGI for anything other than creature faces. The acting seemed remarkably lazy and rote from all involved, too, with no memorable lines of dialogue or particularly interesting exchanges between any of the characters. However, I have to mention the incredible cinematography throughout the first half of the film. The larger still shots in places are literally breath-taking, so full credit to Shelly Johnson for making something at least worth seeing the film for. Seriously, I'd watch it just for these shots--especially if you've got Blu-ray and a big screen to view it on.

Belated best, Dan.

Not comical, merely Fucking Cool*: dMBXyp_tDio Pleasing Factoid: This was filmed on a street not too far from where I'm typing this now... * In my modest opinion; it makes the hairs on my arms stand up every time I listen to it.

Crap, so many birthday wishes missed. I am a bad Thumb. Much-belated happy returns to 'peel, Hermie and Thrik.

Yup. Can't beat a headshot.

I Hate Mountains looks like it has potential, although it does seem a bit up its own arse (to use the technical nomenclature). Have to wonder about launching it for both engines (L4D, L4D2) at the same time though. I'm not sure maps can be that portable, myself, given how contrasting the two games are in terms of pacing and so forth. Interesting to see if it works, regardless. Hope so, cus it shore is purdy if nothing else.

*bump* Another game I collected as part of the Humble Indie Bundle. And I think I really need to get over my deep-seated aversion to puzzle games, because World of Goo is a thing of wonderment. I played and completed the first chapter in one sitting last night; unheard of for me, particularly with puzzle games. And - bar the slightly obscure hints for completing the last level - I was completely mesmerised throughout. Went to bed dreaming of goo blobs, and can not wait to play more of it tonight.

Yeah, kids today...

My poxy 1Mbit "straw" might have sucked down all the necessary bytes by then if I set it running tonight... So can't promise, but certainly intend to be there!

God of War: Demonic High-Tops Edition GDMUj8jVlr4 I thought Bamco had cancelled this outright, not taken it back in-house. Regardless, looks like the traditional scrolling beat 'em up is truly dead. Probably should stop playing Streets of Rage 2 on Xbox Live as well.

Bit of a kick in the balls for the developers though...

So... can I get a fake Rolex wedding dress made out of WoW gold yet?

Dragging the conversation back a few pages, I double-dipped on the bundle copy of Samarost2. But with good reason... I habitually download, install and then instantly delete stuff upon setup finishing -- bit of a virtual tidy freak. But in this instance I didn't mean to and wanted to keep a complete local backup of the bundle on a spare 1GB memory stick. So I downloaded Samarost2 for a second time. However, if the distributors are counting double- and triple-dipping as illegitimate that's a very tenuous link to "piracy" in my opinion. Stealing stuff via being let in through the front door seems too bare-faced to me, but then maybe I'm assuming too much of your average pirate..? Anyway, I was searching Thumbs for tips/comments on Penumbra when I found this thread (it's not running quite right on my machine). Regardless, I didn't pay very much for the Humble Bundle, but I'm still very glad I did; all the games have been in my Must Play backlog since reading about them at places like TIG Source and so on. Aquaria is wonderful in its aural and visual composition and, even though it's glitching slightly, Penumbra's already scared the shit out of me in the first 10 minutes of play. Looking forward to trying Gish and World of Goo as well, and my wife was intrigued by the unusual style of Samarost2 in the couple of minutes I fired it up for a brief look. The only game I'm not sold on is Lugaru, which has sounded a bit odd and looked kind of clunky right from the beginning to me. Still, Wolfire seem like a talented lot, so I'm not passing judgement until I've fired it up and played it proper myself. Anyone up for a knock about some time?

Had a fun knock-about for a couple of hours with Patters and n0wak last night, cheers guys. Definitely think I'm starting to get better. Pulling off some of the more instantaneous counters is starting to come more naturally - even automatically on a couple of jucier moments last night - which is really satisfying. Long way to go, but it was a lot of fun none-the-less. And speaking of annoying, unpredictable characters, I was genuinely surprised playing as Blanka last night; a charge character I can actually get on with quite well. I've been ignoring Dhalsim for too long as well.

Defecting mother-...

New Villager remind me a bit of MGMT and Neon Neon. Huge fan of electronic music myself, particularly Progressive. I share some of my favourite stuff via my Blip.fm station if you're interested.

If I can make it with an ice-cream truck...

One for the music fans. This is how Radiohead get down in their basement... DuUfSOKyhWQ

A sight for medical eyes and no-one else, I fear.

Having successfully used the Pringles mod on one of my 360 pads, I still wasn't happy with it for SSFIV. Fortunately, the MadCatz pad I ordered last weekend turned up yesterday and, so far (only an hour or so's testing), the game is a lot more fun for me now. So, if anyone fancies beating the snot out of a pun-filled punchbag, hit me up on Xbox Live some time. I need to work on my Sagat and Gouken. Are we going to get a regular night going, though? Patters, n0wak and myself had a knock-about last week and it was much fun. And the new lobby system is a gajillion miles better than the old Xbox Live Party round-robin approach of the previous version.