Wrestlevania

Good to know, but it was still a pretty nasty and insidious thing to do. Unofficial or not, no admin has the right to abuse fair and decent players on their servers. I was also wondering if there was a way you could look up recent servers so I could report this one. But I guess you can't, which seems like a glaring oversight when you actually need it for something serious like this. Anyway, never had anything like this happen before in however many years of playing the game. So hopefully it was a one-off.

I had no idea you could break into spaces using gunfire! Good to know. And yep, the armo(u)r is essential. It's only 4 cans per plate, which isn't too bad. But I didn't know scoffing canned meat could push your health over 100! Excellent tip. I'd forgotten about the personal teleporter though, even though I've used one once a long time ago. I think some of the weapons are a dead loss to begin with, to be honest, and not worth crafting in the first instance. The autopistol, for example, seems to just chew through ammo without being particularly effective or accurate. You're better off looking around for an assault rifle, as it packs a heavier punch and is more accurate over distance. If you need a short range rapid fire weapon, the basic nailgun seems to be a good choice--it's easy to make, reasonably accurate, and nails seem to be fairly common from game to game. Need to get crafting...

This. Also hate it. Tell me what you've done to my game, dammit! Anyway: iPAD GAMING.

Oh cool, not seen a baddie like that yet! There was a terrifying octopus robot thing in one of the early gameplay trailers, not looking forward to disturbing one of those... Best monster experience I've had so far was pressing a big red button in a warehouse space I'd wandered into, which instantly shut the doors and released two massive, dual minigun-wielding robots. I also died, of course. I take it you know how to spot secrets and then blow them open with explosives? So much to discover in this game! NB: You seem to get slightly smoother graphics if you go into 'Options' and change the 'Distortion' setting to vertex (assuming you haven't already).

Yep, I keep doing exactly the same thing. It's those pipes full of swarms that get me, even with a detector.

I still haven't beaten the game, but its lost none of its shine. So simple and yet there's detail and imagination in it everywhere. Totally recommended to anyone who likes shooters, sci-fi, or simply well crafted and atmospheric games.

Lots of fun again, and twelve people must be a record surely? Properly chaotic, as it should be. Shall we go for Monday next week? Left 4 Thumbs will definitely be happening this Sunday - it's been on hold for the last couple of weekends - so I don't want to cross over the two events if possible. What say you all?!

Very much looking forward to more mayhem.

I think the bias is swinging more towards the weekend at the moment, so lets try this Sunday at 8pm BST (usually when we play Left 4 Thumbs). I'll update the Thumbs Steam Calendar to make deciphering what time that is locally a bit easier.

That's really interesting about the head turning thing. When I accidentally discovered the head-turn key in DayZ, I immediately though of the Rift and how much better a tense survival game like that might be. Everything's so dependent on space and observation, my assumption is that Rift would add a huge amount to a game like that. This is something else I've been thinking about a lot* regarding Rift, too. I guess something like Metroid Prime's projection map-like holographic HUD might work, as it curves naturally around the edges of your view. I really, really want one of these, but I'm worried it's never going to be cheap enough to justify buying one. If I do somehow manage to scrape together enough money for a new chunk of hardware, it's definitely going on one of these over Yet Another Console. It might just be wishful thinking, but there seems to be a steady increase in mentions from different projects and developers regarding Rift integration over the last few months. * My day job is interface and interaction design.

I was on the cusp of posting the next event for the same time next Monday, but wasn't sure how many people could make it... so I didn't. I guess if it works for the majority then that's cool? Speaking selfishly, weekends are no good for me unless we start running it at the same time (8pm BST) as Left 4 Thumbs..? But that seems somewhat counterproductive.

Cool, I'm all set up in Mumble. T-minus 2hrs 25mins!

Skype then? I don't care either way. Also, I expect we'll need to add each other on GfWL before we can play as well. For maximum cunning, I'm Wrestlevania on both (sorry Miffy).

Racking my brains trying to remember all the different race ideas we came up with. Ice cream trucks and grenades only was, obviously, another highlight. And I seem to remember our regular scooter races quickly descending into flaming road blocks and physical violence onscreen. Oh, and Cops & Crooks rarely failed to leave anyone not screaming in panic at some point, too. Marvellous, just marvellous... will be installing Fraps especially to capture all the expected mayhems!

Hmm, Origin is saying the code's invalid--have I been too slow?

I've an urge - more a primal need, actually - to sate my long-dorment collectible card game (CCG) lust. The last game I played semi-seriously (and quite successfully) was the Aliens vs. Predator CCG at the end of the 90's, but I'd played a lot of Magic: The Gathering with friends before then and enjoyed that too. I'd really like to find a good online CCG to play now, and was wondering if anyone knew (would admit to knowing?) one that's worth trying out. Only stipulation is it must be free--at least to try. And browser-based too, idealy.

I've played it through a few times with some friends. It was fun, but I'm pretty much done with it.

Thanks, Thumbs! You remain fully awesome. We played Portal 2 and Diablo 3 when they came out, and had some fun with those. Portal was brilliant, but we both got bored of Diablo's overwrought story in the end. The lords management idea is a good one--hadn't considered that, and I've a fistful of unwanted Dota 2 invites still I think. Also the variety of characters and tactics will make up for the lack of story (we usually enjoy stuff with some kind of narrative progression). Horde mode games are an interesting one, too. Will have to have a look at that. Shame I just missed the Max Payne sale, but I'm sure it'll come round again soon enough. Magicka I've played a few hours of with a group of people, but it hasn't clicked for me. It just feels like busy-work and memory tests, rather than about having fun and pushing forward. EDF we've rinsed already, but I'm definitely up for some more, Miffy--and anyone else who'd like a blast! Lots of other great suggestions, thanks very much! It's good to know there's loads out there; I'm spoilt for choice already.

I've scheduled a game for later today (Sunday) in the Idle Thumbs Steam Group. Would be great to get a couple of 'Versus' games going again!

Awesome--hit me up if you see me online! I quite often play weeknights between 7pm and 11pm GMT.

Picked this up a couple of weeks ago on a whim and oh my... what a wonderful thing. Even if I'm kicking around the bottom of the table, I'm rarely having a bad time. So I have submitted my papers for inspection at HQ. Meanwhile: ADD ME.

Desura no good for you?

I've lost every character I've had to hacking incidents, either "grey quit" kills or random hacking events--the most spectacular being a hacker's stolen helicopter being dropped on me and my friends. We didn't steal it, but we had been - unknowingly - been playing alongside its owner, who was being very helpful in showing us around. He gave us a map and GPS, but nothing else. He also flew me from one side of the map to the middle to meet up with my friends, after I got killed trying to meet up with them previously. Anyway, we were all gathered together around this hacker's helicopter and chatting about the game, when he suddenly vanishes and exits the server. We didn't know what to do, so kept guard of his helicopter assuming he'd return imminently. Unfortunately, someone must have heard the helicopter earlier and managed to sneak past us and get into the pilot's seat. Just as the thief is beginning to take off, our hacker friend manages to log back in. By the time he spawns, the helicopter is lifting off and beginning to head off over the trees. Suddenly there's a loud bang, then silence, and then we're all squashed flat as the helicopter just drops straight out of the sky on top of us, killing everyone. The last thing we heard was presumably the thief, over voice comms, saying, "Dude... did you really just do that?" Fade to black. That's probably the best hacker incident I've encountered so far. But more often than not, it's that shitty "grey quit" hack that instantly kills your character and locks the game the moment you hit Esc. The sooner the standalone version is released, with proper instanced server-controlled architecture, the better. This sort of lame client-side hacking crap is really killing my passion for what is otherwise a fantastic experience.

If you die, that's it--you have to start a new adventure, which is probably the most Roguelike aspect of the game. I don't consider this a bad thing, however; it heightens the tension, and increases your focus. It's also a good excuse to explore more, and experiment with the weapons.