Garple

One of the thumbs finally posts! So you have been reading this stuff. Have you guys thought at all about what happens from here. I'm not trying to act like you're obligated to keep entertaining us. Obviously, you provided a free service and we have no right to do anything but appreciate your time and effort, but it became something so special. It's like the fact that the Beatles came together. Just some one in a million alignment that worked perfectly. Now it feels, to me, like someone just broke up with me. I keep hearing montages in my head of all the moments that made thumbs what it was with soft piano music in the background. I don't know if you guys realized how much the podcast meant to us...or if we even realized it (we probably took it for granted until now). But now, we're all reflecting on how much it meant. I listened to every episode many times...and it was like I knew you guys. Listening to podcasts is the thing that alleviates my extreme loneliness and makes me feel like I'm part of some kind of gamer community even though I don't really have friends who are into games in real life. Won't you guys miss doing the podcast? Sorry to get all emotional...

Any chance of the Blurst games running on a laptop w/ an integrated graphics card?

I wonder if Bethesda knows that the Fallout of their hiring Nick includes the Idle Thumbs podcast fading into Oblivion.

Oh. The lag is a bummer. As far as picking stuff up: I'm 90 percent sure that money and ammo are evenly distributed among all players when one of them picks it up, which is a pretty great system. The guns are a bit more of a hairy situation...but I know I'm certainly not someone who gets petty over that sort of thing. If I miss out on a cool gun, I know another cool one will come along.

Sorry about our attempted session. What happened? Did you start experiencing crazy lag? Sorry I started dying all the time. I had never done a misson before in such a close quarters interior environment. Plus, I was drinking beer the whole time...so my concentration was lessening by the minute.

Oh SNAP! I didn't realize I was watching an episode of Mr. Tech Gets Technical .

Yeah...at least that usually means more presents.

More like 55-WIZARDOFF...amirite? I'm just bought Diablo II and plan to play through it in honor of the thumbs.

I'm in Massachusetts, so I'm only a couple hours ahead of you, right?

Strummer521.

Gamertags please, Gentlemen. Mine's Strummer521.

The Xbox 360 version of Risen was pushed back to 2010. Maybe it will be a better port when it comes out (I assume the main skew is PC).

Ironically, I was in the opposite surprise situation from the one described on the podcast. I'd heard so much about the RTS aspect of the game, that I was expecting that was the main part of the game. Now that I know that's not the case, I actually want to play this.

YES!

Think God of War meets Dead Space in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And then imagine that the wasteland is actually something you're experiencing through a virtual reality helmet in 2029. And then you take the helmet off and put on your TimeDonkey time-helmet and go back to 2009, and then you play borderlands, and you're like..."this is sort of like Fallout 3...but stripped down in terms of detail, much lighter in tone...and mechanically maybe more fluid and less clunky."

Picked up my preorder and have played maybe an hour. I don't want to say yet what I think (it's honestly too early to tell). But I want to comment on how damn derivative it is in certain ways. I haven't listened to the most recent podcast yet, so forgive me if the thumbs already said this stuff. But there's a bus driver in the beginning who's exactly like a fatter version of Roman Bellic (Belic?) from GTA IV. He has a bobblehead of himself...which is just weird. He even has the same accent as Roman. That's right...he sounds Eastern European, for no reason I can think of (I'm half-convinced it's actually the same actor...but I'm probably wrong.). Next there's the guardian angel who is a fuzzy video of a young woman that you see in front of your face at specific times (Kortana (sp?) from Halo, anyone?). Also...The bandit guys that are all over the place have white masks that make them look a lot like the foot soldier guard dudes in Half-Life 2. I wonder how cognizant Gearbox was of all this stuff when they were making the game. So far...I kind of think Borderlands is to Fallout 3 what Fable II Was to Oblivion, if you know what I mean. That's not necessarily a bad thing, by the way.

I agree (mostly). the best game can be dethroned at any time. However, I don't think it's inevitable. Obviously, this is as subjective as anything, but I think a lot depends on how important you consider the underlying technology behind games in regard to their quality. Sure...open non-linear gameplay is now possible to an astounding degree...but none of those games (save, maybe, Fallout 3 or Fable II) come close to replicating the magic and wonderment I felt upon first playing in the world of A Link to the Past. That was the first game I ever played that made me feel like I was actually in a place rather than just manipulating a cartoon with a remote control. You can certainly argue that GTA IV is a better world than Link to the Past and I respect that argument...but you see my point, right? Games are about more than the technical possibilities. It's also about the genius of being able to figure out exactly what to do within the confines of the tech (see, Super Mario Bros. 3) and, although this is extremely rare, there are some games that do something that cannot simply be bested by a better version or sequel coming along. At least, in my opinion. Excellent . I remember thinking my dad was a genius because he could get games running in MS-Dos. The whole dedication story of yours reminds me of blowing into NES cartridges. Ah, back in the day, when starting the game was a game. Earl Weaver Baseball where you had to turn that wheel that was shaped and designed like a baseball (albeit, flat) to see all the numbers of the game's copy protection key...anyone? Sure, but you can't use it as a loophole...like trying to send a message to the outside world and get off the island. Dwight. Yes. You're missing Jon Cole's brain inside of your head. If you had that...you'd totally get it.

Absolutely. I think there's definitely something to be said for one's gut feeling when it comes to this sort of question. Maybe more so in regard to favorite game than best...but, nevertheless.

Fair enough. Also: No one is allowed to say... "I can't pick just one game etc..." The hypothetical premise is...if you HAD to pick...what would you choose.

Is that good or bad? It sounds kinda bad.

http://www.donkdj.com/remix/64744-Rolling-Stones-Paint-It-Black-donk-remix

Oh Shit!

I feel like such a stupid fanboy. But it seems that The Dark Knight can be watched an infinite number of times without losing its appeal.

I like KFC, but not as much as BK. I prefer NBC but will settle for ABC once in a while.

You guys...the two Smash Bros. Melee guys...it's one big party baby. I fall in with Jake as someone who loves video games, but is pretty bad at them (no offense, Jake).