Dosed

I've only read the first novel. A Wizard of Earthsea I think it was. I actually quite enjoyed it, but unfortunately I was studying it at uni and it kind of killed any interest I had in the novel. I didn't even realise it was a series until you just mentioned it. Was the TV show any good? Funnily enough, I read The Left Hand of Darkness, also by Le Guin, while at uni and it was probably the novel that sparked my interest in Sci-Fi altogether. To this day it's still one of my favourite novels and I couldn't recommend it enough. Have you read anything else by Le Guin? Or The Left Hand of Darkness? It's just got such a fantastic sense of colour, atmosphere and the two main characters are simply brilliant. It's been a while since I read it, and I can't remember if the novel is particularly descriptive or not, but I remember having really vivid images of the scenarios playing out in my head.

I nearly gave up on it pretty early on too. There's some truly interesting bits that really got to me, especially some of the darker chapters later on. The novel seemed to really take a turn right near the end when every thing became super intimidating and pretty dark, but I could totally understand why you'd give up on it though. There was points where I read it and thought "Yup, I get it. Yup, I get it. Uh-huh, still getting it." There was no way that book needed to be as long as it was.

Having just finished Catch-22 I'd have to agree it's pretty funny at certain points, but at other times I just found the humour to be repetitious. I got the point that it was supposed to be about the madness of warfare etc, but good God do those conversations go on needlessly to the point of killing the joke. Side note: the whole Nately's whore thing is just bull plop. I also have to recommend some Vonnegut, I recently read Timequake, and while it seems like quite a polarizing book judging by Good Reads comments, I thought it was really funny. It's essentially a nostalgic trip through Kurt Vonnegut's life with a semblance of a story chucked in so things don't get too serious. John Dies at the End also turned out to be funny in a gross-out-dick-joke kind of way. I'd never even heard of Bizarro fiction, and normally the name of the genre would be enough to put me off, but I gave it a shot and really liked it. Also, DaveC, can you remember specifically what moment made you cry with laughter in Catch-22? Sadly, I don't think I've ever cried whilst laughing at a book.

This kind of reminds me of an email that was sent into GWJ in the vein of "can you dislike an artists work on the grounds that the artist him/herself is, for example, a known racist/generally being a cock". Which, again, reminds me of Tegan's posts (amongst others) in the H.P Lovecraft discussion that prompted me to look up the name of his cat, and boy did that piss me off. People can't help but talk about how tortured the development of Fez was, and how much of a stir Fish caused in the industry. Anyway, I never really disliked Phil Fish, I never even knew there was so much vitriol aimed at him until I watch Indie Game: The Movie. I find him truly fascinating, it seems like he's not totally equipped to handle all the fame his art has brought him, and that's really interesting to me because it's clear that failure would kill him, but in reality like with most pieces of art, a few critics on the internet would talk shit about him and then he'd be free to do whatever he wanted after that. Although I can't blame him because if I was ever thrusted to a status of equal fame I'd probably be so nervous of failing I'd never release anything and flip out too. I doubt he'll totally leave the gaming industry, or even fully drop Fez II.

There there was a set up for a classic "Nick Breckon Baby Games" goof, much like in the last episode they missed out on a "No Love for Dad" goof setup. I'm beginning to think they know exactly what they're doing, and it kills me. You sick bastards. Does anyone else know which point I'm talking about? It was somewhere when Nick was talking about making some game easier. Don't blame me for not being able to remember. I only listened to it today so I can't be expected to remember. Vague post is vague.

Nah, but this is pretty dope though I just couldn't think of any other relevant thread. Also the music in the video aboard just creeps me out. How can anybody watch this and not have the jarring effect of imagining these flying shapes of death murdering everyone juxtapose to the soft upbeat piano music? Also: I attempted to embed the video an embarrassing amount of times and couldn't get it to work :| pro tipz plz?

D:

I'm not sure how many German Thumbs are living on the forums but I'm currently travelling around Deutschland at the moment. I'm near Chemnitz and I'm hoping to go visit a place near Berlin within the next week or so. Has anyone got any sights I should definitely go see? Any districts I should definitely check out? Any restaurants it would be a crime to miss out on?

Hmmmm... I definitely think hurling an animal down a set of stairs is a bit excessive. Although, if I was in his position I probably would have attempted to pick the raccoon up and then just sort of panicked and not know where to throw it. Still though I think I would have got a broom handle or something and try to pry the raccoon off the dog.

I really like these forums in particular because it's just the perfect size. There's not a fuck tonne of posts being churned out constantly, and you know that your new topic/post won't just be instantly buried under a mountain of shit instantly. On the other hand, there's also just the right amount of activity that you know you can return in a couple of hours and have thoughtful and well constructed replies to posts. I also just find the topics in general interesting, there's a load of posts that I follow on these forums but I have no interest in actually posting in them, I just like to see what's going on. The fact that the Thumbs also occasionally pop in threads is nice too, you actually interact with the people that you have a weird shrine made from discarde----... urmmmmm... sorry, I mean interact with the people you listen to every week. I've not have much interaction with many other forums. I hate to say this but I was oddly semi-famous on my old WoW server because of my forum activity, people would message me in game to either abuse me or say hi depending on whether they liked me or not. I also used to take part in the Escapist forums but it's pretty intimidating seeing people with like 14000 posts, it just seems like whatever you've got to say will disappear.

It's ok Chris we forgive you. This one time. It was the Van Man that did the spoiling anyway. I know you're joking here but when my laptop which this episode is stored on inevitably stops working/is obliterated in the heat death of the universe I will be suddenly, and genuinely upset, knowing that I lost the original version of the episode. What does that say about me? A lot unfortunately. This made me the saddest. It was wide open and the Thumbs probably knew it too, you teasing bastards!

Now that's just cheating...

First of all welcome to the forums, I think you'll like it here. Secondly XCOM:EU is just fantastic. If you like any semblance of strategy in your games then you're gonna like it. I've actually resorted to playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance while I travel as a surrogate XCOM experience. Btw, does anyone know what XCOM actually stands for? Is it an acronym? Or have I just let my stupid show and it's really obvious, or in fact stands for nothing?

Yeah, there's not actually much more that I want. I was torn on buying Skyrim Ultimate/Fall Out:NV Ultimate (just for the mods etc) but I've probably put about 150+ in both of them already combined on the PS3 so I thought better of it. I managed to get most of the really cheap indie games/mega discounted games that I wanted already so I don't think I'll pick much else up. Rogue Legacy is the only thing that I'm keeping my eye on, unless something really surprises me.

What exactly is Comedy Bang Bang? I've been tempted to listen to it but I've got another 100 episodes of mbmbam to go. I've actually begun taking down notes in an email draft of my favourite parts of mbmbam so I can go back and listen to them again. It's also handy for showing other people the podcast and converting them into faithful followers.

To my sorrow or my gift? You're using your words to confuse my emotions. It hurts.

Whoever it was that recommended My Brother, My Brother And Me I have one thing to say to you. Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you. It's fucking genius, I've been listening to it constantly for about a week now and I'm already back down to episode 100, and I have no plans on stopping before I reach episode 1. I've been working in some pretty precarious places recently, like high up on ladders or home made scaffolding, and the Brothers Three have just made it even more dangerous as I almost cry with laughter trying not to fall to my death. Zeus, I think Giant Bomb just has fantastic chemistry, and I personally think it's incredibly funny. Although, I have listened to the memorial episode I just can't seem to bring my self to listen to their latest episode. I just feel sad any time I think about even trying to listen to it.

What possesses these people to not only make such potentially evil kill bots, but also to demo their creation with equally disturbing music? The bit where it swivels it's wrists around while some sort of rave music blares in the background just seems like it was made for our future selves to look back and think "How did they not see this coming?" as they murder and eat each other.

I hate to be this guy but boy howdy did The Walking Dead get spoiled for me. I know it's been out a while and I've had it for months now and never got passed episode 1 so I didn't mind too much, but I'm normally pretty good at avoiding spoilers altogether. Just a warning for those out there who (for some ungodly reason) post/read in the thread before listening to the episode The Walking Dead gets spoiled when they start talking about Steam trading cards. And, just for the record, I don't want this post to sound bitter or pissy because I actually didn't mind too much, it really annoys me sometimes when podcasts dance around games that have been out for months to avoid spoilers and I just sit there screaming "IT'S BEEN OUT FOR 56 YEARS, JUST TALK ABOUT IT ALREADY. TOUGH COOKIES TO EVERYONE WHO HASN'T PLAYED IT YET."

I really want this to be true. So if you've lied I hope you feel about it, and you know you will have made a grown man very sad.

Well I just bought Saints Row: The Third mainly because it was a huge discount. The psychology behind the Steam sales really does just get me every time. "We know you probably won't play this game. Ever. But look how deliciously, deliciously cheap it is..." Side note: I just checked out my Steam profile and it turns out I've been using Steam for 9 years?! Which means in October I'll have had a Steam account for 10 years. That just seems really weird to me. It also says I had 50+ games in October 2003 which is just entirely impossible because I only had CS:Source and Half Life :S

Yeah, I don't think they'll be worth a massive chunk of change.. but I'm hoping they'll be worth at least 4 times as much and if I manage to get 10 of those cards then that's a fair bit of money which will help me eat into a new game eventually.

Isn't anyone else holding on to there cards so they can sell them later on for a bit of a higher price? Surely when the sale ends the cards will dozentiple (not an actual quantity) in value, right?

On the topic of book stores there's a really nice one in York (in the UK) with a shop front about 9ft wide so it seems really small from the outside, but opens up Narnia style on the inside and there's just a fucking bunch of rooms every which way. All the corridors are different heights and widths so it's got a very unique York charm to it, and they always have newly printed books for £3-4 which rotate on a fortnightly (ish) basis so there's always a good deal in there somewhere. That book shop was the reason I had such a big back catalog of classic books to read because they'd always have writers like Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and Bradbury on offer and I just couldn't refuse their sweet sweet delicious savings.

I'm kind of tempted to pick up RPG-Maker even though I know I'd probably get fed up at attempting to make any thing and just give it up... but it's a saving of like £35 so it's super duper tempting. Anyone got any information on whether this a good idea or not?