bistromathics

Rocky and Bullwinkle did this first "The Kane of Lynch" or "This Crazy Robot" or "Rock the Mouse" Lengthy discussions abound in this cast-and-a-half. We go off on the experiences unique to shorter, tighter games, the dying art of an equal player vs CPU ruleset, the American Civil War, and what it really feels like being the king. Plus: More video game dreams. Games Discussed: Trine, King's Bounty, Call of Juarez, Trine, GUN, Civilization IV, Trine, Civilization Revolution, Far Cry 2

Hey guys, I'm about to finally give neptune's pride a shot, as I'm pretty sure I now know enough people IRL to get in on this sort of game. I paid for an account so I can make private games, but I'm not really sure how to start the invite process. I get a link to the game I created with 8 slots and it gives me a link to send out to people. The wording makes it sounds like the game has to be full in order to start, though. Would there be any way to start the game if only 6 of my friends and co-workers agree to play? I really wish I could invite a list of emails to the game, and then they could make like a temporary guest name to join the match. My plan now is to send out a group email with a brief elevator pitch, a disclaimer that I cannot vouch for this game personally but that i've heard good things, and then a link to the private game i've already created. It's a tougher sell if I have to get everyone to join up in advance via a hype email, then wait to see who actually bites, then create the game for the appropriate number of people, then send out another email with the URL.

i was going to go to PAX east, but some stuff came up and I won't be able to make it have fun, all

i hooked my iphone up to wifi for the first time and listened to the podcast in proper ipod (as opposed to quicktime streaming the mp3). I heard the podcast in 2x navigation mode and everyone sounded EXTREMELY enthused about everything. btw i was using 2x mode to skip remo's Just Cause 2 stuff - although I went back to 1x soon b/c as usual for idle thumbs, the convo expanded beyond "I LIKE THIS GAME" and steve's gta4 interjection started a good thread of discussion. I played Just Cause 1 a few months ago to get hype for the sequel, but the recent demo turned it into a 'no-buy' for me. In the first game, traversal was handled by grappling vehicles and parasailing behind them. You could extend or retract the line of your grapple and just float really high above the world. It seems like they added a lot of neat stuff for the sequel, but I hated the new method of traversal so much (grapple ground, grapple ground, grapple ground) and was not even allowed to parasail if i wanted to (grappling vehicles seemed to just zip you onto them now). I was on the metro 2033 fence, but will definitely get it now - at the very least during a sale. And chris's SC2 stuff sounds like me and SF4; i'd never played a fighting game before it and am now playing at (or at least understanding at) a fairly high level. I think it is just the nature of competitive gaming.

Recently, my older sister passed away. I have mostly avoided thinking about it since finding out, but the grief has hit me very hard after stumbling onto an article about it today (I was just trying to confirm my mom's address with a google search ). Seeing the big smiley photo really got to me and I have not been feeling so great for the last 4 or 5 hours. Talking to my younger sister about how sad I was feeling and how hard it was to think about anything else, she gave me the advice to just let it take over for a while and eventually try and distract myself with a funny movie. Unable to come up with any movie ideas, I decided to check idlethumbs.net. And what do you know, a new cast! Thanks guys! fake edit: Sorry to lay my trip on a forum I barely frequent...I really just came to say 'Thanks guys!' and got a bit carried away.

or don't o_O is it worth listening to the whole pcgamer podcast for top secret idle thumbs news?

dpp i got 1 key left, if you pm me your email i'll hook you up with an invite

if any other thumbs are interested, i got some spare keys to give away my pvp.net name is 'bistromathics', btw.

Just got laid off at Cisco. My manager said 1300 others did as well ;_; Not sure if I'm glad or not...wasn't too happy w/ the project I was working on, but the job market is, well...

lol how about a link to the old idle thumbs e3 video feat. jake allard that you mentioned.

haha

on second thought, i'll finish up the game first. i've only got 3 chapters left

oh man, i finally got this and played 2 of the char last night. i like seeing something so different, but i'm not completely sure how to internalize it yet. wanted to read some more impressions. maybe another perspective before playing some more of the characters. i'm glad i picked this game up so lttp, because i forgot anything i had read or heard about it before, so i got to play it without any presumptions.

Why is the frowny face emoticon a character from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?

I would like to listen to this but I actually have to work, as opposed to just pretending to do so

Lol damn. Now I'm wondering how many credit card numbers i've provided for the fine people of paypaI.com

By whom? Don't let members of fanfiction.net set your expectations.

I am a sucker for this style. I will see this movie.

"The Netherlands confirms its first case of zombie swine flu, in a three-year-old boy recently returned from Mexico. After passing away early this morning, he rose from the dead and lunged at his mother." Wha??

Yeah I agree with that. I never go into rpgs thinking I'll finish them, so its no sweat to me that the stories are all garbage.

I ignored everybody's hard SF recommendations and ordered red, blue, and green mars instead. As an aside, I got a copy of "Masters of Doom" on friday. Read a little over half of it so far, and I give it my seal of approval. I'm not super-well read, though, so I'm not sure how far that recommendation goes. If you like biographies and like games and like e-drama, maybe you will like this book as well.

Again, I feel like I must interject with a firm "you're doing it wrong". I thought it was obvious that it's the leveling/battling mechanics that made these games stand out. Apparently I am alone in this opinion. I found 12 very interesting. More and more people are complaining about menu-driven turnbased rpgs, and square's solution in 12 is the most innovative solution i've seen to that. Personally I'd much rather have a menu-driven system if it means I get control over my whole party (as opposed to one of the characters in my party). This is what i'm interested in with 13. It seems like they are trying to make it more action-oriented, while still giving the player control over all party members. After seeing 12, I am under the impression that square is trying harder than any other jrpg devs to find a comfortable balance between action and turnbased rpgs.

Any good hard sci-fi recommendations? I checked out the trailer for Moon which put me in the mood for some.

What was this site? I saw the post this morning, but decided against clicking the link while at work.