Hermie

This, I find it so refreshing when a game decides to just stay within a certain setting, without the chronic need for saving the world. Just like Chris and Nick were saying when they were talking about how Mass Effect would be much more interesting if you just were Space Cop.

An acclaimed hard rock/metal vocalist. He first became widely known playing in Rainbow (with Ritchie Blackmore from Deep Purple), and then he replaced Ozzie as the vocalist for Black Sabbath. After that he formed his own band, Dio. If you know one song by him, it's probably .He recently toured again with Sabbath, but couldn't use the name, so they called themselves Heaven & Hell, after the first album Dio made with them.

Dog or Wizard? (11/16 for me. Sneaky wizards.) Related.

The game is Action Supercross/Elastomania, so looking at the games discussed, that makes it episode 40 (000), Nobody Beats The Blizz.

Dio has rocked! For a long, long time... ;___; Rest in peace, you crazy, tiny bastard!

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm doing SOMETHING at least. o/ (I think) Hopefully I will not get raepd too hard.

I've been resisting the urge to join because I should be doing more important things, but now I'm too curious. In. I'll be crushed by everyone who's played it before, though. o/

I've had a couple of trips like this, and the highlight as far as locations goes was definitely Brüssels, Belgium. An awesome city both aesthetically and culturally, and it instantly became my favourite, even though I only had a single day there. Belgian fries (must try), Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate, comic book murals, comic book museum, etc. etc. And most importantly, Belgian beer. Go into any store and find a "trappist" beer. This is one of seven types of beer that is each brewed exclusively at their own cloister by monks, with a recipe that has remained unchanged for centuries. Best beer I have ever had. I'm the kind of guy that hates the normal tourist attractions, so what I prefer is this: Find someone local who knows the area well (The clerk at whatever hostel you're staying at is perfect for this) and ask them what around here is something unique you should experience. You'll probably end up with way better memories than just "seeing the sights". Maybe you'll end up discovering an awesome local band? Maybe you'll find an unique dish or drink you've never even heard of? That trick works at restaurants too, and not just when traveling. When you work somewhere that serves food, you have tasted everything in there (I know I did), so by asking "well, what's YOUR favourite?" you can get some great stuff you normally wouldn't consider. :3

Play Portal. Also, Torchlight is half price on steam again. What are you still waiting for? (If you have a Mac, it's no longer a valid excuse.)

Seriously, how come so many landlords/ladies are dicks? I've had 4 apartments in as many years, and they've all been various degrees of douches. I thought my last guy was really okay, until I discovered that he turned the internet off at night, because of radiation. (!) The place I live now is temporary, and apparently that's a very good thing, because apparently they refused the tennants here new ovens in the winter, despite them asking again and again. They said the kitchen was at 8C at one point... I'll be moving again this summer, hopefully into an apartment owned by the student association.

Reading the blog post on the matter, he says that people are putting the download codes out on steam forums, 4chan and other places like them. That's why it's not unreasonable to assume a lot of the people who have downloaded it have done so without contributing. In addition, he has calculated the average download amount in MB from one IP address. I think a lot of people who downloaded it more than once, would do it from the same address, no? NOW WHO'S LAZY JOURNALISM?! (sorry)

Not only did they improve on it, they added crazy stuff like being able to build whole games. Trailer has kart racing, hamster racing, shooter, breakout clone, and all kinds of shit. And levels will be transferable from the first one. While I don't own a PS3, LBP is by far the game I've played the most with friends that have it, and watching the trailer got me pretty stoked for more. Also, Spaff's name is all over the Internet suddenly. Go Spaff!

That's just shitty. The head of Wolfire Games even published an article, explaining how the loss from piracy is much less than the game companies tout, and how instead they have had great success by just offering up awesome games at a low price without hassle. Way to prove him wrong.

I like The Guild too. ^^ You should watch season 3, Patters, it has Wil Wheaton as a douchebag guild leader. :3

I take Film Studies myself, and I also catch myself constantly thinking about how the history, aesthetics and theories apply or don't apply to video games. I'm still in the first year, so we don't have a lot of open assignments, usually just a film analysis, so I haven't been able to sneak in anything like that yet. We had a lecture on Asian film yesterday though, and the teacher had a few slides dedicated to anime, and showed us a clip from Paprika. :3

"Only Cold Steel put it's sword, where it's mouth is." That hardly seem practical.

Sadface. =\ no matter what you feel about the new art of MI, you have to respect the fact that they actually got made. As I understand it, that was this guy's doing, as well as letting Telltale use the license, getting the old adventure games on steam, making an actual fun SW game, and I can only assume he help in getting Old Republic happening. Apparently he came on as a fan of LA growing up? Either way, with the positive changes attributed to him, it's sad to see him go.

Idle Thumbs: Even the spambots are smarter than on your average forum.

Agreed with the fact that exploration pretty much IS the game. While the Random Anecdotes From When I Was Wandering Around are more scripted than f.ex. the stories of the Thumbs in Stalker and Far Cry 2, they are still really amusing, and there's enough of them that you will still have a lot of unique experiences. For example, I was wandering around the wasteland, when I found an abandoned grocery store. I go in, and see a pretty obvious trap, that I then disable, and I find a couple of grenades behind the counter. While I explore the rest, I see an unusual amount of cereal boxes, and then another step trap. Then I look up, and see a giant mallet fastened to the ceiling. Sneaking suspicion, followed by coy smile. I reload the autosave from before I enter the store, and this time I don't touch anything except the second steptrap. Sure enough, the mallet swings down, hitting the first of an entire row of cereal and laundry detergent boxes, knocking them down in a domino effect. The last one falls on the other trap, which then triggers another set of objects falling into eachother, until it culminates with dropping the grenades to the floor. Pause. Boom! Items go flying everywhere, and a little jingle plays. I still haven't talked to anyone else who has found this thing.

Wait, did you actually download it, or are you streaming from the iTunes Store? (To download it, click on the "free" button next to the cast, or the big one that says "subscribe free" to auto-download it)

Ron Gilbert stops by to give us a spanking. -(ign.com) (via Tim Schafers twitter.)

Uhm... Yeah. http://www.thegamingvault.com/2010/04/breaking-bungie-signs-a-10-year-publishing-deal-with-activision/ I guess most people have read about it everywhere already, but I still want the Thumbs' take on it. Personally, I was as shocked as anyone else, but after reading a bit, it does seem like Bungie has taken the necessary contractual precautions to avoid an Infinity Ward/Neversoft situation. I wrote about it here, in the last part. (Shameless plug, I know, but it was too long to quote. ><) TL/DR: It's only for publishing, Bungie still owns everything, it's only that one IP, and they spent 9 months negotiating it.

I've started using it too! It's a very nice replacement for the incredibly over-saturated "awesome" and "epic". As for Deathspank, I have heard enough about it that has made me really really want to play it (including the Thumbs' interview/random discussion with Ron Gilbert), so I'm not even bothering reading more coverage of it, I wanna go in fresh. ^^

Games == Art.

If he's betting that they will come out sooner, then I think you win that bet...