Gordy Freeman Jr.

Favorite Game: Baldur's Gate II. Other RPG's might have better writing (Planescape: Torment) or better combat systems (Temple of Elemental Evil) but BG2 is the most complete and all-around engrossing RPG I've ever played. Best Game: A tossup between X-Com: UFO Defense and Star Control 2. Desert Island Game: Civilization 4. I think there's a case to be made for Civ 4 as objectively the best choice, regardless of one's gaming tastes. No matter what you pick you're going to exploit all there is to exploit someday and get damn sick of it. I can't think of a game in which there are more ways to challenge oneself and have completely different experiences. And it will keep you cognitively and logically engaged in the process.

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Anachronox. If you don't mind the Final Fantasy-ish battle system and the Quake II engine graphics, then you're in for a game that's as cleverly written as the ole Lucasarts adventures.

While Idle Thumbs is always dense with hilarity, I think Jake's "We only had the guts to mo-cap sex one time!" in cracked teenager voice is probably the first time I've actually had to pause the podcast to compose myself. I had a really similar experience to Chris in Odious Tea with the hunters, and the whole thing played out in a really nifty action-horror movie way. I had no idea they could even fit into the building doorways so I thought I'd be safe inside until I turned around once and was literally face-to-face with one. So I panicked and did the stupid horror movie thing and reflexively ran upstairs. Only I didn't have an escape window but rather found myself in a small room that luckily had a shotgun and some flame grenades in it. So I was pretty much forced to throw down with the fucker in this dark, confined space where my primary light sources were muzzle flashes and the glowy bits on the hunter. It was one of the most intense and frankly kinda spooky moments I've ever had in a Halo game. Fortunately I won and the room was covered in it's weird orange blood afterward.

Clearly the New Shit isn't being confined just to Dragon Age.

I named an RPG character "Brad Rapstars" after episode 43. He wasn't a wizard though.

It's like 4chan made a Video game!

I really like the fact that Dante's Inferno seems so monumentally fucked-up that - even if you guys mustered all your willpower and tried to have a straight-faced discussion of it - the result would almost certainly be Podblast of Embarrassment material. Also, Hot Scoops should be your permanent fourth member.

This story illustrates why being a wizard should be the domain of the old, wise & bearded, not the young and the stupid (or anyone from Florida).

Hey, at least you totally pwned Warhammer in the accuracy department. I kinda feel bad for the guy. For all you know, he could've been the one person in the world who was really excited for RE5 on the PC, and was super-happy to finally have someone stumble into his lonely neck of the woods so that he could put his experience to good use and guide you through the wilderness.

I'm slowly but surely making my way through... Red Faction: Guerrilla Far Cry 2 Fable 2 Fallout 3 Actually I doubt I'll ever finish Fallout 3, I've put about 20 hours into and have no will to continue... My PC backlog is mostly strategy games, namely... Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Sins of a Solar Empire Medieval 2: Total War And if you want to talk backlog I have a stack of PS2 and Gamecube games that I've sworn to myself I'll seriously dig into someday... Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Metal Gear Solid 3 Yakuza 2 Okami Valkyrie Profile 2 It's mostly due to the lure of online shooters or infinitely replayable games like Civ 4. I also tend to have a problem with preferring to replay older RPG's that I've beaten but love to death. Right now that's The Witcher and Space Rangers 2.

The Thief series fits the bill extremely well (at least the first 2 do, never played the third). They're spooky as all hell, and Garrett is not a warrior by any means and the games will punish you badly if you attempt to play like one. You really cannot stand toe-to-toe with more than one enemy at a time, even the average guard is a better fighter than you. In other stealth games like Splinter Cell or MGS, you're still a badass super-soldier and capable of killin' lots o' dudes. But Thief really conveys a sense of being weaker than everything, and that getting the drop on isolated enemies - or total avoidance of them - are really your only options of overcoming them.

Play Fallout 1 first. You're not a PC gamer until you've at least played Fallout. There are many types of PC gamer, but Fallout is the One Game that Binds Them All (well, that and Civ). The Might & Magic 6-pack, and Heroes of M&M 2 and 3 are all great buys as well. Just an unbelievable amount of great gaming for the price. edit: n0wak: yes, you absolutely should be able to. I played it on an Eee PC once.

After reading that front page update about the meet-up, I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that someone, at some point in time, decided to call a planned-to-be-released game "Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury". I demand it be Idle Thumbs' sacred quest to uncover just what the Secret of Vulcan Fury is. Have that developer guy on a podblast!

The open-til-3-AM tabletop gaming section is arguably the best part of PAX. I hope you played some Settlers of Catan with Chet afterward.

When Ron said "I don't want story in my sports games" and Chris jokingly replied "I do", I realized that a football RPG would actually be completely awesome. Something where you'd create a character and played games solely from his point-of-view, and in between you dealt with all the trials and tribulations of being a sports star. God knows there's enough moral choices and potential branching story paths there. Like whether to take steroids or not, have your bodyguard shoot someone in a nightclub or not, screw Paris Hilton or not, etc. I don't play sports games, but I would fuckin' totally play that game.

If you're looking for something more cerebral and less skill-based, then this perfectly describes Braid. You will repeatedly find yourself tearing your hair out trying to figure out how to get that next puzzle piece. Then you may suffer despair and despondency as you think to yourself "there's no way, there's no fucking way..." Then you'll have that ecstatic "Eureka!" moment when you finally figure it out, and feel like the smartest human being alive. Then you'll repeat the process all over again.

One of the voices at the beginning of that clip totally sounds like Cyborg George Takei.

It was probably good ole Donkey Kong for me. I vaguely remember a bar on the corner by my house that would let kids in only to play the Donkey Kong machine. My first console was the Intellivision II. That thing had some goofy-ass controllers. I even had the voice synthesis module thingy, and it kinda freaked me out when it would talk.

Brutal Legend is the game I was looking forward the most this fall, and yet I had no idea it even had a multiplayer mode until now. Now it's the game I'm looking forward to the mostest. Also, whatever was at the end of this podblast was way more disturbing than anything from the Dragon Age one.

I don't have anything to add to this discussion, but "Clerks n' Casuals" sounds like a great name for one of those NES sim games like The Wall Street Kid ... except it's about running a gamestore.

Not sure why you guys were so hesitant and embarrassed to put this up. Blame Bioware and the ESRB for putting images in our heads of Dwarf-On-Donkey Backdoor Romance During The Time Of Dragons, not yourselves. There was some great info in there, and I'm gonna check out that Research & Development Half-Life Mod tonight. "Dragon Age will make you reevaluate your relationship with your pets!" - IGN.COM

Hey all, discovered the podcast during the whole downfall of 1up last winter on recommendations from SomethingAwful. It pretty much skyrocketed to my favorite gaming podcast and I'm finally registering my appreciation. It's pretty great to hear a podcast these days where PC game discussion vastly exceeds iPhone game discussion. Also, I want a giant button button that plays Chris saying "Fuckin' weird" when I press it.