F4T C4T

I'm already loving the torchlight-esque intro guitar.

I read the tragic story of your dwarf colony and thanks to the link you posted, decided to give DF another go. I didn't have a gfx set before and I must say that the download with Mike Mayday's gfx set all set up is pretty funky. After following that tutorial (and I recommend anyone one who has tried and failed before to check that out and give it another go), I've got the hang of building stuff and have a nice little hole in the cliff (I won't call it a fortress... yet). I still don't understand 99% of the screen or stuff that happens, but I'm happy crafting beds, brewing beer and creating a huge long hall for my dwarfs to quaff it in. Despite the UI nightmare, I'm actually enjoying it all this time so thanks for posting! Also during my DF related browsings I found this: http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/11/03/stonesense-dwarf-fortress-visualizer In the comments one of they guys responsible says he hopes to make it into a GUI rather than just a visualizer. If that happens, Dwarf Fortress may just consume me!

I'm finding the in-game chat option better than party chat recently. My internet connection isn't amazing and can be pretty temperamental so I'm always paranoid that the party chat is taking up precious bandwidth on top of an already running in-game chat. Tuesday was much fun. I'm forget most of the specifics now, but the concentrated spawning of rocket wielding fanatics on the pier was hilarious. Especially when you were just caught in an explosion sending you out to sea and having to swim back...

Well, not quite. I took it off topic there, but to me it certainly is a descendant of those games. It has a lot of similarities, most obviously in the ascii gfx and it does actually include the ability to adventure rogue-like style in the created world instead of managing a fortress.

I tried. Boy did I try. It's just not for me though. A little off topic but: I only discovered the rogue-like genre early last year with Shiren on the DS and since then have been going back through the years to see how the genre started and developed. So far Shiren is still the king in my view followed closely by a charming little donation-ware title called Powder by Jeff Lait. It's on PC but I use it mainly on the DS. I must admit part of it for me is the graphical nature of those titles but also its this: usability! 99% of rogue-likes are horrible to interact with in my opinion. Shiren and Powder boil it down to to a few buttons and context sensitive stuff yet still retain the complexity and interplay between the world and the player. Dwarf Fortress is almost the opposite side of the spectrum. I'm am a little envious of you for actually breaking that barrier though. I love that DF exists and the ideas and ambition, I just can't play it!

Depends how things go this eve, but I'm hoping to be there. See you in Brown town.

Me and some friends started an irregular board game session recently. We started off playing Catan but as there were 8 of us we decided to play as teams of two. I have to say, it made that game far more enjoyable! Discussing your plans and having someone to confer about trade deals etc adds a lot to it in my opinion. The other game we've been playing is an old one from the 30's called Buccaneer. You control a ship and the aim is to collect 20 points in treasure with various pieces worth different amounts and only 2 pieces can be carried at a time back to your port. You each start with your ship in a port and you have to travel to the centre of the board which is treasure island. Here you basically get a chance card, mostly either treasure or bad luck. The ships movement is based on a deck of cards of black and red crew members. Each card has a number. All added together makes your movement score and that total minus the total of the minority colour cards is your fighting score (during the game you can modify this by going around and dropping off unwanted crew cards and picking up more of another colour. Basically a strong ship has a crew all of one colour, hence no negative modifier). The fighting strength is kept secret until battle and players exchange strengths in secret. Another interesting mechanic is that you can move any amount of squares in your movement range in whatever direction you want from the port, but at the end of your turn you have to point the ship in which direction you want to travel next go. If you wanted to change direction next go before moving, you would only be able to turn and face the new direction and therefore lose a turns movement (and become an easier target for others looking to steal their treasure rather than find it themselves!). The set we're playing with is from around the 50's, all of it is incredibly dog-eared and all the cards are damaged in some way, but that somehow adds to it's pirate-ness! Looks pretty pricey to get your hands on it in it's original guise now (I don't think it's worth the ebay prices I've seen) but definitely an interesting game if you get to try it.

I couldn't hold out for the X360 release. I ended up getting it on PC late last year and it's pretty fantastic despite a few things. I haven't noticed any bugs yet (don't play that often though and only against AI so far) and there are a few rough edges around it but overall it's a good game. Fingers crossed the 360 version turns out good for you. It was that RPS article that pushed me to get it on the PC btw.

Ha, yeah lots of good moments! Regarding controls and Borderlands, I'm really struggling with that right now. My main gripe is not being able to toggle sniper aiming. The fact that you have to hold the movement stick in means I'm constantly nudging my shots wide at the worst of times because my thumb starts wavering under the pressure. It just not comfortable to have to hold those thumb sticks in. I keep flipping between default layout and angelic which has aiming on the left trigger which is easier but both have things such as melee or crouch that I really don't feel comfortable with either. It's so infuriating not to be able to set my own layout. Guess I'll just have to settle on one and get used to it. Its strange because I've played many shooters before with different layouts and I've rarely struggled this much to get a hold of the controls. Ah well.

Hey guys, that was a blast last night. I'll be sure to join you all more often. Nachimir, I couldn't avoid hitting you as you bailed out of the Lambo! The beauty of it was the arc of your bounce as you hit the tarmac then perfectly aligned with my windscreen. I'd like to forget the bit where upon starting the firetruck race, I managed to instantly eject myself out of the truck instead of firing my water cannon... it had been a while since I'd played this game.

Hey thumbs, my gamertag is F4T C4T if you want to add me.

Hey, I've been meaning to join in on these gta sessions for a while now, think I'll join in this eve if that's cool? It's been a while since I had a blast on that. My gamertag is F4T C4T (which reminds me, I should go and put it in the gamertag sharing thread!). I bought borderlands in a sale yesterday so if it is a poor turnout I'd also be up for that if you don't mind dragging round a low level noob!

I enjoyed the first one for the exploration and environments and even the combat. I never finished it though. Luckily for me my girlfriend loved it and completed it, showing me what I missed (she had only 1 flag left to collect in the end , she's gutted she never found it before the sequel). She'll be buying the next one as soon as she can so I'll be trying this out whatever happens. All she asks is that I buy L4D2.

Just got round to listening to the last episode. As Cheetohands said above, the nature of the show really does make you feel like (a very silent) member of the conversation you guys have and I'll certainly miss it. The only other gaming podcast I listen to regularly is Gamers with Jobs but it won't fill this hole. (check out the latest episode of that btw, they have an section with some of the torchlight guys). Good luck to Nick (sincerely!) and I'll still be checking out the thumbs forum too as you guys here always have some good conversations going on. Long live Idle Thumbs. On another note, who's going to influence my purchasing decisions now? Just a quick list of the top of my head of stuff Thumbs made me buy: Trine Dawn of War II Civ 4 Torchlight and if I didn't already own Far Cry 2 when I started listening, I certainly would have by now.

Hey guys, my attempts to meet with Idle Thumbers at the Show and Yell was a bit of a disaster it seems! I only spotted Thunderpeel thanks to the pic he had posted earlier and that was pretty much near the end of the night. I was dissapointed I didn't get chance to hang around after the event and talk to people, but I had to run and catch the tube back to where I was staying and I only just made it as it was! If only I wasn't such a caveman when it comes to communication devices I might have caught up with you some of you earlier in the night. I didn't expect the place to be that big downstairs either, I thought I might be able to spot a bunch of gamers... Thanks to Nachimir for organising the event though, it was definitely an interesting night. I did come and say hello with slim hopes to show something but with all the technical troubles I could see you had your hands full and it would have only added to the chaos. Our own laptop couldn't run it due to a shitty onboard graphics card and the chances of being able to set it up on someone elses was already a wishful thinking! It's a small 2 man XNA project which we're hoping to get on XBLIG (and Windows) at some point and when I get my arse in gear, I'll get something online and link you all if you like. Also it's always a good night when someone puts there head through a glass lamp shade. We should have thrown the TV through the window as well.

Heh, I almost suggested the thumb thing myself. Great minds.

Ok, so people are aiming to meet at 7pm at The Crosse Keys where Nachimirs event is happening right? I'm going to the event itself so hopefully I'll bump into some Thumbs people at some point. Hope to see some of you soon! Oh and my avatar gives a pretty good idea of what I look like apart from I don't have the longer hair anymore. And my skin looks a bit more realistic. But other than that...

Been watching this too. It's an awesome program in the real sense of the word awesome! I'm constantly amazed at the quality of cinematography and editing that goes on in this and I too look forward to a blu ray release.

Congrats to Nick, it'll be a shame to see this podcast go but I'm sure whatever you guys do afterwards it'll be worth reading/listening/watching? This is hands down the best gaming podcast around so thanks for creating something special and being who you are.

Idle Thumbs made Wednesdays the best damn day of the working week. It was already a pretty good day as I look forward to a regular game of footy during my lunch hour. Getting back to work afterwards and listening to the cast in the afternoon is the icing on the cake.

Max Rebo, I'm in Oxford. I'll probably be heading in by train but I haven't really sorted out any timing or anything yet. I'm meeting a friend who'll already be there so it largely depends on that. If our plans match up at all though, I'll head into London with you. Also it would be good to meet a fellow Oxford gamer! I have found them in short supply since moving here 3 years ago. I am somewhat of a hermit though. Nachimir, I'm interested. I'll PM you.

The word 'Rad' just brings apocalyptic images to my mind. Also I'm English so even though I like the word, it's hard to use it in everyday speech without sounding like an idiot. I also prefer the American 'ass' to the English 'arse' but again I sound like an idiot if I say it out loud. I think it's my accent, it's just not cool enough.

I've not been involved in the forums that long but I'll be at the Eurogamer Expo on the 30th (the Friday) and would be well up for meeting some fellow Thumbs. I don't have any suggestions or preference of a meeting point though as my knowledge of London is pretty non-existant.

Awesome 'cast. I'm eager to get a hold of ODST now. Chris, I just listened to the Kotick inspired song you posted on the blog, it's great! I get the feeling Beatles Rock Band has been fueling your musical inspiration with this. I like your genuine singing voice too. It's nice that you did it like that rather than a comedy take on the subject. Two idle thumbs up from me! Keep up the good stuff, and get that blog comment section up and running soon. Edit: Apologies, I posted this in the wrong place. I'll leave it here though as I do now have ODST and can add that after a couple of hours I'm enjoying the atmosphere of the hub bit and also getting used to being a bit more fragile in combat. It has a nice familiarity to it but with a bit more tension going into those big arenas. I'm undecided on the hunting for health/eye doctor things aspect of it though. Choosing a Legendary play through to start with may have been over estimating my apparently dulled Halo skills too.

Woah, Idle Thumbs overload! I go on holiday for a couple of weeks and you release 5 podcasts, start a thumbs blog and have an awesome meetup! Not that I could make it anyway being stuck over here in the UK. Count my wand in for a UK gathering at some point.