George B

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by George B

  1. Posted

    Chris, thanks for suggesting the history podcast. This should keep me busy Monday - Tuesday and Wednesday - Friday. Is it a weekly thing?

    Not nearly that frequent, I heard Dan Carlin say on a recent show that they only do a new one every 45 days or so... but that's cause he puts a lot of research into each episode!

  3. Posted · Edited by Floordje

    The last podcasts that I'm going through are NYU Game Center podcasts of Jonathan Blow and Warren Spector. There were some other people also there. Very interesting stuff.

    Nice, thanks for the heads up on these casts, they may lack the idle insouciance but they sure have a line up of heavy hitting guests. Basically, it's the 1994 Montreal Expos of games podcasting.

    sorry, I have a propensity for dropping Expos references whenever I can... in this case Clint Hocking would be Larry Walker, Warren Spector - Felipe Alou, Jonothan Blow a young Vladimir Guererro and the schools semester based scheduling equates to the Player's strike... I go shut up now

  5. Posted · Edited by Floordje
    editing?

    Edit: I just remembered to say that on Steam I've had a couple things appear in my games list that I didnt have, mostly things that were free weekends? But I'm pretty sure a couple were demos.. The last one was the Champions Online weekend thing? So I'm thinking its not just L4D2 demo, which I agree would have been weird.

    I just got to this point in the p.cast and can also confirm the champions online thingy showing up in my games list... I guess if this becomes the default for demos / free weekends for games regardless of who developped them then it's ok. But if steam is charging a premium to content providers to slip their names in our lists then there's a more of a problem.

    back to the cast!

    Edit:

    Canadian super-hero series 'My Secret Identity' featured a Professor Benjamin Jeffcoat.

    Edit2:

    "That's about all we had to say"

    "yeah"

    :eek:

    Thanks for all the great podcasts, best of luck in the future and take good care... *single tear*

  6. Posted · Edited by Floordje
    redundancy

    This is pretty "entertaining", nothing like homophobic undertones to pump you up for this holiday season's biggest smash hit:

    http://www.gameshadow.com/gamepedia/11335b/call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2/trailers/call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2_fags_video/

    wow, that's terrible...

    what with the no leaning, the "mowing down innocent civilians" video and now this stupid trailer I no longer have any interest in this game... talk about playing down to your audience...

    :frusty:

  7. Posted · Edited by Floordje
    grammars

    Best Buy can get bent for all I care. Down with big all-in-one electronic department stores.

    But I will agree it is nice they ACTUALLY MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO KEEP BRAND NEW GAMES ON AN ACTUAL PHYSICAL SHELF. Yeah that's real nice, I suppose, but I would consider it a given, not really a merit.

    I noticed they also started marking a lot of their CDs down to $9.99, making them slightly less what I would call Worst Buy, but they still suck at carrying hardly anything but music published by major labels.

    Just a quick best buy sucks aside: I went to BB to pick up an otherwise unavailable game a couple of weeks ago, and they still had a relatively large collection of Matrix:Online packages prominently displayed... a game that had been offline for at least 2 months at that point, rendering those 40 dollar boxes more or less useless to any consumer. gg, best buy.

  9. Posted · Edited by Floordje

    Favorite:

    Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

    Just based on the 10k+ hours spent playing this mo'fo it must be my favorite. In fact if I had internet at home I'd still be playing (and will be in December)! I'm part of a good ET community at bunker.aaxxss.com

    Best:

    umm.. TF2? In terms of pure fun in multiplayer fps'ing TF2 takes the cake

    Desert Island:

    The Ship... naturally :P

  10. Posted

    I don't know. They didn't give my any pens, just an iPhone, new laptop, a desk, coffee and lunch.

    lol, 'nah they didn't give me a pen, they gave me a wacom'

    2009!

  12. Posted

    Weee... first day at the new job. It was ok, not much special, I think I'll go again tomorrow. I'm not really impressed with the iPhone though. I don't think it's user friendly at all.

    I always judge a job by the quality of pens that are provided for you. The better the pens, the more agreeable the position. How were they?

  13. Posted

    Not sure where that dreamcast thread is and I don't want to refresh the episode thread so I'll post this here, admins can move it to the correct thread if necessary

    Well, I had an idle thumbs dream this weekend, I`ve always wanted to have one of those dreams where you fly... instead I had this:

    I'm in a shopping mall which seems to be in Nanaimo, B.c. (where my grandma lives). I'm with my special lady and some of her friends. She is wearing some super awesome mountain climbing shoes with a cross of St.George on them (my name is George). For reasons unbeknownst to me I take off running and am doing some Assasin's Creedy wall jumps and climbing moves, I climb to an otherwise unaccessable floor of the mall and there is a single video game arcade cabinet sitting there in the shadows... the sign says Idle thumbs, I walk closer and look at the game screen..

    it's Space Asshole, (basically the footage from the s.a. video) So I'm standing there watching space asshole go about his day, but as this is happening my consciousness starts to slip into the dream world and I begin thinking to myself "my god, I'm having an idle thumbs dream... what is this world coming to..."

    My sub-consciousness takes back over: I focus on the game screen again, Space Asshole is still running around hitting people with his hammer...

    AND THEN

    out of nowhere comes an "outrageous, minigun-toting, shirtless Road Warrior type named Warhammer", who proceeds to tear into Space Asshole remorselessly, at which point my brain can't handle the imploding Idle Thumb references and I wake up...

    my first ever podcast dream

    *note: the space asshole/idlethumbs game had a joystick and button layout similar to street fighter 2

  14. Posted

    But really Alyx is talking to you, not 'Gordon' as a third person.

    If you can commit to that level of self-immersion, then she works very well indeed.

    I spend most of my time during HL2 'cutscenes' by moving the mouse up and down or left and right to nod in agreement or shake my head in dismay... it's a way of using the agency they allow you during cutscenes to increase the immersion... before I started doing that I spent most of my time during these cutscenes either trying to jump to an attainable 'high point' in the room or zooming in on Alyx' bum with my binos... both cases of agency breaking the proverbial 'magic cirlce'

    ...like you never zoomed in on her bum!

    When I try to explain the appeal of HL2 I always come back to it being an excellently authored experience that is extremely linear but that the linearity is veiled by the excellent design.

    If you look at map design proper, from an environmental art standpoint, you create the level, with all of it's limitations, but then you surround that level with a 3-d skybox which gives a limitless sense to the space... even in the blocked-in combat arenas of TF2 you can look over a ridge, or past a fence and see industrial or pastoral landscapes in the background. Places you can't get to but can experience in a secondary way...

    the linear design in HL2 seems to have a similar effects, there are paths you can't actually take, but you can still be made to feel like you had a choice, and were lucky enough to take the right one

    In HL2 I almost never feel like I am being forced down a path. I think back to when I first played the game, the first level's sequence where you are hustled through an apartment complex and up onto rooftops. I ran through the exact path without ever questionning which doors could or couldn't be opened. I just played the experience, and because of the excellent design I arrived at the rooftops as I should have. After saving my game I reloaded to go back and 'explore other routes or look for easter eggs in closets etc...', but there was none of that to be done... Beautiful!

    Also, for the time, the physics are pretty bonkers in that game... I recall standing on a rooftop and shooting a dead civilian, hanging from a fire escape, and watching how he would swing and sway differently depending on what part of his body I shot at...

    :clap:

  16. Posted · Edited by Floordje
    grammars

    Without no doubt it is this wonderful ballad.

    ps, What's with calling Idle Thumbs "IT", it's confusing. What does the rest of the IT crowd think about this?

    I think that sewing confusion is part of the Idle Thumbs way... mayhaps it`s just all the coffee I`ve drunk this morning after a sleepless night... mayhaps it`s the fact Hammer keeps crashing while trying to compile... mayhaps it`s that I`m really sad about things... mayhaps it`s cause I`m happily looking forward to a few rounds of Dawn of War 2 on lunch break....

    you have a point though, the video really does redouble that song`s gusto... I may have to throwdown a gotta use the kid video to do battle with yours!!

    In other news, Chris Remo song/pixar "video game" strategy held responsible for zoo calamity.

  17. Posted · Edited by Floordje

    There's been a lot of talk about space asshole, and rightfully so... way to go Idle Thumbs for releasing the song that put you firmly on the online video games community map at the same time that you announce the demise of your existence, a glorious irony if you ask me...

    anywho... my point is that the song that will probably always remain on my ipod is not space asshole.. no, that song is You Gotta Use the Kid... SO GOOD!

    "you gotta select the kid character to kill the snake"...

    thanks again!

  18. Posted · Edited by Floordje

    Dear Idle Thumbs cast, you are all invited for tea and lan matches at my place, anytime. In fact the whole board is invited. Lemme know if anyone is coming to MIGS.

    Hey Chris, does the untimely death of idle thumbs cast blasts open up time for a Gamasutra podcast reboot? A bit less silly and a bit more Nutt-y...

    ...y-ttuN erom tib a dna yllis ssel tib A ?toober tsacdop artusamaG a rof emit pu nepo stsalb tsac sbmuht eldi fo htaed ylemitnu eht seod, sirhC yeH.

    SGIM ot gnimoc si enoyna fi wonk emmeL .detivni si draob elohw eht tcaf nI .emityna ,ecalp ym ta sehctam nal dna aet detivni lla era uoy , tsac sbmuhT eldI raeD...

  21. Posted

    new theory:

    White wizard hack attack on the site in 2 weeks, episode 50 never sees the light of day, bury it in hot scoops of digital data packages and whatnot. They then are forced to record another podcast the next week... this now becomes episode 51. Since they claim episode 50 will be their last, and episode 50 has ceased to exist, then concept of a last idle thumbs podcast ceases to exist! They are puzzled for a bit by this surreptitious logical deviation, but without knowledge of the possibility of a last podcast, they proceed as normal.

    Also: what if Bethesda were to have an accident?

    crowbar_2.jpg

    +

    Next%20Bethesda%20Game%20Will%20Be%20Revealed%20Tomorrow.jpg

    =

    Nancy_Kerrigan_Biography_2.jpg

    :oldman:

  22. Posted

    I know that Gamer's with Jobs has been mentionned, I mention it again because 2-3 episodes ago they had idle thumb C.Remo on discussing Subject-Zero and this week they had John Davidson discussing what happened with his site What They Play and his move to Gamepro. Just a heads up!

  23. Posted

    Congratulations to Nick on the new job!

    Idle Thumbs has set a high standard for podcasts for me, and I almost invariably come away disappointed trying new 'casts. (It's kind of like The Wire of podcasts).

    So true, you have ruined all podcasts with your podcast and now your podcast is gone... Do I have to return to listening to the CSI: Miami of podcasts**?

    Now, for the more conspiratorial amongst us, is there any chance this is a hoax? Isn't this sweeps week for podcast ratings?

    Do community managers really need to be kept silent while co-producers / UI designers can speak freely (while carefully tiptoeing around discussing their own company)?

    But above all, congrats! Bethesda is one of those few companies...

    (** would the cagcast be the csi:miami of vg casts? they provoke similar feelings in me)

  24. Posted

    what?

    :violin:

    This sucks! Oh well, I have enjoyed the forums and will continue to do so...

    What needs my Thumbs for it's honored bones

    The labor of an age in piled stones?

    Or that it's hallowed reliques should be hid

    Under a starry pointing pyramid?

    Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame,

    What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?

    Thou in our wonder and astonishment

    Hast built thy self a livelong monument.

    For whilst, to th' shame of slow-endeavoring art,

    Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart

    Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued casts

    Those Wizardly lines with deep impression basked,

    Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,

    Dost make us marble with too much conceiving,

    And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie

    That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

    (With apologies to Milton, Shakespeare, and Space Asshole)