pyide

If you want to get lost and wander without any extra guidance on the HUD in Fallout 4, bShowCompass=0 in the [interface] section in docs\my games\fallout4\fallout4prefs.ini will just remove the compass and let you keep the other info visible, unlike making the whole thing transparent. It's strange they don't just put that toggle in the gameplay menu, but I'm glad it exists. First thing I do in these games is turn that stuff along the floating quest and enemy markers off. I'd rather not be led around and shown something of interest is nearby before I even get there. I like discovering stuff for myself, and if I miss something - I miss it. With the pip-boy companion app, you can also pull up the map on a tablet or phone device and use that for real-time navigation when you need it. It's kind of like Far Cry 2's map system for real, but not real. You know what I mean. It's crazy that you can do that, and that it works. There's a mod out there that leaves the compass visible but remove the point of interest markers, too if you still want cardinal directions on screen. There's a lot of little mods already since the file structure is similar to Skyrim and some of the 3rd party tools for changing variables works just the same. Someone has even made the dialogue interface more suitable for keyboard selection on PC with the diamond selection transferred into a list corresponding to the number keys, which is really impressive to me without the official tools. Some people may not like that it also shows your full response in text instead of the short paraphrases, but I don't mind that.There's a few things out there that are really neat, quality of life improvements, mods that add to the workshop building and crafting options, etc, and then of course plenty of real dumb stuff that I just don't understand. Be warned if you browse the rest of mod files on that site!

You don't have to buy a PS4 for No Man's Sky if you have a capable PC. http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/ Around E3 Sean Murray did say it would be a simultaneous release as well. Yay!

I thought I read somewhere that uplay was being phased out, but it's still alive and kicking. Trials Fusion on PC was released a few weeks ago and is saddled with that garbage. And of course it sounds like Watchdogs will have it, too. It's really bad for something like Trials where the entire game revolves around leaderboard competition, which means another account / login / friends list to maintain, separate from Steam.

Dark Souls 2 really seemed to have a greater emphasis on coop. Because of some bosses like Nels said, but also the packs of enemies they'll throw at you at once in many areas. Also, the heatlh and humanity system which was revamped, item durability being a greater factor (most weapons degrade very fast when used), and the inclusion of the Small White Sign Soapstone. The normal White Sign Soapstone allows you place a sign down on the ground to be summoned to another's game world as a phantom, and generally ends in success when you defeat the area boss or in failure when you or the host dies. When successful, you're sent back to your world with your Estus Flasks refilled, items repaired, some item and additional souls for the boss kill, and in human form with your full health pool back. When unsuccessful you're sent back in the state you left. The new Small White Sign Soapstone is slightly different in it allows you to coop for a few minutes as a shade, and after an amount of time or small number of enemies are killed your duty is fulfulled and you are sent back to your world with some of the same perks as the normal stone. Your healing flasks are refilled, spell charges are restocked, items are repaired, and you're human with your hp back if hollow before (you can still be summoned as human if you place your mark, but you can only summon people into your world when human). It's a bit like coming straight off a bonfire which is what normally repairs your items and restocks your flasks and spells, only you're human again and the enemies you've killed in your world will not have been respawned. Great for short bursts of coop and getting past difficult sections on the way to the bosses, or just joining up with some people for a few minutes to get your humanity back without using a consumable (human effigy), or repairing your items or replenish your spell charges without going back to a bonfire which will respawn the entire area. When you and others use the small stone, the marks on the ground used for summoning will be smaller, and you'll know when your or their time as a shade is running out because they'll start as a bright color but slowly darken and fade when it's about to end. It definitely made a difficult game much easier for me to handle. I've finished Dark Souls & Demon's Souls mostly going solo, but without the whole coop system and multiple ways of of being summoned and summoning people into my own world I'm not sure how far I would have made it in Dark Souls 2. So often I had been out in the world in a bind, with weapons about to break and flasks dried out, and a quick session of coop with the small stone is all I need to get right. Then I can turn around and summon people to help me tackle a tough boss or section. It also helps that they're back to dedicated servers and GFWL isn't getting in the way, summoning help failed so often in Dark Souls because of the P2P setup. While cooperative play is easier to do and a bigger focus this time, they still are catering to the hardcore that want to be brutalized. There's a covenant very early on (on a cliffside path near the main hub) that you can join which disables cooperative play entirely. The Company of Champions, and if no coop wasn't enough, it apparently also makes enemies harder. Take care not to hop into that one on your first go.

F-Zero GX is crying in the corner.

I've been running the Spelunky Daily Challenge a lot, it's such a great idea. You can read the details of the mode on the main site: http://spelunkyworld.com/dailychallenge/ Covers all, except the time. The new one starts each day at Midnight GMT (7pm eastern) It's a Steam exclusive feature for now because I guess steamworks makes it easy to do a new leaderboard every day like that? Even the GOG DRM-free PC version doesn't have it, and the upcoming PS3 & Vita versions won't have it, either. I have a few regulars on my friends list but still need more, if anyone here is playing Spelunky on Steam, you can add me if you want some friendly competition. In addition to the Daily boards, there's an All-Time Daily leaderboard, which takes the average of your best 10 Daily Challenge runs. On the topic of secrets I already had the XBLA version and played a ton of it, but I'm still finding stuff I hadn't yet on PC. Like the Also, Michael Madsen voices Daud in Dishonored. Not sure if it's just the DLC, was weird when it popped up during the Knife of Dunwall credits.

Saints Row 2-4 also have online coop through the entire game. As dumb and low brow and even cringe inducing as the story and situations can be, there's still lots of fun to be had in an open world with a buddy causing mayhem. And now in SR4 jumping around buildings collecting an agility orb equivalent? Yes please. I so want this to be the real Crackdown 2. You can also choose "Nolan North" as your character's voice. Which goes so far beyond dumb it's kind of great. I believe he plays himself. Or a version of himself. So Nolan North can be your super hero president.

Chris, the sewage treatment plants will replenish the water table around them in SimCity with clean water, so if you have the water pumping station next to them you'll never really run out. It's usually the first thing I build towards after learning about that, department of utilities at the first town hall upgrade for the high end sewage / water buildings because water becomes a such a pain in the ass as the population grows. I also thought I read somewhere that rain is supposed to put some water back into the ground, but I haven't seen any rain since the beta. Or perhaps I imagined that and there is no rain at all in this game. I swear there was rain before release, though. Not crazy. And it probably goes without saying, but so much of the little stuff is frustrating to me as well. I haven't really played in days because so many things were broken or appeared to be broken, and on top of that it started rolling back my cities resulting in hours of lost progress. I want to wait for more patches and for Maxis to re-enable all the features that are still disabled, but I'm not sure that will be enough by then. Will just have to wait and see.

All I've heard, read, and also seen (in videos and images) is that the city plot size in the SimCity beta is the only size there is. Also, this twitter exchange is confirmation? https://twitter.com/oceanquigley/status/295973941804167169 I would love to believe some of the folks out there saying the full game will have larger cities, not sure how that rumor spread but I haven't seen any proof of this and don't want anyone to get their hopes up.

For diegetic music in games, the example I'll always remember is the level where you meet "The Singer" who's playing Build that Wall in Bastion. Also wanted to say bravo (you bastards) to Sean and Jake and the rest of the gang at Telltale for The Walking Dead. Just wrapped up Episode 5 and goddamn. Goddamn.

Spiritual successor to AaAaAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, musically generated content this time, has an even better title, and it looks fucking amazing. http://dejobaan.com/kickit/ Has anyone tried the alpha yet? One thing I'm nervous about after seeing the video is how well it controls. The floating crosshair for shooting junk in a wii pointer-like fashion might mean a loss of the pure first person control that was in AaAaAA!!! which could be frustrating.

Like the site says, you can get access to the alpha if you pre-order it. There will probably be a fee demo at or closer to release, there were multiple demos for AaAaAA!!! if I'm not mistaken. I'm personally hoping for a steam pre-order because I rarely buy games elsewhere these days, I perfer having a single service / collection. Having seen this video and having played AaAaAA!!! is enough to sell me already. As for how well it matches the music, I couldn't say having not tried it but perhaps someone else can? I'd imagine the user music aspect is used more for generating unique levels on the fly than it is creating something truly synesthestic like Rez from nothing but a song, but that would be incredible.

Did you Kane & Lynch 2-ify the image for Day One Perch? I'll miss listening to you guys talk video games and I hope everyone going has a good time at PAX. Those not attending should have a good time when their expansion for a game I liked is enjoyed by many.

Chris, did you ever upload that video of the spastic wizard from Dragon Age mentioned in episode 50?

Oh wow, I seriously forgot about Kurt's sniper helmet gun thing in MDK when they were talking about the gun head concept. I need to play those games again.

Dante's Inferno comes out next week. I can't think of a better time for the return of the Idle Thumbs podcast than this.

I'm still on my first run through and have only noticed squad mates not getting skill points when I level up outside of a main mission. It happened to me for example while doing tiny side quests for small amounts of XP on the Citadel. I got 2 points going from 7 to 8 this way but my squad mates got nothing. I want to say something similar happens on the character specific missions. Yesterday I was doing Miranda's mission along with Mordin rounding out the squad, afterward she got points but he did not. I could have imagined that one though. I'm not sure how that works into your dilemma with the new game+, but like JonCole says Shepard gets more because s/he has more options on how to distribute them, likely a balance thing.

Oops, I must have deleted that part of my post about that. Yeah, what a strange issue that is, and I can't believe it hasn't been fixed or patched if people are seriously getting 30-60 second loads on the Normandy. Saw it mentioned the other day in the shacknews comments. Crazy!

Are you sure about that? When I'm changing decks on the Normandy the load screen videos barely have any time to play let alone finish. The loads take 0-2 seconds max there. Elsewhere I haven't had a load longer than 15 seconds or so at the most. Usually around 10. I haven't checked the length of the videos but it doesn't seem like they are "finishing" before the game loads here. edit: Wow, you were right. Seems like the elevator vids are a few of the ones that are skipped when once you are done loading. In the game's /Movies directory I switched the load_f01.bik which is the common save game load video with the much shorter load_f99.bik which is the Mass Effect 2 title video by copying and renaming it, and my save games load as soon as it is done playing which is only a couple of seconds. You can't just rename the extension or delete the video that plays during the load like you can the startup / splash screen logos, the game seems to crash when you try loading a save. With the "Rad Video Tools" you can make a bink video out of anything, even a blank black jpg. I changed loading video to a screenshot I took, since it's only 1 frame long it loops continually and stays up on screen until the save is loaded seconds later. So you can try to do something like that or just copy and rename load_f99.bik to load_f01.bik and you should be good.

It's hard for me to say if it was a last minute thing or planned for a while. The concept is a big cliche but they don't make it feel like one by making such a huge deal of it every 30 minutes, but perhaps that's because they didn't plan on doing it from the start. Whatever the reason, even if it's unintentional, it works for me on some strange level. I suppose it could have been their last minute way to allow a mechanism for players to change aspects of their imported character while tying it into the game and story in a semi-plausible fashion and nothing more.

You could only put your own powers and abilities on the hotbar in the first Mass Effect. In Mass Effect 2 they allow you to put the powers of anyone in your squad up there as well which really helps, especially if you prefer to turn squad power usage off and use them yourself. Also, does anyone find the fact that Shepard's

Yeah there is a way. You need to edit the Coalesced.ini located in steamapps\common\mass effect 2\BioGame\Config\PC\Cooked , or somewhere around there in non-steam versions. The catch is you have to edit with notepad++ and keep the count the same or the game will crash on load. The line you are looking for is MouseSensitivity= I have altered the default config to disable mouse smoothing and dampening (which gives that horrible feeling of negative acceleration) if you want to try that as well. I've also tweaked the sensitivity but you may want to adjust that further if you think it's too high or low once you get in game. http://sites.google.com/site/pyidefiles/MassEffect2MouseFix.zip You might have to redo your keybinds since this is based on the default config, but that doesn't take long. Hope this helps!

As someone already mentioned, you guys recently named your new podcast: Bargo Busters There's really nothing we can come up with that would top that, give yourselves Torchlight and carry on. PS: I prefer Idle Thumbs 2: The Return of Game

Where is the petition for IT to bring back dedicated podcasters Oh well. I know it's going to be around for a little while still but good luck to Nick at Bethesda and to Jake & Chris with whatever they decided to do with Idle Thumbs.

Brad Shoemaker is the man. I'd say I value all of their opinions, but some Giant Bombers' taste in games are really mind boggling to me. I don't have any references off the top of my head but while listening to any number of the podcasts I'd inevitably end up perplexed over something they said about this or that and that all of them agreed with it. I'll probably give it another shot when I see or hear they are conversing about something that really interests me. I still like the site and the video features they do, and I suppose I could always skip through the podcast bits I don't care for.