MysteriousLeg
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Posts posted by MysteriousLeg
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I saw a guy at QuakeCon wearing the Oculus Rift and it looked like the silliest thing in the whole world, with his head just swaying back and forth, a controller in his hand, and the biggest grin I've ever seen on his face. Maybe the grin should indicate that the Oculus is awesome, but I'm maybe just a little too self conscious? Also, I get annoyed every time I have to take off headphones to get up from my desk, I can't imagine having to decouple my brain from this future screen every time I had to take the dog out or pee.
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Two things:
First: oh my God am I ever excited about the prospect of the return of the return of (The) Idle Thumbs Podcast. Sure, it would be great if Nick and Steve could be on it, but Chris, Jake and Famous are all awesome and funny and would be awesome together again, plus they would retain the three person dynamic present in the first iteration of the podcast.
Second: I was the one who wrote the reader letter that explained my confusion of Steve's nickname, so seeing Rodi's post of "Two Hot Scoops" made me inordinately happy.
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A friend bought this for me and another friend last night and we played for a couple of hours. I fell in love with the style of the game immediately, but the highlight is the prevalence of friendly-fire deaths and "Aww, fuck, sorry man"s that came out of our playtime.
I'm glad that I got it free, and that it was cheap for my friend to buy during the Steam sale, but boy am I regretting not buying it at launch.
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It was established that Jake was born in 1980, and I'm inclined to say that he was the oldest of the members (not to be offensive, or anything, I just always got that sense by his constant acknowledgement of his age), so I'm assuming that Nick was born at the very earliest around 1980, but probably closer to '82.
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Friends, let me spin you a tale about the movie The Wizard. I know, I know, we all know about this movie and its obvious connection to Idle Thumbs, but there's an underlying theme to that movie, and the very narrative of Idle Thumbs that points to a larger conspiracy:
1989: The Wizard is released in theaters.
2004: Idle Thumbs is created.
2008: Idle Thumbs is resurrected as a podcast about video games. It is hosted by Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, and Nick Breckon.
2009: Nick Breckon leaves Idle Thumbs (and ShackNews) to begin work at Bethesda.
2010: Bethesda publishes Fallout: New Vegas.
As most of you know, the story arc in The Wizard involves a kid, Jimmy a.k.a. The Wizard, who has extreme trauma-induced aspergers after his sister tragically dies. His most vivid memories of his sister are from a family vacation to the Cabazon Dinosaurs. In Fallout: New Vegas, there is a town called NoVac that is centered around a large, hollow, Tyrannosaurus Rex which houses a gift shop, not at all dissimilar from the gift shop housed inside of a large, hollow, Apatosaurus in which Jimmy flees to at the end of The Wizard.
On its face, this connection isn't too crazy either, but come see what clue lies within the credits for The Wizard:
Power Glove Advisor: NOVAK
Ladies, Gentlemen, I conjecture that this plan has been building since Nick Breckon was a small 9 year old, fascinated with Nintendo propaganda film The Wizard. If y'all would like to give me a grant, I would be happy to spend the next year combing through every frame of the movie and every second of the podcast to find more connections.
Addendum: Could the dinosaurs of Cabazon/NoVac tie into the Jeff Goldblum's role as Ian Malcom in the movies Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park? More research needs to be done!
Addendum number 2: Fred Savage (who starred in The Wizard) also directed three episodes of the TV show Wizards of Waverly Place as well as producing an episode of Phil of the Future titled "Where's the Wizard?". COINCIDENCE?!?
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I beat The Ballad of Gay Tony with mouse and keyboard, and what I did play of Just Cause 2 was also with M/K.I beat GTA:3 at least twice with mouse and keyboard, but haven't quite felt it going back. As with Just Cause 2, I think that once I've played through a game with a controller it's hard for me to re-wire my brain to a different control scheme.
I played about an hour of Just Cause 2 with mouse and keyboard today, it was nice on foot but I did have troubles with piloting aircraft.
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You know how the thumbs deliberately have to put an end to running jokes? I think, as a forum, we give max ides one more week and then stop... So I second Sombre.Did Thumbs on the whole kill running jokes, or did Scoops end running jokes? I think it is our patriotic Thumberican duty to keep running jokes running. Like QWOP.
Goldblum4Life.
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Really? I'm doing fine with it. I'm ranking up head shots like there's no tomorrow.Although, I'm also quite excellent in dieing by crashing cars/motors/planes/helicopters into things.
Hmm, maybe I'll give it another try. It was the helicopter controls that really threw me for loops, I felt like I was playing hand twister to get off the ground, or descend, or bank. Also, before I bought my PC I had put about 50 hours into the game across the 360 and PS3, so the controller just feels "right."
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That's the same problem I have with most survival/horror games. It's just kind of mentally exhausting. The Left 4 Deads are the worst because they're so damn stressful. With this game though it only applies for me when I'm fighting the monsters. For the humans I find myself turning off all the lights in the room so that I can see even better and the atmosphere improves quite a bit. This is the only game I've ever really done that for though.I did the turn-out-the-lights thing with the Thief games back in the day. Come to think of it, I suppose those were equally oppressive and isolating, but perhaps the increased graphical fidelity is what's proving different in 2033.
I had a similar experience with Dead Space where I kept thinking to myself "I just wanna get off this fucking spaceship" and finally I said "Wait, I can" and ejected the disc. I definitely like Metro 2033 enough to not do the same thing to it, but I'm afraid that I'll just never get around to beating it.
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There's also the ability to play multiplatform games with a controller as well. Some games, especially Fallout 3 or console ports, work flawlessly with the controller.Yeah, I'm playing through Just Cause 2 and the GTA Episodes on the PC right now with a 360 controller. I'm pretty sure that it would be impossible to actually beat Just Cause 2 with a mouse and keyboard.
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I bought Metro 2033 during the THQ sale the other week and I'm loving it, but I'm having troubles actually wanting to play it. I think this feeling was mentioned on the podcast, but it's just hard for me to willingly jump into such a dark and oppressive environment.
I played for an hour or two the other day and when I turned it off I felt a huge wave of relief pour over me. I realized that I had been barely breathing for the past few minutes and all my muscles were tense. I may be acting slightly overdramatic, and I definitely love what the game is doing, but it's hard for me to play more than an hour or two every few days.
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I am almost entirely a console gamer. The only recent games I have played on PC were Kingdom of Loathing and Crysis: Warhead. I am not fond of PC playing, regardless of the responsiveness of mouse and keyboard, I much prefer the laid back nature of console playing (I sit at a desk and computer all day, the last thing I want to do when I get home is repeat that experience).I have my PC set up to plug into my TV so I can sit on my couch and game. The couch probably isn't as conducive to PC gaming as it is console gaming, but it's not too shabby. I do use a trackball mouse, though, so I guess if you use a standard mouse (and really I'm probably the only crazy person who doesn't) couch gaming would be more difficult. I also have a monitor hiding on a desk behind my TV so if my wife is watching her stories I can still play games. It's nice.
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"I'm going off a sweet space ramp!"
QLyz4tTVfo4
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I too grew up pretty poor; my dad was a carpenter who worked from home and my mom didn't work for most of my childhood. We never had a game console, I think my mom widely frowned upon video games, but if we had enough money we would rent a Nintendo console the week before Christmas. We almost never had enough money, though, so I think we only did it about three Christmases, and I'm pretty sure those weren't sequential. Besides playing SNES at my neighbor's house, I played very little console games as a kid. When I was about eight or so we somehow managed to get a PC (I think a Tandy 286) and we would connect to a BBS run by the local newspaper. Through the BBS I would download crazy free games like Gorillas and Snake for QBasic and at some point even learned how to program really simple QBasic programs. I'm not sure if the computer we had was just antiquated or if it was the norm at the time (I'm guessing around 1993, my childhood memories are kind of a scramble), but we had a two-tone computer monitor and I was super-fluent in DOS. Here's a picture of me from that time period:
At probably around 13 or 14 we got a better computer and I got into more graphically oriented games, sinking countless hours into Age or Empires and a lot of the Sim games, including SimCity, SimCopter, and Streets of SimCity (fuck the haters, I loved that game). I pretty much continued to be a PC gamer until about 2003 or so, I played a ton of the Thief 1 and 2, Max Payne, the Sims, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, I even managed to play and beat the Blade Runner adventure game, though I never played a LucasArts adventure game until I started listening to Idle Thumbs. In 2001 my parents inherited a bit of money and I got a laptop, which was the beginning of the end of my PC gaming. Since I couldn't upgrade my laptop's graphics card, I was soon left pretty far behind current game minimum specs and by 2003 I was completely dependent upon consoles for all my gaming needs. I really put the nail in the coffin when I became a Mac guy about five years ago. I've managed to slowly accumulate all the consoles from the past two generations, so I didn't really think twice about abandoning PC gaming until I started listening to GFW Radio back in the 2008, and became really convinced to get into PC gaming when I started listening to Thumbs about a year ago. I bought myself a pretty bitchin' gaming PC in late June, and now I'm pretty solidly converted back to being a PC gamer. During the Steam sale I bought a ton of games, a good number of which I already owned for console, and sold off a few of my console copies.
So, yeah, I'm the prodigal son of PC gaming.
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By the way, I'm the guy who bought the new gaming PC and slowly fell in love with Far Cry 2.
After adding it all up, I only spent 120 dollars on games, not 400. I happened to buy my computer on the same day that huge Steam sale started, so I got 15 games for an average of $8 bucks apiece. Buying a PC is just about the best thing I've ever done, it's crazy how much I prefer the mouse and keyboard, even though I've barely used it as a control scheme since 2002.
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This has to be the longest, most indepth discussion about a 20 second idlethumbs joke rift ever in existence.I wonder what Max Ides middle name is? Is his full name Maximillian or Maxwell? What's his favoite colour?
His first name is just Max, but his middle name is Well. It's weird.
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The Ides of March: beware that shit.It worked out well 'cause the only picture of a boat related calendar I could find was of March (also 2009, but whatever). Of course I put that tugboat in there since no one will actually ever make a tugboat-centric calendar.
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Just finished it. This really is a polished, sweet-looking, sweet-sounding, sweet-controlling game. I guess it takes about two-three hours, which is a nice length for it. The mood and style of the game sort of changed towards the end, as it becomes more of a straightforward platform puzzle game with very explicit and "gamey" mechanics and parts, which is a slight shame, as I much preferred the calmer exploration stuff at the beginning. I guess they felt they had to take out what they could from their great physics engine. Also it's weird that the game is so gory. There are times when all his intestines are torn out and shit.I really wish they'd stay with the forest and cave stuff, and have more environmental puzzles. The guns and gravity stuff (and the really terrible gravity signposts at the end) I could've done without
Bonus comment: Looking forward to the heated interpretation of the story! It'll be just like Braid!
A friend and I played through it today and we both loved it. The art style is extraordinary (as has been clear since '06), and the puzzles and platforming are great. Though the jumping isn't as familiar as Braid's (read: Mario), I still felt like it was surprisingly responsive and easy to get the hang of. On the subject of interpretation, at one point I remarked that, while people read a lot that wasn't there into Braid, Limbo seems like a game that is begging for broad interpretation.
I actually really liked the progression from forest to the caves/mines, town, and industrial complex. I felt that it was all done well, and I think too much time in the forest would get repetitive and that it would lead to too much being explained. I thought the gravity puzzles were interesting (magical), without being too punishing and led to more satisfying eureka moments than anything I saw in the forest.
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No one's gonna hire me to design game boxes anytime soon.
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It looks more awesome with every trailer! But why are they even calling it Read Dead *? From what little I know about Red Dead Revolver, this is completely different.I'm sure for much the same reason they called it Far Cry 2: name recognition. Not to mention that, historically, two video games by the same company of similar subject matter often share names. I mean, GTA: San Andreas doesn't share anything with the original GTA as far as characters or even location go, but they're similar enough in spirit that one can be considered the sequel to the other. Of course, Revolver wasn't open world, but I think it'd be silly if RockStar just called it "Happy Fun Horse Time: Old West Murder Simulator."
Speaking of horses, the horses in this game look better than in any video game I've ever seen.
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The new Life in the West trailer looks pretty awesome.
Some highlights:
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I don't know how you can say the boss fights weren't as epic, I mean think about the chronos battle? Or hell even the hades battle scale was easily as intense as anything in GOW2.After I submitted that last post, I kept remembering boss battles and thinking "Wow, that was pretty awesome." or "Oh, man, I forgot about that Hades fight." I played the game over four days, and finished it less than a week ago, you'd think that I would remember it better than I do.
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Only God of War haters here? Am I the only one who finished it?I was hoping for an evolution in the GoW franchise but it was revolutionary in some respects... besides lighting effects and sense of scale, they used the camera magnificently in the game. Even better, it wasn't over-used and it didn't come out as a gimmick but as a pleasant surprise, each time they pulled something new off. The cinematics were also spectacular, they were clearly inspired by the greek paintings in vases, which was very suitable.
And the ending... oh the ending. Worthy of the overall quality of the franchise, perfect to send off Kratos. Can't wait for their next game, they are up there with Naughty Dog as the best studios IMHO.
I really love the entire franchise, but wasn't any more impressed by this game than the earlier ones in the franchise. You're right that the sense of scale is magnificent, they managed to wring impressively large environments out of the PS2 and it's even more impressive on the PS3. The commentary of Half-Life 2: Episode 1 talks about how they used scale models to create the Citadel in-world rendering, but it feels like the titans in God of War are rendered in full size, which makes really awe-inspiring moments in the game.
I really did have a few complaints about God of War III, though. The puzzles were few and not particularly difficult, which doesn't matter in the grander scheme of the game, but they only acted as small asides, rather than centerpieces of gameplay. The boss battles, though fun, didn't seem as grand as the previous installments (excepting, perhaps, the final battle), and environments were reused repeatedly, which actually fits in with the story, but by the end of the game I no longer enjoyed any sense of discovery. My biggest complaint was the rhythm game that had physical X, triangle, square and circle buttons rendered in world as well as a physical Guitar Hero highway, God of War is not the most realistic franchise, but this section of the game just pulled me out completely.
Ending spoiler ahead:
I didn't really like the ending, the veritable retconning of Kratos' character, changing him from a rage-driven asshole, only happy when he's ripping things in twain, to a benevolent do-gooder, empowered by love and hope, seemed cheap and pointless, as well as completely incongruous with the player's ability to kill civilians for an unimportant number of health orbs. I was fairly happy with the thought that Kratos had permanently killed himself, but of course, in a Halo 3-esque after-credit shot, it's plain that he's not really dead, opening the game up for yet another sequel or, indeed, trilogy.
So yeah, I still think it's a good game, but they didn't do anything new, besides a prettier presentation. If you didn't like the first two games, there's no reason to buy this.
Far Cry 3
in Video Gaming
Posted
I've put about five hours in and am really liking it. It's definitely video game-y, moreso than 2, but it hits the Arkham City/Assassin's Creed pleasure centers in my brain. I've found the glider to be my favorite part of the game. Transitioning from gunfire and explosions to peacefully gliding above a beautiful island landscape is so relaxing and pleasant. I would happily trade fast traveling for a network of glider-equipped towers.