K-bohls!

Hmm, I guess it's not terrible, I mean it looks like it has it's scantly clad girl and goth dude with loads of buckles/pockets but I have definitely seen worse, something like The World Ends with You was way to much for me. I might see if I can pick it up over winter break and find the time for it.

I heard Patrick Klepek talking about 999 on the bombcast this week and am intrigued by it. I am not really one to play very text heavy games unless it has a style to it I know I will dig. Hotel Dusk did this perfectly for me and was one of my favorite games on the DS, I am bummed that the sequel never made it to the States. I am mostly curious as to how anime is the anime art style of 999, it's dumb but that is the only thing putting me off (and lack of time).

I suppose I was basing what I said more off of what they got for the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter, which is a bad measurement on my part. The DF Adventure is (I assume) a much larger and longer project then the AF stuff so it makes sense it would need a larger budget. Maybe I am just a little cynical because as a non-backer of the Adventure I haven't heard a single thing about it in the press, and now they come out with a similar shtick... I do generally like the idea of the AF and agree with the sentiment that if more companies did something like this it would be awesome. That said, the idea of a whole company dropping what it is doing for two weeks and working on something unrelated sounds like a great way to mess up a work flow.

I would say this is different from preorders. This and the Kickstarter (like most Kickstarters) seem to be you buying the idea of a game and some concept art (in the case of Kickstarters you also usually get sold a developers name). Preorders tend to be for games that are much further along in development, to the point where you know what it will look and play like. Thinking about it more I feel like this is the reason they went the paying route. It seems like a good way to stop spam, similar to how Valve is now running Greenlight from a developers standpoint (pay to get listed). And I can't imagine DF is getting a lot of money from from this, which can make it a better or worse move depending on how you look at it.

Anyone find it weird to see Double Fine asking for money in exchange for the promise of a game again? I mean, they are going to deliver without a doubt so I am not afraid of being scammed, but it still feels wrong. I haven't heard anything about the Double Fine Adventure (although I never backed it so I don't see the progress videos). Either way, excited to see what becomes of Spacebase.

Over past few days I read (more so lived) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, and have come away from the book spellbound by how well it encapsulates the state of mind of certain people during a certain period of time. That period of time and people being the 1960's counter/drug culture. Although I wasn't alive during this time, I feel that Hunter S. Thompson's work provides a perfect view into the death and aftermath of this particular culture. And at a certain point the actual story, which is well written and often hilarious, isn't the point of the work. It's the mindset and arc of the characters that best gives Thompson's thoughts and feelings about the time period. Anyway, to stop myself from rambling on I will cut short my thoughts. Have any Thumbs read this or any of Thompson's other works? Vegas is the only one I have read and I am now interested in Campaign Trail '72, but don't want to get burned out on the whole 'Gonzo Journalism' thing. I do encourage people to at least check Vegas out, the detailed drug scenes may be a turnoff for some however.

Just thought I would post some thoughts on The Rum Diary, which I finished up a few days ago. It is not as well written and encapsulating as Las Vegas, but that is a very high standard to hold most books to and The Rum Diary was written around ten years earlier, only published after. It is a much simpler story and is very low key which reflects the portrayal of Puerto Rico pretty well and allows Thompson to tell the story of Kemp's time on the island, not entertain the reader. I don't think the fact the story is subdued is a bad thing, in fact it is one of the things I enjoyed most but that may be related to my current place in life and not so much me as a reader. Either way I found the book enjoyable and strangely comforting even though I should be alienated by the setting and characters; this may be due to the way Thompson tends to write more so about a life and not a story. Jumping off that last point it is kinda crazy how Thompson can portray very hectic lifestyles and events in this relaxed, comforting way. Thinking about The Rum Diary some crazy stuff does indeed happen in that book, the car chase and festival are pretty energetic, which the reader feels, and take up large sections of the book with the characters seeing through the repercussions of each. But the reason that I would think of The Rum Diary as a "relaxed" book is that these are one off events, whereas Kemp sitting in Al's Bar all evening and other types of events happen more frequently.

Hmm... I think I might have to hit Hell's Angels after I finish Catch-22 (which I feel like my high school should have made me read and never did). I like the idea of Thompson portraying a group of people while they are still active and in a spotlight of sorts. And I have to ask, have any other authors tried to imitate the Gonzo Journalism style? I feel like, if done right of course, a short article or novel could be very powerful in drumming up support for or against a specific issue.

It seems to me that Scout, Sniper and Spy are only really usable on the easier missions. A team really doesn't need a whole bunch of firepower to get through those battles so if one or two players use those classes they can help do miscellaneous stuff (collect money, kill snipers/spies, focus on medics) while the rest of the team actually destroys the robots. The team will of course have an easier time doing this because of the miscellaneous actions of the support classes. But when it comes to harder MANN UP missions having a player only kill a hand-full of robots a round can make it near impossible to advance. Also Pyro's are by far the most useful MvM class, being able to reset the bomb means that your team can have double the usual time to kill advancing robots.

Anyone here try the MANN UP mode? I have played a few game and have been pleasantly surprised by how different they are from general free servers. By tying loot to beating a mission all of the sudden people take teamwork and communication very seriously, and the MANN UP missions are tough as nails further cementing the need for these values within the group. I was able to beat a mission with a group of randoms, half with mic's and half relying on text chat, but it worked and was awesome. Other times our group would get stuck on a wave in a mission and would sit around and discuss strategies before continuing. All in all this is a pretty solid update that hopefully sets TF2 on a course of less hats and weapons and more interesting gameplay and, oddly enough, story/style content.

I found that going into the server browser and setting filters to only show secure, mvm servers was the best way to get into a game. Although the player count usually misrepresents the number of actual players, and most servers are password protected, add to this general server problems such as lag and auto-kicking it can take awhile to get it to work. But I managed to get into a game after ~15 minutes. The mode itself is pretty fun and I can see myself playing TF2 exclusively for it from now on. It is the closest thing we have had to reining in the out-of-control destruction of style that TF2 originally had.

I would love to play co-operative TF2 with some Thumbs. Also, I have really come to appreciate Valve's approach of showing off the new game update and then letting people play it in a few days. Especially when the update include new modes, which at this point is all I am interested in when it comes to TF2. That, and the back story which is an insane combination of Valve writing around things they put in place when they had no idea what TF2 would become.

I haven't listened yet but am excited to see Driver: San Francisco make an appearance in this cast. I recently picked it up from the Steam Sale and just finished it up, it is a very impressive game. The story is the most notable part and is really enjoyable. It is handled in a smart way throughout the course of the game with the last few chapters being a really great payoff. I do feel that the execution is hampered by subpar dialog and voice acting however. The gameplay is also pretty good, one would expect races + cop chases for ~10 hours but Driver: SF takes those and tweaks some variables (such as leading cops to a certain location, making sure two certain cars get 1st and 2nd in a race) + adds new gameplay modes. It only felt dull during extended play sessions. Over all it would, and should, have a cult following but I feel Ubi-soft's DRM killed most potential for that. Plus muscle cars are cool.

Hey guys sorry I've been away for a few weeks, its been fairly busy schedule. It looks like most people have moved over to Day Z and I would love to join you, but I don't own Operation Arrowhead. I might pick it up if it goes on sale sometime but I am not all that interested in Day Z to begin with, and I was getting a little bored with the vanilla ArmA2 games. So if you need someone to maybe shoot a gun in buggy Russia I may be your man, as long as they aren't zombies we are shooting at. I also plan on getting Diabolic 3 after work on Thursday so if someone wants to do that... (What?! There is a thread for that? Non-sense!)

I hope there is an open beetle so I can piss people off with "Arrow in the knee" jokes. The only redeeming part of the Elder Scrolls series was the level of immersion they could sometimes produce on a good day, an MAMORPHAGA is going to quickly take that aspect away. I would describe the Elder Scrolls series as a one inch deep ocean, now with more shallowness. Haven't seen anything yet but it already seems like a bad move...

In my opinion Atom Zombie Smasher, the newest game by Brendon Chung the mind behind Gravity Bone and Flotilla, is also his best. The problem I had with Flotilla was that it was incredibly difficult and incredibly punishing, you lose a battle and tough shit; start over from the beginning. Atom Zombie Smasher maintains a level of difficulty but is much less punishing and much easier to enjoy and be successful at. And also has Brendon's "signature" art style, and by that I mean the whole game has a huge level of polish when it comes to art and presentation. So here is to hoping that some fellow Thumbs picked it up (which you should have) and would like to share their opinions. Also that theme song is amazing.

Ben has had trouble with landing on this aircraft carrier...

Yeah the idea that one needs to swing their mouse (and camera) in order to attack or block in a certain direction seems very flawed. This is made easier by only having two types of attack in Napoleon (high and low). Warband is just a fuddled mess of not being able to do what would be best in a situation because you are trying to keep your camera centered. However, I bet a large part of my distaste comes from the fact I have only played a few hours of vanilla Warband whereas my opponents, I assume, have been playing for a few years.

Hey, so I got this and Napoleon. I don't know if a Saturday game will be possible but I should be around every so often to play. Being a huge Napoleonic Era history buff I am really excited to see how the Napoleonic stuff plays, although I don't know if I will have much free time to learn the ins and outs of the game (am currently busy with Witcher 2 and CS:GO). Add me and annoy me if you are looking for a someone to help with the Idle Thumbs Old Guard!

I can't comment on the press conferences but I always thought the GOG team ran a good marketing scheme in that they were a good company. They rope people into their service with free games, great community interaction, and with sales and giveaways (they gave me a free copy of The Witcher 2 for owning it on a competing service). I have bought far to many games I won't ever play through GOG for the same reasons I do with Steam. That said when they did the site redesign by telling everyone they were giving up on selling old games and shutting down, that was bad marketing. I guess you have a point.

So the Enhanced Edition is out, all 10 gigs of it. I for one plan to hang out with my pal, and best character in the game, Vernon Roche and relive the golden age of my first play through. Also I plan to do it on "dark mode" or whatever is the hardest difficulty because people who complain about combat don't know how to roll. And apparently this is now out on the Xbox 360 as well and I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to try it out. And when you do remember, Vernon Roche is your friend.

You can check (or join) the Idle Thumbs Steam Group for the time of all upcoming events (it's usually just our ArmA 2 games). The nice thing about Steam is that it converts all times to your local time which makes everyone's life 10x easier.

Sure, just add me on Steam (link should be in signature) and then it is all yours. By the way, as someone who could not really get into/understand CS:S something about the feedback in GO makes it much more accessible without losing the competitive edge. And the matchmaking is really good, every game I played so far has felt balanced and as a result they have been a whole lot of fun.

I got in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta and with that comes an extra key. It's as good a time as any to get into Counter-Strike so take it if you want it.

I am mostly suprised that people didn't expect this from a kids game on the Natal. Besides, it looks like the people who made this game probably had a blast doing it. Star Wars is so geared towards kid now-a-days anyway that who really cares that they might be getting a fun, often hilarious, game. And this doesn't change the original series being an above average sci-fi trilogy.