K-bohls!

I played Minecraft during Notch's impromptu free weekend and thoroughly enjoyed making a huge bridge that spanned the map. However I really despise(it scares me) using a credit card on the internet unless the site has Amazon or Steam in its name. That being said I have $4.49 leftover on my "Steam Wallet" so I would be willing to do a swap, a Steam game for Minecraft. I know its not a fair trade and its not like I don't have games to play right now and with the impending Winter Sale coming up I wont be on a deficit of games to play in the future. But I would really like to play Minecraft and would most certainly build something with some Thumbs. I don't particularly like begging so I really want to give something to you in return and if you want I would be willing to bump $4.49 to $10.49. Thank you for at least showing generosity.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom - I fully expect no one to be talking about an indie game that came out in February; that was far too overlooked when it came out. But Winterbottom is one of the most enjoyable games I played this year. The silent film feel and a funny poem written between each level that tells the story in a nice way gives this game a very unique feel. It's a very pleasant experience. Stalker: Call of Pripyat - On the extreme opposite of a game that is just 'nice' is probably CoP. I played about an hour of SoC and didn't really get it. My first experience in CoP was being dropped into a world, waiting around for a tutorial to kick in, restarting to see if I missed something, and finally getting killed by a boar because I accidentally dropped my gun. But I was able to learn the ropes and really enjoyed my time with CoP and plan on going back to the zone over winter break. Super Meat Boy - I like Super Meat Boy...ALOT. I don't really know what to say about it other then you should probably play this game. I love how each level has a 'rhythm' to it where if you start moving at the right time you can bypass a lot of obstacles that would cause much trouble for someone being more careful. This is a fun game, you should play it. Mafia II - Mafia II got a lot of shit when it came out, people complaining about the city, the story, the driving, the shooting, the loading sequence, the reloading animation, the look of the pedestrians, the lack of a ride able circus wheel that you could use to crush enemy mobsters; anything they could think of they complained Mafia either did it or didn't do it. I loved Mafia II, and every aspect about it. Joe is by far my personal "character of the year" he is absolutely great and seems believable to me for some reason even though he is doing unbelievable stuff. Vito is also great, he is a guy who gets mixed up in the mob and tries his damnedest to fix everything he messed up but to no avail. I suppose people must have had very high expectations going into Mafia II and me on the opposite end, but I had the time of my goddamn life playing this totally rad video game.

Up until now I had thought Mafia II was going to be my personal goty.cx, but Super Meat Boy has fulfilled all my expectations and then some. There is so much to say about this game; so I'm going to talk about all of it right here. Like everyone else on the internet I agree the controls feel great. They managed to make Meat Boy super powerful with out him being uncontrollable. The distances you can leap are incredible and its more amazing that you are able to land on a single block floating in mid air frequently. Unlocked characters have their own feel that you need to learn before being particularly useful which I think is great, showing that they didn't just do color swaps with different abilities. I unlocked "The Kid" after a solid 4 hours of play and he is very interesting because he doesn't move as fast or single jump as far, but his double jump and air control more than make up for his weaknesses. It very cool, and when they did this with ten characters you know Team Meat did something great. The levels also are amazing and impressive. They are always able to introduce a new mechanic every few levels, iterate on it, and then turn it on its head to surprise you with a depth that may in fact please you. Like I said I unlocked The Kid after playing the same 3 levels over and over. The first one is probably the hardest but I never felt frustrated being that it never took more than 10-15 seconds to get to where I just died and more importantly it had the strong feeling of "just one more try." From there they got easier but still maintained a level of challenge without frustration. (I have a lot more to say about level two of The Kid set but that would make this post even longer). I think the story is great and probably should be talked about more. Watching preview coverage for this game I saw what looked like an "end of the world story" but nobody ever really mentioned it. I was pleasantly surprised when I was right about a conflict that gradually ramps up to the end times. But more than that I love the gradual degradation of color from the world until all there is is black, white, and the red of Meat Boy. It's absolutely great. So in the end I am super impressed with Super Meat Boy. Having played the shit out of the flash Meat Boy finally playing Super is like a dream come true. It is amazing and I have so many good things so say about what Team Meat, a team of two dudes, managed to accomplish better then what most huge development studios could do. Also, there is a lot of content in this game and by the looks of it more is going to be added by Team Meat and by the community when the level editor comes out, for now I am blown away but what they have managed to do. And if they ever get their leader boards to be not confusing as shit then I will just simply send them my wallet. Lastly if anyone who is playing it wants to add me to Steam that would be sweet because I want to flesh out the friends leader board in a video game finally.

I've gotta hand it to Telltale, this is a heck of a game. It isn't trying to do something amazing but it excels at what it should; character interaction and video poker. Every time I boot it up I get a chuckle out of something I never noticed before or something funny that gets said. I feel that the writing is very strong for all characters, especially Tycho and The Heavy (I haven't every really been a Home-star Runner guy and only played Season 1 of S&M). Although I was initially disappointed by the lack of Holkins, Tycho's voice has grown on me. I know Holkins had some oversight on the dialogue for Tycho but did Telltale write for The Heavy or Strong-Bad? Lastly, I have to ask is The Heavy crossing his arms a reference to this

Okay, so my anticipation has sky-rocketed waiting for Super Meat Boy over the past month. I have been playing Meat Boy at least a couple times a week and have gotten to the point where I can speed run it in about 30-40 minutes on a keyboard. I was incredibly pumped when I pre-ordered my copy on Steam only to find out my Tuesday the 30th (release date) is booked, also I'm a little bummed that it didn't come out this week, the week when I have too much free time but whatever. I want a game that will kick my ass to no end, in a time where most video games hold your hand to the extent that you don't even need to , having a game were only the first minute might be easy is extremely exciting. Looking forward to taking on the leader boards, be on the look out for a certain "K-bohls!" because by god I'm gonna be on them.

I know we like Giant Bomb so here is a Quick Look they did, it does looks pretty cool from the standpoint of someone who never played the original. However, it seems like a game that you need to play around Halloween to get that certain feeling from it. Sadly I looked outside today to see snow so that's out of the question. I will however probably pick it up around the holiday sale out of curiosity. And the whole Halloween feeling might turn into the ball up in blankets, stay in and enjoy a video game feeling. Also on the topic of treasure in video games, why don't you want it? Its treasure; what more could you want? Its the riches of kings, the plateau of money. Finding treasure is the greatest reward. Think of what you could do with it all. Look past the achievements, look past the .jpgs, look past the game.

I don't have an 360 anymore and play games exclusively on my PC so seeing this game that I have been following since before they had an official blog go exclusive on release breaks my heart. However the level editor for the PC version is a great way to win back my heart. The delay also gives me time to get off my ass and get a wired 360 controller for my PC finally. I'm the kind of person who still plays Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on my Game Boy Color just to go through the challenge mode to beat times and scores. My favorite being world 5-4 made absolutely perfectly in sync. I've played it over so many times that I know the theoretical perfect score is 262 seconds left(starting at 300), getting that for me is a pretty rare occurrence, but golly when I do I feel like the man. So in short if you someday find yourself playing a really good timed Super Mario castle level in Super Meat Boy, it was probably me (but probably not me).

So I just finished my third game of Civ 5 here is my experiences with it so far. My first game was as Ramesses II. This was on the 4th difficulty because I was just learning how to play the game after not playing a Civ in a long time. It went well with a conquest of my continent then killing off half of China on the next. The only major opponent left were the Russians, and boy was it an epic battle. It started off with the classic both sides fueling up for war and stationing all their troops near the border and waiting for the word to rush in. I built at least 8 defensive fortifications and had 3-4 artillery waiting to fire on attackers. Once it started it became my artillery doing the brunt of the work and my troops taking weakened cities and enemy units. This was an effective strategy and I came out on top thanks to tactics and technical superiority. My second game I was going to a cultural victory with Gandhi. I haven't actually completed this one because I went the one city max culture buildings with it. I feel if you gave me two hours and something to listen to(cast?). I could click on the "next" button enough times and win the game. Rough math says it would take 90 turns for all the cultural policies and them some time for the utopia project and I would finish the game with 25-30 turns left. I however do not feel like clicking the "next" button then waiting one minute (I timed it) on average to click it again. Its not fun, but then its not really how you play. My third game which I just finished tonight was an epic last stand around my capital as the Japanese. The French and Germans expanded early right next to me so I bought land, to secure it, and expanded around their cities. They however did not like this so I waited till I had a fairly decent amount of Samurai and went at them. I ended up finishing off about half of each of them and all of China who I had also expanded near their land which got them pissed, but they weren't very hard. With the help of a HUGE Russia we finished the rest of France and Russia went on to take Germany. Once she was done, I again went full military with Samurai to hit Russia hard and fast. At this point all the other Civs on the second continent were taken over by a mysterious figure meaning it was the three of us left. I however miscalculated the technical superiority Russia had over my dudes with swords using their dudes with guns. In a way it was kinda like a lot of battles Japan fought, they weren't always willing to adopt new weapons and put down their swords. So once I realized my empire was going down the drain I said fuck it' and turtled like a mofo. This ended in a fairly epic battle with artillery and guns verses Samurai running down mountains to meet their enemy, and their death. Over all I am really enjoying my time with Civ 5 and feel I have picked up and addiction, its what I have been playing at least a few hours a day since I bought it on launch. Cool beans!

Not really knowing a whole lot about the corporate chain behind GOG, I think it would be sweet if they got eaten up VALVe. The only reason I didn't buy games off there is because I am a huge Steam fan boy, I know this is an awful thing to say but I just really like having to type in one password when my computer turns on and have all my games in front of my eyes. Sure Steam is a form of DRM but it is one that keeps my games organized and I can play anyone of them when I want with almost no hassle. When I recently reformatted my computer Steam was invaluable in keeping my games organized, no rummaging throughout my house for CD keys or discs. With GOG I would have to go through the whole "I forgot my password" email exchange because I would never log on after I got a game, then re download the installer or whatever they use to get the games running(dosbox?) And I would do this for every game I had from there, and for old games that I would probably rarely play this would be too much of a hassle for my lazy ass.

Being in school I am all about video games! I do think that shooters need to slow down a bit, the only ones I play are VALVe stuff (mostly TF2), and games that appeal to a specific interest of mine (settings in Bioshock and Mafia for example). I have recently gotten into Interactive Fiction, admittedly this is because I had so much free time in my CAD class because the teacher blocks the internet ... I'm hooked. If you never have tried them I highly recommend 9:05 and Photopia, both are great for newcomers and Photopia in particular has a amazing jaw dropping moment. I am thinking about doing a short write up once I have finished a few more and see what the Thumbs think about these games.

Nice cast guys, my face loved it! Loved the music and can't wait to watch Nick throw water around...like a douche

Joe is such a great character, he is like that one friend everyone has, he is loud, rude, and short tempered, the brawn's of the operation. But somehow he still is able to be lovable. And Vito, even though he has been criticized for being an empty husk that does what ever anyone tells him to, is the brains of the operation, the one that will do some sneaking and not just go in guns blazing. But most importantly the reason Vito does what everyone tells him to is that he just wants to be respected and have enough money to support himself and his family (Frankie and his mother). But trying to do what everyone says does end up going horribly awry and Vito then turns into a character that just wants to make things right.

Hey Steve! Would you like to guess which platform I play my games on? I suppose I would pick this up, if I could, and if I could find the time to play it. I liked BioShock 2 but it felt odd to me, like it didn't belong or it wasn't needed. Either way I would like to play it because you are one cool dude Scoops!

Play TF2 on a 24/7 Hydro server, yes I know that's weird but Hydro is great, everyone else is wrong. Add me if you feeling like hanging around with a sweet community of people who know one another. http://steamcommunity.com/id/kbohls

Its possible that I am unable to tell a good story from bad one but I loved Mafia II, story in all. First off all the combat and driving feels fine, I especially like fist fights which seems different from everyone else on the internet. I thought the world was awesome, I am interested in the time period and they brought it hard in this one, the radio stations rock, fake advertisements look great, cars have AMAZING damage modeling. Its a great looking and playing package. Now onto the story. Yes there were plot holes, whats up with his sister? Why should I care about his mother? Who is this guy I am shooting?(in the very end). People are criticizing the game for taking too many queues from "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas". And while I have never seen all of Goodfellas, what I have seen is very good. Why is it a problem to take from other pieces of mob themed content? Especially one of which being one of the best movies of all time(my opinion). So what if someone in a movie had a body in the back of the trunk and in Mafia II there is a body in the back of the trunk. That scene in the game was one of my favorite, it gave the characters a sense of familiarity to me. Out for a night on the town get drunk, have to bury body, drive home singing obnoxiously to a radio tune which you can't change, fucking great. Other parts like the fighting (don't know how to do spoilers so left the spoiler out) sections were cool, you have to fight to survive, there is light racism, the guards are douches. It felt right. The later half really ramps up with death of characters and suspense all over the place, and maybe I am a sucker, but it was great. Sure the ending was lackluster but it was left up to interpretation, my ending is very cruel to the main characters, its the nature of the business. Others might have all the characters live happily ever after. Sadly most people bitch about this because they like being told what happens from the people who made the game. Overall I really dig this game and its well on its way to being my GOTY. Side-note: I am playing the pc version and installed the free ride mod so I can just drive around the city in all the cars, pre-order dlc or not. Chalk one up for the PC!

And with that my most favorite videooo gameee podcast comes to a close. I will listen this one while I cry myself to sleep, then wake up and listen to them all all over again and then I will listen to this one while I cry myself to sleep, then wake up and listen to them all all over again and then I will listen to this one while I cry myself to sleep, then wake up and listen to them all all over again and then I will listen to this one while I cry myself to sleep. IDLE THUMBS: INFINITE Thanks for all the great times and great laughs. Lastly, Chris do you think you could at some point get out ONE MORE SONG? I listen to them all the time and wish I could hear some new beauty played into my ear holes.

Hmmm, let me rephrase my comment. I don't believe that isolation is the only thing that goes into making an atmospheric game, in a game like ArmA 2 (a war simulator) once you get into a big or even small battle/conflict you will get a sense of excitement and the adrenaline might start pumping because of the grandness of it all and the way the game operates, the environment is always changing with each battle but it doesn't play a huge roll. In Infinite, at least to me, the environment could be swapped out with any other environment, maybe its because my brain rejects the idea of a giant floating city vanishing and no one being able to find it in the late 1800's to early 1900's. Bioshock for some reason seemed in the smallest way, possible, it was something I wanted to believe in happening even though I knew it didn't. If Columbia floats over a body of water with no land in sight then I would feel isolated (maybe I am just afraid of the sea) but being over what looks like a bunch of farms on a not very cloudy day and being considered missing seems far to odd for my tastes. And for me, that ruins the atmosphere a bit. Either way I will most likely be picking it up day 1 because its by Irrational, and the story sound fairly interesting. Lastly the universe will be connected because Infinite will have "The Circus of Values" store/dispenser in it.

My take on the whole "Bioshock" in the title issue is that this game was going to be compared to Bioshock when it comes out because video game reviewers are retarded, also I have a feeling this game going to play very similar to Bioshock 1+2, in the way the weapons feel. However, I don't think Infinite is going to be as atmospheric as Bioshock 1. Being in a dark, wet, underwater city that is falling apart is by far my favorite video game environment ever, you have an immense feeling of isolation at all times. Being in the sky just seems like it can't have this same feeling of isolation, it was cool in the trailer, until I saw the ground. And even though its impossible to survive a fall like that it still seemed not as scary as being underwater. Although I am sure Infinite will have a night time level that will be pretty creepy. Oh, look at me comparing the two games. And this is Irrational so I am excited.

Hey thumbs, great cast! The Idle Thumbs Podcast and the Giant Bombcast have become the only two podcast I really listen to anymore and while I'm sad to see this one go, congratulations Chris! Also fuck you! Anyway I have really enjoyed listening to you guys and while I might not be a super old member of the thumb forums I have listened to all the casts, and I can say that they hold up well even if it is outdated news. They will always be downloaded on my computer because I'm sure I will re-listen to them sometime if I ever get sucked back into an MMORPG or Day of Defeat (the game I listened to them all the first time around). Where ever you end up Chris good luck and I hope you somehow sneak some sweet game related songs into a video game!

Moonbase Alpha seems pretty sweet!

Yeah I picked this game up when it was in beta. It was really fun but the lag is what made me stop playing it. However, if they have added dedi servers I will totally jump in with some thumbs. Also I love the setting, but then again Sergio Leone is probably my favorite director/person of all time.

Man that sucks for Mythic I really enjoyed WAR, it was great for rolling around with buds and just fighting an enemy in huge battles. Had to quit because my grades were going down the shitter. Luckily I have about 4 of those time cards lying in my closet, I dodged a bullet there. Also WAR had a GREAT CE which I have lying next to my computer and is one of my favorite boxes in the world.

Hi Forum Thumbs, I haven't lurked on here ever... well not that much at least. I recently started listening to Idle Thumbs a month or two ago and am listening to the back catalog, currently I am on #37 but am blowing through them at an alarming rate due to my increased interest in Torchlight and my decreased interest in generic sound design in video games. I'm basically the kind of person who plays TF2 because that game after 400 hours still keeps me entertained like no other games have...ever... Also The Saboteur is GOTY for 2009, that is all.