RoutineMachine

I think of him as the original Jonathan Blow.

Ah, that explains why it felt like Sean was trying to sneak up on me to my right while Chris and Jake distracted me with mars lander conversation. I kinda liked it, it was immersive.

That's my memory. It felt like the only way to get past the cylinder was to glitch past it.

The cylinder was the only part of the level that I thought was bullshit. The rest was a refreshing challenge. Is there a trick to the cylinder?

Einstein's marriages paint the picture of a guy that's fairly self-absorbed. Other scientists are certainly motivated by the implications of their work; Watson and Crick really wanted a Nobel Prize. Not all scientists are trying to cure cancer, and having grown up with scientists, I'm fairly skeptical of the "Advancing Human Knowledge" justification for what they do. I think most are merely totally engaged by their jobs and the subject matter. (This is an anecdote, not a scientific study) I don't think that the quality of science suffers. I normally associate self-aware greatness with politicians and military leaders; and not in a good way.

Only 9.99? Buy Buy Buy!

Non-fiction Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Not because it is easy but because it is hard.

I think the interesting decision with Galciv II's unit customization was balancing the desire to specialize against your nearest neighbor, with being well-rounded enough to be prepared for the unknown. I liked that aspect of the game, as it was a balance that had to be adjusted throughout the game depending on how threatened you were on any particular turn. The busy-work of updating my new ships with incremental improvements in technology wasn't so much fun.

An old classic, Paper Lion Journalist George Plimpton embeds himself within the 1963 Detroit Lions preseason, posing as a prospective backup quarterback from the Canadian Football League. The coaches know his secret, the players don't. What happens when you take a 'weekend warrior' athlete and put them in the middle of a professional game with professional athletes?

You know, Sid Meier actually did make a game "Colonization" where you take on the role of a colony that has to build up strength until it can break away from the mother country.

Typing "best gaming podcast" into Google is, in fact, the way I found out about Idle thumbs. It pointed me to Gamers with Jobs. Later, Chris did a guest spot on GWJ, and that's how I found out about Idle Thumbs.

Off the top of my head (not an authoritative source) Civ 3 introduced culture (and cultural borders), Great People, trade routes, and special resources. Pretty major changes. I don't remember many new features of Civ 4, except religion, and the de-emphasis on pollution management. Maybe better combat resolution? (fewer instances of a phalanx holding out against a Panzer.) Maybe the great people got tweaked? Diplomacy was made more transparent (ties in with Religion). I think of 4 as mostly being a re-balance and polish thing, not a features update. I concur with the assessment that V was enough of a departure that it cannot be simply judged as a better or worse game. There are things I like from V, there are things I miss from 4. I probably will never like V as much as 4, but that's on me.

The criticism about "showing and not telling" makes me think of how the book reads as a satire of the type of story where everything happens in the narrator's head If the book was about showing, it wouldn't be about Tony, it would be about Veronica, who has lived a far more challenging and interesting life (the kind worth telling stories about.) In her story, Tony plays a very small role. But Tony thinks he's the protagonist, so despite the fact that he hardly goes anywhere and barely does anything, he has to tell his story. And in the end, he still has not escaped his ego-centrism, absurdly assuming responsibility for things that were never really about him. Our internal struggles and journeys do not matter much outside of our heads.

I vaguely remember from my youth Nintendo Power really promoting Super Black Bass. And so, I remember craving that video game like kids crave things. I've never even liked fishing!

I picked up Warlock on the Steam sale just so I could figure out what the heck you guys were talking about... ...this is not the first time this has happened... ...this week

Can't discount the satisfying POP that 40 muskets make when fired in chorus.

Raph Koster was the guy who said that Single Player games are an aberration. http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/02/10/are-single-player-games-doomed/

I really liked C++ Primer Plus by Prata. http://books.google.com/books?id=P7HuWSWtsh0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=c%2B%2B+primer+plus&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_-eOT76ALsKmiQL76ImHAw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=c%2B%2B%20primer%20plus&f=false

I am in the process of introducing my Dad to Civilization V as a first strategy game. To be continued...

I definitely wouldn't have tried out the Paradox Games without Three Moves Ahead, and EUIII is pretty cool I must say. On the other hand, Tom Chick ruined Rome: Total War for me, so boo to that.

@Codicier You have a point about a system simple enough to be playable system feeling contrived. It could help to make the setting a bit more exotic, either through fantasy or by putting it on a different planet, like Alpha Centauri did. "Fate of the World" looks interesting. Thanks for the heads up! @corto Are you familiar with "Balance of Power" by Chris Crawford?

@Codicier Populous maybe, (I'm not too familiar with it). In my mind the climate effects are more subtle and global and less direct and immediate than the spellcasting in Black & White. I'm envisioning a EUIII type map screen with climate overlays

It would be nice if there was a deeper exploration of Alpha Centauri's terraforming mechanics. I envision different factions being unable to use direct military power against eachother, so instead trying to change climate patterns to their own advantage (sunny days for solar power plants, good breezes for wind farms) and to disadvantage their opponents (cause droughts for farms, raise sea levels to cause damage to coastal cities.) The end game would build to ludicrous "Day After Tomorrow" climate change, generating tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes, El Nino etc

I think of Rockstar's thing as being big open worlds. You kill lots of guys in most video games nowadays.

A GTA style game from the point of view of a lawman sounds compelling to me. I'm personally tired of storytelling from the point of view of criminal sociopaths. I also don't think that Noir themes have been really tapped in video games. And the facial animation looks great. So that's three things from the trailer that are good.