Chris

Idle Thumbs 251: Signature Moves

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Idle Thumbs 251:

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Signature Moves

Boston Dynamics has upped its robot game, advancing the state of cybernetics ever further. Meanwhile, all we've been doing is playing some video games. So grab your hockey stick, your basketball, and your devil dagger, because the clock is counting down, the future of humanity is on the line, and all eyes are on you. It's time to bust a signature move. Featuring James Spafford as Jake Rodkin, and Robot Jake Rodkin as Jake Rodkin's introductory spiel.

Games Discussed: Devil Daggers, XCOM 2, NBA 2K16, Overcooked, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Spaceteam (card game), Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

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I liked that robot Jake Rodkin guy. Didn't say much, but he sure kept things grounded.

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Also, I wish I could see a video of Nick Breckon's guy finding out his friend died in NBA 2K16

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Ha ha, the death of Nick Breckon in XCOM 2 was amazing.  One of my favorite Idle Thumbs stories is Nick's dad refusing to play NHL hockey with him.  Now they're in a video game together—he finally gets to play with his dad!

 

And he shoots him.

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Man, I am sad to hear the finale of the Nick "Freq" Beckon NBA saga. I guess it's not really a saga seeing as he only spoke about the game twice.

 

I absolutely have to watch the ending of this game on youtube..I can't even believe this is real. I couldn't even make something like this up. Also would've loved if Nick had video of his character crying at the news of Vic.

 

Edit: To complete the experience it might be worth checking out
on youtube clocking in at 1 hour 51 minutes.

 

Edit 2: I can not believe my eyes. 

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The experience of playing Devil Daggers blind makes me feel like I'm 6 years old again and don't know anything about games. I didn't even know the shotgun attack was possible until I watched someone else's replay (If you didn't know by the way, the game automatically uploads a replay for your best run, and clicking the eye symbol next to anyone on the leaderboards lets you watch their replay). There's another function in the keybinds menu called "homing" or something and I still don't know what that does. The cool part is that because the game has a super high skill ceiling, and that skill is the only way to progress, there is stuff in the game that even people who really love it will never see unless they get good enough to last that long. I've heard there are bosses later on but I have no idea if that's true.

 

That feeling, plus the whole 90's demonic aesthetic makes this game feel like something that would show up on an episode of CSI about a Video game that turns kids into Satanists. All the conversations people have about getting the highest score and how only one person in the world can get to 500 seconds would also be perfect corny TV dialogue.

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Nick.

 

Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick.

 

It's not a suicide note. It's just an incredibly insane ghost monologue about his true inner feelings after he died. You also missed (or just didn't mention) the fact that right before he died he was trying to blackmail you.

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The best way to play Spelunky co-op is the PSN version, which has local LAN play, meaning you don't have to share a screen. This is usually easiest with a Vita and either console version, but I imagine it could also be done between two consoles, and I'm guessing Campo Santo has a couple PS4s laying around?

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Man, I am sad to hear the finale of the Nick "Freq" Beckon NBA saga. I guess it's not really a saga seeing as he only spoke about the game twice.
 
I absolutely have to watch the ending of this game on youtube..I can't even believe this is real. I couldn't even make something like this up. Also would've loved if Nick had video of his character crying at the news of Vic.
 
Edit: To complete the experience it might be worth checking out
on youtube clocking in at 1 hour 51 minutes.
 
Edit 2: I can not believe my eyes. 

 

What the fuck? That there was almost 2 hours of that hot mess? Well, I guess time flies when you feel embarrassed for everybody involved. On some level I probably found it quite fascinating, though, because I didn't skip any of the cutscenes.

 

Bo$$-Key-Yacht$, man, Bo$$-Key-Yacht$.

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Nick.

 

Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick.

 

It's not a suicide note. It's just an incredibly insane ghost monologue about his true inner feelings after he died. You also missed (or just didn't mention) the fact that right before he died he was trying to blackmail you.

 

I mean... I'm pretty sure someone mentions the note IRL, unless I mistook one of the other crazy things happening for that. In reading about it in a few places it seems like there was a lot of confusion about whether or not it was a suicide note, and if so, how could it possibly have been written ahead of time??

 

The whole thing is just bizarre. 

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I mean... I'm pretty sure someone mentions the note IRL, unless I mistook one of the other crazy things happening for that. In reading about it in a few places it seems like there was a lot of confusion about whether or not it was a suicide note, and if so, how could it possibly have been written ahead of time??

 

The whole thing is just bizarre. 

 

If I remember correctly, the final part was cut in a very strange way. Basically, "I'm afraid Vic died in a car chase" > "It's pretty crazy that I'm in NBA now. Shame about Vic, though." > "Mum and dad, I bought you a house or a vacation or whatever." > "If you are hearing me read this letter, I'm a ghost. I just wanted to let you know that your mom is super hot."

 

It could be that Vic was already suicidal and acting recklessly which resulted in the police/gangsters chasing him. I like to think that he wrote that note as a ghost. Mostly, I just don't care.

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Man, I am sad to hear the finale of the Nick "Freq" Beckon NBA saga. I guess it's not really a saga seeing as he only spoke about the game twice.
 
I absolutely have to watch the ending of this game on youtube..I can't even believe this is real. I couldn't even make something like this up. Also would've loved if Nick had video of his character crying at the news of Vic.
 
Edit: To complete the experience it might be worth checking out
on youtube clocking in at 1 hour 51 minutes.
 
Edit 2: I can not believe my eyes. 

I really like the little achievement popup right after Freq breaks down in sweaty tears after hearing about Vic's death.

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Is that the entirety of the new theme song? It's, uh.

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Is that the entirety of the new theme song? It's, uh.

Is that the entirety of your feedback? It's, uh.

(Yes it is.)

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Is that the entirety of the new theme song? It's, uh.

Welcome to the forums! While Idle Thumbs may sometimes seem cynical or inside at a glance, we try to come from a place of constructive optimism and hope to foster long form, in depth discussion between our community members. I think you'll really like it here.

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Composing a really brief song is actually such an awesome creative exercise. Brian Eno related his experience about being approached by Microsoft to create the music for Windows 95, and it is incredible:

 

The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem — solve it."

 

    The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3.25 seconds long."

 

    I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel. In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.


 

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I started by trying a few full-length pieces that were in the same vein as all the previous intro music, then Jake suggested doing something really short this time around, and I thought that made sense. All of our other podcasts that have intro music tend to get the music out of the way pretty quickly. A big outrageous two-minute theme is a fun and unusual thing for a podcast but that's what we've been doing for years and years and there have been a lot of times during editing where I've wished I could just get on with it. It felt like an appropriate change in direction to me. The idea is that it's not a "song," it's a quick musical identifier.

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I started by trying a few full-length pieces that were in the same vein as all the previous intro music, then Jake suggested doing something really short this time around, and I thought that made sense. All of our other podcasts that have intro music tend to get the music out of the way pretty quickly. A big outrageous two-minute theme is a fun and unusual thing for a podcast but that's what we've been doing for years and years and there have been a lot of times during editing where I've wished I could just get on with it. It felt like an appropriate change in direction to me. The idea is that it's not a "song," it's a quick musical identifier.

 

Honestly, as much as I like the more lengthy and baroque entries in the Idle Thumbs library of themes, I prefer this shorter one. The best moments of the longer themes is when they're abruptly foreshortened or cut off, usually by shenanigans from Jake, and now I get that with every episode!

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I was surprised (pleasantly) that it was so short. That's not to say that if the next one was long again, I'd be disappointed. More that I just like the variety. 

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Jake just wants it to be short so that's there more time for him on the air.

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I still miss the Jazzy 150-200 theme - why not just overlay a 'Video Games' onto the

and call it a day?

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