Idle Thumbs 18: Citizen Killzone

[Chris]

Sorry for the delay! Here we are. A slightly schizophrenic episode.

"Citizen Killzone"

Following modern trends, this episode eschews its core gameplay for a series of scattered but crowd-pleasing showpieces. Hop in a Big Stompin' Mech with F.E.A.R. 2, use a mandatory turret to defend your favorite FPS titles, and perform an overly-animated finishing move on "opinions."

Games discussed: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Watchmen: The End is Nigh, Quake Live, Left 4 Dead, Killzone 2

[ysbreker]

One of the earlier titles by Grin is Bandits: phoenix rising. A (somewhat) open world post apocalyptic racer with a rather nice soundtrack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandits:_Phoenix_Rising

[soupface]

Holy balls, I was F5-ing idlethumbs.net most of Wednesday. I was afraid I was going to go a week without your hot pod. Don't scare me like that.

You've confirmed my suspicions about F.E.A.R. 2, and articulated some of my frustrations with crappy triggered events in Halo 3, among others. Having to start or stay in the Warthog or having to run back to trigger something after having rushed by it really bugged me (esp. when it looked like I could continue on foot, but would, minutes later, be killed by a scripted event).

I guess I love to hear what I think, but in your voices—with police sirens, and with occasional static.

[ysbreker]

Yeah, the static was weird. Thankfully it wasn't there the whole podcast.

[SilverSnake]

My fondest memory of older GRIN stuff is Ballistics. This was a crazy ass high-speed racer (speed was shown in kph and mach !! )

I uploaded some screenshots as well as a one-lap movie capture of the first track that I did a few years ago to my shackspace. If you haven't heard of this game I highly recommend you check them out. Quality of the movie is kinda crappy (old codec, I suck at encoding and my computer at the time didn't allow me to play and record at good resolution) so refer to the screenshots for how the game actually looks (looks kinda sweet even today IMO).

Now I need to find my CD again.

[MrChaz]

the first 30 minutes or whatever boils down to: Game mechanics done well are fun, game mechanics done poorly are not.

I found HL2 much more pressured than the first one. The sequence up until the end of the sewer section is just a blur for me. Playing it in one sitting meant that I really felt like I couldn't stop, even for a moment.

I swear seeing a comment below an 8.7 score for killzone saying that they were disappointed and expected at least an 9.2. Hope you find that as funny as I did.

[nonamermcgee]

Sweet!

[T-Matt]

Killzone 2: This review goes to 11 - IGN.com

[nakedsushi]

Thanks for reading my reader-mail guys. I hope all my marketing friends don't end up de-friending me. At least I'll get less email blasts then.

[Alex P]

Remo: I actually asked Mike Capps last year in an interview if Epic was considering developing something along the lines of "Unreal Live." He said it wasn't something they were looking at, but that he was interested in the free-to-play concept and would personally be keeping a close eye on both Quake Live and Battlefield Heroes.

[Erkki]

Putting chalk on your cue is essential, it keeps the cue tip from sliding off the cue ball. Especially important if you want to put a spin on the cue ball (by hitting it not in the center).

[miffy495]

You missed Imagine Rock Star, Imagine Rock Star 2, Imagine Wedding Designer, Imagine Master Chef, etc etc etc. Yeah, I have to stock that shelf at work...

[James]

Imagine Good video games

[LetterT]

Imagine a podcast without mention of Far Cry 2

[elmuerte]

http://www.churchofkillzone2.info/

(yeah, not as good at the others, didn't feel like writing proper content (hint, hint))

[Chris]

http://www.churchofkillzone2.info/

(yeah, not as good at the others, didn't feel like writing proper content (hint, hint))

Haha, that is fantastic!

[gqwar]

The standard response to you're criticism of halo wars is [in the voice of an anal retentive], 'erm it's about strategy not tactics'.

I personally find that kind of flaccid wit like being savaged by a wet towel, pretty much the same feeling I get playing any WarCraft style game.

Dawn of war was particularly bad! It explicitly tells you what to build, where to go, even just gives you units you will need outright, enemy guys just stand still or run straight at you, even the boss things get stuck on turrets and buildings.

There has to be a middle ground, games simple enough to pick up in a few minutes but complex (as opposed to just really annoyingly complicated) to make some challenging and interesting game play, because that is part of the whole collage of fun. I heard somewhere it's called 'transparent complexity'? idk.

You mentioned Myth! Yay that’s a fun rts!

[DanJW]

Fantastic return of the song segment

[David]

Fantastic return of the song segment

Any chance of a standalone song mp3?

[Chris]

Any chance of a standalone song mp3?

Yeah, probably this weekend.

[blackboxme]

Idle Thumbs 18: The one and a half hour rant about dumb crap

It's generally a bad idea to do a long show exclusively about topics that you find boring and annoying.

Disclaimer: I will never play Killzone 2, Fear 2, Wanted, Watchmen or Satan of War: Dante's Revenge.

[Chris]

I liked FEAR 2 and Watchmen! I may not have communicated that well enough.

[blackboxme]

Watchmen game + that running-internal-monologue idea would be great.

[Yalbit]

Another great podcast, for some weird reason the first time I downloaded it the podcast stopped before reader mail was read, but I downloaded it again when I got home and all was well.

[Freezerr]

One of the weird things about Half-life 2 is that narratively, you're running for your life out of the city while the Combine is hunting you, but gameplay-wise, there are clear triggers for enemy spawns. It was immersion-breaking for me when I realized that I could stand around for as long as I liked and the Combine wouldn't come after me, unless I crossed that invisible line 5 yards ahead. As much as I hate the infinite respawn in the Call of Duty series, it probably would have worked well for that portion of Half-Life 2, short of putting the game on rails.

(Perhaps I wouldn't have noticed this, or have minded it as much if Half-Life 2 wasn't only the 2nd shooter I ever played. Amusingly, I bought The Orange Box for TF2 and Portal and had no clue what Half-Life 2 was. After I played those two a lot, I decided to give this "Half-Life 2" a try, expecting some cheesy, mediocre game. Boy, was I surprised. And in the end, I think I agree with you guys that the most memorable parts were the adventure/puzzle parts, but the shooting parts were executed very well.)