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Jake

Idle Thumbs 20: Idle Thumbs 2000

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We made it to 20 somehow!

Idle Thumbs 2000

Has your desire to explore and investigate given way to a guided experience that just wants to hold your hand? Find out at the next waypoint. Join us as we offer up impressions from the DICE Summit, discuss this week's surprise assault of great games, and eat our own butt.

Games Discussed: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, Noby Noby Boy, Empire: Total War, Tom Clancy's HAWX, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

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I can't believe you made it to 20. Also ... 102 minutes (and 1 second).

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erm... Unreal Gold was the re-release of Unreal (only released in north america), and yes it contained the "Return to Na Pali" expansion. So, it's not the first Unreal game (on the PC).

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Really great episode! Although the audio quality went down after the break.

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There was a re-release thing going on around the turn of the century. Unreal, Dungeon Keeper, Tomb Raider, Alien vs. Predator, Thief, and Age of Empires were all re-released in "gold" editions (which, in some cases, just meant "patched").

Does that happen much nowadays? To me, this marketing strategy seems to have faded some.

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There were also GOTY editions, probably even more popular than the gold editions. The most recently GOTY edition I'm aware of is the oblivion one.

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Awesome, but what the fuck happened to the sound quality? Are you pawning your awesome sound equipment, Christopher?

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Awesome, but what the fuck happened to the sound quality? Are you pawning your awesome sound equipment, Christopher?

Hmm... sirens in almost every episode... then again now, and a sudden drop in sound quality after the break. What it looks like is that it was really stolen audio equipment and the cops were looking for it all these months. Seems that they finally tracked it down, and the second part of the episode was made later after Jake, Chris and Nick were bailed out of jail. (or Jake put on his cop glasses and talked them out of being arrested)

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Awesome, but what the fuck happened to the sound quality? Are you pawning your awesome sound equipment, Christopher?

Nick was talking extremely quietly for much of the second half, so I had to do really extreme noise reduction and compression to try to make him audible, and doing that stuff really kills the actual fidelity unfortunately.

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Dante's Inferno is pretty much my favorite game subject ever. Also I totally know what the last level will be. This is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the Divine Comedy (specifically the last zone of the 9th Circle):

Dante and Virgil, with no one to talk to, quickly move on to the center of hell. Condemned to the very center of hell for committing the ultimate sin (treachery against God) is Satan, who has three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow, each having a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor. Satan himself is represented as a giant, terrifying beast, weeping tears from his six eyes, which mix with the traitors' blood sickeningly. He is waist deep in ice, and beats his six wings as if trying to escape, but the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the ring). The sinners in the mouths of Satan are Brutus and Cassius in the left and right mouths, respectively. They were involved in the assassination of Julius Caesar—an act which, to Dante, represented the destruction of a unified Italy. In the central, most vicious mouth is Judas Iscariot—the namesake of this zone and the betrayer of Jesus. Judas is being administered the most horrifying torture of the three traitors, his head in the mouth of Lucifer, and his back being forever skinned by the claws of Lucifer. (Canto XXXIV) What is seen here is a perverted trinity. Satan is impotent, ignorant, and evil while God can be attributed as the opposite: all powerful, all knowing, and good. The two poets escape by climbing down the ragged fur of Lucifer, passing through the center of the earth, emerging in the other hemisphere just before dawn on Easter Sunday beneath a sky studded with stars.

So, okay, you reach the final boss, Satan, who has multiple stages! The first one he mostly just tries to smash you with his hands and throw fireballs at you. Once you do enough damage to him he slouches back in the background and Brutus and Cassius jump out of his mouths. Brutus has a huge hammer and Cassius has an electric guitar that shoots lightning. They team up and you have to figure out how to defeat them by using one guy against the other (since both of them blame each other for ending up in hell!). After you defeat them two of Satan's faces fall off and he starts hitting you again. When you do a second round of damage he unleashes Judas on you. Judas has a huge crucifix (similar to your own) that he tries to impale you with, doing massive damage when he connects. After a sequence of quick-time events you eventually defeat Judas and Satan's last face falls off.

He appears to slump over dead as if you have beaten the game but suddenly he wakes up and reveals his true head, a flaming skull. He smashes his way out of the ice and the final battle is a Shadow of Colossus style battle where you need to jam your crucifix into various hot spots on Satan's body until the final blow is delivered to the back of his skull. His head explodes and suddenly hell starts to collapse upon itself! You then need to climb his fur and make your escape from hell in a sweet timed "escape the collapsing level before you die" sequence.

Anyway GOTY 2010!

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Another good cast. :tup:

For a while there, I couldn't believe IGN was actually paying people to write such hilarious call-outs. . . but then I took another look at the ads I design, that I'm getting paid to do, and now I can totally believe it. :hah:

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Great podcast. Regarding the discussion of the trend away from simulators or real sandbox games, I hope it doesn't continue either. I love games like that. Also, that type of play is often referred to as "toy" style game play as opposed to goal oriented play and there is a school of thought that there are different personality types that respond more to one or the other. Personally, I'm more of a "toy" guy.

"Dicking Around Achievement Unlocked!"

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Sweet episode guys :tup:

I listened to it at one in the morning whilst plugging away at Klonoa on GBA.

Under the bed covers. Shit was awesome.

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Oh man, that podblast... EXCELLENT use of that good old news music loop. I laughed my face off. Thanks.

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I'm starting a petition: DO NOT make the podcast longer than it is. Shorter is better.

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I like longer podcasts, great time filler if I have free periods at school.

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I like that you try not to make the podcast too long. All killer no filler.

You guys are hilarious and awesome from start to finish.

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~90 minutes covers a day's commuting for me, traffic permitting, so (for entirely selfish reasons) that's perfect. And it's not like you're padding the episodes out... or, at least, it seems like you're not padding the episodes out. :shifty:

Anyway, to echo other comments on here: another great 'cast. Thank you, Thumbing gentlemen.

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I guess most people prefer the 90 minute podcasts. I'd be fine with an hour. But no longer than ~90 minutes!

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