Sign in to follow this  
Jake

Idle Thumbs 32: The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

Recommended Posts

There's too many of 'em!

"The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of"

Ingredients: Co-op grappling-based wizard platforming, never-ending falling blocks, Peter Molyneux, Pyramid Head. Season to taste or until awakened screaming.

All but two of these are real: Trine, Lumines, Dragon Age, Doom Resurrection, 1 vs. 100, Dungeon Keeper II, Milo: Dungeon Keeper III, Super Casts 'n' Blasts, Zool, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, The Black Onyx, King's Bounty: The Legend

minipod_itunes.png

minipod_rss.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Holy pod carpet blast Batman... another one

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Pod burst! Awesome.

Also, I think someone, can't remember who, posted this on these forums a couple of years ago. The Milo thing would no doubt be more awesome though with the added awkwardness of two teenagers realizing they are not unique after all and Molyneux and all that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Last week I thought you really were talking about the old 1990 version of King's Bounty. I had no idea there was a new one.

Heroes of Might and Magic (I only played II) was indeed very similar to the original King's Bounty, right down to the frustrating "find the buried treasure" overarching quest. I never once managed to find the treasure in time in either game.

In King's Bounty the treasure is the bounty. I was never quite sure why I was searching in Heroes of Might and Magic.

I see that the game has a writeup on MobyGames:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/kings-bounty

Ooh there are Commodore 64 and Sega Genesis versions? Sounds like I need to start a futile Virtual Console petition!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh nooo I should have kept my goofy appraisals to myself

Chris - Ultimatenerdvoice/Old Man Haw/A Wizard

Jake - Trumpet/Bird sounds

Nick - John Q. video games (the normal one)

Nick I'm sorry, you're the stealth crazy guy! I had no idea!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I can relate with the Lumines thing. I love the game, but can't play the regular mode because it takes too long. While I've never gone as far as Chris, I think the longest I survived was near four hours, it's why I mostly stick to the 60 second or 180 second speed modes.

This kind of max difficulty on games is why I can not ever play Tetris again. Not the new Tetris games with the officialTM Tetris rules which include infinite spin. It maxes out the game's difficulty and, if you're good enough, makes it possible to play almost infinitely (but not really since Tetris is not solvable).

I just gave up and never played Tetris DS again after getting to this point:

122341800_03cf5b32ed.jpg?v=1144035196

I even had to pause to recharge the batteries of my DS in the middle of that. So fucking annoying.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've seen a video of someone ticking over the maximum score in Tetris DS. Infinite mode's hardest isn't very hard, even for a moron with horrible reflexes like me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree with n0wak and JamesM about Tetris DS, though I still play a lot of it. It tricked me into thinking I'm pretty good at Tetris generally, until I was ravaged by NES Tetris (in public, no less). (Must I be beaten down by every damn game I enjoyed as a kid?)

I liked hearing what you guys (Remo, Rodkin, Breckon) had to say about adventure games and role-playing games. It reminded me of what John Harris said about Quest for Glory, of the differences between designing worlds (Origin) and experiences (LucasArts).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It maxes out the game's difficulty and, if you're good enough, makes it possible to play almost infinitely (but not really since Tetris is not solvable).
Ha, you got me digging around to find some proof of that statement (not that I disputed it, but was curious to see what was out there) and I found this paper (abstract follows):

http://www.colinfahey.com/tetris/tetris_theory_mit_lcs_tr_865_0210020.pdf

In the popular computer game of Tetris, the player is given a sequence of tetromino pieces and must pack them into a rectangular gameboard initially occupied by a given configuration of filled squares; any completely filled row of the gameboard is cleared and all pieces above it drop by one row. We prove that in the offline version of Tetris, it is NP-complete to maximize the number of cleared rows, maximize the number of tetrises (quadruples of rows simultaneously filled and cleared), minimize the maximum height of an occupied square, or maximize the number of pieces placed before the game ends. We furthermore show the extreme inapproximability of the first and last of these objectives to within a factor of p^(1-epsilon), when given a sequence of p pieces, and the inapproximability of the third objective to within a factor of (2 - epsilon), for any epsilon>0. Our results hold under several variations on the rules of Tetris, including different models of rotation, limitations on player agility, and restricted piece sets.
Would be kind of hilarious to have someone find a Tetris algorithm and thus prove that P=NP.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Chris, I don't really get why you hate Bayonetta's chara design so much since you said you loved God Hand and it had a very similar over the top, non sensical approach.

Anyway, I too found the discussion about RPGs and adventure game very interesting and it'd be awesome if you could find a good excuse to seg to that in a future podcast. :yep:

On a related note, isn't it pathetic and lame to give thanks to the adventure game genre for the fact that Gears of War provides a linear and meticulously pace experience ? First, it is lame because GoW story is lame, second, it is pathetic because to me, the way Uncharted, GoW or HL² tackle linear storytelling is closer to the Hollywood blockbuster paradigm than it is to any other. Good or bad, they did that on their own, I don't think adventure games had anything to do with it.

What the traditional adventure game recipe offered as unique ingredients was a gameplay that required no split-second reflexes and a story that perpetually waited for the player to do something to move forward ... and I don't think the aforementioned titles tried to emulate that; and for good reasons.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Chris, I don't really get why you hate Bayonetta's chara design so much since you said you loved God Hand and it had a very similar over the top, non sensical approach.

God Hand looks NOTHING like Bayonetta. The protagonist in God Hand is...pretty much a dude. The protagonist in Bayonetta is one of the stupidest-looking mish-mash of ill-fitting design ideas I've seen in any game in a long, long time. I can't stand looking at that game, it just looks awful to me.

Anyway, I too found the discussion about RPGs and adventure game very interesting and it'd be awesome if you could find a good excuse to seg to that in a future podcast. :yep:

On a related note, isn't it pathetic and lame to give thanks to the adventure game genre for the fact that Gears of War provides a linear and meticulously pace experience ? First, it is lame because GoW story is lame, second, it is pathetic because to me, the way Uncharted, GoW or HL² tackle linear storytelling is closer to the Hollywood blockbuster paradigm than it is to any other. Good or bad, they did that on their own, I don't think adventure games had anything to do with it.

What the traditional adventure game recipe offered as unique ingredients was a gameplay that required no split-second reflexes and a story that perpetually waited for the player to do something to move forward ... and I don't think the aforementioned titles tried to emulate that; and for good reasons.

I don't claim adventure games are directly responsible for games like Gears of War's structure. I was discussing an inverse correlation without implying causation. I also would definitely never make any claims that the fundamental gameplay mechanics of those genres are similar in any way. When it comes to story, though, they aren't that dissimilar. They both provide 100% linear stories through which most of the most pivotal and meaningful plot points are conveyed in scripted cutscenes. The relative quality of the stories is certainly another matter.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
God Hand looks NOTHING like Bayonetta. The protagonist in God Hand is...pretty much a dude. The protagonist in Bayonetta is one of the stupidest-looking mish-mash of ill-fitting design ideas I've seen in any game in a long, long time. I can't stand looking at that game, it just looks awful to me.

Naked lady as main character makes me uncomfortable.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
God Hand looks NOTHING like Bayonetta. The protagonist in God Hand is...pretty much a dude. The protagonist in Bayonetta is one of the stupidest-looking mish-mash of ill-fitting design ideas I've seen in any game in a long, long time. I can't stand looking at that game, it just looks awful to me.

Well, I think the character of Bayonetta is the 'logic' evolution of God' Hand villains.

god-hand-20060928033312348_640w.jpg

god-hand-20060925014106155_640w.jpg

god-hand-20060915032336043_640w.jpg

I don't claim adventure games are directly responsible for games like Gears of War's structure. I was discussing an inverse correlation without implying causation.

Yeah, you're right, I listened to what you said again in the podcast and I did misunderstood your point. Sorry :/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

More cut and paste!!!! I love that shit! Sometimes you just gotta say: "Fucka buncha seg" and paste paste paste! In managed doses - it's really fun and breaks things up nicely. $.02 deposited.

Here's a funny other thing... I think the overall design of Bayonetta is all over the place, yes - but, from what I've seen the supernatural element kind of warrants/excuses that (to me, natch). Godhand's "anything goes" Cirque du Soleil by way of Alejandro Jodorowsky was way too fruity and scattershot to ever really pull me in. I guess that 4¢.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Mm,so how did the Lumines game ended, Chris ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Mm,so how did the Lumines game ended, Chris ?

It is discussed on this past week's episode.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Really ? I can't remember that .. and frankly, I don't feel like going through the epic 101,48 minutes of the last podcast again to find a 20 second snippet.

Meh, maybe leaving the ending of this story ambiguous is what's best, too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Really ? I can't remember that .. and frankly, I don't feel like going through the epic 101,48 minutes of the last podcast again to find a 20 second snippet.

Meh, maybe leaving the ending of this story ambiguous is what's best, too.

He reached the 9 hour 59 minute 59 second time limit, with 9 million points.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll add a screenshot to the Idle Thumbs DLC thread.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
God Hand looks NOTHING like Bayonetta. The protagonist in God Hand is...pretty much a dude. The protagonist in Bayonetta is one of the stupidest-looking mish-mash of ill-fitting design ideas I've seen in any game in a long, long time. I can't stand looking at that game, it just looks awful to me.

I agree with you 100%. I was actually amazed to find out that one of my friends didn't think there was anything wrong with the design, as I had been sure that no one would think she looked 'right'.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

'... I didn’t really play it... 3/5'

YOU are the problem with video game journalism.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for reading my email about the missent work email, thumbs -- it's so weird to hear internet people say your name...on the internet. But also righteous that you guys fairly read as much mail as you can! All thumbs up!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey!

This is really late to ask and doubt I'll get any answer, but I'm blasting through the casts again and had a question for Chris.

He mentioned Dungeon Keeper and how he liked the DK1 over DK2. I was always a big DK2 player and never played DK 1 until recently.

I'm just curious if you remember what you liked over the first one compared to the second, because they seem like relatively the same game, just DK 2 was better looking and more refined?

Oh and if anyone else who feels the same as Chris care to offer up their answer too would be really appreciated.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Much the same position here: DK1 was fantastic, yet the second one couldn't hold my interest. Perhaps it was the sprite-based engine that I found charming? The notable difference in the games is that the Horned Demon was 'merely' the top tier summonable creature in the first one, that would ravage everything in its path, whereas it got a bigger role (and a voice) in the second.

Maybe Chris has something better to say. Probably!

I'm not sure if I could play Dungeon Keeper again nowadays. I think I'd get really frustrated with its idiosyncrasies, like minions that won't listen or stupidly walk into traps.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this