Idle Thumbs 34: The First Age of Extreme

[elmuerte]

I don't know how people manage to beat a lot of games. Even in high school when I had tons of free time it would take me months to beat games.

And the only games I remember beating when I was younger was the mario games.

I beat super ghouls and ghosts recently and that was satisfying. Never playing that again.

Months?! As in, you played less than an hour a day?

There are a bunch of games which are brutal to finish, specially in the old days there were a lot of them. These days it's not difficulty that prevents people from finishing the game, but more often it's tediousness.

[Marek]

Oh man, now I'm sad. I was going to send in a .wav of my full repertoire of Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes, but instead you found a horrible impression from years ago. I've really come a long way since, you know.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

I found it and sent it in to save you the trouble of having to do it yourself, Marek. That's gratitude for you!

This is totally tangential and not Video game related at all, but it's so weird to hear you guys talk about Great America in California, because so many of my fondest childhood memories revolve around the Great America in Illinois. Apparently when they built those places in the 70's, they built both parks to be exactly alike in every way (for some reason), but in the mid-80s Six Flags bought the Chicago Great America and fixed it up and added a whole new slew of rides over the course of 25 years and made it super-awesome, while the California Six Flags remained exactly the same as it was in the 70s and was allowed to fall into semi-disrepair and is kind of a dump from what I hear. It's weird that there's like this dilapidated version of the awesome theme park I spent half my childhood in. It makes me think of some kind of Dickensian story about a pair of twins, and one was given every advantage and lived like a prince and the other was chained in an attic and fed gruel all his life.

[Murderstorm]

Seriously hilarious banter in this one guys. I had my roommate who doesn't even play games listen to this episode. We laughed for about thirty minutes over the "Victorian nightmare" discussion.

[toblix]

I'm disappointed to hear that Anno 1404 doesn't have the same level of detail as the Settlers games. I really enjoyed Settlers for being a relaxing, highly detailed resource management game. I liked how every profession had their own routines and animations, and following the various processes was awesome, like the farmer sowing grains, watching them grow, him harvesting it, it being transported to the mill, the miller milling it or whatever, the flour being taken to the bakery and so on. Also, I could do this and not worry about being raped by the enemy. I was hoping that Anno 1404 would do the same, only with an infinitely higher level of fidelity.

ALAS!

[syntheticgerbil]

There are a bunch of games which are brutal to finish, specially in the old days there were a lot of them. These days it's not difficulty that prevents people from finishing the game, but more often it's tediousness.

I'll definitely agree with that. Many older games were relatively short, but it was the simple fact you had to master almost every single one of them to see the ending, consoles especially. Now everything is mostly easier on the difficulty and liberal with the saves, but the game is usually padded out to get to the 20 hour or more mark.

I thought Beyond Good and Evil for instance was exactly as long as it should have been, without any tediousness, but it could have stood to be a little bit more difficult in terms of puzzle or stealth sequences and enemy battles.

[Chuckpebble]

I never played much perfect dark but in Goldeneye it wasn't even a cheat, just a weapons setting called "Slappers Only" that you could set before the match. The sound of a karate chop and the ensuing *GASP* that the character would emit is still fresh in my mind...

Oh crap, you're right. I distinctly remember the Marquess of Queensbury thing being associated with those games though. Maybe it was a mode in Perfect Dark, or maybe the name of a stat after a multiplayer match completed.

The only reason I remember it is because I distinctly remember being like "Marquess of Queensbury, WTF is that?" and ended up looking it up. It has something to do with boxing.

Ditto with the sound effects, every now and then I swear I hear that female *GASP* used as a sound effect on TV.

[syntheticgerbil]

Ditto with the sound effects, every now and then I swear I hear that female *GASP* used as a sound effect on TV.

Oh really? I hear the opening and closing of doors and parrot squawks from Secret of Monkey Island on TV and movies a lot.

I also hear this loud saxophone noise from the first Rayman game in Bandland on TV and in some songs from time to time as well.

Oh and in terms of the podcast, I guess I'm one of the few people that has beaten all of the Zelda's to completion with all items besides the CD-I games, Zelda BS, and (not yet) Phantom Hourglass or Twilight Princess. They take longer than almost any other game I play in general, but it always feels sort of satisfying... I feel like the endings from Link to the Past and on don't disappoint.

I mean I did use guides on some parts, more on Majora's Mask and the original 2, but I feel like a freak. I even played through the second quest on the first Zelda, which makes no sense and consists of you pushing through tons of invisible doorways in the dungeon. Big freak here.

Also I just looked up The Act, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the character design, it looks very beautiful and I want to play it on PC! WHY?!

Edited July 16, 2009 by syntheticgerbil

[fallout]

Chris had briefly mentioned some longing to play Castles again, so I just thought I'd mention that Castles 1+2, Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader are on GOG.com.

[Cheetohands]

Another great show! Kudos to Idle Thumbs for reading negative feedback mail. I haven't heard very many podcasts that do that. I just wanted to chime in and share my two cents on this "Chris talks too much" thing.

To me there's a specific method to the madness of Idle Thumbs that makes it work. I see Chris as the ringleader/facilitator/conversation starter, Jake as the trustworthy source if insane comic relief mixed with "tell it like it is" commentary and Nick as the brilliant, insightful straight man who manages to be hilarious at the same time. By the way, Nick's commentary on Civ 4 a show or two ago was epic. To me it's this blend of personalities that makes Idle Thumbs what it is. I'd hate to see the guys (I'm typing at you, Chris!) second guess themselves or hold back on something they wanted to say because they were concerned they were "talking too much" or taking up too much time on the show. Maybe it was just my imagination but I thought I sensed some of this after Chris read that email (probably just my imagination).

Can things improve? Sure they can. Should Nick and Jake get more time to talk? Absolutely! But let it be a natural, gradual thing. Don't worry about it. You guys are doing the best damn gaming podcast out there and I mean that from the bottom of my Cheeto-encrusted heart valves (wow, that sounds really weird).

:::praise cap off:::

~Cheetohands

[vimes]

Totally agree with Cheetohands, here. Thanks formulating it so well!

[F4T C4T]

I'd like to also say that I don't want Chris to hold back if he has something to say, I do love it when he goes off on something.

Cheetohands said it best but it really does seem like a natural thing. One week Chris has loads to say, another Nick and sometimes Jake (when he's not been busy choreographing stuff of course).

I also second the epic Civ 4 thoughts. I went out and bought the 2k huge pack on steam not long after, so thanks Nick! I had been tempted by it not long before the 'cast (I wanted to try X-COM too) and that just tipped me over the edge. My Arabian people now stand proud for the moment at least, as the friction between myself, China and Spain continues to grow...

[Marek]

BTW I also love the Civ 4 talk and cathedral talk and all that. It's really interesting and I like hearing Nick's thoughts on strategy games as well. Good stuff.

[Psych]

The way I feel about people complaining about Chris talking too much is the same I feel when people wrote in complaining about everyone laughing too much. That is to say I didn't notice it until it was pointed out, and then once it was I didn't mind at all.

[Cheetohands]

The way I feel about people complaining about Chris talking too much is the same I feel when people wrote in complaining about everyone laughing too much. That is to say I didn't notice it until it was pointed out, and then once it was I didn't mind at all.

Agreed. Don't we have enough podcasts where people act like they're on a serious talk show? That fact that the guys on Idle Thumbs are having so much fun is one of the things that makes it fun to listen to.

[Chris]

Agreed. Don't we have enough podcasts where people act like they're on a serious talk show? That fact that the guys on Idle Thumbs are having so much fun is one of the things that makes it fun to listen to.

So you were totally right about us calling Natal. I didn't remember that at all.

[JoanneCadaver]

just jumping in to say, king's bounty is cheap on gamersgate today http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-KB/kings-bounty-the-legend

been meaning to register here for quite a while anyway

[James]

Months?! As in, you played less than an hour a day?

Perhaps he's talking about games you can't save. You'd have to keep starting from scratch until you could get to the end without running out of lives or having to stop for some other reason.

I really enjoyed Settlers for being a relaxing, highly detailed resource management game. I liked how every profession had their own routines and animations, and following the various processes was awesome, like the farmer sowing grains, watching them grow, him harvesting it, it being transported to the mill, the miller milling it or whatever, the flour being taken to the bakery and so on. Also, I could do this and not worry about being raped by the enemy.

Yeah, for me Settlers is like an ant farm, except the ants are people and donkeys. I hardly ever bothered with combat, if I could avoid it. Consequently I never got very far in those games, but I had a good time while I played.

I wasn't so into the demo for one of the more recent ones that removed the roads. The road system was kind of idiosyncratic, but I really liked watching the increasingly busy networks, seeing the resources gradually make their way around, occasionally altering things to reduce pressure on bottle-necks. That game was at least 50% road management for me.

[toblix]

That game was at least 50% road management for me.

It's totally awesome how you have to consider elevation, and when you build the road, it's just marked with flags, and as the guys use it a path is formed, and as it it's formed the speed with which the dudes traverse it increases.

[James]

When the donkeys arrive that portion of road basically becomes a tiny linear slice of heaven.

[syntheticgerbil]

I really haven't noticed Chris talking too much like that reader has said. Don't we want to hear Chris talk anyway?

I have noticed Chris tends to finish a lot of Nick's sentences but to me that just seems to come from them being really good friends more than anything else. The comradery is touching, but not in an ass slapping sort of way.

[Noyb]

Oh, god. I still remember that final boss of Mario & Luigi. After whittling down her first form, you get automatically knocked down to 1 hp, and then have to perfectly dodge attack patterns you've never seen until it gives you the chance to heal yourself.

On a similar note, I never beat Rayman 2, because the final boss has you flying a rocket, which only showed up in one of the more frustrating minigames, and was damn difficult to control with the keyboard. Can't believe they changed the gameplay entirely for the final boss.

[syntheticgerbil]

On a similar note, I never beat Rayman 2, because the final boss has you flying a rocket, which only showed up in one of the more frustrating minigames, and was damn difficult to control with the keyboard. Can't believe they changed the gameplay entirely for the final boss.

I agree, that was easily the most frustrating part of the game. It would have been nice if instant deaths weren't so easy when riding the rocket.

[miffy495]

I beat Mario and Luigi, but only after a whole bunch of tries and accompanied swearing.

[Cheetohands]

"The comradery is touching, but not in an ass slapping sort of way."

IGN box quote? ;-)