Jake

Idle Thumbs 36: Shambling, Goofy

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This one time we recorded a podcast and it was horrible. We recorded this one, too, and released it instead.

"Shambling, Goofy"

After an earlier attempt to record goes down in flames, we bring you this tale of mice and mods and Miyamoto, of nerds, their noises and Neo Tokyo, of DOTA clones and questions asked, of adventures past and pods cast. Enjoy.

Games Discussed: NeoTokyo, Epic Mickey, Fat Princess, Halo Wars, Command & Conquer 4, Dark Void, Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends, Pikmin 2, Full Throttle, King's Quest VI

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Edited by Chris

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Interesting, recently I've also been playing quite some old adventure games, recently finished the Dig, Broken Sword 1 (why doesn't gog.com sell this, but does sell the 2 and 3?). And currently playing Broken Sword 2.

And talking about ScummVM the daily builds include support for Discworld 1 and 2.

Edited by elmuerte

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Those shareholder meetings sound funny and depressing at the same time. Video game industry.

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I wonder how many of you guys tried this adventure back in 2003: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/runawayaroadadventure/review.html

It's called Runaway: A Road Adventure and it was pretty cool. I remember enjoying it a lot, specially since it was in a dark period for adventure games. I didn't play the sequel, though.

7.5 huh? Oh my.

Half score or below in my book. MY BOOK OF GAME REVIEWS

Edited by syntheticgerbil

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Beneath a SteelSky was pretty sweet, and it's avaliable as a free download these days.

Also, Grim Fandango is the finest game I have ever played despite its flaws. It made me sad to finish because I didn't want to leave the characters behind.

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I demand a posting of the dicks podcast. I want to hear dicks. Also, I'd like a transcript of the EA conference call. Thanks. Oh have dinner ready when I get home tonight.

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Nerding out to the adventure game talk at the moment, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle also (less) coincidentally at the top of my pile... but to chime in on the Broken Sword recommendation, which is pretty much the only Revolution game I enjoy, everyone should avoid the GBA port, since apparently it has many game stopping bugs that shouldn't be in there otherwise.

The Wii and DS ports are both "special editions" that add more game and puzzles, but may bother older fans. Probably the most jarring thing is just the mixing of old dialogue with newly recorded dialogue. Nico having two different voice actresses playing her in the same game was probably an ill thought out idea.

Hardcore Gaming 101 goes over the versions pretty well here:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/brokensword/brokensword.htm

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I see what Chris and Jake mean about the scifi style in C&C4. More specifically, I think you might be referring to the style reminiscent of the most excellent Chris Foss. Behold:

http://www.chrisfossart.com/Asimov_Portfolio_Prints_s/47.htm

Space11-2T.jpgRobot04-2T.jpg

Spaceship21-2.jpg

The idea of a game with an art style based on Chris Foss' work excites me no end.

And yes, he also illustrated The Joy of Sex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Foss

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Nick, Michigan doesn't suck THAT much. Just a little bit.

It was cooler hearing them talk about adventure games since it used to be a great genre BUT I don't remember hearing them mention Gabriel Knight as an adventure game recommendation. I always thought that the Gabriel Knight series had some of the best game design out of the Sierra adventure games.

Also, I demand to hear the dicks podcast!

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I think I know exactly the art style that you guys were talking about vis a vis the C&C4 art; I've a graphic designer friend who's a huge fan of '70s sci-fi and fantasy [his flickr]. Exquisite rendering of light gradation, paired with this strange, flat coloration, that makes everything look sort of musty and washed-out.

Unfortunately, I'm inclined to think that the C&C4 artist just wanted to suggest that the topmost ship is in the distant background, up in the planet's atmosphere, rather than demonstrative of a drastic new art direction. Which would be a bit of a shame, if true.

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I too totally get the thing about C&C4's concept art. It's hard to put into words but the best way I can think to describe it is sci-fi art created by someone who has a vision of the future where technology looks like a higher-tech version of that which is current rather than technology that has progressively evolved.

Sort of like the Eagle 5 from Spaceballs!

spaceballseagle5.jpg

:grin:

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I'm glad this thread is full of people who aren't totally lame like Nick.

Also, to LeChimp: I did call out Jane Jensen as being one of Sierra's best designers, and mentioned Gabriel Knight, but since as far as I know those games aren't currently directly sold in an accessible way, they didn't seem to fall within the parameters of the guy's specific question. But yeah they are good!

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I'm glad this thread is full of people who aren't totally lame like Nick.

Also, to LeChimp: I did call out Jane Jensen as being one of Sierra's best designers, and mentioned Gabriel Knight, but since as far as I know those games aren't currently directly sold in an accessible way, they didn't seem to fall within the parameters of the guy's specific question. But yeah they are good!

Oh yeah, I forgot about the King's Quest 6 mention. It's too bad the two collections on Steam are missing things like the original versions of Space Quest 1 and King's Quest 1

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I wonder how many of you guys tried this adventure back in 2003: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/runawayaroadadventure/review.html

I believe Chris has an opinion on this game.

I see what Chris and Jake mean about the scifi style in C&C4. More specifically, I think you might be referring to the style reminiscent of the most excellent Chris Foss. Behold:

http://www.chrisfossart.com/Asimov_Portfolio_Prints_s/47.htm

Oh shit. I wanna have one of those prints. ;(

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I believe Chris has an opinion on this game.

Uh, sorry Marek, what do you mean? Did they mention it in a previous podcast? I don't remember.

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Oh yeah, I forgot about the King's Quest 6 mention. It's too bad the two collections on Steam are missing things like the original versions of Space Quest 1 and King's Quest 1

Yeah that sucks since I prefer the original SQ1, but I'd guess for new adventure game players, the clunky parser/walk interface of the first half of all Sierra series isn't the way to go, unless you want to catch up on story.

Really I too would also recommend skipping every King's Quest except VI, which is the best one, but still not as good as the Gabriel Knight games, which could really use a DVD re-release. I would love to replace those 10 total CDs with only a few DVDs. Maybe re-encode some video?

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