Chris

Idle Thumbs 37: You Gotta Have Spice

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Here it is

"You Gotta Have Spice"

A 386 perfectly captures his slam dunk. Looking down from space, you see the Earth and smile. Mid-swing, the game asks you to recalibrate, and you do it just this once. Sometimes, you gotta.

Games Discussed: Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta, Left 4 Dead Crash Course, Dawn of Discovery, Wii Sports Resort, Fat Princess, IL-2 Sturmovik, Subversion, Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms, Crash Bandicoot, Rebel Assault, TIE Fighter

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Steam's hardware survey isn't really that useful as you might think. Sure, it gives you an indication of the the hardware of the average steam user. But the average steam user might not be the target audience of a game. It might not be the person that would buy a state of the art game with a $50 price tag. Also, games are not finished within a year. When you plan to release a game in 3 years you're better off to set the recommended system specs to what is the current high-end system. By the time your game is finished the high-end system of 3 years ago is the average system.

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rare footage taken of the citizens in Nick's Age of Discovery game

(this was all I could think of when you were going on about tools)

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If dawn of discovery was on steam I would have bought it by now (46')

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If dawn of discovery was on steam I would have bought it by now (46')

It is, I have it on Steam. It's also called Anno 1404.

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It is, I have it on Steam. It's also called Anno 1404.

Thanks. Purchased.

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Since the topic came up again I'd love to see a guest host on an episode spice things up with eSports/competitive gaming banter/knowledge.

Yeah, next episode needs a guest. Invite the guy from the EA stockholder meeting.

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There's definitely a frame-rate drop when you fly close to a burning bomber in the IL-2 Sturmovik demo, but for me it was just a momentary stutter. That's a weird thing to rag on a demo for - usually you guys aren't graphics nuts. How'd you guys feel about gameplay?

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Yeah, next episode needs a guest. Invite the guy from the EA stockholder meeting.

Than would probably make a 5 hour episode by the sound of it.

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Than would probably make a 5 hour episode by the sound of it.

It'll be worth it.

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That was a really interesting podcast. Funny too! I liked all the discussion about each individual's economy in Dawn of Discovery, even though I have no intention of playing it. Makes me want to read more people's personal stories.

It seemed like Jake was kind of drunk in the middle of the episode, which was great, even though I think it was sort of established he was sick. He sobered up later though. :(

And the Suckbox is great, but it doesn't match this angry out-of-breath 10 minute Nintendo SHITCUBE review by this Russian guy:

ZKgSF0BNFrU&hl

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Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms

Ohh, is this some new DLC I am not aware of?

:P

[edit] Okay, I actually finished the episode now. I thought I followed the development of TF2 pretty closely, guess I forgot about that name. =/

Edited by Hermie

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Ohh, is this some new DLC I am not aware of?

:P

[edit] Okay, I actually finished the episode now. I thought I followed the development of TF2 pretty closely, guess I forgot about that name. =/

Hehe. TF2 was in the pipe for a long, long time. I remember when they first demo'd the IK (inverse-kinematics) animation system with the guy tossing a grenade into a tank and then getting blown off his feet.

It makes me sad to think that the first game to end up with a good IK solution took nearly a decade to launch (GTA4 using the Euphoria middleware).

As for this week's show: You were wrong about XvT being the first '3d engine' of the Star Wars sims. X-Wing was fully 3d using actual polygonal models. In Tie Fighter they introduced Gouraud shading and for X-Wing: Alliance they added TnL.

It was Wing Commander that used sprite-based ships up until WC 3 I believe.

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From Wikipedia: "X-Wing's main advance is that it features a fully 3-D engine for the flight combat simulation instead of the bitmaps and sprites of the earlier titles."

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As for this week's show: You were wrong about XvT being the first '3d engine' of the Star Wars sims. X-Wing was fully 3d using actual polygonal models. In Tie Fighter they introduced Gouraud shading and for X-Wing: Alliance they added TnL.

It was Wing Commander that used sprite-based ships up until WC 3 I believe.

More like those other jerks were wrong! I was totally right!

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More like those other jerks were wrong! I was totally right!

Collective you, not personal you :)

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Tie Fighter!? :yep: I can't wait to get off work and listen to this one.

"So I hear there's a new Tie Fighter coming out. Dot dot dot..." -Dr. Girlfriend

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X-Wing and TIE Fighter were great games, but as a kid I remember really wishing they had between-mission cinematics like the Wing Commander games did. Wing Commander really gave you a great sense of who you were within the greater context of the war, and gave you a chance to get to know your squadmates, as opposed to X-Wing and TIE fighter where you were a nameless drone flying alongside other nameless drones. X-Wing Alliance did this a little bit, but not enough. If there's a new X-Wing/TIE Fighter game, I hope they take a page from Wing Commander in that respect.

Also, the occasional

would be nice.

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Dear crazy EA shareholder:

attachment.php?attachmentid=492&stc=1&d=1257129005

You're welcome.

This is for Michael Jordan In Flight, a 1993 EA game. I found this on a Geocities Michael Jordan fansite. It's possible this was from a magazine preview and therefore EA would not have it as a promotional photo. Check your old copies of Computer Gaming World!

post-2340-13375603177714_thumb.jpg

Edited by mikemariano
Geocities is no more.

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Nick's strategy game moments are awesome. They should be made into a documentary (sort of like that Rome: Total War History Channel series) where experts would speculate what he did wrong and what actual historical events the scenario might resemble.

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Dear crazy EA shareholder:

92gameinflight.jpeg

You're welcome.

This is for Michael Jordan In Flight, a 1993 EA game. I found this on a Geocities Michael Jordan fansite. It's possible this was from a magazine preview and therefore EA would not have it as a promotional photo. Check your old copies of Computer Gaming World!

Ahahah, this whole time I thought it was like some bitmap someone had opened up and routinely had on display for all to see on a 386 computer and monitor. Oh nevermind!

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