Chris

Idle Thumbs 44: Salacious Thumb

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Oh God what have we done

"Salacious Thumb"

With Nick Breckon out on assignment, things go a little bit wrong. 2K Marin's Steve Gaynor joins us for this week's descent into a tempest of hard-boiled corruption and deceit, where no one knows who to trust or where to turn. And when Master Chief is suddenly kidnapped, Salacious Crumb is on the case. We're pretty sure ODST is like a film noir, so we took some cues from that.

Games Discussed: Halo 3: ODST, Scribblenauts, Policenauts, Dante's Inferno, Flame-Sim, Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess, Cabela's Monster Bass

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Nice segment on ODST. I believe the explanations for the flashbacks is that they were recordings on the several screens, which are being controlled by the Superintendant, just you never see it for story telling reasons.

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I fully support the return of Sands of time-esque gameplay-as-story nonsense. I note Steve was on that episode, too. Is this the Gaynor Effect?

Then I fell into a pit of spikes.

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I laughed so hard I dropped my ice-cream in the middle of the city centre.

You owe me an icecream.

Saying that, bring on Steve more. He's magical.

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Great, now my brain can't process hearing Odious Tea or audio logs without a twinge of Thumbssociation.

(Listened for 20mins on the walk to work so far, shaping up to be a good'un, as always. Thanks for the laughs guys)

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That was just one of the weirdest fucking episodes ever. I'm not sure if I can identify any particular reasons, it was just strange.

In the best possible way, of course :grin:

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"...the trail was as cold as the doorknob of a whore house on Christmas...and I was hungry."

Oh man, Chris your hilarious.

I can't stop laughing.

Oh man, you guys pissed of the Security Guard.

Edited by Kos Luftar

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I'm a bit disappointed Hot Scoops doesn't mind being called Hot Scoops anymore. Chris must be even more disappointed.

Edit: Sperm floor rising

Edited by SoulChicken

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"...the trail was as cold as the doorknob of a whore house on Christmas...and I was hungry."

Oh man, Chris your hilarious.

I can't stop laughing.

Oh man, you guys pissed of the Security Guard.

Credit goes to Sean Vanaman of Telltale for the whorehouse doorknob line. He bailed us out on that one, and Alex Ashby of your most wonderful dreams gave us the tomb one later on. Extreme thanks to our friends for writing jokes for us in the middle of the night. Also provided for "as cold as...:" ... three cubes in the bottom of a glass, ... a yeti's earlobes, ... a beer fit for Jesus, ... a dame's stare when you tell her you've killed her man. And a biscuit was also "as bitter as baby tears."

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Now I'm curious about ODST.

Halo 2 had a surprisingly serious story. Where the first Halo had a plot that could be reduced to "space dude kills aliens", the second game expanded on the apocalyptic religious beliefs and political structure of the Covenant and hinted at the sinister motivations of The Flood. It's still space opera, but it was far weightier than it needed to be. I wanted to know what happened next!

Then Halo 3 reversed this, as if Bungie said, "Forget the story. It's just Halo. Let's just get this thing wrapped up." There were no surprises---you just killed a lot of guys.

But ODST has a story? Ominous revelations? Is any of it fascinating? Does any of it reveal more about the cosmology of the Halo universe or the history of the Forerunner race?

Or is it more like Homer Simpson's idea for Poochie?

Whenever Master Chief's not on-screen, all the other characters should be asking 'Where's Master Chief?'

Inquiring genre fiction fans want to know!

PS: Do the Flood appear in ODST? Does anyone like fighting them?

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ODST spoilage:

No Flood, thank god. There is a little bit of info about the inner workings of the Covenant revealed in the third act, but it is mostly a story about your guy getting hooked back up with the rest of the team, and about the fall of the city of New Mombasa.

The audiologs are actually a throwback to the I Love Bees alternate reality game that went on prior to Halo 2. The centerpiece of that was a series of radio drama episodes that players had to unlock by answering real pay phones at various GPS coordinates that were discovered online. I believe the same creative team is responsible for the superintendent audiologs in ODST. The I Love Bees radio drama is probably the best piece of Halo fiction ever produced - far better than any of the game stories. They are still online here.

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Aw, shit, Batman has your number. Now you'll have to deal with those late-night drunken text messages he meant to send to Robin but accidentally sent to you because you're next to Robin in his phone book.

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Nice segment on ODST. I believe the explanations for the flashbacks is that they were recordings on the several screens, which are being controlled by the Superintendant, just you never see it for story telling reasons.

The intros and outros of the different scenes usually show a couple cuts from security cameras before diving into the action. It seems to imply that the Rookie is somehow accessing the security footage in order to figure out what's going on.

In the audio logs, the girl's father has some sort of special access to the Superintendent and programmed in a subroutine called "Vergil" that is tasked with watching over and protecting the girl. I thought the logs gave a nice back story, but they were extremely cheesy. I enjoy radio-drama-style audio storytelling, but it didn't fit the tone of the rest of the game.

Odious Tea on Ledge 'n' Dairy isn't too bad. The only parts that gave me trouble were the Firefight-style arenas that had you fight off waves of baddies before you could go on. And the highway section at the end. That was a bitch.

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Credit goes to Sean Vanaman of Telltale for the whorehouse doorknob line. He bailed us out on that one, and Alex Ashby of your most wonderful dreams gave us the tomb one later on. Extreme thanks to our friends for writing jokes for us in the middle of the night. Also provided for "as cold as...:" ... three cubes in the bottom of a glass, ... a yeti's earlobes, ... a beer fit for Jesus, ... a dame's stare when you tell her you've killed her man. And a biscuit was also "as bitter as baby tears."

People write your jokes?

That's it. No more WHIZARD for me.

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PS: Do the Flood appear in ODST? Does anyone like fighting them?

They don't, and it's awesome. The Flood are fucking lame. They run completely counter to what's interesting about Halo combat.

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Where is that piece of music from... it sounds very familiar, it's also quite nice. Reminds me of adventure games of 13 years ago.

(still listening)

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I love the story about Bel-Air, but Scoops forgot an important part of the narrative that helps explain that the cab ride was actually very short and he didn't have much time to develop a relationship that would require much more than a "Yo homes, smell ya later!"

After his mom told him he was moving to Bel-Air, he begged and pleaded with her, day after day, but she packed his suitcase and sent him on his way. She gave him a kiss, and she gave him his ticket, he put his Walkman on, and said, "I might as well kick it!" First class, yo, it was bad, drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass. He thought, "Is this what the people of Bel-Air are livin' like? Hmmm, this might be alright... But wait, I hear they're prissy, bourgeois, and all that. Is this the type of place where they should send this cool cat? I don't think so, I see when I get get there. I hoe they're prepared for Hot Scoops in Bel-Air!" The plane landed, and when he got out, there was a dude looked like a cop standing there with his name out. He wasn't trying to get arrested yet, he just got there. He sprang with a quickness, like lightning disappeared. It was then that he whistled for a cab. The ride was only from the airport to his auntie and uncle's house. Don't ask how I know this.

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I think Scoops bring too much seriousness and insightfulness to the cast, he outspeaks even Chris. Nick is needed to even it out.

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odioustea.com isn't registered yet...

.info is still on $.9 sale at godaddy

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Where is that piece of music from... it sounds very familiar, it's also quite nice. Reminds me of adventure games of 13 years ago.

Sounded like the music from the save room in Resident Evil to me

8no8YlwLRKc

Could be wrong though.

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wow... that's quite close, but it's not it.

I first though it was from The Longest Journey, but that's also quite close but not the same.

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