Jake

Idle Thumbs 70: An Angry God

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Poor audio quality this week! Sorry something went weird.

Idle Thumbs 70: An Angry God

Soaring through the infinite blackness, observing all that is, was, and will be, he is displeased. Endless turns of the asynchronous wheel, amounting to what? Nothing. He sees them erecting a tower. It must fall. He sees a tiny ship pass through the sky. It must burn. Heretics must burn. Crew must burn. Cast must burn.

Games Discussed: Babel Rising, Space Engine, Hero Academy, Words With Friends, Draw Something, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Spec Ops: The Line, The Visit, Team Fortress 2, FTL: Faster Than Light

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Horrifying Babel Rising fact: there's a $100 in-app purchase for the game on iOS.

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Just listened to this latest cast and I had something that might interest one of the guys that mentioned that they liked FTL but wanted a better aesthetic.

There's a game I've been waiting to come out for a while that might what they were talking about.

It's called Star Command and there was a kickstarter for it to come out on phones last fall. It's suppose to be coming out this summer, but I haven't heard any updates.

There was even ANOTHER kickstarter for it that just ended for it to come out on the PC. (gameplay for the PC version starts at 1:20 in the Kickstarter page)

It seems to be almost identical in concept to FTL except that it seems to have a larger emphasis on the micro side. It looks like the inside of your ship is an isometric grid that you can command your crew around.

I've been waiting for it for quite a while and had no idea that FTL was like this game (or vice versa, but I don't know enough about either to claim that there was any ripping-off going on).

I seriously love the pixel art Star Trek style it has: tumblr_m7f7zqUr6V1qdl5cp.gif.tumblr_m7f7zvF64i1qdl5cp.gif

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Just listened to this latest cast and I had something that might interest one of the guys that mentioned that they liked FTL but wanted a better aesthetic.

There's a game I've been waiting to come out for a while that might what they were talking about.

It's called Star Command and there was a kickstarter for it to come out on phones last fall. It's suppose to be coming out this summer, but I haven't heard any updates.

There was even ANOTHER kickstarter for it that just ended for it to come out on the PC. (gameplay for the PC version starts at 1:20 in the Kickstarter page)

It seems to be almost identical in concept to FTL except that it seems to have a larger emphasis on the micro side. It looks like the inside of your ship is an isometric grid that you can command your crew around.

I've been waiting for it for quite a while and had no idea that FTL was like this game (or vice versa, but I don't know enough about either to claim that there was any ripping-off going on).

I seriously love the pixel art Star Trek style it has: tumblr_m7f7zqUr6V1qdl5cp.gif.tumblr_m7f7zvF64i1qdl5cp.gif

I backed this. Well, I backed the first Kickstarter. I guess that means I won't be getting it for the platform I actually want it on? I guess I may have to pay for it again on PC.

Edit: Oh actually I guess the first Kickstarter doesn't come with any access to the game. Well anyway yeah I'll just buy this on PC when it's done it seems.

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I backed this. Well, I backed the first Kickstarter. I guess that means I won't be getting it for the platform I actually want it on? I guess I may have to pay for it again on PC.

Edit: Oh actually I guess the first Kickstarter doesn't come with any access to the game. Well anyway yeah I'll just buy this on PC when it's done it seems.

If you backed the iOS version you get the mac/pc version.

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If you're into that sort of thing, you also may want to keep an eye on Icarus Proudbottom: Starship Captain.

http://www.icarusproudbottom.com

There isn't much info about it, but I don't think it's going to be so much about running around the ship to get stuff done. I think it's more inspired by Star Trek: Bridge Commander. But hey, I'm excited about anything that involves people hanging out on the bridge of a starship.

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It's worth noting that watching the 8x8 pixel crew members make their way throughout the unlit low-res corridors of of the starship Video Game is doing very much the same thing the Oculus Rift is going to.

I really like watching people play video games I would never in a million light years play myself. These kinds of games (strategic decisions under pressure) stress me the hell out, so getting to enjoy this (to completion, even) is cool, and lets me appreciate all the stuff I would never get to see for all my rage-quitting. I'm watching a playthrough of Dark Souls on Youtube, and even though I constantly want to reach through cyberspace and strangle the guy, it's still a great opportunity to get to see how the game is put together.

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Can anyone tell where "The Vision" game is located? It's hardly impossible to find it using usual means like google.

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I have a Samsung Slate 7 and was wondering if FTL would lend itself to a touch interface? Carrying a mouse/keyboard on the bus kinda sucks but this game seems like it would be perfect for commuting.

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I was going to mention this last time FTL and Star Trek came up, but forgot, now it's relevant again!

The PCGamer UK podcast talked about how well FTL created star trek scenarios, and make the point that if you look at formulaic television shows, stuff like star trek or crime procedurals, heavily system based games can create pretty similar narratives. I thought it was interesting because I'd always thought about those types of games as creating exceptional moments, or stuff like Sean's space engine game where you see an image or landscape open up because you happened to be in the right place - but the idea of a bunch of interacting systems creating a sort of standard narrative, with a recognisable dramatic arc (even if it was simple), was cool.

Also, I agree with everything Jake said about TF2. I don't really have anything to add, It was just neat to hear it, especially the stuff about a perceived learning curve vs the actual one.

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I have a slightly funny anectode about listening to this episode. I really wanted to go bicycling today, but stayed at work quite late -- by the time I got home, it was getting dark. I downloaded An Angry God with Downcast (thanks, Doug!) and went on that ride anyway. I live near a forest that has a nice lit track for recreational sports, and recently they built a nice light traffic road that goes straight from my house to that forest. It's all pretty well lit.

So I was completing my second lap in the forest and it was getting pretty late and outside of the lit track it was totally dark already. On the podcast you started talking about FTL, and about the sensors that go out and leave your screen black. Right that minute, the lights on the forest track suddenly turned off and I was cycling 20km/h in complete darkness! (my bike doesn't have any lights)

Of course, I pressed the brakes immediately and slowed down. Thankfully I was pretty close to exiting the forest onto the lit light traffic road. I guess they turn the lights off there before midnight and redirect that power to some other place :)

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The talk about the worker grabbing his balls made me laugh out loud, although nobody looked at me weird, but then the story about EA's poor lawyers made me laugh harder and I'm pretty sure a few people thought I was crazy. So that's wonderful.

The talk about Space Engine reminded me of one of the other great space exploration games, Noctis (warning: worst website ever). Noctis has more of a focus on being able to actually land on plants and on finding neat unique stuff. It's pretty atmospheric:

As for asynchronous games, I really like games like Frozen Synapse where your turn is a good, meaty chunk of gameplay that gives you a lot to puzzle over. That way it feels less like passing letters back and forth and more like a fun turn based game with discrete chunks that are individually compelling.

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Today I stumbled across some videos recorded using cameras mounted on soldier's helmets fighting on the frontline in Afghanistan. It's striking how the scenarios themselves would not be out of place in a modern man-shooter; i.e. people are in front of us with guns, we have to kill them and not die. The equipment, terrain and first-person perspective is familiar. The only significant difference between what these videos depict and what Modern Battlefield: Rising: Warman of Honor depict is the men in the videos are terrified of dying.

It seems to me that developers have taken the aesthetic of modern warfare and ignored everything else. Possibly because it is politically challenging or possibly because a game that attempts to threaten the player realistically wouldn't be an enjoyable thing to play. In my opinion taking the aesthetic but disposing of the real narrative of the soldiers is gross. If making gameplay that matches the aesthetic is too difficult, surely shooter developers should make their games look like something else?

Men pinned down by Taliban with AKs, unable to return fire accurately.

Strikingly rapidly changing situation, from calm, to life threatening, to calm again.

Shame abut the shitty butt-rock and sweet flag graphics edited into the videos, something they have in common with video games.

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For a second I thought you guys were talking about an EA-branded Tomahawk cruise missile.

Yeah, I just finished listening and was going to make a comment about that. I was really confused why Sean kept talking about a half meter wide rocket sticking out of someone's head.

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I thought the same thing.

EA branded rockets might be the worst possible media scandal.

Also I am perfectly willing to put money down on an Activision/Assassin's Creed branded tomahawk or bow at some point during the 4 or 5 games they release as a sequel to 3.

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It seems to me that developers have taken the aesthetic of modern warfare and ignored everything else. Possibly because it is politically challenging or possibly because a game that attempts to threaten the player realistically wouldn't be an enjoyable thing to play. In my opinion taking the aesthetic but disposing of the real narrative of the soldiers is gross. If making gameplay that matches the aesthetic is too difficult, surely shooter developers should make their games look like something else?

The disparity between aesthetic and mechanic is more about how Western culture perceives combat, I think. Five hundred years ago it was bold yet sophisticated young men riding beautifully through battle in shining armor, today it's callous yet relatable slabs of meat who soak up bullets and dispense death to thousands. Neither of these actually capture the lived experience of combat, then or now, but they do transform the collective insanity that is war into something comprehensible and even laudable, at least for the spectator.

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The disparity between aesthetic and mechanic is more about how Western culture perceives combat, I think. Five hundred years ago it was bold yet sophisticated young men riding beautifully through battle in shining armor, today it's callous yet relatable slabs of meat who soak up bullets and dispense death to thousands. Neither of these actually capture the lived experience of combat, then or now, but they do transform the collective insanity that is war into something comprehensible and even laudable, at least for the spectator.

What a shame that it is the young spectators who become the participants.

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Regarding the Arnold Schwarzenegger signature thing, I had the same feeling of weirdness about a year before I graduated from college when I realized his name and signature would be on my bachelor's degree. Then I thought about how amazing that would be.

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Wow - That space game sounds a lot like "Universe Sandbox", except with this it gives you the option to mess around with gravity and destroy galaxy's/solar systems etc.... all with legit Newtonian physics.

Check it out if you're interested guys :)

http://universesandbox.com/

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I thought the same thing.

EA branded rockets might be the worst possible media scandal.

Also I am perfectly willing to put money down on an Activision/Assassin's Creed branded tomahawk or bow at some point during the 4 or 5 games they release as a sequel to 3.

I'm going to get that tomahawk and go on a rampage in Afghanistan :samuelljackson:

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A fun little toybox simulation of masses with gravity which, when big enough, collapse into a star that then supernovas when it gets too big.

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Has anyone here played the DS game published by Platinum called Infinite space cause it was a like FLT except the combat was simpler but the number of ship systems like accounting, a gym and a mess hall which all had effects on your crew which was spread across multiple ships.

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Has anyone here played the DS game published by Platinum called Infinite space cause it was a like FLT except the combat was simpler but the number of ship systems like accounting, a gym and a mess hall which all had effects on your crew which was spread across multiple ships.

I liked that game in theory, but the finished product wasn't very fun. It had a lot of cool ideas.

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My job is working with NASA's pictures of Earth from space, so I was thrilled by the discussion of astronaut views, and the change in perception they caused. Here's some related links (if anyone wants more, just ask):

Every photograph ever taken of the Earth from above low-Earth orbit, including the famous "Earthrise" photo from Apollo 8, and The "Blue Marble" from Apollo 17:

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/PhotoIdSets/PhotoIdSets.pl?set=EarthDisc

better scans of Earthrise:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html

and a re-creation: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003936/index.html

and the Blue Marble:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1133

possibly the best image of Earth, ever:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7314

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