Jake

Idle Thumbs 119: You, Fisher

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Idle Thumbs 119:

 

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You, Fisher

Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton joins us for talk of some recent sneaky games and tries to sell Jake on a 3DS. Chris gets lost in a spooky cave and pushes some guys out of the way. Plus, we can't stop talking about those guys who can't stop talking about Sam Fisher, Fisher.

 

Games Discussed: Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches, Skulls of the Shogun, Spelunky, Saints Row IV, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Crusader Kings II

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Bizarrely, just yesterday or the day before I listened to the "Remember the Airfield" part of the "Remember the Airfield" podcast. So that's really good timing on my part!

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Bizarrely, just yesterday or the day before I listened to the "Remember the Airfield" part of the "Remember the Airfield" podcast. So that's really good timing on my part!

 

I've always thought that "Remember the Airfield" might be the best Idle Thumbs episode ever, so this is exciting. I need to find some time to listen, asap.

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splinter cell conviction was definitely 24 the game, and i think the mark and execute mechanic undermined the stealth, because most levels/scenarios could be broken down to 'stealth kill the obvious stranglers, them mark and execute everybody on the big open impossible to be stealthy room' i like 24 but 24 and stealth game didn't seem to match up

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2nd time Keith David has come up on Idle Thumbs and has confused the hosts. Where's Steve and Sean when we need them?

 

Edit - Oh congrats Steve for Gone Home's launch.

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2nd time Keith David has come up on Idle Thumbs and has confused the hosts. Where's Steve and Sean when we need them?

 

I was gonna' say!

 

He was the lead gargoyle from Gargoyles, guys!

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[Fisher picture]

That is amazing.

Great cast! It made me want to check out Saint's Row 4 some day in the far future when I have less on my plate, game-wise. I really like the stuff Chris said about violence in games being a reflection of and sort of a contributor to violence in our culture. I feel like one of the few opinions that I get shouted down when I express no matter where I go, even "safe" spaces that don't shit on my for bringing up feminism or something, is to say that violent video games aren't 100% super totally harmless and don't have any bad influence on anyone ever forever. I'd reiterate my opinion but it's basically just Chris' from the podcast, so I'm glad that another person agrees with me and is saying it with the authority of being someone who clearly doesn't have it out for video games, or even violent video games, because he spent the rest of the cast talking about enjoying stuff like Metal Gear Solid and Far Cry 2.

I also liked the discussion about the complexities of feudalism and CKII's UI - that turned into a nice, interesting answer when it otherwise could've been something like "naw, there's a lot going on" or "yeah the UI is sort of a mess."

Also I feel like one of Jake's amazing jokes didn't get anywhere near enough laughs (in fact nobody laughed, I think). You guys were talking about the Splinter Cell picture book and imagined the child saying something like "how come nobody can ever find Sam Fisher" and someone said something like "play the video game and you'll understand" and then Jake said "wait until you're 11." That was fucking hilarious!

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Just finished listening and that was a really good cast with another stellar guest.

 

Saint's Row 4 sounded cool enough before, but I figured it was a game I would never get around to playing even though I enjoyed the first game quite a bit. After hearing this cast though I don't know if I can pass this game up.

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Just starting it up, really interesting so far. The inability of the interviewee to grasp that torture could fail was telling.

 

Uh small thing, this file has different artist and album information than the others, and doesn't have the Podcast genre. Thought I had somehow forgotten to copy it to my mp3 player until I checked in my music for the artist "Idle Thumbs Staff."

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Given how often Chris uses "goofy, stupid video game bullshit" as shorthand for everything he dislikes in games, it's hilarious to listen to people trying to sell him on Saints Row based on how hilariously goofy, stupid and video gamey it is.

 

Also, Jake should totally get a 3DS.  Mario 3D Land is an amazing game.  It's 3D, but unlike Mario Galaxy, it's focused on short obstacle course-style levels in the style of Mario 3.  It's my favourite Mario game since the NES.

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Given how often Chris uses "goofy, stupid video game bullshit" as shorthand for everything he dislikes in games, it's hilarious to listen to people trying to sell him on Saints Row based on how hilariously goofy, stupid and video gamey it is.

 

Also, Jake should totally get a 3DS.  Mario 3D Land is an amazing game.  It's 3D, but unlike Mario Galaxy, it's focused on short obstacle course-style levels in the style of Mario 3.  It's my favourite Mario game since the NES.

My interpretation of that stuff varies a lot across a spectrum, though. The things I don't tend to like are the ones at the two extremes of: 1) just trying too goddamn hard to make something sUpEr WaCkY or FUCKED UP AND EXTREME or whatever—this is why I'm suspicious of Saints Row, but I'll still give it a shot—and 2) games that are entirely self-serious but are utterly sabotaged by unthoughtful inclusion of cliche video game tropes that just break the whole thing. (GTA is actually kind of an example of the second thing, but I still like it because when it's good, it's SO good, so of course there are always exceptions to every rule, and since I'm a human being I'm subject to arbitrary quirks of judgment.)

GENERALLY SPEAKING (again this is all subject to the whims of circumstance), the kinds of games that appeal to me most are the ones that for the most part either take themselves seriously on a relatively basic level, and they can avoid "breaking" by being either really mechanically stripped down (Gone Home, Journey, Ico, etc.), or by just by deploying potentially-crazy mechanics that still actually speak to the larger themes of the game (Far Cry 2, Cart Life, Crusader Kings II, Civilization, Thief, etc.). That latter category can still include really complex or layered mechanics like CK2 or Cart Life, if they actually feel coherent to the experience, or total bonkers video game bullshit, like Far Cry 2, but usually those moments are remarkable and player-driven and in an ideal world will still speak to what the game is about.

Anyway I obviously don't actually evaluate games by, like, checking this shit off on a checklist. They're just some patterns I can sort of loosely identify in a lot of the games I like. But there are also games that just don't have anything to do with this at all, really, because they only pay lip service to being in a coherent world in the first place, and they're mainly about the mechanics unto themselves, and so then you just kind of hope for some nice aesthetic cohesion of some kind (Tetris, Super Mario Galaxy, a nicely-made crossword app, Canabalt, etc.).

GAMES

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that animal crossing one with the bugs is amazing, tegan

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Just starting it up, really interesting so far. The inability of the interviewee to grasp that torture could fail was telling.

Uh small thing, this file has different artist and album information than the others, and doesn't have the Podcast genre. Thought I had somehow forgotten to copy it to my mp3 player until I checked in my music for the artist "Idle Thumbs Staff."

What is it usually?

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Whoa, I didn't know Tegan made that picture. Doubly awesome!

 

And now a new tumblr to follow!

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(also Jake should get a 3DS)

Every time they talk about Nintendo games without having played anything on the 3DS, it hurts me a little.

Also, have any of the thumbs played Teleglitch? Was that ever discussed in a previous podcast? If not, it seems like a thing they should check out.

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I've been running the Spelunky Daily Challenge a lot, it's such a great idea. You can read the details of the mode on the main site: http://spelunkyworld.com/dailychallenge/

Covers all, except the time. The new one starts each day at Midnight GMT (7pm eastern)

 

It's a Steam exclusive feature for now because I guess steamworks makes it easy to do a new leaderboard every day like that? Even the GOG DRM-free PC version doesn't have it, and the upcoming PS3 & Vita versions won't have it, either.


I have a few regulars on my friends list but still need more, if anyone here is playing Spelunky on Steam, you can add me if you want some friendly competition. In addition to the Daily boards, there's an All-Time Daily leaderboard, which takes the average of your best 10 Daily Challenge runs. On the topic of secrets I already had the XBLA version and played a ton of it, but I'm still finding stuff I hadn't yet on PC. Like the

Haunted Castle zone, which I stumbled upon after an accidental bomb drop.

 

Also, Michael Madsen voices Daud in Dishonored. Not sure if it's just the DLC, was weird when it popped up during the Knife of Dunwall credits.

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Interesting that Kirk pointed out how stealth games are a big thing right now. I think a lot of them have a stealth theme but usually aren't about avoiding conflict in game play.

 

Also, Keith David as Keith David in a video game talking about how Keith David got into voice acting in video games is the first thing anyone has said about Saint's Row 4 that sounds like it'd be an entertaining game.

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