Chris

Idle Thumbs 156: The Holo-Violator

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Idle Thumbs 156:

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The Holo-Violator

Listen, dear readers, and I will tell you wondrous tales of a strange world—a world not so different to our own. A world of media conglomerates run rampant, of cavernous pulsing synthesizers, of long-buried digital treasure. Of legendary heroes and notorious agitators, and epic contests of three-laned skill. A world where nobody has time to play video games.

Things Discussed: FRACT OSC, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Dota 2, The International, The Unfinished Swan, Mad Men, Derek Smart

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Holy shit Derek Smart!

 

Years ago on Shacknews, I'd known of him as the guy that "you summoned if you said his name 3 times." I did so once in a thread about him just to see if it worked. And he showed up! It was so fucking weird. Really actually showed up. Like, 10 minutes later, just his confirmed used screename of "Derek Smart" in that thread a few responses down.

 

tl;dr I actually used the internet spell "Summon Derek Smart" and it worked!

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You guys gotta' stream some of that Pikmin 3 experience. Use the opportunity to try some of the asymmetrical multiplayer stuff in Nintendo Land, too.

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I didn't at the time, but I know people who did raise an eyebrow at the casting of Samuel L. Jackson, an actor famous for his violent and abrasive roles in R-rated movies, by George Lucas, a director known in his later years for making movies with his grandkids in mind. Of course, that was for the second movie and most savvy people, although again not me, could see that the first one had proven everything Larry Kasdan said about Lucas' weaknesses as a writer and director to be right, so we couldn't really expect much better.

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Sean's tagline of "this product is for any person" got a genuine gross snort from me.

 

I know the theme has been on for the last 7 episodes or w/e, but I just wanted to congratulate Chris on making such a fantastic theme. It's so celebratory, so catchy and it just sounds super good. 

 

edit: english words thingy

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I'm (sort of?) relieved to hear that non-players can figure out Dota somewhat quickly. Right now, whenever I watch Starcraft or Dota, all I see are colored explosions—I can't even make out individual units.

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As a child, the E.T. game was completely impenetrable for me. It caused this strange disonance because I had developed a faith that video-games on consoles were playable. Every once in a while I would try to play E.T. thinking that I might figure out what to do, but I would inevitably spend thirty minutes to an hour staring at this indecipherable neo-hieroglyph. I think the most frustrating thing was that something would happen every once in a while that gave me a sense of urgency to do whatever was required. I think it was a spaceship hovering or something. Then I had to wait a long time to have a chance to do something different the next time it showed up.

That game and the ability to put Pitfall2 into the console partially in order to get a glitchy last level are the two most vivid memories I have of the machine.

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A few things about Pikmin 3 multiplayer: first, you always want to play with the Victory Macaroon turned on; second, it's far more chaotic than Pikmin 2 multiplayer; third, some of the levels are garbage and some are really good. Let us know before you start streaming and I can give you some more tips to smooth out the experience.

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I hope Disney do a lot more with all the licenses they own then just building the Disney infinity roster

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2014/04/disney-infinity-20-marvel-super-heroes.html

You know the next batch will be Star Wars related, probably the cast of the rebels cartoon

Now Disney owns Marvel, does that mean we'll never see another marvel vs capcom fighter?

Hopefully they'll create their own fighter or kart racing game, they've got a big enough cast of characters to topple Mario Kart. Imagine it, a bubble head Han Solo sat in a millennium falcon kart racing against Manny Calavera in the Bone Wagon

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Now Disney owns Marvel, does that mean we'll never see another marvel vs capcom fighter?

Hopefully they'll create their own fighter or kart racing game, they've got a big enough cast of characters to topple Mario Kart. Imagine it, a bubble head Han Solo sat in a millennium falcon kart racing against Manny Calavera in the Bone Wagon

 

I'd say if there is money to be made, Disney would license the Marvel characters for another MvC game.  Kingdom Hearts, while it has had some bumpy moments, has managed to keep chugging along, hasn't it?

 

FUUCK!  Now I really want a kart racer with Manny Calavera in it.  That's the best idea.  I would probably buy a next gen console right now for that shit.  Or even a Wii U.

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Good Mad Men discussion. I mostly like this season, but I'm having difficulty with the way the show keeps making signals about how women's lib is a thing that is happening at that time with the way most of the female characters seem to have receded to the background relative to their roles in previous seasons. I'm glad the show is wrapping up, there are about 5 or 6 plausible endings I can imagine for the show, and only two of them are any good. Here's hoping.

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Good Mad Men discussion. I mostly like this season, but I'm having difficulty with the way the show keeps making signals about how women's lib is a thing that is happening at that time with the way most of the female characters seem to have receded to the background relative to their roles in previous seasons. I'm glad the show is wrapping up, there are about 5 or 6 plausible endings I can imagine for the show, and only two of them are any good. Here's hoping.

 

The women this season are at the forefront more than they've been in seasons past, at least in my mind. Don, Roger, Pete et. al feel like an afterthought in comparison to what is going on with Peggy and Joan. The return of Betty (Betty!!) and Dawn's increased significance as a character really reinforce the feeling of this season being about the women's ascendence.

 

I'm really enjoying this season, but then again, I've never felt disappointed in any of the Mad Men seasons.

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I should probably clarify when I say their roles I'm talking about their structural roles within the narrative of the show, not their fictional roles within the power structure of the firm, that might be a little confusing. Like, undoubtedly, the women in the show are advancing in the work force currently with a lot of the men who hold traditional power in recess. What is a weird disconnect for me is that as that rise to power happens their dramatic voice kind of recedes. I thought the story line last season where Joan deftly maneuvers her way into accounts was really strong, and provided lots of opportunities to showcase who she was. Since her promotion though she has felt fairly muted as a character and I don't really have a strong sense of what's going on with her (admittedly it's early on in the season so that could change). As for Peggy, as far as I can tell the only time she is on screen this season she is just grumpy.

 

Betty has been really interesting lately though for sure.

 

The show is really good at expressing ideas in an understated manner, so as the season progresses it's possible this stuff will make more sense to me, but at the moment I just find many of the directorial and narrative choices odd.

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Feels too soon to judge that, as I feel like -- given how the most recent episode ended -- we're only barely in the setup phase of this season. But even in the setup phase, it feels like Dawn and Peggy and Joan are positioned on trajectories to have a lot of agency over the firm and the story, even if little has happened so far.

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I should probably clarify when I say their roles I'm talking about their structural roles within the narrative of the show, not their fictional roles within the power structure of the firm, that might be a little confusing. Like, undoubtedly, the women in the show are advancing in the work force currently with a lot of the men who hold traditional power in recess. What is a weird disconnect for me is that as that rise to power happens their dramatic voice kind of recedes. I thought the story line last season where Joan deftly maneuvers her way into accounts was really strong, and provided lots of opportunities to showcase who she was. Since her promotion though she has felt fairly muted as a character and I don't really have a strong sense of what's going on with her (admittedly it's early on in the season so that could change). As for Peggy, as far as I can tell the only time she is on screen this season she is just grumpy.

 

Betty has been really interesting lately though for sure.

 

The show is really good at expressing ideas in an understated manner, so as the season progresses it's possible this stuff will make more sense to me, but at the moment I just find many of the directorial and narrative choices odd.

I think it's just that the characters are so spatially distributed at this point that it's much less about following office politics as much as it once ways. The agency is no longer the default focal point. So Joan's ascendance can be a focus for a significant portion of one episode, and a huge amount of screen time can be allocated in a given episode to Betty's trip with her kid, but those both come at the expense of any characters who aren't in their immediate proximity, especially with Betty since she doesn't interact with any of the office crowd; same goes for most of the rest of the characters. I don't think the women are suffering from this any MORE than the men are currently. The show just really has to choose to focus on specific spheres of influence at a time now that they've all spread out.

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Yeah, depending on how the season plays out this could be a totally meaningless observation on my point, it is definitely too soon to judge. It's just my initial impression.

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I'd say if there is money to be made, Disney would license the Marvel characters for another MvC game.  Kingdom Hearts, while it has had some bumpy moments, has managed to keep chugging along, hasn't it?

 

FUUCK!  Now I really want a kart racer with Manny Calavera in it.  That's the best idea.  I would probably buy a next gen console right now for that shit.  Or even a Wii U.

 

While listening to Jake talk about the different things that Disney now own, the concept of a new Kingdom Hearts with Darth Vader, Mickey, Iron Man, Cloud, and whatever other thing they wanted to throw in there occurred to me.  I got kind of grossed out by the thought.

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Did anyone else cry when Guybrush Threepwood sacrificed himself to save Donald Duck from some anime bullshit?

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I would probably genuinely play the shit out of this hypothetical Kingdom Hearts while pretending to be repulsed by it.

 

Am I part of the problem?

 

Sorry guys. ):

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Did anyone else cry when Guybrush Threepwood sacrificed himself to save Donald Duck from some anime bullshit?

 

"Nice anime bullshit." 

-Guybrush Threepwood 2016

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