Jake

Idle Thumbs 174: Live from the Metropolitan Ballroom

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Idle Thumbs 174:

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Live from the Metropolitan Ballroom

We went to PAX and recorded an episode live in front of a bunch of wonderful people who could all hear us, though we could not hear one another. That didn't stop us from trying to communicate, and we think the results speak for themselves. This episode was rated 3 out of 5 hosts by all in attendance; we hope it finds an audience in you.

Games Discussed: Screencheat, Screensheet, Screamsheet, Pikmin 2, Sentris, The Behemoth's Fourth Game, Michael Crichton's Orb, Firewatch

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Oh man, great show, guys.

 

Chris: have you eve read Dwarf Fortress patch notes? They're incredible. just from the last few changelog entries alone:

 

  • Made historical figures react properly to historical undead
  • Stopped a conversation crash from talking to mute creatures about their troubles
  • Adjusted emotional strain vs. willpower etc. calculation
  • Stopped non-historical dwarves from coming back as ghosts (put in fix for old saves that should lay them to rest soon after unpause)
  • Made people not so eager to jump in on the side of their relatives and friends if the relative/friend is berserk/etc.

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Haha I think I saw someone retweet an account that just posts lines from that. Super good.

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Anyone have a link to that account?  I could add it to my other humorous-and/or-fascinating patch note readings, such as keeping up with dolphin and the rampage. (warning, clicking either link will lead you to the inside-est of baseballs in two very different fields)

 

edit: vague googling didn't find the account, but it did find this which is a more than nice consolation really.

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Regarding the Giant Bomb panel's difficulty in explaining what firewatch is. Part of it was played up for laughs and part if it is that Brad Shoemaker never does a great job explaining games that don't fit the usual "meets meets meets" categorization.

 

<3 Brad.

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Anyone have a link to that account?  I could add it to my other humorous-and/or-fascinating patch note readings, such as keeping up with dolphin and the rampage. (warning, clicking either link will lead you to the inside-est of baseballs in two very different fields)

 

I believe the account is Dwarf Fortress.txt.

 

Also, the Crusader Kings II patch notes are pretty much always full of amazing stuff.

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Regarding the Giant Bomb panel's difficulty in explaining what firewatch is. Part of it was played up for laughs and part if it is that Brad Shoemaker never does a great job explaining games that don't fit the usual "meets meets meets" categorization.

 

<3 Brad.

 

"Game takes place during fall of Berlin Wall." -gamebomb.ru

 

 

By the way, props to Chris for "fuck those guys." Jeff Gerstmann expressed similar sentiment.

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Also, the Crusader Kings II patch notes are pretty much always full of amazing stuff.

 

  • You now have to be independent to create an antipope
  • Tweaked various religious events
  • Added Jewish buildings

That's an interesting priority there guys

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Welltris was a pretty deep cut.  it was actually my first introduction to a Tetris game on our first 286, it wasnt until a demo cartridge containing the counter-norm Atari version of Tetris on the NES that i figured out it should be a top down game (officially named TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game)

 

Welltris opening screen -

welltris_1.gif

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Love Letter is a great game. There are a number of board games by Japanese game designers that similarly feature a minimal amount of components but nonetheless have very deep gameplay, and as someone that lives in a small apartment and doesn't have a ton of room for board games I love them. Cheaty Mages, 8 Minute Empire, and Sail to India are the ones that spring to mind immediately.

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Love Letter is a great game. There are a number of board games by Japanese game designers that similarly feature a minimal amount of components but nonetheless have very deep gameplay, and as someone that lives in a small apartment and doesn't have a ton of room for board games I love them. Cheaty Mages, 8 Minute Empire, and Sail to India are the ones that spring to mind immediately.

 

Yeah, the Japanese micro-games movement is great. The two I currently own, Love Letter and One Night Ultimate Werewolf, are getting more play right now than any other game in my collection.

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It was so fascinating to watch when Chris and Jake streamed Pikmin 2 multiplayer on twitch because of the fact that Jake did the rotation of the z-axis deal (discussed in the podcast) in order to prevent Chris from seeing what mischief he was up to, but he also undercut it all by getting quiet and giddy. 

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Is there a video version of the panel to look forward to or will I have to listen to it like a plebian? I don't mind being a plebian, just wondering.

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It was so fascinating to watch when Chris and Jake streamed Pikmin 2 multiplayer on twitch because of the fact that Jake did the rotation of the z-axis deal (discussed in the podcast) in order to prevent Chris from seeing what mischief he was up to, but he also undercut it all by getting quiet and giddy. 

 

I remember that too.  I love weird subtle tactics like that.  I remember doing those kinds of things when playing Goldeneye multiplayer with my friends.  A game built entirely on screen looking sounds like it would encourage similar shenanigans. 

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Yeah, the Japanese micro-games movement is great. The two I currently own, Love Letter and One Night Ultimate Werewolf, are getting more play right now than any other game in my collection.

 

I hadn't thought of those as being in the same family, but yeah, it makes sense.

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I hadn't thought of those as being in the same family, but yeah, it makes sense.

 

Heh, my criteria were really just 1) Japanese designer, and 2) tiny box. They both fill the same kind of space in a night, though.

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Regarding the Giant Bomb panel's difficulty in explaining what firewatch is. Part of it was played up for laughs and part if it is that Brad Shoemaker never does a great job explaining games that don't fit the usual "meets meets meets" categorization.

 

<3 Brad.

 

I like Brad.

 

Edit: Btw, will you post a picture of the BigDog poster?

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My wife, barely able to hear the podcast from another room, walks in and says to me: "Why did Idle Thumbs add a laugh track to the podcast?"

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For some reason, my brain farted and I went from thinking (sequentially)

 

1) Far Cry 4 has animal fights gameplay, and Ubi are showing that at pax

 

2) It's not real animals, NPCs are fighting in animal suits

 

3) They actually paid people to have fights for the public on the show floor?

 

4) Oh no, it was attendees fighting for a ps4 (as finally explained clearly)

 

lol.

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