Idle Thumbs will be conducting its first (and possibly only) ever live panel during this year's PAX Prime show in Seattle. Three-day tickets to PAX itself are likely to sell out this week, according to the expo's official Twitter feed, so if you want to come see us do a live cast and most likely see me perform a song, get on that soon.

What: Idle Thumbs Live Show at PAX Prime
Who: Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, The Return of Nick Breckon, Other Guests?, You
Where: PAX Prime in Seattle (get your tickets at the official site!)
When: Sunday, September 5, 2010, 2:00PM
More Where: Wolfman Theatre
Games: Video

Tell your friends. And people who listen to Idle Thumbs, but aren't your friends.

Update: PAX has run out of 3 day badges. Passes for individual days are still available, however, including Sunday.

Update: We'll be meeting at the Crossroads Irish Pub. It's only a few blocks away, on the corner of Beacon St and Massachusetts Avenue (Google Maps link). For anyone who wants to head straight there, we'll be there around 7:30. We'll still be meeting outside the convention center at 7:15 and walking over though (see below), so meeting us right outside PAX for the walk or just to say hi is okay too. See you guys tonight.

As noted on The Idle Thumbs Podcast Episode 4: Super Expert Pro, Jake and I will attend PAX East this weekend, and we'd like to meet up with some Thumbs.

During last year's PAX Normal, we met up with a few dozen Thumbs and had a good time hanging out at a bar. Can we repeat that success? It's a mystery.

Who: Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, and YOU
When: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Be more specific: 7:15 PM, Eastern Standard Time
Where: At the main entrance of the Hynes Convention Center at 900 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts
Be more specific: It's the front door with the large awning (apparently)

If you plan to attend, feel free to RSVP to our electronic hotline, and we will endeavor to keep you updated if any details change.

Also! If you are a resident of Boston or environs, please contact us with suggestions as to a good nearby alcohol-serving location that you think might not be completely packed to the point of impossibility. During last year's PAX meet, our intended venue could not hold us, and the group nearly disbanded before an alternative was fortunately found.

VIDEO GAMES

If you listened to The Idle Thumbs Podcast Conf Grenade 2010, you may recall us spinning out into the baffling kidnapping-themed non sequitur that inspired the episode's subtitle, "Phaedrus 2010."

In one of the best pieces of Idle Thumbs-based media I can recall seeing, Idle Forums user Hermie posted this incredible masterpiece to the episode's official thread:



I just felt that needed to be shared.

Somewhat shamefully, when I first played Irrational Games' 1999 classic System Shock 2, I didn't complete it. That was common for me during that era--it was when I was starting to think critically about games, but before I had really gotten into them as a "primary" hobby, and I rarely dedicated enough time to absorb the full experience. (Coincidentally, Thief, which shares a number of developers with Shock 2, was one of the most important games in the development of my thinking about the medium, along with its contemporary Half-Life.)

A few weeks ago, as BioShock 2 approached, I decided to rectify this particular partially-incomplete part of my repertoire. Yesterday, after about 15 total hours of play, I finished System Shock 2. It took a bit of fiddling, but I was able to get it up and running on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine. I eschewed mods for this playthrough; maybe I'll swap in altered textures and mechanics during a future excursion.

I'm sure just about anything I have to say about the game has already been said, it being a decade after its release, but it made enough of an impression on me that I'm going to say some things anyway. The first section is about design, and is spoiler-free, but if you haven't played through the game (and you should), don't read the latter parts, because they've got a lot of spoilers.

This week, Mr. Evan Lahti of PC Gamer US asked me to fill a guest slot on his fine internet audio broadcast. As a satisfied subscriber to that publication, I was honored by the invitation and took him up on his offer. As it turns out, this week's show included Game of the Year discussion, and we each spent some time discussing one of our highlights from 2009. There were several other topics covered as well!

Go ahead and check it out! And consider subscribing to their magazine. I promise they didn't pay me to say that. Even in this era of declining print relevance, I still honestly believe that physical periodicals are, on balance, a better way to stay informed about most topics. You end up reading about more things you might not otherwise have sought out, there are fewer obnoxious flashing distractions, and there was probably at lease one copy editor who did a pass on the thing. [Edit: Unlike here, where I misspelled "least."]

Plus, especially if you're a longtime PC gamer, their all-time top 100 list in the February issue -- compiled collaboratively with the PC Gamer UK staff and folks from fine internet establishments like Rock, Paper, Shotgun -- was easily one of the most interesting and enjoyable to read "top 100"s I can remember. And I don't even usually like lists.

Finally, look out for a tantalizing tidbit of Idle Thumbs information during the podcast!