Idle Thumbs 288: Pizza Tonight!

[Jake]

Idle Thumbs 288:

Pizza Tonight!
Feeling like the world's driving you up a wall? Life's out of control, galloping over a cliff? Everything you thought you could achieve is just on the other side of the glass, out of reach? Fortunately we have video games, where all your wishes are granted. Join us as we scale the walls of Titanfall 2, rein things in and take control of Battlefield 1, and discover that no matter what you try in Hitman, maybe the game IS rigged and you just can't win. 

Discussed: Titanfall 2, Halo, New Super Mario Bros., Battlefield 1, Owlboy, Abuse, Trine, Hitman (2016)

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[atte]

 

Here is the eternal enigma. Also, Chris's Waluigi voice is amazing.

[pyide]

The Titanfall 2 time

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switching stuff reminded me a lot of worlds of the living and dead switching for platforming in Guacamelee! (great game btw), but in first person 3D. Was really well done yet brief in that it lasted for a couple of levels. I was really impressed with how responsive it was in switching between what seemed like 2 different levels on the fly, complete with different geometry and textures and enemies. No hiccups or delay. I never considered that sort of thing could be possible outside of lighter 2D stuff like Guacamelee! or Outland. Even the combat in that section made a lasting impression. You can flash to the other time to avoid enemies, and it shows a blue cloud where the enemies in the other time you just left were for a short period. So you can blink, run behind them in the other time period, then blink back in to get the drop on them. It gets hectic too, when there's enemies attacking you in both time periods and you're blinking back and forth trying to both avoid and take them down. That was probably the best time I had with the combat scenarios in that game, although it's still fun to wall run around and drop kick guys from above when you get tired of shooting them. The slide maneuver is enjoyable, too. And you can use it to keep some momentum going if you prep the slide by crouching in the air before you land.

 

I normally don't care about collectables in games, but the helmets scattered about these levels give you additional excuse to do some more platforming. Some are hidden but many of them are visible and require you to just figure out how to get to them. Nice little bonus / side distraction from all the shooting in between.

 

As for guns, there is a lot of standard fare, though there is a quake style rocket launcher in there, the EPG? It's in a few sections of the campaign and fires a blue ball of energy instead of a rocket, but it's real fun to use in the multiplayer. It's exactly what the type of weapon I found to be missing in the first game, which had all these awesome movement and traversal abilities and speed hampered by standard Call of Duty type guns, most of which were more effective if you stopped moving to aim and shoot. It's a skill based projectile weapon like the spin fuser / disc launcher of Tribes or rocket launcher of the arena shooters like Quake & UT. It's easy to avoid at range and doesn't have much splash damage, but direct hits are real satisfying and I believe one hit kills. I feel like I'm playing a different game when I'm flying around the level and trying to land a perfect shot with a projectile that I have to lead on another player that's moving fast through the skies, when everyone else seems to be sticking with the standard weapons that dump bullets. I played a lot of the first game but the multiplayer in the sequel didn't start clicking until I began using that. If it's not available from the start it has got to be a real early unlock (within the first 1-3 levels), try it out if you ever give the multiplayer a chance.

[SL128]

I've mostly been in bed for the past few days, unable to have more than momentary interest in anything video game related (except starting DEFCON and planning to replay Wasteland 2).  I expected to start the podcast and stop upon accepting I wasn't in the mood, but that wasn't the case at all.  Thanks for providing a solid hour of distraction.

[juv3nal]

  On 11/11/2016 at 12:13 AM, pyide said:

The Titanfall 2 time

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switching stuff

 

 

Gamasutra did a video for anyone curious who doesn't have the game.

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[WickedCestus]

Great episode. I love the phrase "Ode to a War Guy". That sounds like a possible Wizard Jam title. 

 

Also, when Jake was talking about the Mario/Titanfall crossover, he said all you have to do is put a 3d Mario model in the editor and then "literally videotape it". I found that amusing. 

[chummer]

actually, Mario's garbled voice is saying "Islam is the light."

 

 

also, Lin Manuel Miranda could absolutely play a live action version of WaLuigi, which is what i can only imagine his contextless tweet meant.

[Nick Breckon]

I think I found the origin of the Waluigi thing. I guess it has to do with his haircut?

 

 

 

[Badfinger]

Like Chris, when I decided "I do not want to refresh Twitter at this time", I realized it was basically my default condition and I was left without a basic level of engagement. I'll play a game or be doing something on the computer and twitter will scroll on the other monitor, I'll watch a stream there, something on the other monitor to fill up the soundlessness. And when I decided not to do that, even the things that I normally would do felt like things I shouldn't do.

 

I agree, Chris, that there is some gun fatigue but I don't know that it's Titanfall's "fault", in that it's doing everything it can to not be aiming down sights and then pulling the trigger constantly. I also LOVED the original Titanfall, so I was ravenous to get more.

 

I'll say I did not have the reaction to the opening cutscene, because you can actually do literally everything shown in the video. I was impressed that they wrote a loveletter of a scripted cinematic where the character actually CAN move and act that way. It made me very pumped.

[Patrick R]

Was this episode recorded before or after the election results? I'm assuming after.

[Jake]

After

[aquason]

There's a Mario Party 9 minigame called Pizza Me, Mario as a pun off of "Its-a me, Mario!"

[thenexus6]

Please bring back some Nick's baby journal entries.

[mikemariano]

When I saw the "threat neutralized" tweet earlier in the week, I heard it in Chris's "weapons hot/lock and load/oh yeah!" military voice.

 

Instead of getting that voice this episode, we get a breakdown of the mindset of an individual who can only process video games through pseudo-military jargon.  Idle Thumbs goes deep!

[Gormongous]

In an alternate universe with a much trashier Nintendo, we'd definitely have gotten a "Mario goes to war" shooter already. The gunji-ota boom in Japan has actually been enjoying a revival, the past few years.

[Dewar]

I'm a bit sad that Chris didn't enjoy the stompy mech parts of the Titanfall campaign. I thought they did a good job of switching between on-foot and Titan segments often enough to make neither feel boring, and pretty much each time you're in a Titan you get to try out a different load out, some of which are quite unique. In particular, I really enjoyed that huge Titan fight that Chris had just made it through.

 

I guess the beauty of Titanfall is that it can be different things to different people.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Here is an article about the making of that Titanfall 2 level.

[aeonofdiscord]

I've been hearing this as 'Thank you so nice!' for over ten years.

 

https://instaud.io/FF6

 

I was wrong.

 

[Jake]

That's-a so nice?

[Twig]

  On 12/19/2016 at 3:58 AM, Jake said:

That's-a so nice?

nice-a*

[Patrick R]

I've never played the New Super Mario games, but what the hell does Mario say in Super Mario 64 when you select a quest and enter a level? It always sounds like "Payco" to me. What is "payco"?

 

EDIT: jump to 0:30 in this video. Is he saying Peggle?

[Treasure Goblin]

  On 12/19/2016 at 6:37 AM, Patrick R said:

I've never played the New Super Mario games, but what the hell does Mario say in Super Mario 64 when you select a quest and enter a level? It always sounds like "Payco" to me. What is "payco"?

 

EDIT: jump to 0:30 in this video. Is he saying Peggle?

 

Let's-a-go?  

[Patrick R]

It only sounds like two syllables to me, and faster than one could say "let's go".

[Treasure Goblin]

According to google, a lot of people think it's 'let's pickle!' 
I can't hear a 'p' sound in there, which is why I'm pretty sure its let's-a-go.  Hearing is weird.  

[aeonofdiscord]

  On 12/19/2016 at 7:30 AM, Patrick R said:

It only sounds like two syllables to me, and faster than one could say "let's go".

 

I hear three syllables pretty clearly here: