Idle Thumbs 4: The Fable of Love

[Chris]

It's up! And it's early, both in its day of the week, and in the hour it's posted.

http://www.idlethumbs.net/

"We're a day early and possibly still a dollar short. Weeks of Fallout 3 coverage culminate with Nick's full completion-informed opinions. (Mutants allowed.) Chris and Jake dive into the polarizing world of Far Cry 2, and Fable 2's bizarre romances are set to heart-wrenching song. Join us, for this relatively subdued cast. To your face."

Games discussed: Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Dead Space, Empire: Total War (maybe)

iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293436552

RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/idle-thumbs

[Wrestlevania]

I'm afraid I've binned your iTunes feed and switched to FeedBurner's RSS instead. Apple are much too fucking slow to update for my liking.

[Chris]

That's fine!

[schepton]

Great show. Next episode needs a Fallout song.

[Cigol]

Another nice podcast

I've played nearly 5 hours of Far Cry 2 and all I've been doing is the gun dealers side-missions. I even had a similar experience to yours whilst driving and looking at the map as well, only when I looked up I found myself careering into the uprights of a bridge and ended up lodged between them. Despite being seemingly banal when put under a microscope it was actually a pretty cool 'moment'. If the game was opened up to modders that would help - as it does need fleshing out and fixing up in certain areas.

...and I guess we can add Uncharted to the list of games you guys haven't played. [and before you jump on my throat, that's a joke!]

[elmuerte]

Fallout is like Fallout with guns @ 4:56

[Chris]

  Chepito said:

Great show. Next episode needs a Fallout song.

Sadly I am not very confident in my ability to keep up this one-song-a-week pace, which is why we've not publicly advertised it anywhere. I'll try though.

[toblix]

Very awesome, guys. You know, with both the Halo 3 Mythos Fan and the anecdote about how Far Cry: Instincts fucked your new speakers, I didn't miss the Molyneux impression at all, except right at the end when you mentioned it.

[Chris]

  toblix said:

Very awesome, guys. You know, with both the Halo 3 Mythos Fan and the anecdote about how Far Cry: Instincts fucked your new speakers, I didn't miss the Molyneux impression at all, except right at the end when you mentioned it.

Minutes after it went up, a fellow journalist messaged me to inform me that he is one of those people and has read the books and in fact it does all fit together.

[toblix]

Hey, I'm sure it does.

[miffy495]

So apparently I'm a dick for thinking that Dead Space is a good game despite it's not scaring me? Bah! Asparagus Live! on the other hand is bloody terrifying.

Oh, and as a response to the sort-of contest from Podcast 3 that I didn't get to respond to in time, I'm a freak because I'd never played more than an hour of a non-Diablo RPG until KOTOR. n0wak, I've got your back.

[Chris]

  miffy495 said:

So apparently I'm a dick for thinking that Dead Space is a good game despite it's not scaring me?

This isn't remotely what we said!

[miffy495]

Nah, I gotcha. I just remembered saying Dead Space wasn't that scary while you guys were talking about people getting into arguments over how scary it was.

[elmuerte]

Yeah, Doom 3 wasn't scary at all. People think that Doom 3 is scare are sissies.

System Shock was much scarier.

oh...

wait...

[castorp]

Enjoyed this episode as well.

And I just baked the second cake while listening to one of your thumbcasts. That's a pretty damn high cake per podcast ratio. Which is a good sign, I think.

[ThunderPeel2001]

  elmuerte said:

System Shock was much scarier.

Damned spiders...

[n0wak]

You guys suck

for making me want to play every game you talk about. You make good points in favour of these games, like Fallout 2 and Fallout 2, and it sucks that I can't agree or disagree. Not yet. But soon. Can you guys be overly negative about some game for once, you know, like the other podcasts? It won't make me feel so out of the loop.

But seriously,

[miffy495]

yeah, I wasn't even thinking about playing Far Cry 2 until you guys started going on about it. Now I need to give it a try. Jerks...

[Chris]

  n0wak said:

You guys suck

for making me want to play every game you talk about. You make good points in favour of these games, like Fallout 2 and Fallout 2, and it sucks that I can't agree or disagree. Not yet. But soon. Can you guys be overly negative about some game for once, you know, like the other podcasts? It won't make me feel so out of the loop.

But seriously,

I don't have enough time to play the games I think are bad!

Really though, I think we were pretty critical of Fable 2 in the third episode, at least compared to the exultant reviews it's been getting.

It just kind of happens that at the moment there are so many goddamn games coming out, and since I've already played most of them at press events, I already kind of know what I want to play the full versions of. 'Tis the season.

[Jake]

  n0wak said:

Can you guys be overly negative about some game for once, you know, like the other podcasts? It won't make me feel so out of the loop.

But seriously,

Since this is kind of a free time thing that we do to enjoy ourselves, you're probably mostly going to hear us talking about 1) games we like or are interested in because we think they have potential to be good, 2) news and current events we find either 2a) awesome and great, or 2b) ridiculous or stupid. (That probably sounds like familiar ground to those who read Thumb regularly back when it had regular content, as those broad topics were sort of the loose boundaries containing much of the writing we ran back in the day.) We probably won't talk about ridiculous or stupid games all that often unless they're hilariously so. I don't think any of the three of us currently on the podcast really find that much humor in "LOL this game is dumb lol" unless there is something exceptionally unique about what makes it dumb.

There are so many horrible games out there and so few standout exciting fun games that it seems like a waste of life (and a waste of time in a 60 minute podcast) to talk about a shit game for the sake of some cheap hatey-hate laughs... especially when we manage to perpetually amuse ourselves during these damn things just talking about stuff we like and think is awesome.

That was maybe a longer explanation than was needed, but whatever. I feel that, with few exceptions, once you've seen Alex Navarro's video review of Bad Motha Truckers Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing (maybe not the best example in terms of quality piss-take reviews, but definitely one of the most cited), you really don't need to do that schtick unless there's a damn good reason.

PS: n0wak this isn't meant to be bagging on your for suggesting that, and I know you were mostly joking around, but it was a good excuse to dump some of my thoughts on content covered on Thumb new and old. So, yeah!

Edited October 30, 2008 by Jake
chris can smell a fart

[Chris]

  Jake said:

Alex Navarro's video review of Bad Motha Truckers

I believe you are referring to Alex Navarro's video review of Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. PLEASE.

[elmuerte]

Interesting, I never got the idea you guys liked making the pod casts. Sure, there was a lot of goofing around and laughter. But I thought that was just part of the script.

(now where is that frigging sarcasm smiley)

[miffy495]

I thought Gamespot's Video Review of Charlie's Angels for the Gamecube was the go-to for hilarious reviews of bad games...

[Nachimir]

It's good, but it tells whereas the

Big Rigs is also made infinitely more awesome by this screenshot.

--

BTW guys, I've been pissing myself with laughter at every mention of strategy chocolate (etc) in the podcasts. Since I only rarely read UK:R, I didn't realise it actually exists . Have you seen Powerthirst?

[elmuerte]

No new episode?