Idle Thumbs 46: First Annual Year

[Chris]

They say it's our birthday

"First Annual Year"

The Idle Thumbs podcast turns one year old on Saturday, and to celebrate we bring you a regular episode. This week we wipe a curmudgeonly tear from our classic PC gaming eye, and find yet again that making fun of something we thought could never exist only seems to bring it to life. Plus: "Video game stories are serious business," says madly hopping, car-flipping, building-smashing man.

Games Discussed: Red Faction: Guerrilla, The Ripper, Tales of Monkey Island, Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect 2, Stargoose

Edited October 7, 2009 by Jake

[toblix]

Will listen to this when I get home, but I'm glad to see TOMI is being discussed. I think it's too bad Jake has seemed loath to discuss it (for whatever reasons (one of which I'm sure is demurity)), because they're awesome games and he should get some on-air cred, kudos, etc.

[Scrobbs]

  Chris said:

The Idle Thumbs podcast turns one year old on Saturday

Hooray for youuuuu!

[spindrift]

great cast. You guys are having a run of extremely good episodes lately.

I'm trying to play Red faction Guerrilla on windows 7, where it has a bug that causes it to run about 1.5 times faster than usual, so imagine psychotic sledgehammer psychopath running around smashing things at Benny Hill montage speeds and the craziness is taken to whole new levels.

[#404]

awesome episode, but it is absolutely impossible to listen to while walking through the city without looking like a lunatic due to the constant laughing

keep them coming, I will listen to them at home

[SoulChicken]

Space Asshole - "The pseudo narrative dissonance will blow you away!" - IGN.com

[Kos Luftar]

Your missing Noby Noby Boy in your Game's Discussed list.

[Murdoc]

Congrats on the one year.

Listening now; The Ripper; WTF? Are they serious? I just read the headline and thought "Would be awesome if it was this open world detective game on with a time limit to track and find the ripper" Edit: Looks like I was on the same page with the thumbs on wanting something a little more and inventive from the title, it would be totally cool.

But what are the odds of that? Well not much since theres vampires and shit in there. Bleh.

[Brannigan]

When I read about The Ripper, I just assumed that it was the character in From Hell on a really really bad drug trip and he's just imagining he's in the most offensive game this side of Dante's Inferno.

[mikemariano]

You can safely skip Metal Gear Solid, Jake. Unfortunately, the gameplay is absolutely killed by the cutscenes. They come too frequently to build up any rhythm when playing.

Here's how that first part of Metal Gear Solid went for me:

• I watched Snake swim in and listened to his conversation with the Colonel.
  
• I suddenly realized I had control of Snake.
  
• I took two steps and was discovered by guards.
  
• I ran behind a crate.
  

I never played Metal Gear Solid IV, but I was curious if I was missing out. I watched a snippet of a Metal Gear Solid IV walkthrough on Youtube, where the player did the following:

• He started the level and a cutscene played.
  
• He suddenly realized he had control of Snake.
  
• He went into a crouch.
  
• He got shot by a bunch of guards.
  
• He ran behind a building and used some rations.
  
• I turned off the video.
  

That part in bold is important. You are never able to just play Metal Gear, and you're never rewarded for trying to do so. As a player, Snake is perpetually waking up from a dream.

It made me appreciate the Half-Life approach much more, because even if you goof around and make Gordon jump on tables and throw soda cans while Kleiner prattles on, you are never not playing.

You three have said similar things about cutscenes before, but I really can't emphasize enough how deadly they can be to gameplay.

[Fuzzy Lobster]

  mikemariano said:

You can safely skip Metal Gear Solid, Jake. Unfortunately, the gameplay is absolutely killed by the cutscenes. They come too frequently to build up any rhythm when playing.

Man, I JUST got Metal Gear Solid out of guilt two days ago since I've never played it. I've only played the first few minutes, so I hope it won't be so narrative-tastic that I'll get bored with it.

Also, as I've never played it, I didn't realize that Mr. Remo's Metal Gear voice was as accurate as it is. Zounds.

Oh yeah. Happy Birthday, Podcast! Here's to many more Wednesdays being wildly entertaining.

Edited October 7, 2009 by Fuzzy Lobster

[Korax]

I don't think there's any way that Volition couldn't know how ridiculous Red Faction is. Have you played the "Ultor Exposed" DLC for Saint's Row 2? You end up driving around with a character voiced by Tera Patrick, digging up nanite-mutilated corpses and avoiding Ultor forces that are chasing you down in prototype EDF APC's.

When I heard about The Ripper, the game I was picturing was a futuristic third-person shooter wherein you play Jack Steel, bounty hunter. Some sort of mind-controlling alien parasite or possibly pod-person-like doppelganger race is overtaking the space-prostitute population, and you're the only one who can stop it. With your wrist-mounted chainsaws (or possibly a large, chain-broadsword), you must take back the space-red-light-district before humanity is lost forever.

[Brannigan]

  Lord Korax said:

I don't think there's any way that Volition couldn't know how ridiculous Red Faction is. Have you played the "Ultor Exposed" DLC for Saint's Row 2? You end up driving around with a character voiced by Tera Patrick, digging up nanite-mutilated corpses and avoiding Ultor forces that are chasing you down in prototype EDF APC's.

When I heard about The Ripper, the game I was picturing was a futuristic third-person shooter wherein you play Jack Steel, bounty hunter. Some sort of mind-controlling alien parasite or possibly pod-person-like doppelganger race is overtaking the space-prostitute population, and you're the only one who can stop it. With your wrist-mounted chainsaws (or possibly a large, chain-broadsword), you must take back the space-red-light-district before humanity is lost forever.

You sir, are a genius.

[Erkki]

There is actually a decent detective adventure game called "Jack the Ripper". It's nothing special, but I liked it. http://www.adventuregamers.com/gameinfo.php?id=186

[edit] if you read the review on AG, it makes it sound godawful. Well, it has a lot of crappy elements, but I think it's not quite as bad as the review says.

[edit2] apparently there are more AGs about Jack the Ripper: http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,69 (this one is also called Ripper, haven't played)

[Erkki]

It's funny how often all of you said "I don't know" when discussing retro games

[miffy495]

Thank you for your talk of Musi Chub. I thought I was the only one who read it that way, but didn't think it was worth commenting on. It wasn't until I actually clicked the link to the musichub.ign.com thing that I realized that my brain put the space in the wrong spot. Now everyone will suffer the same way I do!

[elmuerte]

For video[ -]{0,1}games I think games older than 15 years can easily be considered retro.

So, for example Monuments of Mars is a good example of a retro PC video[ -]{0,1}games which is sort of obscure/unknown, but nice. It's a bit like crystal caves puzzle wise, but much more complex. Fun thing of that game, it contains enemies that resemble the Garg from Commander Keen, and the Nobbin from Digger.

Star Reach (1994) is also 15 years old which is quite a cool game, you can even play it hot seat with a friend. It had a really cool menu where your cursor was your a terminator like robot hand that pressed buttons.

ps, someone should make a IdleThumbs podcast year in review thingy. People from the Magicball Network always do that for the MBN when a calendar year has passed. But it would be nice if someone would make an overview of all highlights of the IdleThumbs podcasts. Of course it would feature things like The Ballad of John Riccitiello, Farcry 2, Trine, the Wizard, and Farcry 2.

[SoulChicken]

  elmuerte said:

The Ballad of John Riccitiello, Farcry 2, Trine, the Wizard, and Farcry 2.

Do a podblast with Nick just reading that list out, call it the review of the year and be done with it. Maybe add Countdown to Tears, skepticism and pessimism and fear.

I hate reviews of the year. I know what happened I was there!

[elmuerte]

I've listened to all 50+ casts and blasts, but I do not remember all of it. It's like over 5000 minutes of content.

[Nijhazer]

Great show as usual, guys-- thanks for a year of casts and blasts!

Storytelling in games... Naturally, I'd have to agree with Mr. Remo. There are really no games that I've played that have storylines I would describe as "good". Many games leave an impact on me nonetheless-- after all, a game can be effective and powerful as a sum of many expertly-crafted parts even if the storyline isn't one of them-- but the actual storytelling components wouldn't hold up under a critical analysis to the degree that one would see in the best books and films.

This isn't necessarily a problem, of course. From a narrative perspective, what usually hooks me about a game is its characters. Give me fascinating characters with significant development, and I'll follow your storyline to completion even if I hate the gameplay mechanics. I'll be interested in their stories, even if I'm not interested in the main storyline of the game.

I don't watch TV, but I get the impression that this is the same principle that brings in fans of TV shows. A TV series is, in the long term, much more of a time commitment than a movie. You can watch a movie in a couple hours, whereas one season of a TV series could be 13 hours or longer. And whereas movies have a central premise, a central plot, many TV shows do not-- instead, you're tuning in to spend a little time with the characters you know from week to week. But for fans of these shows, the enjoyment that they get from that show is just as great, if not greater, than what film enthusiasts get from their favorite movies.

[Psych]

Chris, video games have a long way to go before they can compete with the sheer idiocy produced by comics.

Case in point: Rob Liefeld's Godyssey.

[JonCole]

The first time I read the Music Hub URL, I absolutely read it as musi chub. Amazing.

[Lu]

  Psych said:

Chris, video games have a long way to go before they can compete with the sheer idiocy produced by comics.

Case in point: Rob Liefeld's Godyssey.

KRAKA-BOOM!

[Marek]

  Chris said:

Stargoose

:woohoo:

I need to listen to this cast asap.

[Hermie]

Great cast, as always! And happy thumbsday!

I'm glad you talked about Tales, I think pretty much everyone knows that Jake Video Games works at Telltale, and we know that you know better than to put in blatant advertisements. I almost missed the free first episode on Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day, but because of that offer, I've decided to get the full season.

Also loved Remo on Gamers With Jobs, btw! Great follow-up discussion on Subject Extreme, by two of my favouritest Internet Radio Discussion Persons. =)