Idle Thumbs 65: Dance of the Treasure Goblin

[Chris]

We're back.

Idle Thumbs 65: Dance of the Treasure Goblin

As the dancing creature leaps out into the open night air, its rucksack billowing in the wind, you hear a metallic clank by your feet and look down. A gold-plated slide for your Tec-9. You remember the words of Anton Chekhov -- "A gold gun part found behind a closet door in act one must be used to kill everyone, immediately" -- pocket it and move on. We're back, again!

Also, we have now become one: The podcast that is "Idle Thumbs" now includes the original 51 Idle Thumbs episodes as well as all 13 episodes of the Idle Thumbs Podcast, together under one roof. That's why this is episode 65.

Max Payne 3, Spec Ops: The Line, Armed Heroes Online, Torchlight II, Diablo III, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Far Cry 2

Direct episode download.

iTunes page.

Keep the RSS fed!

[Korax]

YES

Welcome back, Thumbs!

[I Speel My Dreenk]

Cast. Thumbs. Far Cry 2. Yes.

[Korax]

Man, you guys missed one of my favorite things about the Armed Heroes thing: how the EGGLES rep called out Runic for taking such obvious inspiration from previous games like Fate and Diablo 2. Priceless.

[Henroid]

Downloading the shit out of this episode, can't wait to hear what inspired the episode title. Welcome back, Thumbs!

[Shaneus]

Great stuff. Am I happy? Yes, I am happy.

[Alex P]

Oh, joyous day!

[Shaneus]

PS.

.

[GameDreamer]

I just downloaded this episode so hard it put a hole in my monitor.

THUMBS IS BACK!

Also, you guys basically talked about my Ruinationcast topic on this episode, which is awesome.

Edited July 19, 2012 by GameDreamer

[miffy495]

Holy shit, it really happened! Awesome times for all!

EDIT: Also, this momentous occasion is also the 100th entry in my Idle Thumbs iTunes feed. Perfect.

[Chris]

  On 7/19/2012 at 7:12 AM, miffy495 said:

Holy shit, it really happened! Awesome times for all!

EDIT: Also, this momentous occasion is also the 100th entry in my Idle Thumbs iTunes feed. Perfect.

Yep. It is (not deliberately) the 100th piece of Idle Thumbs audio content to be released to the RSS feed.

[Pasco]

The talk of how it's impossible to accurately, personally, compare Diablo 2/Max Payne 2 with Diablo 3/Max Payne 3 really reminded me of a couple of great articles from Mind Hacks, Learning makes itself invisible and Alter input with expectations. Basically it's the mental equivalent of 'You can't go home again'.

Also, Sean railing against games as a platform/service, while being in the middle of releasing The Walking Dead is kind of mind-explodey.

Great cast.

[Bojangle]

The talk about Max Payne being some weird collector had me in stitches, as did the treasure goblin talk. So good to have you guys back, best money I've ever spent. Maybe.

[Coods]

It's awesome to hear that full thumbs theme, followed by Jake's dateline. Also great footwear discussion at the end.

[pabosher]

I loved this episode. Great work guys!

(Although the reader mail section was cruel:

Sean: There's a reader mail here I'd really like to read. It's from Phillipe...

Jake: don't set up expectations! It's the first episode!

Sean: Oh, k, right. Travis Touchdown writes...

I may be misremembering the exact words, but that was the jist and it made me super excited and then sad.

(I'm phillipe))

[Roswell47]

I dreamed of this day.

[Henroid]

If I didn't have an internet alias to go by, this episode would have driven me to pick up on "Treasure Goblin."

[IHaveAShrinkRay]

I feel like Sean is really starting to work through some issues with his parents and Disneyland.

[BigJKO]

Haha, Chris' "and I like socks" statement after trashing toe-socks made me laugh.

[Henroid]

You know how Gamepro has their April Fools issues? Idle Thumbs should do the same thing. Idle Toes. With a picture of toe socks.

[Henroid]

And the way you get Jake on board is by giving the Big Dog toe socks.

Okay I'm done.

[Hero Protagonist]

  On 7/19/2012 at 11:56 AM, Henroid said:

You know how Gamepro has their April Fools issues? Idle Thumbs should do the same thing. Idle Toes. With a picture of toe socks.

I wish this post were a woman.

[Laxan]

  On 7/19/2012 at 11:58 AM, Henroid said:

And the way you get Jake on board is by giving the Big Dog toe socks.

[mikemariano]

Gabe Newell's secret plan to sell copies of Windows through Steam sales might work on me. I have purchased 56 games through Steam, but can only play 17 of them on my Mac.

But Arx Fatalis for $1.99, even though I can't even install it? I can't pass that up!

[Scipio]

I forgot that I can't be in public when listening to Idle thumbs, I think people thought I was having a stroke when Treasure Goblin arrived.

I'm surprised Fallout:NV didn't come up during the single-player-narrative-driven-game-as-platform talk. To me it's that, rather then GTA, that's the prime example of doing it well. It would of also been interesting to hear you talk about something like Civ V with it's leader packs, or Rock Band, where because of a lack off narrative structure, it makes it very easy to create a more seamless modular style.