Idle Thumbs 187: Half a Brain

[Jake]

Idle Thumbs 187:

Half a Brain

Nick and Sean are transfixed by the supple, majestic fur of Far Cry 4, Chris crosses a road better than anyone in the room (but not better than his friends), and Jake stares at a real brain on a real plate.

Games Discussed: Far Cry 4, Jumanji, Far Cry 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Crossy Road, Street Fighter 2, Super Smash Bros for Wii U

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[Mr Propellerhead]

@Jake said: "Far Cry 4 is actually The Island of Dr Moreau."

 

I always felt that was true of the original Far Cry.

[tegan]

I really wanna see that cat get hit by that cheese.

[tberton]

I love that Nick referred to Rain Wilson's character on Six Feet Under by the name of his character from The Office.

[Argobot]

  On 12/4/2014 at 2:37 AM, tegan said:

I really wanna see that cat get hit by that cheese.

[tegan]

Poor cheesecat. OnO

 

The Tetris thing is actually called the Tetris effect. I get it super bad from Pushmo and the Alchemy Lab minigame in Professor Layton, personally. Related to Chris' Katamari fantasies; I once came out of an extremely long Metroid Prime 3 session to walk to work and saw a tire track in the snow. My brain immediately recalled the phrase "Magnetic rail system. Press and hold Z to activate Spider Ball" and by the time I realized what was going through my brain, I had already crouched down and begun an attempt to curl into a Morph Ball.

 

Also the Year of the PS3 is gonna be amazing because the only PS3 game that I know is coming out next year is Persona 5.

[tberton]

The Tetris effect stuff hit me the worst with Bejeweled 2, where I would play Bejeweled in my mind with the tiles on walls and floors. I've got it pretty bad with Threes right now too, just playing it in my head all the time.

 

For the Katamari stuff, I once tried to eat my breakfast with turn-based mechanics after playing a bunch of Advance Wars 2.

 

I also have weird Netrunner dreams all the time.

[Merus]

  On 12/4/2014 at 3:11 AM, tegan said:

Poor cheesecat. OnO

 

The Tetris thing is actually called the Tetris effect. I get it super bad from Pushmo and the Alchemy Lab minigame in Professor Layton, personally. Related to Chris' Katamari fantasies; I once came out of an extremely long Metroid Prime 3 session to walk to work and saw a tire track in the snow. My brain immediately recalled the phrase "Magnetic rail system. Press and hold Z to activate Spider Ball" and by the time I realized what was going through my brain, I had already crouched down and begun an attempt to curl into a Morph Ball.

 

Also the Year of the PS3 is gonna be amazing because the only PS3 game that I know is coming out next year is Persona 5.

 

I've told this story before, but I've done a similar thing with GTA3 and jacking cop cars. It's why I was always a little leery of the anti-Jack Thompson arguments that games don't affect people AT ALL they're COMPLETELY UNABLE TO PROVOKE A RESPONSE IN THE BRAIN YOU MORON because everything everywhere does, and we bring that back with us.

 

So it's interesting that today two of the biggest department store chains in Australia have withdrawn GTAV from sale following a petition decrying its terrible depictions of women. Kmart and Target aren't quite as trashy in Australia as they are in America.

[Coods]

I really enjoyed the return of the year of the PS3 discussion. It makes me even more bummed that Gamergate has to be a thing that encompasses industry talk now, because I really loved old episodes poking fun at stupid, essentially harmless stuff that Bobby Kotick said at a press conference one time.

[BobbyBesar]

Regarding the Katamari thing, in an old Shoot Club column, Tom Chick coined it "bleed through".

[undermind9]

  On 12/4/2014 at 3:11 AM, tegan said:

The Tetris thing is actually called the Tetris effect. I get it super bad from Pushmo and the Alchemy Lab minigame in Professor Layton, personally. Related to Chris' Katamari fantasies; I once came out of an extremely long Metroid Prime 3 session to walk to work and saw a tire track in the snow. My brain immediately recalled the phrase "Magnetic rail system. Press and hold Z to activate Spider Ball" and by the time I realized what was going through my brain, I had already crouched down and begun an attempt to curl into a Morph Ball.

 

i ran into this problem a lot when the Guitar Hero first came out.  It was a weird vertigo feeling of lines/hallways elongating (like Max Payne 1 in his drug/dream sequences)

 

Last winter though we did a Dota lan day playing from roughly 9am to 2am with minor breaks for dinner/lunch and i was unable to sleep due to a "HUD" overlay everytime i closed my eyes.  I was seeing the movement/attack arrows, particle effects, etc.  Generally uncomfortable and imagine was similar to drug induced hallucinations

 

we're playing again all day this coming saturday, we'll see what happens!

[Apple Cider]

I feel like I escaped many of the weird bleed-through moments by playing MMOs versus single-players but I can definitely tell you I've had insomnia or sleep-deprivation related moments at night where I heard raid boss emotes on loop as audio hallucinations. 

[tegan]

  On 12/4/2014 at 3:49 PM, undermind9 said:

i ran into this problem a lot when the Guitar Hero first came out.  It was a weird vertigo feeling of lines/hallways elongating (like Max Payne 1 in his drug/dream sequences)

 

One of the many touches I appreciate in the Scott Pilgrim movie is that the first part of the opening credits deliberately recreate the effect from Guitar Hero, even going so far as to include a carpet with five columns to match the note highway.

 

[Stuart]

Whoever that guy was, he has some whack raps.

[RubixsQube]

  On 12/4/2014 at 5:15 PM, tegan said:

One of the many touches I appreciate in the Scott Pilgrim movie is that the first part of the opening credits deliberately recreate the effect from Guitar Hero, even going so far as to include a carpet with five columns to match the note highway.

 

(THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EPISODE, but I have always been so glad that Young Neil, who is depicted in the film as playing Link to the Past, has a DS Lite that is a) on, and  has a GBA cartridge (presumably Link to the Past for the GBA) crammed in it, in the like, five seconds you can see it) 

[SuperBiasedMan]

Oh shit I never noticed that, I thought it was just meant to be a cool shot (and it was).

Related to the cast, I'm starting to wonder if I really want AAA games to tackle social issues. It seems like even the relatively good ones come with caveats and goofy stuff. Maybe games studios should shed attempt at social commentary until they can make a good story without that stuff. But maybe I'm enforcing a false dichotomy? It just seems like involving social issues is seen as progress and that can turn people complacent instead of making real improvements.

[tberton]

Wow, I never noticed the carpet thing either. Say what you will about that movie, but it nails its visual style so well.

[elmuerte]

http://yearoftheps3.info/ still going strong \o/

 

I registered it on 21st of januari 2009, good times. So that was after episode 15.

 

  Quote

Kaz Hirai says you'll truly appreciate the complexity of this podcast in about nine and a half years. What's that? Gonna cry? Nick Breckon says you're a baby who likes baby games. And a cheat, too, I bet.

https://www.idlethumbs.net/idlethumbs/episodes/ill-kill-the-last-alien

(Skip to the 24 minute mark for the PS3 part)

 

I think after new year it will simply count up. Maybe I should update it to do something special.

 

PS

  Quote

Sony affirms PS3 support until 2015

 

Sony is assuring gamers that it will make good on its promise to give the PS3 a life of at least 10 years.

http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-brief/66408-sony-affirms-ps3-support-until-2015

 

2015 will be the year of the PS3 death.

[elmuerte]

Some gold from episode 15:

 

 

  Quote

If we are still using quick time events in 2015 I'm going to be really sad.

-- Chris

[Gormongous]

I freaked out when Chris talked about people being able to read the last thought in your brain after you died, because that was something I thought was already a real technology from age six to maybe eleven. I was a really morbid child, so I spent an unseemly amount of time just trying to think of poignant things in case I was suddenly killed at that very moment.

[eRonin]

Maaan I used to play Tetris so damn much. I was definitely affected by the Tetris effect. And to an extent I was able to play a game of tetris in my head because I could produce random tetriminos in an unbiased way and could store the visual image of where previous tetriminos settled. I'm not sure if it was truly random, or if they were permutations based on the countless games that I had played.

[bagelbite]

Hey there,

 

   I'm actually the guy who wrote in about "the Tetris effect" and just wanted to thank you guys for the insight and links.  My degree is in Psychology and while I was able to ascribe certain concepts, I wasn't aware there was research conducted on the subject matter.  I'll definitely be doing more research myself. I sometimes wonder if the shapes used in Tetris Attack (hearts, diamonds, etc) were chosen on the premise that they're universally recognized and therefore more approachable to a wider audience (and also more addictive...many slot machines work this way).

 

 Somewhat related:  When Katamari was mentioned on the podcast, it sort of hit me like a ton of bricks.  One thing Katamari does so well is mix fantastic music and sound design with the idea that every single little thing you pick up matters.  I don't know if you guys have sat and watched someone else play the game next to you, but it might be the most frustrating thing in the world to experience.  You can see so many objects that they're completely missing and you have no control other than to yell and point. 

 

 

  Anyhow, thanks again for your insight and stories!  Was really excited to hear my message on the show!

[Stuart]

Sean has the rap game down. 

 

[Merus]

  On 12/4/2014 at 6:00 PM, RubixsQube said:

(THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EPISODE, but I have always been so glad that Young Neil, who is depicted in the film as playing Link to the Past, has a DS Lite that is a) on, and  has a GBA cartridge (presumably Link to the Past for the GBA) crammed in it, in the like, five seconds you can see it) 

 

From what I remember, Johnny Simmons had never played a Zelda game before, and Edgar Wright was all, 'well time to fix that', so the actor was playing the game between takes as well.

 

Edgar Wright is one of the most meticulous filmmakers currently making movies. I'd love to see him do a Hong Kong action film or something.

[SecretAsianMan]

  On 12/4/2014 at 9:01 PM, Gormongous said:

I freaked out when Chris talked about people being able to read the last thought in your brain after you died, because that was something I thought was already a real technology from age six to maybe eleven. I was a really morbid child, so I spent an unseemly amount of time just trying to think of poignant things in case I was suddenly killed at that very moment.

 

My first thought was a scene from the terrible Wild Wild West movie where they literally do exactly what Chris said and project a light into a dead man's eyes to see the last thing he saw.