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[Visualante2]

I've been playing Tiger Style's Walking Mars. There is something quite nice about the game but it has a very slow start. I haven't got far into it but there seems to be potential for creative puzzle solving. You can get it in the Humble Bundle running right now, I think Thumbs fans might enjoy it.

 

[Shaneus]

Walking Mars isn't exclusive to iOS? Hmm.

 

[Jex]

Love Plus or Katawa Shoujo? lol

Speaking of Christian Nutt, he was just on a 90 minute podcast for 1up where he went on and on about Evangelion. Seriously, you guys need to get together if only because it would be hilarious.

Wait, what?

 

[Rufus]

Wait, what?

http://www.1up.com/news/angels-attack-week-episode-games

 

[Visualante2]

Walking Mars isn't exclusive to iOS? Hmm.

PC version just came out.

 

[meltingparappa]

Also, please do Katawa Shoujo. I'll pay you money via another Kickstarter if you guys play it!

I've been meaning to ask the thumbs about visual novels, but imagine they're burnt out on questions after the ruination cast.

Between 999/VLR and even Persona 4 Arena, visual novels have a tiny bump in profile in America for arguably the first time.

It makes me wonder if TTG Walking Dead was released without the action or puzzle bits and only had the moments of player choice, would people consider it essentially a high budget visual novel.

And also if stripping a game of all of its mechanics and instead focusing on branching player choices are an effective use of the medium. I think it would be interesting for their opinion on this, simply because of the types of games they're currently working on.

 

[Jintor]

It makes me wonder if TTG Walking Dead was released without the action or puzzle bits and only had the moments of player choice, would people consider it essentially a high budget visual novel.

Some people already consider it a high-budget visual novel.

 

[Lijik]

Not that it particularly looks like its heading in this direction, but guys please don't let this turn into the next "Visual Novel general discussion thread", we already had that in the GB quick look thread

 

[flowsnake]

It's Waking Mars.

Speaking of walking though...a certain game is out today-ish right? Busy week?

 

[Shaneus]

Fuck, I didn't realise I wrote "walking". Stupid iPhone post :/

 

[firehawk12]

Some people already consider it a high-budget visual novel.

Honestly, the game would be better without any of the gun segments. The puzzles themselves are already pretty threadbare anyway.

 

[Jintor]

The one at Crawford is pretty good, story-wise.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

new early Thumbs!

 

[Jb]

Awesome

 

[demidar]

I want to congratulate Sean, Jake and Gary for not fumbling Episode 5 of The Walking Dead. Great job, it's really easy to fuck up the ending.

 

[TTG]

Stopping the new Idle Thumbs mid way, going to save it for the next XCOM play session.

I had to bring up something since Chris mentioned it and it has to do with playing Dishonored in a nonlethal way... man, do I feel like you guys are missing out. Not that I'm the biggest fan of Dishonored in the first place, but the game only really shines when I am forcing the issue, meaning the guards are alarmed in some way. Otherwise it gets so bogged down by all the stealth gameplay rules you must not break(noise levels, not having a guy survive being alerted for more than a couple of seconds, patrols paths and wringing your hands in a corner, waiting for guards to face away from you or spread out. all that stuff). And I know the game hands out rewards for choking guards and not alerting them. On top of that, it's built in a way where if more than one person sees you, it can feel like a total fail state. All of that ultimately results in a game that would have been as slow as Splinter Cell if it wasn't for blink and about as stale. It's the sort of mechanics that Skyrim takes advantage of nowadays! You can't build a game around that.

The thing that turned it around for me, and those occasions didn't really come up often, is when it felt more like a sandbox. Blink on top of a Tall Boy and then play cat and mouse with the guards, or rewire one of those huge cannons and jump in with carnage all around. Even the powers are mostly offensive. I don't know how you guys managed to have any fun choking everyone out and looking to NEVER raise an alarm. If you're never a predator, that game just isn't very good. It might not be very good anyway, but now we're getting off topic! For all the allure and promise of the non lethal stuff, they only really deliver on that when it comes to main targets. For the rest of the game, you're better off stabbing people in the neck. I don't care how disappointed Samuel gets with you.

 

[Aaron]

I think it's really a shame Dishonored encourages stealthy play through chaos and achievements because it's best stuff is going balls out with rats, mines, and other sloppy murder. I wonder if the rise of achievements has hampered the ability to be flexible in gameplay. I always have the best time in any game when my only concern is to get to the end by any means possible.

 

[TTG]

It really is better off being stealthy up to the point where you can, and this is a cheesy cliche of a phrase, dictate the terms and then bail out as soon as the odds turn against you. Anyway, there isn't really a lot of opportunity for that either, you have to really get reckless and strain it to a limit to play like that consistently(like this video that's been discussed on the cast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_vW55TsANA&feature=plcp ). Most environments and encounters aren't built for that.

 

[Visualante2]

It's Waking Mars.

'scuse me for being dyslexic.

 

[xenist]

I wonder if the rise of achievements has hampered the ability to be flexible in gameplay.

Not at all. Getting achievements is at best a tertiary concern for me. No one has to go for the achievement. You don't have to go for the "optimal" ending. These are all constraints you apply to your own experience.

If anything, Dishonored was extremely accommodating to my playstyle. I ghosted through parts of it. In other parts I killed everyone I saw. In other parts I mixed and matched. There was no "You didn't put points into guns, therefore you're stuck with stealth" or the opposite.

 

[bistromathics]

Man I love it when Jake actually plays games

 

[Chris Remo]

Man I love it when Jake actually plays games

Don't we all!

 

[Shaneus]

Great ep. Started off a little slow, but the talk of Halo got me wanting to play whichever one it was that had confetti and the Space Citizen movie tie-in/origins (pardon the pun) story was epic as shit.

I think I might've gotten some weird looks on the train while I listened to it this morning :/

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Great ep. Started off a little slow, but the talk of Halo got me wanting to play whichever one it was that had confetti and the Space Citizen movie tie-in/origins (pardon the pun) story was epic as shit.

I think I might've gotten some weird looks on the train while I listened to it this morning :/

Halo 4 has the confetti mode from the start.

 

[Chris Remo]

Halo 4 has the confetti mode from the start.

OH SHIT

 

[Shaneus]

Halo 4 has the confetti mode from the start.

Fuuuuuck. Bought.

What other ones is it in? I think I want to experience it in everything (specifically Smokey Sax, because I'm yet to fire that up, despite owning it).

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Fuuuuuck. Bought.

What other ones is it in? I think I want to experience it in everything (specifically Smokey Sax, because I'm yet to fire that up, despite owning it).

It has all the skulls from the other games, as far as I can tell. No smokey sax, as far as I can tell.

 

[Shaneus]

It has all the skulls from the other games, as far as I can tell. No smokey sax, as far as I can tell.

Oh, I just meant which other Halos have confetti mode in them. By "smokey sax" I was referring to ODST, but I'm wondering if it's in 3 or Reach as well.

I really, really need to fire up ODST. Next time I'm in the mood for an FPS (which is rare) I'll make that my go-to.

 

[Visualante2]

There was a nice achievement in GTA IV for sitting in a cab through the traffic for a ride from one island to another. And a little easter egg for parachuting onto Lady Liberty. Been meaning to finish off GTA IV. I have this weird memory of speeding around at night listening to the jazz station in a forklift.

RE: Mark of the Ninja's line of sight mode, Monaco seems to be doing that kind of stuff.

 

[eot]

Is there something up with the sound quality in ep. 84? I might just be imagining it.

 

[randomwab]

The Halo talk and ODST love was great this week. Can't wait to hear Chris gush over a Legendary playthrough next week. I know this will happen.

 

[Ledsen]

So a question for the Thumbs crew: You didn't seem very interested in Far Cry 3. I assume that it's because contrary to Far Cry 2, it seems to be more of a gamey game-game than a systems-based freeform rolling of grenades down hills. It also doesn't feature Clint Hocking. But I have to say, as a huge fan of Far Cry 2, I did break and pre-order it after the surprisingly positive press reactions. Despite the AssCreed-ification of the game and the addition of seemingly mindless, achievement-hunting tasks and chores, it seems to retain some of the core of what made FC2 great while retaining some seemingly interesting elements (and unfortunately some horrible ones, like an incredibly intrusive UI). And despite my dismissive attitude towards AssCreed, I did really love Brotherhood. I'm not sure if you Thumbs enjoyed that game, but I seem to remember that at least some of you did? So I guess my questions is: are you guys still completely disinterested in FC3?

 

[RealDeadOne]

Fuuuuuck. Bought.

What other ones is it in? I think I want to experience it in everything (specifically Smokey Sax, because I'm yet to fire that up, despite owning it).

3, ODST, Reach, 4 and I think Anniversary have it. I can't remember because in Anniversary I haven't unlocked it.

ODST, Reach and 4 start with all skulls unlocked, 3 and Anniversary need to be found, but the skull in 3 is hidden in the second level.

 

[xenist]

So with all the raves going around about Far Cry 3 you guys know what we expect of you. Right?

 

[Shaneus]

3, ODST, Reach, 4 and I think Anniversary have it. I can't remember because in Anniversary I haven't unlocked it.

ODST, Reach and 4 start with all skulls unlocked, 3 and Anniversary need to be found, but the skull in 3 is hidden in the second level.

You're amazing, thanks! I'll start off with ODST first, and then if the Halo bug bites me, I'll give 3 a go (given I already have it) then 4. From memory, Chris wasn't too fond of Reach and if he (being a moderate Halo fan) wasn't grabbed by it, then in no way will I.

 

[MaritalWheat]

So with all the raves going around about Far Cry 3 you guys know what we expect of you. Right?

Heh, came in here to post this. It seems everyone's really positive on it and FC2 gets mentioned enough when talking about 3 (in a good light) that my interest is piqued...but I need a Thumbs IGN "it will blow you away" style seal of approval, plz.

Or just discussing it if you guys play it will suffice, as well.

 

[Chris Remo]

You're amazing, thanks! I'll start off with ODST first, and then if the Halo bug bites me, I'll give 3 a go (given I already have it) then 4. From memory, Chris wasn't too fond of Reach and if he (being a moderate Halo fan) wasn't grabbed by it, then in no way will I.

3 was my least favorite of all the ones I played through. I don't even really have a strong opinion about Reach, because I stopped playing it. If Reach had come out back when 3 did, I'm sure I would have played all the way through that one--it's less a comment about the quality of the campaign, and more just that I was really into Halo back when 3 came out.

Looking back more objective, Halos 1 and ODST are my favorite campaigns. 2 is really maligned but it was more interesting than 3.

I'm not sure how I feel about 4 yet. I've completed the first three campaign levels on Legendary, and I'm out of town for Thanksgiving now so I can't make any more progress for a few days. I really dislike the skullface guys so far. I could be reading too much into this, but they seem like a strong example of an enemy type Bungie wouldn't have made. They just seeme very overcomplicated, without being really interesting to fight. All of the Covenant types have very strong identities that, when combined into different groups, make for a very complex potential combat scenario. But just one of those big skull guys feels like he takes a whole ton of head shots at range, and also can basically one-shot you up close, and also warps around, and also has those little flying shield guys--when I know I have to fight a bunch of those guys, I just already feel exasperated. Whereas when I run into one or two of the huge Covenant hulking beam guys with weak points on their back, I know they can totally wreck me if I'm not careful, but they don't have like five different gimmicks I have to keep in my mind.

Halo is about very simple but robust things--its complexity arises from the interesting and varied arrangements of those simple elements. The Flood in earlier Halo games bothered me for the opposite reasons the skull guys do--they were just ONLY simple elements, with none of the interesting complexity that arises from variety.

I'm sure part of it is that I'm playing on Legendary, and I haven't internalized the tactics to use against these guys in a safer environment, but it's still hard for me to imagine that the elements that make up the skull guys wouldn't make for a more interesting scenario if they were simply distributed out among multiple existing or new types of Covenant, rather than all jammed into these crazy super-units.

 

[Rufus]

David Ellis (343 dude, former 1UP dude, dude dude) was on Gamers With Jobs recently and he mentioned that one of the new weapons (I forget what it's called exactly) tears those guys up in no time. It's their equivalent of an assault rifle, I think? Something to keep in mind.

 

[TTG]

3 was my least favorite of all the ones I played through. I don't even really have a strong opinion about Reach, because I stopped playing it. If Reach had come out back when 3 did, I'm sure I would have played all the way through that one--it's less a comment about the quality of the campaign, and more just that I was really into Halo back when 3 came out.

Halo 3 is my second favorite in the franchise, after the original, I think it's one of the best games on this generation of hardware.

I really loved the way they upped the scale on the really big encounters. You had long stretches in vehicles in Halo 2, but that's not the same thing. I remember all these amazing moments, intercepting a banshee mid flight with the jet pack boost, taking control and flying right alongside that huge elevator, bypassing the interior bit of that level entirely. Dropping from the marine version of a plane(hornet?) on top of a scarab in that snow level where you fight 2 of them at the same time. Just the scene where you first uncover a scarab that's like a walking battleship and however many Covenant defending it and you're just one dude, yet the feeling is "run and hide, motherfucker".

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to your impressions on the cast. Hearing you guys talk about the series makes me wish other sites or podcasts were more like that. Instead it's all Halo lore, lens flares and what sort of impact it has on the market or some shit. Please devote some time to it next week Chris! Also, going straight to legendary is hardcore. I always do my first run on heroic.

 

[Chris Remo]

David Ellis (343 dude, former 1UP dude, dude dude) was on Gamers With Jobs recently and he mentioned that one of the new weapons (I forget what it's called exactly) tears those guys up in no time. It's their equivalent of an assault rifle, I think? Something to keep in mind.

This bums me out. I don't want to have to keep that thing around so I can get rid of those guys more easily. That lock-and-key kind of enemy design seems not to be what Halo is about to me.

 

[StevePharma]

This bums me out. I don't want to have to keep that thing around so I can get rid of those guys more easily. That lock-and-key kind of enemy design seems not to be what Halo is about to me.

Since a bunch of ex-Retro Studios' Metroid Prime guys seemed to work on Halo 4, this makes somewhat sense to me. I always thought the new enemy designs were inspired greatly on some of the Metroid Prime enemy designs. I don't like them as much, for me Halo will always be about the Covenant (and the Flood).

 

[randomwab]

3 was my least favorite of all the ones I played through. I don't even really have a strong opinion about Reach, because I stopped playing it. If Reach had come out back when 3 did, I'm sure I would have played all the way through that one--it's less a comment about the quality of the campaign, and more just that I was really into Halo back when 3 came out.

Looking back more objective, Halos 1 and ODST are my favorite campaigns. 2 is really maligned but it was more interesting than 3.

I'm not sure how I feel about 4 yet. I've completed the first three campaign levels on Legendary, and I'm out of town for Thanksgiving now so I can't make any more progress for a few days. I really dislike the skullface guys so far. I could be reading too much into this, but they seem like a strong example of an enemy type Bungie wouldn't have made. They just seeme very overcomplicated, without being really interesting to fight. All of the Covenant types have very strong identities that, when combined into different groups, make for a very complex potential combat scenario. But just one of those big skull guys feels like he takes a whole ton of head shots at range, and also can basically one-shot you up close, and also warps around, and also has those little flying shield guys--when I know I have to fight a bunch of those guys, I just already feel exasperated. Whereas when I run into one or two of the huge Covenant hulking beam guys with weak points on their back, I know they can totally wreck me if I'm not careful, but they don't have like five different gimmicks I have to keep in my mind.

Halo is about very simple but robust things--its complexity arises from the interesting and varied arrangements of those simple elements. The Flood in earlier Halo games bothered me for the opposite reasons the skull guys do--they were just ONLY simple elements, with none of the interesting complexity that arises from variety.

I'm sure part of it is that I'm playing on Legendary, and I haven't internalized the tactics to use against these guys in a safer environment, but it's still hard for me to imagine that the elements that make up the skull guys wouldn't make for a more interesting scenario if they were simply distributed out among multiple existing or new types of Covenant, rather than all jammed into these crazy super-units.

I immediately played the game on Legendary Solo and felt the same way around the third or fourth level regarding the new enemies. I do feel it gets better though, and they had those enemies in interesting encounters for me to believe in 343 going forward. They're not quite where they need to be yet, hence why the Covenant are still back, but I think they've got a solid enough base. Give it time, Chris.

 

[Visualante2]

Jeff Goldblum had a Simpsons cameo, I just saw it. #whoah

 

[Shaneus]

Jeff Goldblum had a Simpsons cameo, I just saw it. #whoah

Yeah, he was Troy McClure's agent when he did the Planet of the Apes musical.

 

[Jb]

They just seeme very overcomplicated, without being really interesting to fight. All of the Covenant types have very strong identities that, when combined into different groups, make for a very complex potential combat scenario. But just one of those big skull guys feels like he takes a whole ton of head shots at range, and also can basically one-shot you up close, and also warps around, and also has those little flying shield guys--when I know I have to fight a bunch of those guys, I just already feel exasperated.

I hear you. I found them more annoying to fight after half an hour than anything else. The fact that they're only 3 of them and only one who's actually a challenge (the knights, and even then they're real bullet sponges) meant that throughout the campaign I couldn't wait for the covenant to show up. The level design is disappointing too, nothing even remotely close to the genius of The Silent Cartographer or The Ark.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

Heh, was surprised to see this: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/13ol3w/from_computron_on_idlethumbsneogaf_what_cover_in/

 

[Jex]

3 was my least favorite of all the ones I played through. I don't even really have a strong opinion about Reach, because I stopped playing it. If Reach had come out back when 3 did, I'm sure I would have played all the way through that one--it's less a comment about the quality of the campaign, and more just that I was really into Halo back when 3 came out.
[...]
I'm sure part of it is that I'm playing on Legendary, and I haven't internalized the tactics to use against these guys in a safer environment, but it's still hard for me to imagine that the elements that make up the skull guys wouldn't make for a more interesting scenario if they were simply distributed out among multiple existing or new types of Covenant, rather than all jammed into these crazy super-units.

No, the Promotheans are fairly boring to fight regardless of the difficulty level that you're playing at. I'm not a big fan of how they telegraph, or fail to telegraph, their attacks either.

 

[Jintor]

The warping is total bullshit too. It completely resets their position with no prior indication of where they could be going.

 

[Shaneus]

It's like Valve have been listening to Idle Thumbs.

Both Hotline Miami (for another 5 hours) and Mark of the Ninja (42 hours) are half price on Steam for their Autumn sale.

PS. Pardon my ignorance, but didn't folk in the US pretty much exclusively refer to Autumn as "Fall", or is it a 50/50 thing?

 

[Havok]

The warping is total bullshit too. It completely resets their position with no prior indication of where they could be going.

Watch the particles in their teleport animation. The direction they travel tells you the direction the Knight is teleporting. Its one of the things I think they really did well.

Feedback on the new faction has been a pretty big topic in the Halo threads here, and a lot of the feedback they give is pretty lacking (no shield recharge animation is a big omission, as is the lack of a melee reaction animation and the Knights not getting the Elites' progressively brighter shield flare as they take more damage). A lot of the sentiments expressed here are pretty common in HaloGAF.