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TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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C-Euro posted:

After hearing it discussed on the last two or three episodes of Idle Thumbs, I'm still not on board with the staunch anti-objectivity stance with respects to game reviews. I wonder if it might be a difference on what "objective" means in my eyes vs yours. To me "objective" means that you're taking out any sort of personal connection or investment you might have in the work, and looking at it simply as-is. An example of this is that when I was in grad school, it wasn't out of the ordinary for my advisor to be skeptical or simply not believe in a publication put out by one of his collaborators, even if they were working with us on something else at the time. It was never a knock against the author, but at the same knowing and working with the author didn't stop him from looking at the argument of the paper with a critical eye, which is really important.

I really think that an effective game review has to lack any sort of personal backdrop in order to get the message across to a wider audience. A reviewer can write "this story really pulled at my heartstrings because I know the writer was thinking of ______ when making it" but few other people are going to also know that going in, so that's not an effective argument for the game in such a case. I do think it's OK for a reviewer to say that some part resonated with them because of an experience in their own life, but again I don't think that's very effective because not everyone has that experience to call upon.

On the other hand, towards the end of the most recent discussion I felt that you guys might be "objective" as "how much of this experience can we quantify?", which I'm totally fine with being against. I don't think you should put a discrete number to every part of a game for the reason I stated above, that not everyone is coming into a game with the same knowledge or goals. I think it's why stuff like Giant Bomb's Quick Looks or Let's Players on Youtube have gotten so popular as ways to show off and discuss games, because for the most part they just show the game and let the viewer interpret it as they wish, to an extent.
Sounds like Danielle's recommended site, Objective Game Reviews, would be more your speed.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Dave Barry is awesome.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Probably Stan meant Daft Souls.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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I really like Danielle but I like Nick better. Bring back the Breckon.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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They're often pretty amusing though.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Some animations of Idle Thumbs things have recently appeared. Well, the first is more of an animation. The next five are less animated but still amusing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFys5lRP_mg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5htlm_Jgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtk8GfiOlUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFLKaUhDJ_8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfcG6prAHzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrbP3iPtg_k

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Thanks for the link - I was looking for this too.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Phone posted:

Two weeks of Thumbs with Danielle Rose Reindeau? :swoon:
Danielle "Junior Mints" Reindeau.

cbirdsong posted:

She'll probably be around more frequently: https://www.idlethumbs.net/about#about-page-hosts
Maybe even as often as Nick Breckon!

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE2sjm1Ze8Q

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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I think we're at least a year out from Idle Thumbs being able to run any Danielle stuff into the ground, let alone solid gold stuff like her accent. Keep in mind this is the podcast that still talks about Jurassic Park and bird noises.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Since he hasn't been a journalist in a long time I'm guessing this is from the Pre-Lord days.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Jippa posted:

On a slightly different note. I really enjoyed the crate and crowbar discussion of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_Point:_Road_to_Hell .

Did any one else play this it sounds incredibly ambitious but totally flawed with hilarious bugs some thing idle thumbs would enjoy.
Did they discuss the theme song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s04sAPstPlI

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Big Coffin Hunter posted:

Honestly this is the coolest thing and hearing the Idle Thumbs group talk about it made me excited for the Oculus Rift for the first time as far as something I actually want to play that could only be done with a system like this goes.
Couldn't you do the exact same thing with just a normal computer as long as only the player looks at the monitor and the other players stand somewhere where they can't be seen? As the article notes you could even do it over Skype.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Phone posted:

Look at this scrub who ain't never worn an Oculus Rift. (not being snarky, but it's really different than just another monitor)

Also, having it be a physical game with prop controls + the Oculus and paper instructions, you can't do cheesy bullshit like CTRL+F and it adds a layer of clumsiness to the game.
I didn't mean you'd replace the physical binder with other stuff. I meant you'd replace the virtual reality headset with something equally artificial. Perhaps if the Oculus Rift really makes you feel like YOU ARE THERE and the Razer Hydras actually make it feel like YOU ARE TOUCHING THE BOMB then you can't really make the same game without those, but I would have guessed that the most interesting part of the game is cooperating between the two teams and flipping through that binder looking for something that matches the bomb defuser's descriptions.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

This space for Rent.
TotalBiscuit is a total dipshit. He thinks it's important to police what the word "game" means so that "non-games" don't take over, he insists his video game review videos are not video game reviews and that they thus should not be held to the sorts of ethical standards he thinks other video game reviews should be held to, and so on.

If you buy a Blue Yeti microphone on sale and download Audacity, you can make a perfectly professional sounding podcast even if your budget is below $100. I never really had an issue with bad audio quality until I started listening to podcasts on an iPod instead of on my computer - since I'm doing stuff like cooking while listening to the podcast, and because my earbuds aren't the greatest, it's a little annoying to have unclear audio. And there's really no excuse unless your budget is basically zero.

TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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It's like a modern day Faulkner.

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TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

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Jimbot posted:

I'm speaking from the perspective of the gaming press whom threw roses at Titanfall's feet for including fast-paced mobility from Quake, Unreal Tournament and, mainly, Tribes. Even Halo 5 is doing it. So seeing different design ideas go away and pop up again and reasons why for each would be pretty interesting in a documentary
Then maybe stop speaking from that perspective and start speaking from one that has a loving clue?

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