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Tag Archives: Chris Remo

Idle Thumbs 50: “Farewell, Video Games” or “The Shitty Wizard”

by Jonathan Downin in Games826 days ago

Dragon Age starts-off this epic last episode of Idle Thumbs. All 3 of the guys have torn themselves away from Torchlight to get some time in with the game, and they are enjoying it. There are some quirks to it, but the dialog has the guys interested and they taut the PC version as the way to go. Torchlight has Chris completely hooked in its net of loot and gear enchanting. Herein is a classic wizard story for the history books, and Chris does not come out unscathed. The recent Modern Warfare 2 issues get some time before the regular show portion...

Idle Thumbs 49: Bargo Busters

by Jonathan Downin in Games834 days ago

It’s a Torchlight extravaganza. After their special “podblast” interview with Runic Games’s Max Schaefer, the Diablo successor is again the center of attention. Chris is loving the game and it shows, with a full 30+ minutes spent discussing the game. It sounds like the Runic crew have put together a worthy update of the dungeon-crawler formula, and it is a steal at $20. An MMO version is in the works as well, so there is a lot to look forward to. Uncharted 2 receives some more discussion time. This leads into a focus on voice...

Idle Thumbs 48: In Space

by Jonathan Downin in Games842 days ago

Infinity Ward has announced that the multiplayer in the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will not have dedicated servers support. The guys speculate that this is a way for them to stave off piracy. This decision has the Call of Duty PC fanbase up-in-arms. Our own Jon Cole wrote an article on this very issue which was featured on Bitmob.com, so check it out. Chris is still enjoying Demon’s Souls despite its rigid difficulty. He describes it as meaningful difficulty though, as it is not just cheap kills, but rewards actual skill. Chris has written...

Idle Thumbs 47: “The Lord of the Donk” or “And That’s Who the Lord of the Donk Was”

by Jonathan Downin in Games850 days ago

Chris quickly touches on Risen at the beginning this week and then the group moves onto Brutal Legend. They point out the polarizing effect that it has had in the press with the wide range of scores which it has been receiving. The games seems to fall into the good to great category with the guys here with them talking up the well constructed and atmospheric world as the real draw. Nick attended a Left 4 Dead 2 event and is sharing his experiences with the new Scavenger mode. The new mode has the 4 player team collecting 16 gas cans to power a centrally...

Idle Thumbs 46: First Annual Year

by Jonathan Downin in Games856 days ago

Chris finally got around to firing up Red Faction and he is loving it. The guys are talking about the game here in a context that hasn’t been touched on too much in the games press. They point out how ridiculous the story is, yet the game doesn’t acknowledge it. This is the norm for games and the discussion here points out that we are almost always put in a position of controlling some sort of psychopath in games, yet we have been so conditioned to this that we rarely notice anymore. The developers of Dead Space and the forthcoming Dante’s...

GWJ Conference Call Episode 156

by Jonathan Downin in Games857 days ago

The guys have been getting into some older games recently with the release of a patch for Sins of a Solar Empire and the new Left 4 Dead campaign. Left 4 Dead is still holding some attention, but Sean still can’t get into it due to his aversion to coop games. The Forza 3 demo is continuing to impress and secures another purchase in Julian. If you are a fan of the Idle Thumbs podcast, this will be a fun listen. Shawn Andrich brought on Chris Remo to discuss his disgust with Bioware over the latest Mass Effect 2 trailer featuring Subject 0....

Idle Thumbs 45: Episode Forty-Five

by Jon Cole in Games862 days ago

Nick Breckon returns to video games this week and tells some tales of going home and gaming with the family.  The conversation quickly turns to the latest Mass Effect 2 trailer, which highlights the character “Subject Zero” and the airborne contagion that the Dragon Age’s “Violence” Trailer brought to Bioware with symptoms of terrible hard rock music and “edgy” “adult” “themes”.  It’s dismaying to see the ME2 enthusiasm sapped from the previously ME giddy Chris Remo, but hopefully...

Idle Thumbs 44: Salacious Thumb

by Jonathan Downin in Games868 days ago

The quirky humor of Idle Thumbs continues to entertain with Chris being inspired by ODST to noir-up the edit this week. The Halo ODST discussion starting out the cast leaves an impression that is equal parts positive and negative. While Chris praises the Halo series as being one of the tightest FPS experiences around, Nick and special guest Steve Gaynor aren’t quite convinced. The renaming of ODST as “Odious Tea” is brilliant though. Scribblenauts sparks the now common sentiment that the second entry in the series may make the...

Idle Thumbs 43: Jeff “Gone” Goldblum

by Jonathan Downin in Games875 days ago

Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick, has stirred up a storm with his recent comments during a conference call about using “skepticism, pessimism, and fear” to increase the productivity of developers.  He also stated that his goal is to “take all the fun out of making video games.”  This has obviously not gone over well in the press and the guys share a few thoughts on the situation here. Details about Modern Warfare 2 have been coming out after the recent Infinity Ward event for the game.  The guys make note that although IW...

Idle Thumbs 42: The Dreamcast

by Jonathan Downin in Games884 days ago

Get ready for a whole show dedicated to Sega’s opus, the Dreamcast– or so the Idle Thumb guys would have us think.  Nope, not here.  The title actually refers to the final segment that has the guys reading emails about game-related dreams sent in by listeners.  Those silly wizards. PAX game impressions start out the game talk with the indie hit of the show, Shank, garnering some praise for its art style.  Left 4 Dead 2 gets plenty of time as well with the updated Source engine getting a lot of attention, but the all-daytime setting...

Idle Thumbs PAX 09: BioWare’s Mac Walters

by Jon Cole in Games885 days ago

The Idle Thumbs crew brings their PAX coverage to a close with a concise interview with BioWare’s Mac Walters.  After being a lowly member of the original Mass Effect writing team, Mac decided to climb the company ladder by murdering Mass Effect’s lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, so he naturally has a unique view from seeing both the formative and evolving stages of the Mass Effect trilogy.  Bioware is well known for their proficiency in telling stories and Mass Effect is no exception to the rule.  The series’s development of voice-over...

Idle Thumbs PAX 09: Valve’s Chet Faliszek

by Jon Cole in Games886 days ago

The normal crew adds two more thumbs to the mix thanks to Valve’s Chet Faliszek, who’s making a video game.  On the floor, the Valve guys are showing the “Dark Carnival” campaign of Left 4 Dead 2, so it naturally capitalizes the conversation.  The series has never really been known for its serious nature, so it’s not a huge surprise to hear that the carnival games around the in-game campaign environment are actually playable.  With a couple mini-games actually contributing challenges that give chances to earn achievements,...

Idle Thumbs PAX 09: Ron Gilbert

by Jon Cole in Games887 days ago

Idle Thumbs brings the wizard to PAX in their interview with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, who is apparently a defender of shooting people that don’t think video games are art.  Ron talks about his upcoming game, Deathspank, which Chris notes is a sort of convergence of the Diablo-style, hack-and-slash genre and the graphic adventure genre.  Combining those two genres results in a lot of conflicting elements, but item collection bridges the gap and a fine tuning of the pacing between combat and exploration sequences makes Deathspank...

Idle Thumbs 41: Space Boss: The Lord of Space

by Jonathan Downin in Games891 days ago

The guys touch on their plans for PAX.  If you want to meet the Idle Thumbs guys you should show up at the bottom of the big escalator in the convention center at 5:15 pm on Saturday.  You don’t have to be attending PAX to get into the bottom level of the convention center so all are welcome.  Also, they will be giving away some free games.  More details are available on idlethumbs.net. Chris can’t get enough of Mass Effect and continues to go on about it here.  He is still playing through with his sniper which is working out better...

Idle Thumbs 40: Idle Thumbs 40,000 (Nobody Beats the Blizz)

by Jonathan Downin in Games898 days ago

It’s a completely expert, Blizzard-infused episode this week with Blizzcon news taking up the whole length of the podcast.  There is no skirting over announcements or developments here– the guys go in-depth on everything. The changes to World of Warcraft sound to be completely epic.  The whole world is changing in a way that is non-reversible.  It is pointed out that this is one of the first times that a game’s lore is being altered in a very real-world way.  The Cataclysm changes will affect even those that have the base game,...

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    Episode 092 - PTW ahoy!
    Games, tech, and the usual, for the last time. Hello Podcast Thing Weekly.

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