Idle Thumbs

Neon lights flash. Boxes and controllers of games gone unplayed tumble off of your clumsy finger-tips. Turn by turn your affliction goes unchecked and games go unplayed. Before it all goes black Lao Che slams something down on to a table. "What's that?" you ask. "The anecdote, Dr. Jones" "To what?" He laughs aloud. "Video games."

In Sean Vanaman's absence, our co-hosts are joined by Double Fine's JP LeBreton for a discussion of the X-COM series, some ruminating on your DOS CD-ROM drivers, and time dilation versus just being drunk.

PC Gamer Executive Editor Evan Lahti joins us as we pore over maps and documents in preparation to tail our mark. As we take one step out of line -- as giant circles of sound radiate from our feet for the world to see -- only then do we realize we were killed by the best.

Chris, Jake, and Sean are reunited with Steve and Nick live at PAX 2012 to discuss the mechanical virtues of aesthetics and scale, and also video games. Doug Tabacco escapes throngs of adoring Walking Dead fans to launch a new website live under the hot lights of the Pegasus Theater. Recorded with regrettably substandard audio quality. It won't happen again.

As you contemplate the vast chamber's terrible sense-deadening magnitude, clawed machines grasp uselessly at your limbs, the distant hum of starship engines recede into the distance, and a dispassionate god enacts his ineffable plan. Please attend our PAX panel.

In which Chris and Sean take a ride through a verdant countryside with the Daisy Lord and Jake attempts an analogy he ultimately regrets.

Soaring through the infinite blackness, observing all that is, was, and will be, he is displeased. Endless turns of the asynchronous wheel, amounting to what? Nothing. He sees them erecting a tower. It must fall. He sees a tiny ship pass through the sky. It must burn. Heretics must burn. Crew must burn. Cast must burn.

You lower your virtual vis-visor from your face -- the fate of your shipmates will have to wait. On the dusty crust of a distant alien planet, a faraway rumble grows to an inescapable roar and the discarded shell of a heroic jet-pack robot platform plummets towards your face. This is your seven minutes of terror.

Idle Thumbs traveled to QuakeCon 2012 for the express purpose of casting a pod at you live in real time (and also to check out Dishonored). With special guests Nick Breckon and Steve Gaynor. (You can watch a video of the live recording at http://twitch.tv/idlethumbs.)

Idle Thumbs spends a day at the video arcade, or more specifically at the California Extreme arcade expo, for an opportunity to relive some nonexistent kid's slowly fading memories of destroying castles, marbles with human faces, and the worst Halloween of his life.

Please firmly affix your paperboard keyboard overlay (included) for an easy overview of all options made available during this podcast. Q: Witness Chris experience Dota 2 for the first time, W: Discover which games secretly co-exist in the Silent Scope universe, A: Wrestle with what makes games exciting as a medium, S: Toggle shield configuration (forward, rear, or balanced).

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.

Picture a podcast which is itself made up of a series of smaller podcasts. Now, stop picturing, and start listening to our GDC wrap-up episode, featuring a series of quick interviews with Christina Norman (Riot Games), Tom Francis (PC Gamer/Suspicious Developments), Derek Yu (independent), and Bennett Foddy (independent), as well as our closing thoughts on GDC 2012. Support our Kickstarter campaign: http://idlethumbs.net/kickstarter

Idle Thumbs starts to wake up, both literally and figuratively, with our first special episode from GDC 2012. We attended some sessions, we played some games, and we made up excuses to talk about all sorts of things together for the first time in years. With special guests all of us, and all of you. Support our Kickstarter campaign: http://idlethumbs.net/kickstarter

Idle Thumbs is back! Sort of. All signs point to Idle Thumbs soon being back soon. Because we launched a Kickstarter campaign, and it seems to be working. Go to idlethumbs.net/kickstarter to pitch in!

Another GDC come and gone, another Conf Grenade rolls down a hill. We're joined by bonus guest, Media Molecule's James Spafford. In the tradition of GDC episodes, this one has some slight audio wonkiness in places, so get ready for that.

Game developers confer, and we are there. Chris, Jake, and Sean discuss video games in these dynamics cast.

Recorded in front of a live audience at PAX 2010's Wolfman Theater, Idle Thumbs presents what is either its third "final episode," or its first "reunion episode," available to the public for the first time in MP3 form. Hear us intermittently forget the audience exists as we share impressions of PAX's finest offerings, fear an exploding microphone, sing songs, and tell the tale of handling Germany's finest wines. With special guests Sean Vanaman and Steve Gaynor.

As Chris packs for Boston and we switch off the lights, the Idle Thumbs Podcast finishes up with a bunch of talk about video games, interspersed with loosely related distractions and stories. Thanks for listening!

Don the Silken Goku. Enthusiastically pore over our collection of galactic maps, carefully curated battle decks, and lushly rendered hexagonal tiles, while we try to tell you about game development, girls, and sports.