Idle Thumbs

After years away, we found ourselves this week trapped in surreal spaces filled with otherworldly lights and sounds, dodging indistinct figures that triggered sensory responses unlike any offered in the normal world. We wore virtual reality headsets, and we went to E3.

Abandoned and alone, Chris and Nick hunker down in the studio while everyone else braves the harsh wastelands of E3. Join us for an intimate and lively chat about social simulation, our fantasies of a historical New York city builder, video game sweaters, our inevitable AI-dominated future, and forced, soul-sucking human reproduction. The Overlord demands it.

It's a raucous week on Idle Thumbs. D4 brings out Danielle's chowder-championing inner New Englander, Chris can't stop collecting cats, Spaff spoils Life is Strange, and Nick descends into a virtual reality waking dream. Here's Droopy McCool to play us out. Let's give him a round of applause.

Terraforming is complete. The fences are placed. Administrative staff is happy, buzzing away in their newly-zoned facility. This is it. This one will be perfect. But no, work halts: An error message. The face on your screen is not one you recognize. It's definitely not Dr. Wright. "Ah ahh ahh." You dismiss it. "Ah ahh ahh. Ah ahh ahh." Your clicks are drowned out by a barrage of dick picks and photos of cartoon cat butts.

Lies are told, governments fall, goats are visited, flatulent messages are decoded inaccurately, secrets are conveyed in whisper and then forgotten, and E3 is predicted with unprecedented precision. Adventure, thrills, titillation await.

Danielle continues to tear through every major release thrown her way, Spaff disappears into a brutal world of trial-by-drum-and-bass, Chris wishes he would suddenly lose control of parts of his body at random in group situations, and Jake thinks he has played a video game once in his life, but is mistaken.

Pro Fish Smart Fish, Dice and Card Fish / Diablo III and StarCraft II, Twilight Struggle and Defcon too / A week of draws and decks and rolls, of seats too hot and wars too cold / That's this week's podcast at a glance, its half-rhymes masked with assonance.

What did we all bring for show and tell this week? Danielle explores a psychedelic outdoor world and misses her favorite book, Chris re-visits his first encounter with Star Wars, while Spaff performs one of the most amazing feats ever attempted in gaming and finds himself $70 poorer as a result. Jake brings some gifs of animals stealing cars. Nine taxi drivers were injured in the creation of this podcast.

Whether you're a modder, a hat baron, or a Greek citizen, it has been a rough week on the financial front. In a time when anyone with an idea can seemingly throw entire economies into turmoil, maybe it's our turn. Join us as we put on our Unusual Financial Prognosticator hats and dig into the recent paid mods kerfuffle, receive a shocking update on the Team Fortress economy, and follow the trails of intrigue back to their only possible source.

This week everybody gets a window into Sean and Danielle's Bloodborne-consumed lives, everybody is convinced by Spaff to play an "RPG whodunnit roguelike," and while only Danielle played "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture," everybody else was quite taken with her description of the experience.

Before Owen Wilson's nose was attached, this world was a lot for Old Granny Dreamcast to take in. That newfangled headgear you're supposed to be wearing now. Games on telephones. The instruments everyone carried around a couple years ago seemed to be coming back. "Be a rock star," said one new title, as a crowd threw cups at her and booed. "This isn't what it feels like. This is it." After the nose though, nothing. No sickness, no disorientation, no more feeling alone. Old Granny Dreamcast straps on her guitar, jumps on the "AM Ballads" stream and is gone.

Imagine your dream LAN. Sit back and really picture it. If your dream LAN is one where the snacks are artisanal, the soda water is gently flavored, and the wifi's always free, you may be a dad, but who cares with a ping this low?

Hey, does that ladder have your blood echoes? Just checking. By the way, that reminds me of a dream I had. I think it was about cyborgs. Or lesbian dinosaur cyborgs. There were definitely cyborgs. But look—we all serve at the pleasure of the readers. Am I right or am I right?

This week, one of us is a murderer... But who? Is it Chris, who spent the week maximizing the traffic flow in his Cities: Skyline city, a city so perfect no one wanted to live there? Or could the murderer be Danielle, the one who spent the week actually murdering a bunch of people -- fictionally -- in Bloodborne? It was probably Jake, who spent the week without internet, but everyone at the cable company seems alive and well. A case this complicated will take at least six Jessica Fletchers to solve, and for that we have just the thing.

Take a right at Normal and cruise on down past Weird and make your way to Poopwater, New Mexico, where the streets ain't straight and your water don't flow like it should.

Freelance writer Cara Ellison joins us to discuss grown-up relationships in video games, children's relationships with Lara Croft, and the poo icon in Cities: Skylines. A conversation for adults only.

Those bifocals you threw away and those books you burned all those years ago are remembered fondly this week, as we celebrate our 200th episode with a fully stocked six pack of hosts. Join Chris, Jake, Nick, Steve, Sean, and Danielle for a discussion of Valve's VR announcements, the life of Minecraft's progenitor, GDC 2015, and why we don't usually use Skype on these things. Thank you so much for listening to and supporting us through the casting of 200 pods.

The old becomes new, in a pod cast by two, as a title once lost becomes found. Chris and Jake plunge in to the new Darkest Dungeon, and Besiege delights as it confounds. Sean joins Chris and Jake before the ad break, and Gex lore is run into the ground.

On Mars you don't have to turn around to take a selfie, thanks to recent developments from our trading company's offworld patent lab. Pardon the cough.

This week on Idle Thumbs we talk about our crippling addiction to Destiny, our experiences in a recent AAA first person zombie survival game, and why Far Cry 2 might not be that great after all. What happened to us? We were joined by special guest Justin McElroy of Polygon and the My Brother, My Brother and Me podcast.